"loudness" change the tone balance as the volume control is turned up. below the tap on the volume control, bass and treble are boosted because at low volume the ear's response to bass and treble aren't as good as at midrange frequencies.. there is somewhat of a "standard" loudness contour, but the reason most high end systems either don't have a loudness switch or a loudness control (some high end preamps do have a loudness control) is that the filters used to do the loudness compensation often add unwanted phase shifts to the audio, especiall y between about 3khz and 20khz. a good explanation of loudness compensation is https://diyaudioprojects.com/mirror/members.aol.com/sbench/freqres3.htmlIs it power amp volume or loudness volume?I see 4 pins in the volume..!!