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Volume is one of the pleasures of being single, living in a house on a half-acre lot, and having the money to buy nice equipment. Most classical does not sound "real" unless it is at real life volumes. In an apartment (or even your car) the neighbors are going to hear some of it.

I generally wait until my wife leaves the house, otherwise it's quality time, A.K.A no loud music.

I live in a 'plex, but the neighbor's a Postal worker so he comes home for an early nap and goes out late nights . . . so I just listen for his water and door. Works for me.

Hey,we don't live alone in this world,now do we?

I have to contend with my wife and the children sleeping.

I very rarely like to "blast" my stereo, and when I do, since I do it so rarely no one complains

I live in an old apartment building, with wood beam floors. I can hear my neighbors and they can hear me. My downstairs neighbors are the problem, or maybe it's that we're both over sensitive. If I have guests, I'll play it loud. Usaully, I listen at normal or soft levels, and music without big beats. If I know neighbors are out, I may blast it.

Having to control the volume level in most cases doesn't bother me that much, but with some types of music (classical orchestral works with wide dynamic range, for example) I have to admit that it really annoys me. This is why I have invested some money in a good headphone amp and good headphones. But when I do have the chance to crank up my ordinary system . . . it's pure heaven.

I have concrete walls so may neighbours don't hear anything when I crank up the system or they are deaf, who knows?

As usual, it's the wife. My music is always too loud. However, hers is never too loud. What is this about? Is there a name for this phenomenon?

Board up your (preferably double glazed ) windows, and fill the cavity with accoustic fibreglass. I actually find that the material determines the max volume, not my system or concerns over "noise pollution" :)

The advantages of owning your own home.

Whenever my friends and I attend a live symphony concert, I always tell them to remember that "this is how loud they play! Use your musical memory and we will try to reproduce this at the house." Invariably, once we attempt to reproduce that "live" volume level, we never ever get there, for reasons that I don't fully understand. I consider my system very capable. I like it loud!

I can only crank up the volume when my parents go out -bummer, eh?

Small kids on one side, older neighbours on the other... During the day I can turn it up, sometimes, but usually I have to stay within reasonable (too quite) levels :-(

Harvey Mudd College -- the only place on earth where everyone builds 5 foot tall speakers and then crank them with thousands of watts of power, baby!!!

Visiting Grandchildren, especially when they are taking naps. Three-year-old Michael has said "PaPa (grandpa), It's too loud" . . . I guess he will never grow up to be an audiophile.

The two-channel music system is in the 15'x15'x8' home office above the garage. The wife likes music, the kids are gone, and the cats don't get an opinion.

I have to consider the wishes and likes of my housemates. They don't always like the same music that I do.

I live on the eleventh floor of an apartment block and have neighbors living above and below me. Because of this, I only play music loud during the day. If I want to listen to music loud at night, I use headphones.

I keep it down because of apartment living. But if you buy equipment, especially speakers, with this in mind, it can still sound great.

Neighbors and a proper sense of long term untroubled joy of listening suggest to be judicious on this.

Well, I could have checked off two boxes -- I can only listen loud once in a while, AND I prefer to listen quietly (sometimes). After a busy day the last thing I want is to bang my head around with loud music, but then again, that would keep the kids awake. Wasn't it Peter Walker who said that every recording is best at one and only one listening level? I think he was right, and for what I listen to, mostly smaller jazz, soft is fine. But I sure do like pumping it up for Superman by the Kinks -- that has to be blasted.

Well,when my parents aren't home I bless the neighborhood with the the sound of a system they could never afford. I also open all the windows to give them crisp, open, dynamic sound. Don't go moving in next door just yet, because I don't take requests.

Other People Live in House.

I have a semi-detached dedicated music room . . . it is isolated from the main house by an 11-foot-long hallway, a sound-insulated door, and heavy drapes.

No neighbors here!

I am married and have two children, I live in a flat. There, you have three reasons.

I suffer from the stigma of apartment living. My neighbors are nice, so I try to avoid annoying them too often.

I like my apartment, so I don't go crazy too often. Fortunately, I live in an older building with big, thick concrete walls, so I can listen at pretty good levels (80-90db) most of the time.