I understand the conversation we had in the past about recording levels on CDs can be different. But I am confused - I popped in an AC/DC CD today and I had to have the volume at 25 to hear it nicely - but in my house I do not have to crank it any louder than any other CD?? Is this a speaker issue or differences in the CD players - laser is laser no?

 

The gain of a CD playback system varies from player to player, and certainly from car to car. Unless one's volume control is calibrated on a dB (decibel) scale or accordng to THX specs (where 0 dB is reference volume, say 105 acoustical decibels (loud), then volume numbers have no meaning, other than as a reference point (you will know next time that to play AC/DC in your TL, you should set the volume to 25).

I do not quite "get" your question - you have to turn your volume control up to 25 for it to please you - so what? As long as it does please you, would it matter if it were 10 or 45? In another post, I explained how the typical stereo receiver tricks the user into thinking the unit is very powerful, by having a lor rather than a linear volume control. So at 9 o'clock on the volume knob's position, it sounds loud - that would represent about 1/4 of the knob's turning capability - however, you will not get 4 times more volume bu turning it to the max, because the gain will not be there, nor will the amplifier have residual power capability to play 4 times louder. At 1 o'clock, it likely will be audibly distorting, as the amp "clips", chopping off the part of the musical waveform's demand that the receiver cannot meet.