Downmix volume: Original vs. Normalized

Platforms Mac
1

I use Infuse 8.0.5 on macOS 15.2. I use an external USB DAC on my MacBook Pro 14" hooked up to 2.1 studio monitors + subwoofer.

Recently, I noticed that while playing MKV files, when where is heavy bass scenes in movies, the audio and bass becomes distorted. This is with the “Downmix volume” setting set to Original. If I change it to Normalized, then the distortion goes away but then the overall volume is greatly reduced and dynamics are heavily compressed.

I don’t recall having this issue with older/previous versions of Infuse as I always had the Downmix volume setting set to Original.

Is this a new issue with the current latest version of Infuse?

2

There haven’t been any changes related to down mixing in quite some time, but I suppose there could be some issues with DAC devices on macOS 15.

I don’t personally use a DAC device, but I found a few reports related to using DAC devices on Sequoia.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255811717