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Heyo folks,

No one likes their ears blown off by loud music. I've noticed a side-habit of mine:

I lower the volume of all volume controls related to playback down to ~90%, (e.g. Windows main volume, Youtube vid player). I then use just headphones' volume to control the final volume.

Is there any benefit to not using 100% in this way? A sound that's played too loud will get distorted, so I imagine this stops the effect. But it could just be placebo and have no real benefit.

Cheers...

Phi
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2 Answers2

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Lowering the volume to 90% has no positive effect on the quality of the signal which is sent to speakers/headphones in your case.

A generally good practice is to increase the volume using digital components (up to 100%, I'm not talking about boosting or normalization) to decrease the amplification done by analogue components to preserve quality.

Uğur Gümüşhan
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Most chipsets have a volume control where 100% is in fact a x2 amplification factor: the real 100% may be around 50%, ie the sound is not amplified.
The advantage is when the incoming sound is too low, then boosting at 80% or 100% alow to ear it.
The drawback is generally awfull sound when played on good loudspeakers.

The same rule often apply to the volume knob of external speakers: the non-amplified volume is around 25% or 50%.

The volume control inside Youtube and other web apps is generally only a decreasing factor: at 100% the output is only 100%.
Then the sound will pass in the chipset, where it can be amplified or not, depending of the volume settings you have in Windows/Linux/whatever. Then the sound will pass in the external speakers (if any) and can again be amplified.

Each amplification can lead to more cliping, knowing that most music are already processed to clip reduction because the "dynamic" is to wide for usual loudspeakers.

The usual rule of thumb: put the sound control at 25% or 50% in Windows and for external speakers. Put the sound at 100% inside webapps/VLC/whatever.
If you want louder or lighter, use the Windows or external speaker knob.

I'm not sure I'm clear. Fell free to modify this text.

Bertrand SCHITS
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