Louder _does_ sound better. This is a well known and tested phenomenon. Listeners will favour loudness over any other metric of quality. Even very small differe

Louder _does_ sound better. This is a well known and tested phenomenon. Listeners will favour loudness over any other metric of quality. Even very small differences in loudness (0.5dB or so) can be enough to have a substantial effect on preference. In general terms, it's accurate to say "simply, louder sounds better". (note: it's also discussed in the study itself as the likely primary effect!)