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Low Volume Listening?
#11
(09-Feb-2019, 23:19)David A Wrote: As I said, awkaplan has 2 distinct problems, one with  his sound quality at low listening levels and the other with bass filtering through to his neighbours and causing complaints.

If there were no problems with the neighbours the problem of solving low level listening enjoyment would be easy to solve, and low level listening might not even be required. Since there are problems with the neighbours over bass and since a large part of the solution to the listening quality problem is more bass which will make the problem with the neighbours worse if the sound transmission problems is ignored, I think the first thing awkaplan has to do is find ways of reducing bass transmission to the neighbour's apartment. The options as I see them are limited:

1- easy and low cost: speaker isolation and/or increasing the distance between the speakers and the neighbour's apartment. These are also not particularly effective ways of reducing sound transmission. They will help with minor problems but they may not help enough to satisfy the neighbours.

2- difficult and high cost: structural modification to the walls. floor and ceiling of awkaplan's apartment in order to block sound transmission as effectively as possible. This can be much more effective than the low cost options but the cost will be much much greater, it's probably not possible if he's living in rented accommodation,  and if it's his own apartment then it's money that he's thrown away if he ever moves because he's unlikely to be able to recover the cost of the building modifications.

3- free, unpalatable, and unacceptable: only listening to music when the neighbours are out or removing bass content from the music listened to at low level. The problems related to our hearing sensitivity won't arise and there'll either be no neighbours to be bothered by the bass or no bass to transmit to the neighbours but most of us would never want to listen to music without bass and would never wish to go down either of these roads.

4- bypass the neighbour problem entirely, cost variable: headphones but not everyone likes headphone listening.

I am unaware of any other ways to solve the problem of the neighbour's complaints and I am unaware of any way of improving listening enjoyment while listening to speakers at low levels which does not involve boosting the bass levels and doing that will make the problem with the neighbours worse. If anyone has some other options to add I'd like to see them.

All very well put.  Perhaps this speaker cable adventure will enhance the low-volume listening experience.  I’m finding that you are correct, bass even at low volumes can be problematic.  Yesterday I Sol tropes in to a walk-in closet near my listening area and was confronted with resonating bass.  I’m finding toying with volume has been helping too—I think the ill-feelings from the neighbors come from times where I let the system really rip in the past.  Being sensitive to material, I can keep it around -26dB into the evening without incident.  I’ll explore some isolators and new cable.  Placement options are limited.  And I’m not doing headphones or shifting genres/composition.
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#12
I didn't think you'd go for the headphones or changing your music genres. You want to solve your listening enjoyment problem and the neighbour's problem. The worst option for you is to solve the neighbour's problem and ruin your own listening enjoyment completely.

I've been thinking about isolators and you need something that stops bass transmission through the transmission of low frequency vibration. Auralex and probably some other companies make platforms for placement under subs to stop transmission of bass frequencies to the floor. The Auralex problem is called the SubDude and I use them under the subs in my TV setup. They make a similar product for musicians to place under speaker cabinets and drum sets which I think is cheaper but otherwise identical apart from appearance because they wouldn't normally live in a living room. I'd try something like that sort of product rather than smaller isolators designed to be used in a set under components. The SubDudes aren't expensive. I think your speakers are on stands so if I were going to use a platform like them and you're currently using spikes on your speaker stands, I'd leave the spikes on the stands and just place the platforms under the spikes. You should go for a platform that's big enough to take the speaker stand rather than using 2 or more smaller platforms under each speaker stand. How well they will work for you is going to depend on how well they isolate the speakers from your floor and how much floor vibration from your room is being transmitted to the neighbour's apartment. I can't make any guarantees about how well speaker isolation is going to work for you, all I can say is that it could help with one transmission path.

The resonance in the walk in closet may not be due to vibration transmission. It's a space like a room and it's going to have acoustical room modes of it's own just like a room. It may also be acting as a Helmholtz resonator and resonating because of the sound itself rather than transmitted vibration. Isolating the speakers may fix the problems for the neighbours but it may do nothing to what's happening in the cabinet but if the neighbours can't hear what's happening in the cabinet and you can't hear it while you're listening, it's not an issue you need to worry about.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.

