Modification of dynamic range.

[Alistair Newton]

At the age of 74 my hearing has become significantly impaired such that I have great difficulty in listening to some classical music with quiet sections without complaints from my wife from two rooms away in the louder sections.  

I know this will sound sacrilegious to younger purists, but a very useful feature of a B2 would be the ability to compress the dynamic range of the output from the speakers.

[Mark Fishman]

Doesn't sound sacrilegious at all. But the compression I'd want woud be bringing up the volume BELOW a threshold, rather than raising the volume of everything and then applying a limiter above a threshold (which is how radio stations and hearing aids tend to do it).

I'm 71. I have both frequency range limitations and recruitment (inability to hear soft sounds against backgroundnoise, but loud sounds are just as loud to me as they are to younger people -- it's NOT just a threshold shift). What works is to wear headphones or earbuds, especially if they have noise cancellation function. Not only does that prevent the music from annoying my wife, it prevents my wife from interrupting my music.

Dynamic range reduction is not a simple thing to accomplish and still retain musical values. Good luck.

[Davywhizz]

It does seem a shame to lose out on the dynamic range which is one of the great things about all kinds of music, not least classical. Like Mark, I was thinking of headphones (I tend not to think much about earbuds). 

If headphones are an option, you'd get the most natural, open sound with "open back" headphones, rather than "closed back". though they tend to be a little anti-social, as some of what you hear leaks out. So, not recommended for use on public transport or if your wife is in the same room. But no problem if she's two rooms away. Open back phones also let more external sounds in. 

I'm not sure you'd need active noise cancellation, as Mark mentioned, unless there's significant, continuous ambient noise where you are, but Mark may know better if there are specific benefits for anyone with impaired hearing. Active cancellation is great for plane journeys, for example, or anywhere else there's a lot of constant, particularly lower frequency sound.

Just a personal opinion: I don't think the B2 gives enough power on its own for most headphones, certainly not higher end ones. Thus I'd consider an external, combined DAC/headphone amplifier. This need not be expensive and you'd get the added benefit, which most people here agree on, of using an external DAC to convert the B2 digital signal to analogue. If you're connecting your B2 to an external system already, it may well have its own headphone output.

[Daniel Taylor]

This may not be what you're looking for, but I will mention it anyway.  Audacity, the free computer program, has a feature for compressing the signal to reduce dynamic range.  It is usually suggested to use that feature sparingly.  But in the case you describe, it could be helpful.  I believe this feature boosts the lower level sound without boosing the higher level sound to the point of distortion.  It requires moving the music files to you computer, applying the compression and then moving the resulting music files back to the B2.  If I were faced with your problem, I'd give that a try.

[JFBUK]

Hi,

I don't know  the details of your listening set up or any space constraints you may have but there are amplifiers around which have features which might help.

e.g. some Yamaha amps have a feature which they market as 'Continuously Variable Loudness Control'

This lets you adjust a loudness effect as desired. Separate from the overall volume, this controls the balance of the low- and high- frequency sounds, providing full tonal range at any volume level, compensating for the natural loss in the human ear of high and low frequencies at soft levels.

John