Why aren't volume controls based on average power output or something? (lemmygrad.ml)

submitted 4 months ago by Sodium_nitride@lemmygrad.ml to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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Maybe this is just my phone (and laptop), but volume control is irritating when some tracks are configured so that I need to set the volume to 70-80% and some tracks are so "naturally loud" that the lowest setting (5% ish for my phone) is distractingly loud.

On some of my tracks (especially for the classical music ones), within the same track I need to change the volume from 20% to 80% depending on what part I am listening to if I want to hear everything without killing my ear drums.

I get that it would be difficult to do anything about this for streaming or live audio since the phone doesn't know in advance what the input will be, but for a pre-recorded mp3 file, couldn't my phone do some digital signal processing?

Do I just have terrible electronic items and is this an issue anyone else experiences? Ot is this problem just harder to solve than I am expecting?

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[-] monovergent@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

I can comfortably go through my music collection without adjusting the volume, but I too would like to see something like this. In my case, I'd like to cap the maximum power output so I won't lose my ears to audio glitches, poor editing, or forgetting to turn down the volume after a very quiet video. Many phone manufacturers already warn users of hearing loss when turning up the volume too far, and I'm surprised that nobody has made an obvious and easy way to just cap the output power.

this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2025

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