Brisbane, Qld, Australia
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#13
(10-Feb-2019, 22:08)David A Wrote: I didn't think you'd go for the headphones or changing your music genres. You want to solve your listening enjoyment problem and the neighbour's problem. The worst option for you is to solve the neighbour's problem and ruin your own listening enjoyment completely.

I've been thinking about isolators and you need something that stops bass transmission through the transmission of low frequency vibration. Auralex and probably some other companies make platforms for placement under subs to stop transmission of bass frequencies to the floor. The Auralex problem is called the SubDude and I use them under the subs in my TV setup. They make a similar product for musicians to place under speaker cabinets and drum sets which I think is cheaper but otherwise identical apart from appearance because they wouldn't normally live in a living room. I'd try something like that sort of product rather than smaller isolators designed to be used in a set under components. The SubDudes aren't expensive. I think your speakers are on stands so if I were going to use a platform like them and you're currently using spikes on your speaker stands, I'd leave the spikes on the stands and just place the platforms under the spikes. You should go for a platform that's big enough to take the speaker stand rather than using 2 or more smaller platforms under each speaker stand. How well they will work for you is going to depend on how well they isolate the speakers from  your floor and how much floor vibration from your room is being transmitted to the neighbour's apartment. I can't make any guarantees about how well speaker isolation is going to work for you, all I can say is that it could help with one transmission path.

The resonance in the walk in closet may not be due to vibration transmission. It's a space like a room and it's going to have acoustical room modes of it's own just like a room. It may also be acting as a Helmholtz resonator and resonating because of the sound itself rather than transmitted vibration. Isolating the speakers may fix the problems for the neighbours but it may do nothing to what's happening in the cabinet but if the neighbours can't hear what's happening in the cabinet and you can't hear it while you're listening, it's not an issue  you need to worry about.

Something to ponder definitely.  The resonance struck me because it’s actually the upstairs folks that are more temperamental/seem to be more bothered by the “noise.”  I should explore platforms. I was just a little hesitant due to the aesthetic—simple larger feet could do the trick vs. more sophisticated options.
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#14
Sound can get to another apartment in 3 ways: physical transmission of vibration, sound travelling through walls/floors/ceilings, and sound travelling through air channels such as linked ductwork connecting the apartments. Depending on construction either one, two, or all 3 of those methods may be involved. Isolating the speakers from the floor reduces transmission to the floor. If the floor is physically connected to supports that are also physically connected to surfaces in another apartment, even in an apartment above you, then physical vibration can travel from your floor to the other apartment and isolating your speakers from the floor could reduce the transmission of bass to the other apartment. If there's no continuous physical path for the vibration to use to reach the other apartment then isolating speakers from the floor is unlikely to be beneficial and the sound will almost certainly be getting to the other apartment by some other route.

Isolation is tricky. A lot of isolation devices are essentially springs which are used to decouple one thing from another thing. Springs can't provide complete decoupling. Springs have a resonant frequency. Let's say your speakers have rolled off to inaudibility or near inaudibility in the bass by 30 Hz (I'm picking that figure for ease of calculation). It's unlikely that bass below 30 Hz is going to be a problem for the neighbours because the speakers simply aren't producing significant bass below 30 Hz so you want to stop bass above 30 Hz getting to the neighbouring apartment. If the isolation device you choose is essentially a spring it will have a resonant frequency so say it has a resonant frequency of 30 Hz. It will actually transmit and magnify the bass at that frequency, after all it's resonating at that frequency, so the bass reaching the neighbour's apartment through a physical vibration path could become greater than what you hear in your apartment. Springs don't start to isolate until the frequency is around 1.4 times the resonant frequency so the isolator won't start to provide isolation below 42 Hz. At 43 Hz it will essentially pass the same level of vibration reaching it from the speaker. As the frequency rises above 42 Hz you start to get a reduction in transmission and the amount of reduction increases as frequency increases. If you want to reduce transmission at 30 Hz you need a spring with a resonant frequency of 20 Hz or less. With a resonant frequency of 20 Hz you won't start to get a reduction in transmission of vibration below 28 Hz and transmission will be magnified down to 20 Hz when it peaks and then starts to decline. What this means is that if your isolation device is a spring mechanism of some kind, and that includes things like springy rubber pucks and the like, you need to ensure that the device has a resonant frequency that is as low as possible, and much lower than the bass that's causing the problem. If you can't do that then you may actually make the problem worse.

