Home theater owners routinely reduce volume by 10 dB or more

Evidence

Movies are mixed and reproduced in cinemas at sound levels that are standardized. Home theaters are often calibrated to meet a similar sound level for 0 dB volume control setting. This is a situation where a calibrated loudness compensation could function somewhat predicably, but the dynamic range problem would still exist. The reality is that playback at 0 dB in a home theater is commonly regarded as being uncomfortably loud and volume settings are often reduced by 10 dB or more. An interesting current issue with movie sound in cinemas is that many customers find some of them too loud and complain to the management. The problem has reached a point where some jurisdictions have talked about placing legal limits on the playback sound levels in cinemas. As mentioned earlier, some cinema owners have reduced the playback sound levels by as much as 10 dB—half loudness! — Toole, Floyd E, Sound reproduction- the acoustics and…, 920

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reading purpose of psychoacoustic loudness models — a 10 dB cut is half perceived loudness, illustrating the nonlinear loudness scale central to psychoacoustics.