Is The Cinema Too Loud?

[Wombat]

Or that concert?

Looky here: Turn it down.

 

[Martin]

“I really need to sit down.”

 

[Soniclife]

Never found the cinema too loud.
Some gigs are meant to be too loud.

 

[HammerSandwich]

A few years ago, The Third Man played here. Cool! I'd never seen that on a big screen before. But the experience was a big disappointment, simply because the audio was FAR too loud & sounded awful. Voices that sound like PAs instead of people? Check! Ridiculous scale distortion on the zither? Sure, we can do that, too!

These 1940's recordings of voices & acoustic instruments were not meant for & do not benefit from Dolby reference SPL.

 

[Killingbeans]

I'm highly sensitive, so even the local supermarket is too loud for me. Sometimes I use earplugs at the cinema, and most concerts are like torture.

Needless to say, I'm a cheap date when it comes to SPL

 

[Hugo9000]

I still remember the first time I saw a film with DTS sound, it was Jurassic Park, and they had jacked up the system at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA, to ear-splitting levels! It was impressive for a few minutes, then it was just irritating. That was also the only time I was ever in a sold out cinema. I had to sit in the front row, so my neck hurt as well as my ears after that experience lol. What hell!

 

[Thomas savage]

Never found the cinema too loud.
Some gigs are meant to be too loud.

Maybe the thread should read ' too old for the cinema' ha ha

 

[Soniclife]

Maybe the thread should read ' too old for the cinema' ha ha

That's exactly what the link says, if it's too loud you're too old.

 

[GrimSurfer]

Maybe the thread should read ' too old for the cinema' ha ha

 

[ahofer]

Way too loud, and, as I was told, the theaters have a contractual minimum (or specified) volume setting. I learned this when I took my bleeding ears to the manager one time at an iMax film.

now I wear my Eargasms.

 

[MRC01]

Yes the movie theater is way too loud. I wear my musician's earplugs (custom molds with Etymotic filters) when watching movies. I've never had much of a tolerance for loudness, ever since I was a kid, so this not just the complaints of a grumpy middle-aged man. Having some experience with SPL meters and subjective impressions, I'd say most movie theaters have average SPLs in the mid 80s and peaks over 100 which is much too loud for me. My critical listening music levels are at least 10 dB quieter than that.

Those loud levels are counterproductive because it's loud enough to trigger the ear's built-in dynamic compression mechanisms which reduce sensitivity to fine detail in the sound.

 

[GrimSurfer]

Those loud levels are counterproductive because it's loud enough to trigger the ear's built-in dynamic compression mechanisms which reduce sensitivity to fine detail in the sound.

This is an important point to consider the next time anyone is looking at a THD or THD+N graph. The wattage used in specs isn't always the same as the wattage needed to drive speakers to certain spls at the listening position.

 

[Fluffy]

Might be my 29-year-old ears talking, but I've experienced that very rarely, and I go to the movies multiple times per month. Maybe in Israel they set it to lower volumes as a standard, I don't know. Occasionally I go to a screening of a Hollywood blockbuster and the volume is actually too low. Or it could be the sitting position, I usually sit pretty far from the screen.

I think next time in the movie theater I'll bring an SPL meter to sort this out

 

[restorer-john]

I gave up going to theatres 20 years ago due to the ridiculously loud soundtracks. Levels were the same regardless of whether the cinema was full or empty of patrons.

Walked out of several films due to the excess level- sure, they give you a refund/credit, but the experience was ruined and I simply gave up.

 

[LTig]

Or that concert?

Looky here: Turn it down.

Yes, I would agree. In our local IMAX even the previews for action movies are very loud - my wife prefers quieter cinemas.

OTOH when I watched Jurassic Park in 1993 in the cinema it was extremly loud - even the dialogs in the first scene were almost unbearable. But later when the T-Rex cried I literally crumbled into my chair - that was really frightening. Two days later I saw it again with my father, this time in another cinema. Here the loudness was normal - but the frightening effect was lost.

 

[monkeyboy]

I actually use musician earplugs at the movies, way too loud for me. I don't like noisy places in general....