I like many of you no doubt, value, but have previously damaged my hearing in younger years. Needless to say, I avoid further damage at all costs now!
I’m after knowing how you approach volume limiting, know it’s “obvious” but let me explain why I’m asking.
I recently picked up some planar headphones, love them, but quickly realised they needed more juice to sound best, enter a value ifi zen can amp which kicks out serious power. These are supporting a desktop setup running the amazing ropieee and an IQaudio dac+.
The temptation to increase the volume on the ifi, thus making the volume limits in roon relatively pointless are always there so ideally I want to set limits somewhere.
Where do you personally keep your volume limits when using an external headphone amp?
Is having the amp permanently set at 50-100% and setting roons volume limits a good idea? Possibly fixed at 25% then limits in roon?
I’m yet to hit on the right combination, making me think I’m approaching it wrong.
Without information on how that actually translates to decibels and Hertz at your eardrum, discussing volume setting limits really does not make sense. There are simply too many variables from headphones efficiency to amplification factor with the most important one rarely being discussed: what is the level headroom in your recordings and the actual spectral energy in the music?
I find volume limits annoying as the next Mahler symphony with some pianissimo passages -34dB below full volume is just a few clicks away. As not all frequencies are doing equal damage to our ears limiting the electrical level is anyways not a guarantee to prevent damages.
Listen to your ears and your own perception! If it sounds ´biting´ or annoying over time or you notice fatiguing when pausing for a few seconds, it bears the risk of damaging your ears.
For headphones I start with volume at almost zero then increase to the usual level I listen to which is low to moderate, I don’t measure it and don’t set it by software.
My ears tell me what it’s too much and I listen to lower volumes than that.
I listen to rock and metal, a genre often perceived as loud, it doesn’t need to be, not with decent headphones.
Time base is also a consideration. For headphones, I generally listen at a normal level and turn it up for a solo part or for 1 song then turn it back down. If it is a really good album that is turned up more than usually, then when this album completes I will take a break for a while.
Mostly I use my headphones for critical listening and it is not that loud, but when I want to jam I will switch over to my main speakers. This helps with the SPL. I definitely will not use inner ear headphones. Never.
I use an app called Decibel X. It reports max and average SPL which is helpful when listening to music with big dynamics – i.e. I don’t sweat a few 90 dB swells and peaks as long as the average stays around 75 dB.
Here’s a manufacturer demo’ing how he uses the app with headphones (timestamp 27:04)