Not to confuse with the 'loudness war' as in heavily compression of music in the mastering process.
The 'loudness button' has a different origin as it is based on the Fletcher Munson curves and serves as a natural slope in EQ on lower volume in how our ears perceive sound. In similar fashion we don't hear a perfect 'flat response' as flat and adjustments make that we perceive something as flat.
The button was not a gimmick as some opinions might state but a decent feature. In dedicated listening room situation where the music is at constant level and reasonably loud as so that tiny details can be heard loudness doesn't add anything. For living room situations this is a different thing.
However it seems that some manufacturers seem to have other approaches to it so the intepretation signatures might have varied. Going to more recent times this button became obsolete as DSP serves a similar function.
Now it brings something confusing which I cannot really place and that is the following.
I own a Denon amp from the early 90's with that button as my second amp for another room being lower prioriry. The main priority is the setup in my living room for which I use a Harman Kardon amp from around the year 2000. Now I wonder if this Harman Kardon amp has or doesn't have something similar to the loudness button built in since it doesn't have DSP.
Or maybe it doesn't have any of both? which is a little weird for its time.
It is often tempting to try the Denon with my Wharfedale evo 4.2's since the loudness function made my old B&W sound reasonably better. Though I never missed anything in the Wharfedales. But who knows..it is also a lot of replugging so I parked it for a while.
Any thoughts on this matter?
The 'loudness button' has a different origin as it is based on the Fletcher Munson curves and serves as a natural slope in EQ on lower volume in how our ears perceive sound. In similar fashion we don't hear a perfect 'flat response' as flat and adjustments make that we perceive something as flat.
The button was not a gimmick as some opinions might state but a decent feature. In dedicated listening room situation where the music is at constant level and reasonably loud as so that tiny details can be heard loudness doesn't add anything. For living room situations this is a different thing.
However it seems that some manufacturers seem to have other approaches to it so the intepretation signatures might have varied. Going to more recent times this button became obsolete as DSP serves a similar function.
Now it brings something confusing which I cannot really place and that is the following.
I own a Denon amp from the early 90's with that button as my second amp for another room being lower prioriry. The main priority is the setup in my living room for which I use a Harman Kardon amp from around the year 2000. Now I wonder if this Harman Kardon amp has or doesn't have something similar to the loudness button built in since it doesn't have DSP.
Or maybe it doesn't have any of both? which is a little weird for its time.
It is often tempting to try the Denon with my Wharfedale evo 4.2's since the loudness function made my old B&W sound reasonably better. Though I never missed anything in the Wharfedales. But who knows..it is also a lot of replugging so I parked it for a while.
Any thoughts on this matter?
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