The scale, ranging from quiet to loud, was created by assessing the physical and psychological characteristics of sound. One loudness unit (LU) is equal to one decibel since both metrics are based on the quantitative measure of sound pressure. Loudness is measured on a scale known as LUFS, or loudness units relative to full scale.

Another way to think about loudness is to imagine averaging the volume of loud and quiet parts instead of just focusing on the momentary decibel level. Our perception of audio is based on a few different variables such as sound pressure, the tones or frequencies of the audio, and the duration of a sound or note. Loudness is the perceived volume that a person experiences while hearing audio.

Have you ever been listening to music with your speakers turned up, only to have the next song be WAY too loud? Or watching videos online and jumped out of the chair as an advertisement blasted through your headphones after an online video? These happenings are caused by variances in loudness.

Loudness equalization good or bad