[Mustang Martigan]

I've noticed that when I'm say, on the bus, if I set my EQ to flat (from it's standard rock setting) I get a much louder volume. And yes, it's a given that the actual phone or media volume, whichever you wanna call is pegged. I'm sure other's have noticed this. Anyone find a music player or EQ App that actually helps?

 

[megabigeye]

Hi there,
I'm a little bit confused by your post. Are you saying that your phone only appears to be louder when you're in a loud place like a bus? Or are you saying that it's louder when you change the EQ settings?
If the former, I've got nothing other than that the T is a majickal place and many strange things happen there.
If the latter, I think a lot of software EQs do this. I believe it's because they're actually adjusting the gain ("preamp" in iTunes, if you're familiar) down. This is done to prevent clipping when EQ is applied.

USB Audio Player Pro has a pretty good EQ built in (and you can purchase a parametric EQ, too). It doesn't come with any presets, like Rock, etc., but you can make your own. It think it costs $8.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

I've noticed that when I'm say, on the bus, if I set my EQ to flat (from it's standard rock setting) I get a much louder volume. And yes, it's a given that the actual phone or media volume, whichever you wanna call is pegged. I'm sure other's have noticed this. Anyone find a music player or EQ App that actually helps?

What exactly does the "Rock" EQ setting do? If it cuts the midrange or boosts the top end and low end, then you switch to flat, the midrange is more audible, hence it seems louder.

That's even more likely what's happening if Flat makes phone calls clearer to you since the bulk of the human vocal range - and practically all the vocal range, unless you're talking to Kevin Grevioux or Jayma Mays - is not cut or getting swamped by the other frequencies.

 

[kukkurovaca]

I've noticed that when I'm say, on the bus, if I set my EQ to flat (from it's standard rock setting) I get a much louder volume. And yes, it's a given that the actual phone or media volume, whichever you wanna call is pegged. I'm sure other's have noticed this. Anyone find a music player or EQ App that actually helps?

I think it's not uncommon for EQ to drop the volume because if you don't reduce volume when applying EQ, you may get clipping. In a well-implemented EQ on a mobile device, I think you would actually want to see this behavior.

 

[megabigeye]

What exactly does the "Rock" EQ setting do? If it cuts the midrange or boosts the top end and low end, then you switch to flat, the midrange is more audible, hence it seems louder.

That's even more likely what's happening if Flat makes phone calls clearer to you since the bulk of the human vocal range - and practically all the vocal range, unless you're talking to Kevin Grevioux or Jayma Mays - is not cut or getting swamped by the other frequencies.

This makes sense, actually. There's a lot of noise on busses and I've noticed that high and low frequencies are the first to get drowned out. If a "rock" EQ setting is a V shape then the mids are lower than the high and low frequencies... In a loud bus the bass and treble are drowned and you're left with muted mids only. But in a flat setting, high, low and mid should all be equal... Unless you're in an environment where high and low frequencies are drowned out, then you'll hear the mids the most clearly. Seems it would be doubly true if the EQ is also adjusting the gain.