Volume Leveling

[sb4101]

Question about volume leveling!!!

I have a Yamaha RX-V2500 receiver. Is there any way to set up volume leveling on this?
Lots of new TVs coming out have the volume leveling feature. This is also commonly found on computer software such as musicmatch and iTunes.

Is this not an offered feature on home theatre systems? Whenever I watch a movie, or TV, or anything, I always have to have the remote in hand.
I am always pressing the volume plus or minus to try to avoid harsh volume spikes.

It drives me crazy. I want to take my receiver and bash it over my head.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[colin.p]

Uh...not sure if this is what you're looking for.... I would think that your Yamaha receiver would have some sort of audio compression setting that "compresses" the dynamic range of audio. My "cheapie" Panasonic receiver certainly has that.
It's settings are "off, on or standard". Of course, I have mine set as Off, as I like to frighten the heck out of my wife when there is a loud explosion.

Colin

 

[Nomo]

I think he's looking for a volume trim setting for each individual input. (DVD, DTV, Tuner, etc...)
I don't believe that feature is available on the 2500. I think the some of the Denons have it, Yamaha does not.

 

[sb4101]

clarification...

sorry - i should probably clarify...

What I am looking for is a setting (or something) that will allow me to listen to a DVD (or TV, or CD) such that ALL audio playback is at the same volume level, regardless of whether it is a whisper or an explosion.

 

[MDS]

What I am looking for is a setting (or something) that will allow me to listen to a DVD (or TV, or CD) such that ALL audio playback is at the same volume level, regardless of whether it is a whisper or an explosion.

It is next to impossible to achieve what you want although there are some features that can help a little.

Dynamic Compression as mentioned above will reduce the peaks and make the average level higher so there isn't a drastic difference between dialog and explosions, but it only works on Dolby Digital.

Some Yamaha receivers I've heard have a volume leveling feature that is similar to what Onkyo calls 'IntelliVolume'. It simply allows you to set an offset between different inputs. So, IF your CD input always seems to be about 10 dB louder than the DVD input, you can set the offset for CD to -10 dB. That doesn't help all that much because every CD has a different level as well as every DVD, so one offset will not likely achieve the goal of making all media from each input sound about the same level. Just think about a CD mastered in the '80s vs one mastered in the '90s. An offset of -10 dB might reduce the level of the hotter '90s CD so it matches more closely to the DVD input, but as soon as you put in the softer '80s CD and it is reduced 10 dB it will now be too quiet and you have to reach for the volume control anyway.

The ear responds to the average level and volume leveling is an attempt at making the average level similar across sources. It is not a cure-all because there is more to 'perceived loudness' than the average level. If you take two songs, say one hard rock and one soft rock and adjust them so that their average level is similar, the hard rock will still be perceived to be louder simply due to the type of music. iTunes does just that - it calculates an offset across your entire collection. Look at the ID3 tag of a file that has been processed by iTunes and you will see a tag called 'engiTunNORM' - that tag stores the 'normalization (NORM)' volume offset. Adjusting average levels will get you close, but not perfect.

You would need a compressor that would adjust levels on the fly to a value you specify, and you will never find such a feature on a receiver. Until there are standards for broadcast and recording levels this is a problem that will persist.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

I think he's looking for a volume trim setting for each individual input. (DVD, DTV, Tuner, etc...)
I don't believe that feature is available on the 2500. I think the some of the Denons have it, Yamaha does not.

Bzzzzzt, wrong answer...

You can adjust volume trims on the 2500. However, he was not asking about volume trims.





SB,
If you want to tame 'loud segments' of movies, you'll want to activate your 'night listening' mode. The 2500 has three settings(low, med, high) and it's purpose will exactly suit your needs. To activate, all you need to do is press the "NIGHT" button on your remote. Immediately after pressing "NIGHT", you can also toggle between low, med, & high settings to vary the effect.

Happy listening!!

 

[Herr D]

I thought the "night "function was used to flatten frequency input to the speakers, so there's no extreme high frequencies sent to the speakers and everythging sounds a bit monotonous. All reviews I've ever read discourage the use of this function and it shouldn't achieve what sb is hoping to achieve.

Then again, I'm not sure what sb is trying to achieve. If you want the dB of a whisper to be as loud as an explosion then I would suggest turning up the volume of your center and surrounds and turning down the main speakers/sub, but for the life of me I don't know why anyone would want this.

 

[Buckeye_Nut]

The night listening mode compresses the audo signal to reduce the dynamic range of film soundtracks. Yes, this means it will effectively subdue LFE effects and effectively reduce the SPL of loud movie segments.(LFE=sub bass or SB) This will improve the listenability at lower volumes, or at night. It will make dialogue easier to hear at lower volumes, and the LFE effects will be greatly diminished.(depending on whether you select the LOW, MED, or HIGH setting)

This setting will eliminate sb's need to keep a remote control handy to turn down the volume every time a loud segment rolls around. It's called 'NIGHT LISTENING' for a reason.... thats because it's used most often at night when sudden bursts of loudness & joist vibrating LFE effects are unwanted

If you intend to experience the full effect of a movie soundtrack, please dont forget to return 'Night Listening" to the OFF position


Hope that helps