Why do I have to keep turning up the volume for movies?

[Dr Kain]

I seem to be having a minor issue lately. I am having to excessively turn up the volume on my movies more than I have had to before. Here is a perfect example:

Alice in Wonderland - Watched July 22, 2010, I had the receiver at -23.5dbs and the audio was amazing. On Feb 18, 2011, I had to turn the volume to -18.0dbs to get the same quality I had the previous time. Then I watched it again on July 12, 2011 and had to turn it up to -12.5dbs just to get it to sound like it did back in February. Why? Do I need to replace the HDMI cable? I tried replacing the speaker wire, but that did nothing. Is there a button I may have hit that makes it sound like crap now? What?

Another example would be Dragonball Kai. Volumes 1-3 were fine at -18.0dbs, but I had to watch Volumes 4 and 5 at -9.0dbs.

Any help would be appreciated.

[CaptainCanuck]

Your settings haven't changed for your speaker distance/audio signal in your receiver speaker setup have they?
I spose they could've reverted to default levels if you lost receiver power at some point.

[Josh Z]

Possibilities:

- You now have more ambient noise in the room due to air conditioning, fans, etc.
- You're misremembering what these discs sounded like months to years ago.
- Your receiver's amplifier section is failing.
- Your hearing is failing.

[Actionable Mango]

It's a little alarming to me that you can remember historical decibel settings for past movie viewings!

[Dr Kain]

Possibilities:

- You now have more ambient noise in the room due to air conditioning, fans, etc.
- You're misremembering what these discs sounded like months to years ago.
- Your receiver's amplifier section is failing.
- Your hearing is failing.

1. Is possible, but wouldn't it mean last summer I would have had the same issue?
2. Hardly, I remember what I set a movie at because most movies are great at the same setting.
3. Also not likely considering the receiver is just a year old (bought it on July 21st).
4. Still not likely.

[Josh Z]

1. Is possible, but wouldn't it mean last summer I would have had the same issue?
2. Hardly, I remember what I set a movie at because most movies are great at the same setting.
3. Also not likely considering the receiver is just a year old (bought it on July 21st).
4. Still not likely.

Hey, just throwing out possibilities.

You may think that #4 isn't likely, but our hearing acuity does decrease with age. After the age of 30, you literally cannot hear a host of frequencies that younger people can still hear. Teenagers have been known to take advantage of this by using cell phone ringtones that are inaudible to their parents and teachers.

People sometimes jokingly say "Clean out your ears." That's not always a laughing matter. Wax build-up can block your eardrums and auditory canals.

Or you might even have an ear infection and not realize it.

Maybe it will turn out that none of this applies to you, but don't be so quick to rule it out.

[godamongmen]

another possibiliy is the first time you watched it the audio was decoded by the player (like the ps3 does) and sent to the receiver as PCM. For some reason PCM always sounds louder

Also Josh Z might be right...you might not remember right how it sounded before...what sounds loud enough to you now might be diffrent than before, in the sense that your personal standards have changed over time

[godamongmen]

Oh yeah make sure night mode/Dynamic range compression isnt on XD

[Dr Kain]

How do I know if dynamic range compression isn't on?