This is very frustrating. When using Plexamp and the equalizer is turned on, there is obvious loudness leveling happening even though it’s turned off in the app settings and iOS main settings. You can clearly hear the volume being dropped when a song hits a point where it’s supposed to get louder.
When the equalizer is off this does not happen.
I’ve tested with several songs but a clear example is Tool’s 7empest at about 1:35 when the drums kick in. The volume level goes drastically down.
Another example is the very beginning of Down by 311, just after the opening riff when the drums/lyrics start.
Again, If I turn off the equalizer it’s fine, just not as loud as I’d like.
It sounds like you’re describing something like compression or a limiter; loudness leveling inside Plexamp just increasing or decreases the volume on a track by a fixed amount. When using it there is a limiter included to avoid any clipping which can occur. If it’s engaged and you’ve turned the EQ “way up” you can cause this sort of clipping to occur.
If you’ve disabled loudness and the EQ, the loudness should be pristine and unaltered, and if you want things to be louder, turn up your stereo or car.
I just double checked and the limiter function is turned off. So the only thing turned on is the EQ with a custom preset, about 2dB preamp gain in the EQ, and a +4 preamp in the advanced settings. Both leveling and limiter are turned off. But there is still a very obvious drop in volume at the specified times of the songs I mentioned.
Mar 09, 2022 00:06:50.183 [0x6b8f7000] INFO - BASS: Queueing stream (1 total, 0 handles) with identifier 70037, gain nan dB, overlap duration 0 ms, start offset 10406 ms (paused: 1).
Based on this, you’ve correctly disabled loudness leveling. The +4 preamp in advanced settings will not have any effect because of this. And there shouldn’t be any limiters or compressors in the chain.
Hmm, that’s not too extreme. Does the issue go away if you reset the EQ preamp to 0 dB? Setting that > 0 when you already have all positive EQ is a bad idea as it can lead to clipping.
And what if you set it to -2.9 dB, which is the highest gain level? Your source material is probably normalized to 0 dB, so you’re going to get clipping or something if you try to boost it (and I’ve heard this effect is especially prevalent in bass frequencies).
To Otto’s point I would try to play the sample tracks on several other devices. Whether it happens everywhere or only on iOS, either fact would be useful to know.
Sorry for the delay. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what the purpose of the EQ is and how to use it. Is it not to boost some frequencies (and I suppose reduce others)?
It seems like a flaw if you have to keep the average at 0dB in order for it not to reduce levels drastically in the middle of songs. I tried setting the preamp to 0 and just raising the levels of each frequency and it did the same thing. The instant a song gets loud it reduces the volume.
Music can’t go above 0 dB without being clipped or limited (volume reduced).
Most modern music will reach 0 dB which means that any net gain in the EQ will probably lead to clipping/limiting. This is why the EQ preamp setting exists.
The EQ should not be thought of a way to make the music louder; rather, it’s a way to adjust the sound to compensate for ears, room, speakers.
That makes perfect sense, but I never thought about the need to reduce volume due to EQ settings until I saw this thread. Like OP I do not remember hearing other music apps lower the sound after boosting some freqs via EQ but maybe I just didn’t listen to material which would trigger that.
My two cents and something to think about. I think what you are experiencing is a power issue.
You ever seen or been in a car when the bass would hit and the cars lights would dim? Or the song would build and what should be a crescendo ends up sounding flat or soft? This happens with headphones also when there isn’t enough power to reproduce the music. And I think this is what is happening with your headphones and why you are hearing the volume difference.
Bass frequencies need more power to reproduce.
If you EQ up the bass then you are asking your headphones to spend more power in those frequency ranges. In a car the solution is you add capacitors to store energy so when the music needs it the power is there to produce the music.
Do you hear this volume dip with other headphones? Try wired headphones see if it still has a volume dip. For wired headphones if you use ones that need a lot of power to reproduce sound, you would have a very soft or low volume coming from your phone, or you would hear volume drops as music gets more intense. You would need to add an amp to power the headphones.
