{"id":7482,"date":"2023-04-04T15:14:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T13:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/?p=7482"},"modified":"2023-04-05T14:44:16","modified_gmt":"2023-04-05T12:44:16","slug":"volume-control-vs-output-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/2023\/04\/04\/volume-control-vs-output-levels\/","title":{"rendered":"Volume controls vs. Output levels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

#92 in a series of articles<\/a> about the technology behind Bang & Olufsen<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One question people often ask about B&O loudspeakers is something like \u201dWhy doesn\u2019t the volume control work above 50%?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is usually asked by someone using a small loudspeaker listening to pop music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two reasons for this, related to the facts that there is such a wide range of capabilities in different Bang & Olufsen loudspeakers AND you can use them together in a surround or multiroom system. In other words for example, a Beolab 90 is capable of playing much, much more loudly than a Beolab 12; but they still have to play together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s use the example of a Beolab 90 and a Beolab 12, both playing in a surround configuration or a multiroom setup. In both cases, if the volume control is set to a low enough level, then these two types of loudspeakers should play at the same output level. This is true for quiet recordings (shown on the left in the figure below) and louder recordings (shown on the right).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

However, if you turn up the volume control, you will reach an output level that exceeds the capability of the Beolab 12 for the loud song (but not for the quiet song), shown in the figure below. At this point, for the loud song, the Beolab 12 has already begun to protect itself.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Once a B&O loudspeaker starts protecting itself, no matter how much more you turn it up, it will turn itself down by the same amount; so it won\u2019t get louder. If it did get louder, it would either distort the sound or stop working \u2013 or distort the sound and then stop working.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ONLY own Beolab 12s and you ONLY listen to loud songs (e.g. pop and rock) then you might ask \u201cwhy should I be able to turn up the volume higher than this?\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first answer is \u201cbecause you might also own Beolab 90s\u201d which can go louder, as you can see in the right hand side of the figure above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second answer is that you might want to listen to quieter recording (like a violin solo or a podcast). In this case, you haven\u2019t reached the maximum output of even the Beolab 12 yet, as you can see in the left hand side of the figure above. So, you should be able to increase the volume setting to make even the quiet recording reach the limits of the less-capable loudspeaker, as shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Notice, however, that at this high volume setting, both the quiet recording and the loud recording have the same output level on the Beolab 12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the volume allows you to push the output higher; either because you might also own more capable loudspeakers (maybe not today \u2013 but some day) OR because you\u2019re playing a quiet recording and you want to hear it over the sound of the exhaust fan above your stove or the noise from your shower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also good to remember that the volume control isn\u2019t an indicator of how loud the output should be. It\u2019s an indicator of how much quieter or louder you\u2019re making the input signal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The volume control is more like how far down you\u2019re pushing the accelerator in your car \u2013 not the indication of the speedometer. If you push down the accelerator 50% of the way, your actual speed is dependent on many things like what gear you\u2019re in, whether you\u2019re going uphill or downhill, and whether you\u2019re towing a heavy trailer. Similarly Metallica at volume step 70 will be much louder than a solo violin recording at the same volume step, unless you are playing it through a loudspeaker that reached its maximum possible output at volume step 50, in which case the Metallica and the violin might be the same level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note 1: For all of the above, I’ve said “quiet song” and “loud song” or “quiet recording” and “loud recording” – but I could just have easily as said “quiet part of the song” and “loud part of the song”. The issue is not just related to mastering levels (the overall level of the recording) but the dynamic range (the “distance” between the quietest and the loudest moment of a recording).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note 2: I’ve written a longer, more detailed explanation of this in Posting #81: Turn it down half-way<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#92 in a series of articles about the technology behind Bang & Olufsen One question people often ask about B&O loudspeakers is something like \u201dWhy doesn\u2019t the volume control work above 50%?\u201d. This is usually asked by someone using a small loudspeaker listening to pop music. There are two reasons for this, related to the facts that there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,32,5,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-bang-olufsen","category-loudspeakers","category-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p48hIM-1WG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7482"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7502,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7482\/revisions\/7502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tonmeister.ca\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}