Poweramp on Pixel 8 is app volume gets lower as you increase bass.

[neok182]

Poweramp build-976-bundle-play [976004-c2601e58]  Full Version 64 bit
Pixel 8 128gb
Android 14 build UD1A.230803.041 | Android Security Update October 5, 2023 | Google Play system update August 1, 2023

As you can hear in the video for some reason when increasing bass the sound volume is being lowered. I'm not doing it, the phone or the app is doing it. Now to be clear I don't know if this is a Poweramp bug or maybe some forced audio override on the pixel to not let it put out too much bass or something but I've never experienced this before and I've confirmed with the same songs it does not happen on my 4a. I'm putting it to 100 because that's what makes it so obvious but even having settings as low as 20-30 I can tell it gets slightly quieter on songs with heavy bass. I'm really hoping this is just a Poweramp bug and not something on googles end because that means it's probably on purpose. 

I have tested with three pairs of bluetooth headphones, two from jlab and my pixel buds pro and it does not happen on any of them. No headphone jack and I don't have a usbc to aux so couldn't test that sorry.

[andrewilley]

Sounds like you are pushing the overall level too high on a file that is already recorded at 100% digital saturation, and thus the Limiter is kicking in to prevent clipping distortion.

Either turn the Limiter off and live with the possible distortion, or turn the Preamp slider down so there's enough headroom for the bass boost.

For more flexibility, you could also use the ReplayGain feature to set a lower overall target level, so 100% level files get played at a lower level, but less saturated material is not reduced.

Andre

[neok182]

8 minutes ago, andrewilley said:

Sounds like you are pushing the overall level too high on a file that is already recorded at 100% digital saturation, and thus the Limiter is kicking in to prevent clipping distortion.

Either turn the Limiter off and live with the possible distortion, or turn the Preamp slider down so there's enough headroom for the bass boost.

For more flexibility, you could also use the ReplayGain feature to set a lower overall target level, so 100% level files get played at a lower level, but less saturated material is not reduced.

Andre

Glad it's not the phone then. That's what I was more worried of after the P7 had a lot of sound issues. I'll take a look at those settings thanks. 

[andrewilley]

The phone may have similar limits of course. If you try to boost beyond 100% digital maximum, there's nowhere left to go.

Andre