That's why I suggested you look at devices that are intended to isolate subs. In order for those devices to work they have to be designed to actually reduce vibration transfer at frequencies subs are capable of producing and that means at frequencies which will be lower than your speakers can produce. There are some foot type isolation products intended for use to isolate subs and they will definitely be capable of isolating your speakers. Isolation devices often don't supply information about the frequencies at which they provide isolation or about how what frequencies they provide isolation at. Even when they do provide information, at times that information can be less than accurate. It's much harder to provide isolation at low frequencies and smaller devices tend to be less capable of isolation at lower frequencies than larger devices.

Heavy mass doesn't necessarily provide isolation at low frequencies. This planet is very heavy in mass yet low frequency vibration from earthquakes can travel around the world and be picked up by seismic sensors several continents away so mass alone won't do necessarily do the trick. Things like cement garden slabs and marble blocks on their owncan actually be reasonable carriers of bass vibration.

If your transmission path is actually sound passing through your ceiling to the apartment above or through common ductwork linking the apartments then your job is going to be a lot more difficult.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.

Brisbane, Qld, Australia
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#15
(10-Feb-2019, 16:08)awkaplan Wrote:
(10-Feb-2019, 02:52)Axel Wrote:
(09-Feb-2019, 13:52)awkaplan Wrote: Did you audition the bookshelf model as well?  You have me digging.  Hoping they’re SAMed!
No, I didn’t audition the standmount models as I want floorstanders. The FS 407 and 409 are SAMed, but the .2 versions aren’t. I used the 407 SAM profile when I auditioned the 407.2 and it seemed to work fine, but I usually turn SAM off when I’m listening.
Give the Elacs a try. I think you’ll like them.
I’ll give them a shot.  After hearing what SAM does for my 707s, it’ll be tough to run a non-SAM bookshelf.  I have a feeling the current “OK” state of low-volume listening is due to SAM.  I’m going to try 3-6 sets of speaker cables to see if perhaps that is the extra nudge I need.

There are several ELAC standmount versions of the speakers I auditioned that are SAMed, the ones to go for are the models with the Jet tweeter, which have a grille through which you can see the folded foil membrane.
Project Eperience X Pack with Ortofon Rondo Red MC, Oppo BDP 105D, 2 x Sonos Connect, QNAP HS251+ NAS with 2 X 6TB Western Digital Red, Mac 5K 32GB running Lifetime Roon, iPad Pro 12.9" for remote control.  Etalon Ethernet Isolator, Devialet 440 Pro CI, Sonus faber Olympica ll with Isoacoustics Gaia ll feet, Auralic Taurus Mkll headphone amp.Denon AH-D5000, Sennheiser HD600 and HD800 with Cardas cable,  Van Den Hul The First Ultimate and Crystal interconnects, Furutech power cables, GSP Audio Spatia speaker cable.
South Coast England
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#16
(11-Feb-2019, 02:43)Axel Wrote:
(10-Feb-2019, 16:08)awkaplan Wrote:
(10-Feb-2019, 02:52)Axel Wrote: No, I didn’t audition the standmount models as I want floorstanders. The FS 407 and 409 are SAMed, but the .2 versions aren’t. I used the 407 SAM profile when I auditioned the 407.2 and it seemed to work fine, but I usually turn SAM off when I’m listening.
Give the Elacs a try. I think you’ll like them.
I’ll give them a shot.  After hearing what SAM does for my 707s, it’ll be tough to run a non-SAM bookshelf.  I have a feeling the current “OK” state of low-volume listening is due to SAM.  I’m going to try 3-6 sets of speaker cables to see if perhaps that is the extra nudge I need.

There are several ELAC standmount versions of the speakers I auditioned that are SAMed, the ones to go for are the models with the Jet tweeter, which have a grille through which you can see the folded foil membrane.

Great.  I’m examined the line and found myself drawn to the Vela (?) line. Wonder if it can share SAM profiles?  I know Synergistic is a fan of their line.  

The low volume issue is probably not going to be a solution without isolating feet or swapping neighbors—knocked out with an album on repeat at -35dB and had security knocking on my door regarding a noise complaint!  Also partly wonder if a larger speaker may be less likely to disturb upper and lower neighbors at lower volumes.
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#17
(12-Feb-2019, 00:29)awkaplan Wrote:  …Also partly wonder if a larger speaker may be less likely to disturb upper and lower neighbors at lower volumes.

