# Theater / Movie Reference Level Audio?



## Oleson M.D. (Feb 3, 2010)

How loud of a setting (in db) do I need to listen to movie soundtracks to achieve correct reference level audio playback?

70, 75, 80, 85 db's? And how / where do you measure? Center channel dialogue? Main L&R's? There are many peaks in volume, so it would need to be measured at a low part of the audio passage, such as normal conversation in the movie?


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

Here is a great read for you.









THX reference level explained


What is 'THX Reference Level'? Reference level is a calibrated volume setting used for both movie production (in dubbing stages and post production houses) and reproduction (in screening rooms and theaters). The human hearing system is non-linear, especially in the bass, so having a consistent...




www.acousticfrontiers.com


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## Oleson M.D. (Feb 3, 2010)

willis7469 said:


> Here is a great read for you.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks, good info.


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## willis7469 (Jan 31, 2014)

YeH, I hope it had what you were looking for.


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## Da Wiz (May 8, 2019)

Reference level is for creating content that plays back at similar volume levels. It is not some magic playback level you should use at home. Most people will find actual reference level in home theater is too loud for comfort over an entire movie. What reference level achieves is that someone whispering in The Notebook is about the same volume level as someone whispering in a Transformers movie. The playback level in your room should be loud enough to make loud things loud while you can still hear the lowest level sounds.


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## Oleson M.D. (Feb 3, 2010)

Da Wiz said:


> Reference level is for creating content that plays back at similar volume levels. It is not some magic playback level you should use at home. Most people will find actual reference level in home theater is too loud for comfort over an entire movie. What reference level achieves is that someone whispering in The Notebook is about the same volume level as someone whispering in a Transformers movie. The playback level in your room should be loud enough to make loud things loud while you can still hear the lowest level sounds.


The thing in my theater is when actors are whispering very softly, neither my wife nor I can detect what they are saying. If we turn the volume up loud enough for the faintest whispers to be intelligible, the overall volume is too loud.

Most of the dialogue comes through the center speaker. A Klipsch RC-64 II is what we are using.

We absolutely never go to a commercial theater anymore. One time we went the audio volume was so loud, my wife and I walked out. And they refunded our tickets.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

One thing that will help is to lower the noise floor of your room, by treating it acoustically. My last HT we were able to hear things that we never heard before in music, and in movies...like people talking in the background or trucks driving by, and this was NOT someone outside of the HT or a truck driving by either. We verified this by
Replaying the scene or track on my setup and a friends system. 

Sent from my SM-T830 using Tapatalk


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## Oleson M.D. (Feb 3, 2010)

ellisr63 said:


> One thing that will help is to lower the noise floor of your room, by treating it acoustically. My last HT we were able to hear things that we never heard before in music, and in movies...like people talking in the background or trucks driving by, and this was NOT someone outside of the HT or a truck driving by either. We verified this by
> Replaying the scene or track on my setup and a friends system.
> 
> Sent from my SM-T830 using Tapatalk


Interesting. Yes, our HT has complete acoustic treatments. In addition to the carpet and furniture, the single biggest improvement occurred after we installed acoustic wall panels, on all the walls in multiple locations. This entirely eliminated the previous issue, mainly “slap echo”.

it actually sounds like a high end recording studio now.


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