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As I recall Katz's thinking was Dolby had shown wide range material was considered not too loud and not too soft by nearly everyone around 83 db SPL. Most mainstream music was going to be compressed. He was hoping not master in a way that would result in ridiculous compression. When you compress music and adjust volume to suit the average SPL goes up. His experienced opinion was if you are working as a mastering guy, reduce levels by 6 db from that 83 db reference level. And DO NOT CHANGE THE VOLUME. Then your mastering will more or less naturally cause you to pick an amount of compression and levels that result in music near that 83 db level. So he was attempting to adhere to the standard in a way mastering guys could just listen and get a good result.
You can buy some current music and see his attempt was unsuccessful.
I seem to recall he used pink noise set to -20 db at 83 db SPL C-wtd slow response for reference and reduced his amp volume by 6 db at that point for one channel.
Regarding my comment above about hearing acuity. We listen for enjoyment, so a little louder than optimum acuity is not far fetched.
You can buy some current music and see his attempt was unsuccessful.
I seem to recall he used pink noise set to -20 db at 83 db SPL C-wtd slow response for reference and reduced his amp volume by 6 db at that point for one channel.
Regarding my comment above about hearing acuity. We listen for enjoyment, so a little louder than optimum acuity is not far fetched.
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