Speaker size is irrelevant. The thing which causes disturbance is volume, the sound pressure level that you listen at and not the numerical value shown on the volume display of an amp.

When sound travels a greater distance, the sound pressure level reduces because it's spread over a larger area. When sound travels through something like a wall or floor or ceiling,  the energy in the sound is reduced because it takes energy to pass through a physical medium so the sound pressure level of the sound emerging on the other side is lower. Both sorts of loss occur as sound moves from your room to the neighbour's apartment and the loss is greater at  high frequencies than at low frequencies,

t's possible to calculate the amount the sound pressure level is going to drop between the level it is at your listening position and the neighbour's apartment in dB which is a measure of sound pressure level. Let's call the amount of loss x dB, noting that the value of x going to be different at different frequencies. If the level at your listening position is 80 dB at a given frequency, it will be 80-x dB in your neighbour's apartment. If the level is 100 dB in your room the level is going to be 11 - x dB in your neighbour's room. The loss in getting from your room to the neighbour's room is basically a constant that doesn't depend on your actual listening level.

Say you have 2 speakers, a small 2 way and a larger 3 or 4 way speaker. Either speaker can deliver the same levels in your room. It doesn't matter which speaker you use, if the level in your room at a given frequency is 80 dB then the level in the neighbour's room is going to be 80-x dB and if the level in your room is 100 dB the level will be 100-x db in the neighbour's room. The size of the speaker isn't going to affect that at all.

What will make a difference is the amount of bass extension the speaker has. Bass frequencies hold up more over distance and in getting through walls/floors/ceilings so the value of the loss involved, the value of x, reduces as frequency drops. The lower the extension of the speaker, the deeper the bass it can produce, the higher the level in your room at that frequency is going to be for the same volume setting on your amp. Let's say you have a level of 80 dB in your room at a 1000 Hz. If you have a speaker that's 6 dB down at 40 Hz in your room then the level at 40 Hz in your room is going to be 74 dB and the level in your neighbour's room is going to be 74 - x dB. If you have a speaker with more extension things change. Let's say that added extension means it's response in your room is flat to 40 Hz. That means the level in your room is going to be 80 dB at 40 Hz when it's 80 dB at 1000 Hz and the level at 40 Hz in your neighbour's room is going to be 80 - x dB. That means the level in your neighbour's room at 40 Hz is going to be 6 dB higher if you play a speaker that's flat to 40 Hz at a level than it will be with the other speaker if the level you listen to both at is the same at 1000 Hz. An increase of somewhere between 6 and 10 dB is regarded as being around twice as loud to our ears at 1000 hz and a bit less than twice as loud at 40 Hz because of the drop off in our ear's sensitivity at low frequencies.

Bigger speakers often, not always but often, have greater bass extension so the odds are that a bigger speaker will actually make things worse for the neighbour but the issue isn't the size of the speaker, it's just how much bass extension it has.

And as has been said previously, the big problem with low level listening is that you need a bass boost in order to compensate for the drop in the ear's sensitivity at low frequencies in order to keep the tonal balance between bass and midrange sounding natural. Whatever speaker you have, the more you turn the level down, the more bass boost you need to get a satisfying result. That increases the level of bass in your room and that increases the problem in your neighbour's room. 

We've also mentioned speakers can need to be driven to different levels before they "wake up". Let's say you like a level of 70 dB when listening at low level. For reference 65 dB is around the level of a speaking voice at normal conversation distances. If your speaker "wakes up" at 65 dB, then things are great, it's working comfortably at that level, but if it doesn't "wake up" until the level is 75 dB then you're probably going to find yourself listening at 75 dB instead of 70 which makes things worse for the neighbour. A speaker that "wakes up" at a lower level than your preferred low listening level is going to be beneficial and a speaker that "wakes up" at a higher level than your preferred low listening level is going to be be a problem when it comes to keeping the neighbour happy because you're going to want to play it at a level where it has "woken up".

