Devialet 110 What Hifi review

[Jean-Marie]

I do think my D200 is not great at low volumes.  Normal listening volume for me is when the display is indicating around -10 to -15dB dB with my Raidhos which are 88dB sensitivity 2.83V/m but there is a fairly clear threshold between which it's poor and when it's good.
I'm surprised Jean-Marie that your indicated volume is so different for same-spec (interms of sensitivity figures) speakers. And I don't like it very loud!  - [edit] sorry I misread your post, but I can barely hear it at -40dB!
The psycho-acoustic explanation seems quite plausible. Also perhaps room interactions at lower volumes?

I did not say that I'm always listening at -40dB.

In fact it heavily depends on the type of music and whether I want to have a concert experience or not.

If I'm listening late at night or early in the morning, I will listen at -40dB or -50dB.

If I'm doing a dedicated listening during the day, I will probably listen around -20dB for low DR albums, most of the time pop or rock, up to 0dB for classical music (for instance I've just listen a 0dB this record: Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique which by the way is having one of the lowest compression I'm aware of). I'm basically ending up listening at about 75dBA with peaks at 105 dBA from my listening position.

Bottom line is that from a perception perspective, a low level listening at -40dB or -50dB is very different than one at 0dB, but I don't find it to be deficient, and not really different from the difference I'm hearing whether I'm playing an instrument very low or around 70dBA SPL.