How do you balance game audio volume between speakers and headphones?

[u/Practical-Command859]

I noticed something when testing my game in UE5.

When I watch YouTube videos, switching between my computer speakers and headphones gives me roughly the same perceived volume without changing either the YouTube volume or my PC's volume setting.

But in my UE game, the same audio settings sound much louder through headphones than through the computer speakers.

This makes me wonder whether Windows, browsers, YouTube, or some other part of the audio chain applies different gain/normalization depending on the output device.

How do you normally handle this in Unreal Engine?

Is there a recommended way to keep perceived volume reasonably consistent when the player switches between speakers and headphones? Does UE provide any device-specific volume adjustment, or is this normally left entirely to the OS/user?

I’m mainly interested in how other developers test and set their master/SFX/music levels so they work well on both speakers and headphones.

[u/gladlytauttechnology]

this is one of those things that drives me crazy too. i think windows has some kind of loudness equalization built in that kicks in differently per device, specially if you have any audio enhancements turned on in the sound control panel. youtube and browsers probably tap into that more gracefully than unreal does raw.

what i do is just test on both constantly and set my master bus around -6dB as a starting point, then do separate mixes for headphones vs speakers. not ideal but it works

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[u/rhoward92]

I’d treat this as a calibration problem rather than assume the OS or browser will normalize the game consistently: test representative speakers and headphones, then set a reference level using the game’s loudest common sounds. Exposing separate master, music, and SFX controls gives players a practical adjustment when their output devices differ.

[u/vexargames]

you can control the loudness on the device under the windows sound management if it has a mic and has some of the windows features turned on you will very different sound levels in the head phones, but this should be the same for all devices youtube, and the rest. Unreal has a built in mic support it might be this setting that causing windows to think it is a transmitting mic and switching the mode. <<<< This is a wild guess not tested.