Why does radio get louder ?

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Member
I mostly listen to R4.
I think the BBC has sacked all it's sound engineers
Worst is having to turn the volume right up to hear the weather forecast, then leap to turn it off when some screaming "comedian" howls out a trailer. As for the yowling of football/racing commentators....
 

Alex H

Legendary Member
Location
Alnwick
I watched an interesting video about that a couple of days ago!



Did you have to turn the volume up / down?
 

raleighnut

Legendary Member
Your hearing attenuates to the environment, takes a while but something that is quiet will be perceived as becoming louder over time as your brain adjusts. There's also the fact that as we age slight deafness begins to creep in, at 63 my hearing is still pretty good despite working in noisy environments and attending more live music 'gigs' than I could count. As an example if we're sat in the dining room with my HiFi up pretty loud I can still hear if the doorbell or the phone rings whereas Maz can't, another example of failing hearing is if you are in a noisy environment you struggle to hear a conversation.
 

PeteXXX

Cake or ice cream? The choice is endless ...
Photo Winner
Location
Hamtun
Adverts are louder so they can still be heard when you pop out to make a cuppa or have a jimmy riddle.. So I read, once.
 

presta

Legendary Member
What I find these days is any film or series on tv the dialogue is quiet so have to turn up sound to hear then if any action occurs, it's deafening.
I watched an interesting video about that a couple of days ago!


It's not just me then.

I'll put in a word for ITV's Protection here, I watched the first three episodes last night, and I suddenly realised it's the first programme in ages that I haven't had to faff with the volume on.
On the other had the cheap speakers built into modern TVs and PC monitors give vastly better quality sound than the big speakers in old TVs.
The sound on this HP laptop's been engineered by Bang & Olufsen, and it's noticeably better than my old Samsung one.
Radio volume changes from station to station is my bugbear.
My lounge TV has an individual preset adjustment to correct the volume offset for each channel separately, but I change channel on the Humax box, so it's no use. It's not much help when it changes from programme to programme or minute to minute, either.
 

markemark

Veteran
Adverts are louder so they can still be heard when you pop out to make a cuppa or have a jimmy riddle.. So I read, once.

TV, and I should imagine radio, adverts are not allowed to increase in volume. But what they do is have full allowable volume in lots more sound frequencies- ie full low/mid/high pitch all at the same time. It's not louder overall but it's a much fuller sound so seems louder and as such more noticeable. Also, during most tv/radio playback there's lows and loud parts. Ads making everything at the higher end. No louder at the peaks, but no troughs either which the brain has been used to noticing.
 
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