Mac addict… Crack addict… coincidence that they sound similar? I think not.

On your typical AV receiver getting into those positive +2, +3, etc numbers gets scary – but on a flagship receiver you’re likely to be able to crank it pretty loudly without issue. Rick never stated his actual volume setting, but I bet he was still in the negatives. Room size is also important (as we found in our bookshelf speaker shootout in Gene’s room). Filling a big room is harder than a small room.

I didn’t know that Steve Jobs was married to Claudia Black? Hmmm.. *laugh* Anyway, I thought that the “0” was supposed to be “reference” level on the receiver, not the point of clipping. Isn’t “reference” something like 80dB or 100dB? I can’t remember. Anyway, I know that on my Denon 3805 I run my standard listening setting around -20 to -15. Zero is so loud it’s painful to be in the room, and I have Infinity Kappa speakers, which are 6ohm at 90dB sensitivity. I think 90dB isn’t super efficient, but not a power hog, either. Anyway, so does anyone have a definitive answer of what “0” is really supposed to be?

I am pretty sure 0 is reference which depending on the receiver/speaker/room interaction is close to clipping but not quiet there. The sensitivity on those speakers is pretty efficient they are after all Infinities ;).

Movies are generally mixed to be heard at 85dB, but often times 75dB is sufficient for a full experience.

Don’t listen to Tom on the ‘0’ thing, he was just trying to get us in trouble while he slipped away to Turkey!

J good response about the volume control. Most volume controls are log progression so they don’t start hitting their limit until the last few dBs and 0dB doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

Don’t fall into the fallacy about volume knob positioning. Remember the old days where the receivers would peak at Volume 3 of 10? Thank God for todays .5dB precision to give us more resolution in how we set our volume.

Don’t forget, there is loud, very loud and ludicrous loud.

Tom, what Behringer amps do you recommend? I’ve read very good things about the A500, but the HT setups that I’ve seen using them usually just EP2500, which seems like huge overkill. What’s your experience?

Thanks,

Marshall
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The Real HT Info Podcast