Now to speaker isolation. Speaker isolation reduces the transmission of sound to the neighbour's apartment by reducing the amount of energy transmitted directly from the speaker to your floor and then by a continuous physical transmission path to the neighbour's apartment. Speaker isolation can increase the value of x in my examples above but it will only do so if there's that unbroken physical transmission path to the neighbour's apartment. If you don't have the transmission path then speaker isolation isn't going have an effect on the value of x and there will be little or no change in the sound reaching the neighbour's apartment. As I've said earlier there are several paths by which sound can reach the neighbour's apartment and in order to reduce the level of sound reaching the neighbour when you're listening at whatever level you want to listen at, you have to increase the value of x in the examples above. You can only do that by changing something in the path or paths that the sound reaching the neighbour's apartment travels by. Changing a path that the sound isn't taking won't help, you have to change the paths that the sound actually takes and increase the energy losses along those paths so that the value of x becomes greater.
Roon Nucleus+, Devilalet Expert 140 Pro CI, Focal Sopra 2, PS Audio P12, Keces P8 LPS, Uptone Audio EtherREGEN with optical fibre link to my router, Shunyata Alpha NR and Sigma NR power cables, Shunyata Sigma ethernet cables, Shunyata Alpha V2 speaker cables, Grand Prix Audio Monaco rack, RealTRAPS acoustic treatment.

Brisbane, Qld, Australia
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#18
(12-Feb-2019, 01:33)David A Wrote:
(12-Feb-2019, 00:29)awkaplan Wrote:  …Also partly wonder if a larger speaker may be less likely to disturb upper and lower neighbors at lower volumes.

Speaker size is irrelevant. The thing which causes disturbance is volume, the sound pressure level that you listen at and not the numerical value shown on the volume display of an amp.

When sound travels a greater distance, the sound pressure level reduces because it's spread over a larger area. When sound travels through something like a wall or floor or ceiling,  the energy in the sound is reduced because it takes energy to pass through a physical medium so the sound pressure level of the sound emerging on the other side is lower. Both sorts of loss occur as sound moves from your room to the neighbour's apartment and the loss is greater at  high frequencies than at low frequencies,

t's possible to calculate the amount the sound pressure level is going to drop between the level it is at your listening position and the neighbour's apartment in dB which is a measure of sound pressure level. Let's call the amount of loss x dB, noting that the value of x going to be different at different frequencies. If the level at your listening position is 80 dB at a given frequency, it will be 80-x dB in your neighbour's apartment. If the level is 100 dB in your room the level is going to be 11 - x dB in your neighbour's room. The loss in getting from your room to the neighbour's room is basically a constant that doesn't depend on your actual listening level.

Say you have 2 speakers, a small 2 way and a larger 3 or 4 way speaker. Either speaker can deliver the same levels in your room. It doesn't matter which speaker you use, if the level in your room at a given frequency is 80 dB then the level in the neighbour's room is going to be 80-x dB and if the level in your room is 100 dB the level will be 100-x db in the neighbour's room. The size of the speaker isn't going to affect that at all.

What will make a difference is the amount of bass extension the speaker has. Bass frequencies hold up more over distance and in getting through walls/floors/ceilings so the value of the loss involved, the value of x, reduces as frequency drops. The lower the extension of the speaker, the deeper the bass it can produce, the higher the level in your room at that frequency is going to be for the same volume setting on your amp. Let's say you have a level of 80 dB in your room at a 1000 Hz. If you have a speaker that's 6 dB down at 40 Hz in your room then the level at 40 Hz in your room is going to be 74 dB and the level in your neighbour's room is going to be 74 - x dB. If you have a speaker with more extension things change. Let's say that added extension means it's response in your room is flat to 40 Hz. That means the level in your room is going to be 80 dB at 40 Hz when it's 80 dB at 1000 Hz and the level at 40 Hz in your neighbour's room is going to be 80 - x dB. That means the level in your neighbour's room at 40 Hz is going to be 6 dB higher if you play a speaker that's flat to 40 Hz at a level than it will be with the other speaker if the level you listen to both at is the same at 1000 Hz. An increase of somewhere between 6 and 10 dB is regarded as being around twice as loud to our ears at 1000 hz and a bit less than twice as loud at 40 Hz because of the drop off in our ear's sensitivity at low frequencies.

Bigger speakers often, not always but often, have greater bass extension so the odds are that a bigger speaker will actually make things worse for the neighbour but the issue isn't the size of the speaker, it's just how much bass extension it has.

