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<p>To complicate matters, European (and UK I think) phones are
subject to the Cenelec legislation, which is up for revision. So
I'm not sure if this applies to U.S. phones</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Bob</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 3/30/22 6:31 AM, Ian Shepherd wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:722DA312-252C-4E76-938F-B4C2DA657DCF@mastering-media.co.uk">
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<div class=""><br class="webkit-block-placeholder">
</div>
<div class="">Hi All, </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I thought you might be interested to see this.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Ian</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">Begin forwarded message:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b
class="">From: </b></span><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif;" class="">Ian Shepherd <<a
href="mailto:ian@mastering-media.co.uk"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">ian@mastering-media.co.uk</a>><br
class="">
</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b
class="">Subject: </b></span><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif;" class=""><b class="">iPhone limiting issue
solved ? (Headphone safety)</b><br class="">
</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b
class="">Date: </b></span><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif;" class="">30 March 2022 at 11:30:15 BST<br
class="">
</span></div>
<div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom:
0px; margin-left: 0px;" class=""><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif; color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 1.0);" class=""><b
class="">To: </b></span><span style="font-family:
-webkit-system-font, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica,
sans-serif;" class="">Buddy Judge <<a
href="mailto:buddy@apple.com"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext" moz-do-not-send="true">buddy@apple.com</a>><br
class="">
</span></div>
<br class="">
<div class="">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8" class="">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space;
line-break: after-white-space;" class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
Hi Buddy,
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">I emailed you recently about apparent
limiting I was hearing & measuring on my iPhone when
Sound Check was enabled, and I think I’ve got to the
bottom of it. Apologies if this is something you’re
already aware of, but it seems to be related to a
setting that I didn’t previously know about:
<div class="">
<div class="">
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class="">Sounds & Haptics >
Headphone Safety > Reduce Loud Sounds</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class="">In a nutshell, disabling this
makes Sound Check behave as I would expect, ie. no
limiting when enabled. It was enabled by default
for me as a European user, and set to “85
decibels”. It seems that when this setting is
enabled, the increase in level due to Sound Check
is sufficient to trigger this safety limiting,
resulting in aggressive dynamics attenuation.
Specifically, the gain was reduced by over 4 dB on
the classical piece I first noticed it with, which
is highly audible and unfortunate.</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class="">I realise that this behaviour
isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. With Sound Check
enabled, the music is lifted far enough to trigger
the safety limiting. For classical you could argue
that this is unavoidable, because of the wide
dynamic range, but as I mentioned I’ve also heard
and measured it when playing back Atmos mixes with
Sound Check enabled, which is a much more
mainstream use-case, and seems a shame.</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; letter-spacing: normal;
text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;
text-transform: none; white-space: normal;
word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;
text-decoration: none;" class="">
<div class="">Having said all that, the main
reason for this message is that in my testing
the safety limiting is being triggered
independently of the volume control. I’m not in
the habit of listening super-loud on my phone,
and even when I turn the playback volume way
down, far below 85 dB even at the loudest
moments, I’m hearing the aggressive volume
reductions when Reduce Loud Sounds is enabled.
In fact, I can hear it affecting the level
simply by changing the threshold in settings,
even with the volume only a few steps up from
the minimum.</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">This seems unnecessary, if its
intentional. Shouldn’t the safety limiting be
dependent on the actual playback level ?
Otherwise it will affect the music even when the
volume is low, and perhaps more importantly
won’t necessarily protect users’ hearing when
they choose to turn up the volume for loud
music.</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;" class=""><br
class="">
</div>
<div style="font-weight: normal;" class="">Two
Atmos mixes where the safety limiting kicks in
when Sound Check is enabled are “Chandelier” by
Sia and “Roar” by Katy Perry. The classical
piece I’ve been using for testing is here:</div>
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class=""><a
href="https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-shepherds-carol/695609721?i=695610093"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://music.apple.com/gb/album/the-shepherds-carol/695609721?i=695610093</a></div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class="">The safety limiting is clearly audible at
1:30 to 1:40</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class="">Again apologies if this is all something
you’re already aware of!</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class="">Cheers,</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class="">Ian</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"
class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class="">***<br class="">
Ian Shepherd<br class="">
<a href="http://mastering-media.co.uk/" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">Mastering Media Ltd</a> -
Audio Mastering, Blu-ray and DVD Excellence<br
class="">
<a href="http://twitter.com/ianshepherd"
class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://twitter.com/ianshepherd</a></div>
<div style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family:
Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal;
font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal;
letter-spacing: normal; text-align: start;
text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none;
white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;
-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; text-decoration:
none;" class=""><a
href="http://twitter.com/ianshepherd" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true"><br class="">
</a><span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Mastering
Media Ltd,</span><br style="font-size: 11px;"
class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Kemp
House, 152 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX</span><br
style="font-size: 11px;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Registered
in England and Wales </span><br
style="font-size: 11px;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Company
No. 073500450</span><br style="font-size: 11px;"
class="">
<br style="font-size: 11px;" class="">
<span style="font-size: 11px;" class="">Tel.
+44(0)1487 842498</span></div>
</div>
<br class="">
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<br class="">
<br>
<fieldset class="moz-mime-attachment-header"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
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</blockquote>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
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If you want good sound on your album, come to
Bob Katz 407-831-0233 DIGITAL DOMAIN MASTERING STUDIO
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