Plexamp loudness & clipping

Plex Labs
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1

Hi all,

Plexamp does play Music louder than the apples native Music app. How come?

One thing that I did realize it that tracks then start clipping (did a comparison with Boards of Canada - Naraka and the kickdrum is getting distorted on my own 320kbit MP3 on high volume on Plexamp, but doesnt with the native HQ stream).

Does anyone know how to fix this?

2

It usually doesn’t, unless:

  • you have cranked the sliders on the EQ totally up. Disable it and see if it makes a difference.
  • you have set a value for Replay Gain preamp larger than 0 dB
  • you have disabled loudness levelling
  • you have a track within the affected album which contains a digital glitch, thus offsetting the album loudness analysis – and therefore all other tracks within that album as well. This tends to happen more often with “Frankenstein albums”, i.e those which were created by combining tracks from disparate album releases
3

That’s odd.

  • No EQ
  • Preamp at 0
  • The MP3 is the original from the distributer Warp. Same situation now that I tried a FLAC.
  • Also tried disabling loudness leveling but no change at all.

But it also applies to other tracks, so it cant be specific to this album. Could it be a iOS system setting? I did just check all setting I could find including Accessibility and there seems to everything how it was initially set.

4

Could the plexamp quality settings be effecting things ? Try setting the quality to maximum if it’s not already set.

5

All on maximum. Also tried playing the files after I downloaded them.

I will try a different player app next and see how that outputs…

6

Ok, tried the MARVIS iOS app and also VLC on my PC as well as different headphones (B&W PX7 S2) - Same output as with Plexamp.

Findings so far:

  • No matter if Plexamp or Marvis (iOS apps) or VLC (PC), the output is consistent
  • Apple Music though is limiting the output somehow. Latest iOS lets you look at the dB of whats playing and it is 2-4dB below other apps.
  • My ears cannot take the full volume anymore or
  • Some sounds make me feel/hear things sounding harsh/clipped.
7

So, I identified the reason. iOS has an option to activate a loudness limiter under “Sound & Haptics” - “Headphone Safety”. Odd thing is it is already active for the Music app and limiting at 95dB without having the option chosen.

Here’s a screenshot showing it in its active state:

IMG_4484.PNG
IMG_4484.PNG1206Ă—2622 155 KB

Thanks to you guys for helping to find the devil in the details!