At the risk of embarassing myself further, I wanted to expand on a question that Hugo asked about this subject in another thread.

Hugo said that the loudness is dynamic, and it uses the DSP manufacturer's recommended spec for its programmable parameters. He asked if anyone had suggestions on how to improve it.

I spent some time playing with it, and I now know why I never realized it was dynamic in the first place: At the default parameters, it adds some loudness even when the volume is at 0db, meaning that the slope of the dynamic loudness application never bottoms out.

Since I adjusted my EQ to sound good at near-maxiumum volume without loudness, any time I tried to add loudness it just made everything clip at loud volumes while not improving the bass enough at lower volumes. The slope isn't drastic enough for my particular amplifier setup. So I assumed the loudness wasn't dynamic at all, turned it off completely, and complained on the BBS.

My dream would be to have the loudness reach its minimum (no boost) state at -14db on the volume scale. My reasoning? You can boost the loudness up to 14db above flat, so it should cap out in such a way as to not cause clipping at maximum volume.

I don't know where (currently) on the volume scale the maximum loudness boost is reached. But on my system, I'd think I'd want it somewhere in the -40s. In other words, I'd want the loudness fully boosted when the volume went down to -45.

As far as the shape of the slope between these points, I don't know whether I'd want it to be linear or logarithmic. But having the two cutoff points that close together would make the loudness dynamics change more quickly and be more useful.

The only problem with my choices of parameters is that they are only appropriate for my car and my amps. If someone tended to run their stereo at -25 DB all the time instead of between 0 and -10 like I do, then those cutoffs would be wrong for them.

So I think it would be cool if there were a way we could control those cutoff points. Even if it's just having to hand-edit config.ini on the developer kernel, it would be enough for tweakers like me.

It's after midnight and I'm sleepy, so my apologies if the above post is incoherent. I'll read it again in the morning and see if I really did embarass myself...

___________
Tony Fabris