Quiet's the new loud
Audible Illusions Modulus 3A Stereo Tube Preamplifier Low level listening is an acquired taste, but I think it’s an important exercise for the aspiring audiophile. If you’ve ever taken time to understand the Fletcher-Munson loudness curves, you know that our hearing frequency balance changes as the volume of sound increases or decreases. It’s the reason for the old “loudness” button on receivers — the idea is that at low volume you would press the button to lift the treble and bass frequencies slightly so that the music sounds the same as it does at high volume. Of course, none of us ever used it properly — in most cases it was an EQ boost. The feature was mostly housed in a receiver, so mid-fi sound could be brought a touch closer to the high end, just with a press of the sweet little loudness button. I’ve been thinking about this lately, because a speaker designer takes this knowledge to heart. There are some major decisions in the timeline of a speaker design that are ma...