How to lower the volume from minimserver

[ClausDK]

I used to have a similar issue, only not with all recordings.

There can be really big differences between the output levels on different recordings (CD's). This can be seen by doing a replay gain scanning.
Many older recordings have a (for me) fine output level, showing RG levels around 0. Other, mostly albums from approx 2000 and forward, can have an album RG level of -10dB or more.

My goal was to 1) harmonize (more or less) the output levels for all albums, 2) the level should be similar to the older cd's, so this should be achieved by adjusting the louder recordings to a level similar to the older ones (value close to 0). And 3) I wanted to keep the quality of the rips in full WAV quality.

To achieve this I have converted all albums with an RG value of -3 or more to FLAC, added Replay Gain tags (album) to the FLAC files, and have Minimserver transcoding FLAC to WAV on playback.
(The conversion to FLAC was necessary because my renderer doesn't handle RG tags, so reducing the output is done while transcoding to WAV)

To me this works very well. Most cd's are reduced by about 8-10 dB, some a little less, others a little more. The output level can vary slightly from album to album, but rarely so much that I want to adjust the volume on the amp.

I would recommend you to do the same, or at least try this as well, rather than simply reducing the output by 10 dB on ALL albums.

Claus