Are you the night owl in your house? Are you afraid of waking up your family when you are listening to your favourite tunes or watching an action packed movie after the kids’ bedtime? You may have noticed that you will hear the voices at just the right level, then suddenly the sound effects will explode at a level that sees you quickly adjust the volume. Now you can’t hear the dialogue. It’s pretty annoying and impractical to keep adjusting the levels.

Did you know that some receivers have a handy feature which will keep you in the good books with the family and still let you enjoy a movie after everyone else has gone to bed. This function allows you to retain a theatre like environment at low volume levels.

Also known as “Dynamic Range Control”, the receiver will take the audio and compress the volume swings. The idea is if you are watching at night and adjust the volume to hear the dialog, the sudden booms and special effects or movies will not be much louder than the dialog. This prevents sudden music or sound effects from waking others in the house.

Whilst reducing the intensity of loud sounds, very soft sounds such as whispered dialogue will be raised so you will be able to easily hear them without having to manually adjust with the remote. This function works with Dolby Digital sources, playing signals through digital input.

So if you are considering upgrading or purchasing your first receiver, perhaps Night Mode is a feature which you should look out for. Your family may thank you.

Check out our Onkyo receivers with night mode which is branded “Audyssey Dynamic EQ”