4 ms·
Volume knobs please! On my Bose bedroom speakers “2” is too soft and “3” is too loud, and on my monitor it’s similar (but at different numbers).
by sen 4y ago
Volume knobs please! On my Bose bedroom speakers “2” is too soft and “3” is too loud, and on my monitor it’s similar (but at different numbers).
- parasti 4y agoSounds like a classic case of programmers assuming loudness is linear.
- klysm 4y agoEven if you get that part right you still have to pick a number of discrete steps that isn’t annoying but offers a good enough granularity. Good luck making everybody happy with that choice.
- capableweb 4y agoYeah, fidelity will be just right with a knob, barring incompetence. Not to mention how much easier it is to implement on a hardware and software level, just read the value from the knob.
- mlyle 4y agoReading an encoder or a couple volume buttons is even easier. In either case, the software has an annoying scaling problem.
- buescher 4y agoI would expect Bose to get at least that right, but you never know these days. The Bose headsets in my house work flawlessly. I can imagine a monitor company getting it wrong.
- mlyle 4y agoGetting the right number of steps is really hard. Even with a receiver with a volume knob denominated in decibels-- there's 30 useful steps between really quiet and really loud for content that is using the full volume of the track. Content that is quiet, or quiet in places, can easily need another 15 steps. And sometimes, sitting in the room with the atten set to -34 dB and -32dB feels really different. So that says you need 22+ steps to be sufficiently expressive, but everyone wants a 1-10 scale.
- sundvor 4y agoOh yes, so much that. On my Windows PC, with the SB ZXR soundcard, for my ATH headphones I want my level no higher than 8-10% ; the lack of steps is a major pain, must be compensated for by in app volume controls. On my Samsung Android, at least I have their Sound Assistant which makes my Galaxy S21U a lot more useful. There I can greatly increase the number of steps, and the useful range is actually 0-100%. (Also, I can play eg Audible and Spotify at the same time, with individual volume controls). But it will never come close to the fidelity of my 25 year old Rotel pre amp volume knob. May this system never die, or at least outlive myself.
- lttlrck 4y agoApple is guilty of this on the iPhone's physical volume buttons. You can override with touch, but given that, they should have made a single click on the buttons more granular ...