App to boost system sound volume?

[jr213]

Sometimes the sound volume on my powerbook is just not enough. Is there any kind of application or utility to boost the overall volume? A limiter would be even better, but I don't really care if it distorts on some stuff. Any ideas?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

If you're talking about boosting the sound to the speakers, you're probably out of luck. For one, there is only so much power available (although you could EQ everything up full). But that and similar methods would distort the sound and possible destroy the speakers. A headphone might be available with a built in power supply and volume control that you could use, and if you plug into an amp, you should have plenty of power. But to get hi-fi from the tiny speakers in the laptop is probably not going to happen.

[jr213]

The speakers can get loud enough (at least for my goal). The problem is watching movies or TV shows (anything with dialogue), the system volume can't go high enough. So really, a compressor or limiter would be ideal, since I'd just like to have the quiet parts brought up. Music is fine, because it's all smashed in mastering. But they don't do that with movies/tv (only commercials). In this case, however, I'd be fine with a simple boost, even if it distorted the louder stuff completely.

So, with that clarification... there's gotta be something. It's gotta be possible to write a program that can sit in the system preferences and provide this functionality.

[westla]

What MIDI Life said still goes.

[jr213]

I'm not saying that my speakers aren't loud enough. They are. The problem is that some material is not as loud as it could be (within the limitations of the hardware).

[Jim]

Not sure if this will help, but search the web for an app called Detour. It gives you control over some of your computer's sound managing capabilities.