What is Fair-Sound? The Fair-Sound Audio DSP plug-in provides loudness compensation, an essential element that is conspicuously missing from the Windows Media Player 9 Series. Have you ever noticed how a high fidelity recording sounds great when the volume is high but thin and weak when played back at a low volume? The fault is not with your recording nor with your speakers; it's your ears!
The human ear has a nonlinear response to sounds at the extremes of the audio spectrum. In layman's terms, this means that your perception of the midrange sound of a trumpet remains fairly proportional as its volume goes from low to high, but not so with the low pitch of a bass guitar or the high pitch of a cymbal. As the volume decreases, the perceived levels of these sounds fall disproportionately, resulting in a lackluster listening experience. This characteristic of human hearing has been known since the days of vinyl recording, but it seems to have been largely forgotten in the digital realm.
Fair-Sound employs a sophisticated system of intelligent filters to compensate for this nonlinear response at low volumes. By adjusting the low and high ends of the spectrum so that they appear to maintain the same relative loudness to that of midrange sounds, Fair-Sound provides the listener with a satisfying listening experience at any volume!
