Turning down cinema volume to reduce loudness harms dialog intelligibility.

Evidence

Customers walking out of movies have brought another matter to the fore: excessive loudness and/or distortion. In response, cinema operators are turning down the volume, and the cinematic art and speech intelligibility both suffer. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1359 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The time function of perceived loudness is given on the top curve. It is strongly smoothed, but shows single syllables with relatively clear separation. It becomes clear from this curve that peak loudness, normally assumed to be perceived loudness, is produced by the vowels in speech. Consonants and plosives are very important for understanding, and are clearly visible in the specific loudness versus critical-band rate versus time patterns; their contribution to the total loudness, however, is almost negligible. — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1307 (#expands, via linked claim)

Paradoxically, electronic volume compression does not improve intelligibility; in many cases it makes it worse, because it can distort the syllabic amplitude variations that help us understand words. — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2492 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Operators lowering volume to fix loudness harms speech intelligibility — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1359; Volume compression worsens speech intelligibility by flattening syllabic amplitude cues — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2492; Vowels dominate perceived loudness while consonants carry intelligibility — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1307

Broader Connections

• Operators lowering volume to fix loudness harms speech intelligibility #corroborates (0.98) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 1359
• Vowels dominate perceived loudness while consonants carry intelligibility #expands (0.75) — Professor Dr.-Ing. Hugo Fastl, Professor Dr.-Ing. Eberhard, Psychoacoustics- Facts and Models, 1307
• Volume compression worsens speech intelligibility by flattening syllabic amplitude cues #corroborates (0.72) — David M. Howard, Jamie Angus, Acoustics and Psychoacoustics, 2492