Ki-Hong Kim – kim.kihong@surugadai.ac.jp
Faculty of Media and Information Resources
Surugadai University
698 Azu, Hanno-shi, Saitama 357-8555
Japan
Misaki Yamaguchi
Undergraduate School of Media and Information Resources
Surugadai University
Shin-ichiro Iwamiya
College of Art
Nihon University
Popular version of 1pNSb10 – The effects of visual content and gender on optimal listening levels in audio-visual productions
Presented at the 189th ASA Meeting
Read the abstract at https://eppro02.ativ.me//web/index.php?page=Session&project=ASAASJ25&id=3977078
–The research described in this Acoustics Lay Language Paper may not have yet been peer reviewed–
Note on Publication
This article is a new version prepared for the Acoustics Lay Language Paper. Our research was originally published in the Journal of Music Perception and Cognition: Kim, K-H., Yamaguchi, M., Iwamiya, S. (2021). Optimal listening level for audio-visual media: Influence of gender difference, presence or absence of video, and display size. Journal of Music Perception and Cognition, 26(2), 67-80. (in Japanese with English abstract)
Tired of arguing with family or a partner over the TV volume? Someone often says it’s “too loud” while the other insists they “can’t hear it well.” This common conflict suggests that the preferred volume is not just an acoustic phenomenon. Our research reveals that gender and the presence or absence of video play a crucial role in determining the volume people find “just right.”
In our daily lives, we constantly process sound alongside visual cues. The preferred playback volume for a comfortable experience is known as the Optimal Listening Level (OLL). Our study demonstrates that simply measuring physical sound intensity is insufficient; we must adopt a multisensory approach to fully comprehend loudness perception.
To clarify the effects of video and gender on OLL, we examined twenty Japanese university students (10 men and 10 women). All participants used a remote control to adjust the volume freely until they reached their “most comfortable level” (OLL). They did this while watching various video clips of diverse genres or simply listening to the audio only. We then precisely measured the sound level at their ear position.
The Main Discovery: Video Affects Women’s Volume More Than Men’s
The most important finding is that the multisensory integration effect—the way we integrate sight and sound—is significantly stronger in women when setting the OLL:
1. Women Turn Up the Volume with Video
When women transitioned from listening to audio only to watching an audio-visual (AV) clip, they increased their preferred volume by an average of 1.7 dB (up to 3.3 dB). This increase was a statistically significant change, demonstrating that visual information leads women to set the volume louder.
2. Men’s Volume Setting Stays Consistent
For men, the addition of the video element resulted in no significant change in their OLL.
This indicates that female viewers tend to use visual context to modify their ideal sound level, a sensitivity that male viewers did not exhibit.
Figure 1: Gender differences in the multisensory integration effect on the Optimal Listening Level (OLL). † p< .10, * p< .05 , ** p< .01, n.s.: not significant
Figure 1: Gender differences in the multisensory integration effect on the Optimal Listening Level (OLL). † p< .10, * p< .05 , ** p< .01, n.s.: not significant
Other Findings
Beyond the influence of video, we confirmed other substantial factors influencing the OLL:
1. The Overall Gender Difference: Men Prefer It Louder
Across all experimental conditions, men consistently preferred a higher listening level than women. On average, the volume set by men was 5.3 dB higher than the volume set by women. This difference is large enough to be easily perceived as a noticeable difference in loudness. In this way, the gender difference was maintained regardless of whether the video was present.
2. The Influence of Content and Display Size
We also found that the preferred volume varied significantly based on the type of content. In particular, the listening level was notably higher for music-related productions (Pop and classical concerts) than for other genres. However, the size of the display (16-inch small vs. 46-inch large) had no significant effect on the volume setting.
Conclusions and Takeaways
To create a truly comfortable listening experience in movies, television, and gaming, we must look beyond sound alone. Recognizing gender differences and the multisensory interaction effects—specifically, the shift in women’s preferred volume with video—highlights the necessity of considering gender-specific viewing experiences in all AV productions. Adopting this approach leads to more inclusive AV experiences for all viewer-listeners.