Default Volume

[JeffroJones]

Greetings all, my first post, and I'm very happy to have found this software.
I'm no audiophile, but I love music, and have been on a long journey to find a music player that
#1: is based on a directory structure.
#2: Doesn't crash when presented with .flac or .m4a etc.

I used 1by1 but it crashed a lot.
Then Potplayer, very likeable, but no tree and didn't like m4a
Went through dozens of players that I didn't like and ended up with Quod Libet, but it was buggy still...
Then I found Resonic, and here I am.

One question:
Using the file "01 Concerto G-DurG major, G. 480 Allegro.mp3" (Boccherini) I compared the sound of Resonic and Potplayer. I noticed that Potplayer was more "alive" and "present". I switched back and forth, listening to each output. Then I realised that Potplayer was actually slightly *louder*, and that accounted for the difference in presence. So my question is, do different media players have different default volumes? Is there a reason for this? I kind of figured that there would be a normal average that everyone stuck too...

cheers

[Andreasvb]

Welcome. =)

Generally there shouldn't be any difference, but... some players use e.g. ReplayGain to normalize the loudness.
Try with a new MP3 that don't contain any metadata, to be sure it's pure.

This is info for another player, but should be considered:

Does foobar2000 sound better than other players?
No. Most of “sound quality differences” people “hear” are placebo effect (at least with real music), as actual differences in produced sound data are below their noise floor (1 or 2 last bits in 16bit samples).
foobar2000 has sound processing features such as software resampling or 24bit output on new high-end soundcards, but most of the other mainstream players are capable of doing the same by now.

[JeffroJones]

Yes, I considered the placebo effect, but there was an identifiable difference in loudness.
Making sure, I found the "orban loudness meter", just to make sure, and tried again with a different file, a wave file I had ripped from vinyl, so I knew its history.

Potplayer again was measurably louder. I tried good ol' VLC as well, and there was no difference between Resonic and VLC in loudness, so Potplayer is pumping up the volume for its own reasons, I guess. Thanks for the reply

[JeffroJones]

Just for the sake of completion, I have found out why Potplayer is louder than other players. Deep in its preferences, in the Audio section, a radio button is checked for the option "normalize". Associated with this is another checked option, "boost audio".

[Jan]

Just for the sake of completion, I have found out why Potplayer is louder than other players. Deep in its preferences, in the Audio section, a radio button is checked for the option "normalize". Associated with this is another checked option, "boost audio".

Pot is my default video player and that's really good to know.