Patent 8229125 was granted and assigned to Bose Corporation on July, 2012 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An audio reproduction system substantially fits the dynamic range of recorded and broadcast music (or other type of audio content) into a desired output dynamic range, bounded by the available dynamic range of the listening environment. In some scenarios the output dynamic range may be defined as a function of the ambient noise level present in the environment and the maximum output capabilities of audio system. A listener may adjust the desired prominence of the program with a user control, with foreground (louder and more dynamic) as one extreme and background (quieter and less dynamic) as the other extreme. A control to adjust prominence, when used to provide background reproduction, may reduce the average volume of a reproduced signal and fit the input signal dynamic range into a suitably smaller but desired output signal dynamic range.