Quote:Volume is frequently a substitute for detail; you don't get it, and your mind can't fill in the gaps, so you turn it up. That's what happened to me anyway!
This right here is huge, and I see it all the time, especially in home theater.
I can't understand the dialog (turn it up) I still can't understand the dialog (turns it up more), damnit now it's just loud noise.
People don't realize the *room* is the problem, and turning it up just exacerbates the problem...especially when you have a fancy 7.1 system with all those speakers blaring into the same room from different directions and massive comb filtering all over. It's also why some people get the false idea that a room full of absorbers is a good thing - because it solves the slap-echo issue, but doesn't address other issues, and can cause different ones! LOL
In our two channel systems, if we can take away that slap echo, get our in-room frequency response even, suddenly all this micro-detail pops out. It was there all along, just probably EQ'd out with the sound bouncing off the walls and into itself.
Go one step further, if we can lower our ambient noise level, we can extract even more using less. Like when you're at the library and the slightest sound you make seems way loud, LOL.