And as has been said previously, the big problem with low level listening is that you need a bass boost in order to compensate for the drop in the ear's sensitivity at low frequencies in order to keep the tonal balance between bass and midrange sounding natural. Whatever speaker you have, the more you turn the level down, the more bass boost you need to get a satisfying result. That increases the level of bass in your room and that increases the problem in your neighbour's room. 

We've also mentioned speakers can need to be driven to different levels before they "wake up". Let's say you like a level of 70 dB when listening at low level. For reference 65 dB is around the level of a speaking voice at normal conversation distances. If your speaker "wakes up" at 65 dB, then things are great, it's working comfortably at that level, but if it doesn't "wake up" until the level is 75 dB then you're probably going to find yourself listening at 75 dB instead of 70 which makes things worse for the neighbour. A speaker that "wakes up" at a lower level than your preferred low listening level is going to be beneficial and a speaker that "wakes up" at a higher level than your preferred low listening level is going to be be a problem when it comes to keeping the neighbour happy because you're going to want to play it at a level where it has "woken up".

Now to speaker isolation. Speaker isolation reduces the transmission of sound to the neighbour's apartment by reducing the amount of energy transmitted directly from the speaker to your floor and then by a continuous physical transmission path to the neighbour's apartment. Speaker isolation can increase the value of x in my examples above but it will only do so if there's that unbroken physical transmission path to the neighbour's apartment. If you don't have the transmission path then speaker isolation isn't going have an effect on the value of x and there will be little or no change in the sound reaching the neighbour's apartment. As I've said earlier there are several paths by which sound can reach the neighbour's apartment and in order to reduce the level of sound reaching the neighbour when you're listening at whatever level you want to listen at, you have to increase the value of x in the examples above. You can only do that by changing something in the path or paths that the sound reaching the neighbour's apartment travels by. Changing a path that the sound isn't taking won't help, you have to change the paths that the sound actually takes and increase the energy losses along those paths so that the value of x becomes greater.

So we essentially need to try some isolation, and potentially as part of the speaker search, look for those that wake up at a lower level.  Size isn't the issue.  I have a dB meter on my phone, and it does seem that mid-70s dB is where my current set wake up.  Not more than 80.  

There's no connected ductwork, but I'm having maintenance come in and add extra insulation to the inside of the outlets, as some are producing a draft.  I'm not sticking anything on the ceiling.  As I look now, though, I can see that there are two outlets flanking each side of my speakers.  Perhaps we've found a culprit.  Actually, there are 6 entry points for sound (outlets, ethernet, TV mount points) on one side and one entry point on the other.  I may see if they can fill these with foam.  The speakers also aim at a handful of outlets as well.  Or just bite the bullet and cover the outlets on both sides with a wall treatment.

I'm wondering, since I've been more enthralled with Roon since the 1.6 update, if I could have a nighttime DSP that would be tolerable and would eliminate complaints, similar to what the Phantom Premier offers.
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#19
David has given great advice in this thread, I'll just add one thing I've not seen mentioned. An alternative to turning up the volume is sitting closer to the speakers, this might not be possible, and many speakers need some breathing room to sound right, but it's worth a try.

The night time DSP to boost bass and encourage a low playback level might work, or go the other way and roll of the bass to keep the volume up and lower bass transmission.
Roon, Rega P9 + Dynavector XX2Mk2 > 440 Pro > Sonus Faber Guarneri Evolution
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#20
(12-Feb-2019, 23:36)Soniclife Wrote: David has given great advice in this thread, I'll just add one thing I've not seen mentioned. An alternative to turning up the volume is sitting closer to the speakers, this might not be possible, and many speakers need some breathing room to sound right, but it's worth a try.

The night time DSP to boost bass and encourage a low playback level might work, or go the other way and roll of the bass to keep the volume up and lower bass transmission.

Yes, I can't thank David enough.  Sitting closer is a good idea, but would be problematic with my arrangement.  I'm having maintenance come inspect the various jacks near the speakers to see if more insulation is called for, and I'm considering some form of isolation. 

I think one of the culprits of the complaints may be the dynamic range (I think the right term)—perhaps there's a way in Roon to trigger a DSP that keeps loudness spikes under control along with rolling off the bass.  One quality of the Devialet that I've noticed is that it's much more likely to let the quiet stay quiet and the loud get loud as compared to other kit I've owned.  I'll keep some form of remote very near whenever it's running.
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