I’m having an issue with Plexamp (love this app by the way). When playing music, everything is about 30% of the volume that it should be. If I play music from any other sound source, it’s roughly 3 times louder, about the expected volume level based on what I’m used to. I double checked the application mixer in Windows 10 and all my sound playback/output settings are in order.
Thank you.
This is standard behavior due to loudness leveling. If you wish to disable this feature you can edit the server.json file as per the FAQ/release notes to turn it off, but most people just turn the volume up for the other benefits the leveling provides 
The issue is when another audio source starts and I get blasted out or wake everyone up in the house.
On windows i can’t find the server.json file.
You might want to check the application volume isn’t turned down. The volume leveling shouldn’t make THAT much of a difference. To check the volume, right click the speaker icon in the notification tray and select “Open Volume Mixer”. The Plexamp volume will be listed under “mpd.exe”
I know how to use the volume mixer, thanks though. I’ll probably start looking for an alternative. I don’t see a good reason for plexamp to be lower volume than plex.
There is a good reason: volume leveling. Plexamp can make all the songs be of the same loudness. In order to do that without causing distortion, the overall volume needs to be a bit lower.
3 times lower however, sounds a bit much.
Try this: start playback in Plexamp.
Then hold down the CTRL+Alt keys and tap repeatedly onto the Cursor-Up key on your keyboard.
I have a different, maybe opposite, problem: I’m on macOS and playing out onto USB speakers. Plexamp is much louder than other audio sources. With PlexWeb or VLC or other sources, I have volume controls to lower the volume from the source app, so it works okay. with PlexAmp, there is no volume control so is just loud, even when I have the USB speakers turned all the way down.
Can this be controlled in the json file too?
TIA
I hunted again in the FAQ and, while the “Change Volume” section says use your computers controls (which doesn’t work for my USB output), there was the keybindings section that says:
Volume Up or Down:
These keybindings work for me, so posting here for others to know about.
You can also disable the leveling via JSON tweak as well if you don’t like it 
Some audio interfaces don’t have hardware volume controls (e.g. my Cambridge AudioDAC 100) but the key commands are soft volume controls.
No other application I use that normalizes audio reduces the volume this significantly. It would make more sense to bring up the volume of a quiet track than bring down the volume of all tracks.
Any application which does ReplayGain (specifically the newer 2.0 spec) should have identical behavior.
It does bring up the volume of quiet tracks in cases where they’re below the reference level.
After reading the link, you posted it’s evident that ReplayGain is not the best normalization to use. Most music these days is very compressed, and under the Pre-amplification section on the wiki, it says ReplayGain will make compressed tracks sound too quiet. Compressed meaning the use of a compressor to reduce the dynamics in a track, not file compression.
The ReplayGain is working fine over here, but being able to increase the overal volume of PlexAmp would be a nice addition. Maybe in the way of an equalizer or something, or maybe even a simple 150% volume option in the context menu?
Now it’s either the same or a lower volume then most other audio sources, and personally I prefer my music to be the loudest source.
I had been suffering from this same audio issue. I Tried a complete uninstall down to wiping the appdata folder and registry of plex, reinstalled to no gain in audio. It occurred to me that the laptop had an HDMI output, I ditched an aux cable for HDMI and poof audio is the same volume on plex as all other sounds from the laptop. Might not be a feasible fix for everyone but I hope it helps points you guys toward a workable fix for your setup.
BTW, I tested the aux cable I was using when I had the issue and found .1 or less ohms of resistance on all 3 wires and perfect continuity on all 3 also. I’m quite sure the problem was not the aux cable, or obviously the t.v. and laptop it ran between. I think that only leaves configuration.
Are you talking about Plexamp? Something tells me you’re not😉
Glad I found this thread. This has been driving me crazy.
How can I turn off the auto leveling feature on a Mac? I can’t find a “server.json” file in my PlexAmp package file…
Thanx
Jon
I had to abandon Plexamp due to the working to disable ReplayGain stopped working. Very disappointing that plex often fails to properly implement tools and good UI.
How can I disable the leveling on the json? I really love this tiny app but having to have the volume at 100% is a huge drawback
Even Linux should have a ‘mixer’ where you can adjust the relative volume of different apps.
