Receiver help.

[jbuttler007]

I use the Sony STR-DG800 7.1 Channels Receiver. When I'm on the PS3's main menu with the XMB on the game menu the sound is nice and loud. You know if you leave the cursor by a game without selecting it, music for that game will play within 2 seconds. I normally have the volume between 25 and 30. When I go to play a game or watch a movie, I have to turn it up to 40 or more. The surround works but ir really low, what gives. I need help or an explanation.

I use optical and componet (red,blue,green) cables. 6 sony speaker, 1 sony sub, 1 panasocic center speaker.

Any other components I connect to the receiver sounds loud enough between 25-30.

Oh yeah, I tried changing the bitstream and PCM option already.

Thanks if you can help, or for any ideas.

[Shin-Ra]

I can't think of anything to help increase game volume but while watching a BD/DVD movie hit TRIANGLE and there should be a speaker symbol that when selected lets you set volume at:

-2|-1|0|+1|+2

[FilmmakingFiasco]

The XMB is really loud for me too and things soften up while playing. I think there is an audio booster on the XMB menus. With all my other optical inputs, everything is matched evenly and the XMB seems, dare I say, a little too hot. I hate when my PS3 boots up and immediately goes to the GT5 demo.

[jbuttler007]

I've tried triangle -2|-1|0|+1|+2. But it's not the same

[WriteSimply]

The XMB audio for the game preview has been WAY HOT since the very beginning. So always turn down the volume especially when you're browsing through the game options.


fuad

[jbuttler007]

Yeah, but are the games and movies significantly low? Is it normal

[Deciazulado]

Well if a movie has great dynamic range, as digital has a top limit of the signal, the only way to get those uncompressed peaks untampered is to lower the overall average level of the main signal. On CDs nowadays they have what's called "The Loud Wars" where in order to make the CD sound loud and impressive at first sight (or listening ) they compress the hell out of the signal pushing it up practically until it's brickwalled against the CD's digital maximun level, therefore all the music peaks (like snare drums and cymbals, guitar attacks, what not) are all severely clipped as they have nowehere to go. Movie soundtracks have lots of bombastic moments like expolsions and music crescendos, so to preserve those uncompressed and natural sounding, as I said, the overall average level of the normal parts of the movie has to be lower

How's that for an explanation?


Hey, CD lovers when they first buy an audiophile recording tend to ask the same question: "How come I have to turn up the volume more on this CD?"

Turning up the volume doesn't affect the sound negatively in any way, unless your receiver has a higher than normal (not good quality) noise floor.


There's also be the dialnorm issue among other things.. (Where are the resident audio experts here? )

[HDJK]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

Well if a movie has great dynamic range, as digital has a top limit of the signal, the only way to get those uncompressed peaks untampered is to lower the overall average level of the main signal. On CDs nowadays they have what's called "The Loud Wars" where in order to make the CD sound loud and impressive at first sight (or listening ) they compress the hell out of the signal pushing it up practically until it's brickwalled against the CD's digital maximun level, therefore all the music peaks (like snare drums and cymbals, guitar attacks, what not) are all severely clipped as they have nowehere to go. Movie soundtracks have lots of bombastic moments like expolsions and music crescendos, so to preserve those uncompressed and natural sounding, as I said, the overall average level of the normal parts of the movie has to be lower

How's that for an explanation?


Hey, CD lovers when they first buy an audiophile recording tend to ask the same question: "How come I have to turn up the volume more on this CD?"

Turning up the volume doesn't affect the sound negatively in any way, unless your receiver has a higher than normal (not good quality) noise floor.


There's also be the dialnorm issue among other things.. (Where are the resident audio experts here? )

Everything stated in this post is (of course as always) correct. There is a quality degredation possible with volume changes, but the other way around. The electrical voltage that goes in is sometimes actively pushed down (by means of VCAs) to lower the volume (don't ask me to get too technical there, because I can't ) and hence affecting the audio qualitiy (coloring the sound). For this reason I use the Central Station (see sig), because it has a purely passive signal path. A true stepped attenuator (like the 'Dangerous Music' gear) would be the ultimate, but is also the most expensive.
Some receivers actually perform an AD conversion to handle levels digitally, introducing another generation of AD/DA conversion.

[Filterlab]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

There's also be the dialnorm issue among other things.. (Where are the resident audio experts here? )

Thing is with dialnorm is that if all producers of media in whatever form follow the rules then all things should sound equal from source to source.

However, since dialnorm is only an average level across an entire audio track (singular track) then it's virtually impossible to maintain an average across every piece of media in the world. For example, if the average audio level for the dialogue track in the film 'Predator' is compared to that of 'Pride and Prejudice' there's going to be some vast differences.

Add to that the fact that advertisers cheat and increase the audio level whilst reducing dynamic peaks (by compression and normalisation), it leads to completely inconsistent audio outputs across everything.

A good example of a low level (i.e. turn the volume way up) recording is Dire Straits' 'Brothers in Arms' album. Really low but fantastic headroom and consequently great dynamism to the sound. On the flipside is Coldplay's 'X&Y' - no dynamic peaks, no headroom and terribly flat sound. Really loud though and ideal for compressed reproduction means.

That's really just the tip of the iceberg, and dialnorm is a Dolby thing rather than general audio.

At the end of the day, just turn it up a bit.

[Filterlab]

Just to elaborate, the difference between a good quality very dynamic recording (One World by Dire Straits) and a rubbishly rushed recording (Hardest Part by Coldplay).