Why does radio get louder ?

[Flite]

I mostly listen to R4.
I think the BBC has sacked all it's sound engineers
Worst is having to turn the volume right up to hear the weather forecast, then leap to turn it off when some screaming "comedian" howls out a trailer. As for the yowling of football/racing commentators....

 

[Alex H]

I watched an interesting video about that a couple of days ago!

Did you have to turn the volume up / down?

 

[raleighnut]

Your hearing attenuates to the environment, takes a while but something that is quiet will be perceived as becoming louder over time as your brain adjusts. There's also the fact that as we age slight deafness begins to creep in, at 63 my hearing is still pretty good despite working in noisy environments and attending more live music 'gigs' than I could count. As an example if we're sat in the dining room with my HiFi up pretty loud I can still hear if the doorbell or the phone rings whereas Maz can't, another example of failing hearing is if you are in a noisy environment you struggle to hear a conversation.

 

[PeteXXX]

Adverts are louder so they can still be heard when you pop out to make a cuppa or have a jimmy riddle.. So I read, once.

 

[presta]

What I find these days is any film or series on tv the dialogue is quiet so have to turn up sound to hear then if any action occurs, it's deafening.

I watched an interesting video about that a couple of days ago!

It's not just me then.

I'll put in a word for ITV's Protection here, I watched the first three episodes last night, and I suddenly realised it's the first programme in ages that I haven't had to faff with the volume on.

On the other had the cheap speakers built into modern TVs and PC monitors give vastly better quality sound than the big speakers in old TVs.

The sound on this HP laptop's been engineered by Bang & Olufsen, and it's noticeably better than my old Samsung one.

Radio volume changes from station to station is my bugbear.

My lounge TV has an individual preset adjustment to correct the volume offset for each channel separately, but I change channel on the Humax box, so it's no use. It's not much help when it changes from programme to programme or minute to minute, either.

 

[MontyVeda]

Did you have to turn the volume up / down?

ironically... I did have to turn the volume up on that video. Left him a comment too

 

[markemark]

Adverts are louder so they can still be heard when you pop out to make a cuppa or have a jimmy riddle.. So I read, once.

TV, and I should imagine radio, adverts are not allowed to increase in volume. But what they do is have full allowable volume in lots more sound frequencies- ie full low/mid/high pitch all at the same time. It's not louder overall but it's a much fuller sound so seems louder and as such more noticeable. Also, during most tv/radio playback there's lows and loud parts. Ads making everything at the higher end. No louder at the peaks, but no troughs either which the brain has been used to noticing.

 

[Binky]

I watched that video in hope there was a solution but seemingly not. Watching with subtitles on is not ideal/desirable and having remote in hand to up/down volume every 2 minutes is a faff.

 

[Conrad_K]

My son watches a lot of YouTube via the TV.
The adverts are deafening.

In the US, the Federal Communications Commission prohibits cranking up the volume of commercials for over-the-air broadcasts. This is almost completely ignored by the TV stations, who crank things up until the speakers rattle.

On top of that, they'll also "power mike" the audio track, boosting the 250-1250Hz voice 'sweet spot" until it sounds like dogs barking.

YouTube does something similar in its commercials, but I don't know if it's done by Youtube or the advertisers themselves.

Back when I still watched TV, I had to hold one finger over the "mute" button to keep from having my ears blown out during loud spots or commercials. I solved that problem by getting rid of the TV.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

A company car I had a few years ago automatically increased radio volumes as you sped up.

Another colleague had same car type and model but his system didn't so he had to do it manually

It’s a setting, he needed to turn it on.