A bit touchy when dialing in but nice.

Am using it with a bluetooth transmitter headset to listen to television w/o bothering others. Properly set, the program material is at a comfortable level and the commercials (albeit clipped and distorted but, who cares?) don't 'loosen my teeth'.

Look Mom can't explain things well, but she hasn't complained about this one like the last one. nuff said.

Really glad I found this. For years I've been tired of the sound on movies and commercials just suddenly blasting. I'm sure my neighbors below me feel the same way. This device essentially reduces or limits how extreme those loud moments get. It goes between the RCA or 1/8 stereo output of the TV and and the RCA or 1/8 audio input of your external home stereo amplifier. (Cables not included.)Unfortunately, the instructions don't give a lot of detail about how to get a good setting. If you set it too high, the loud moments will distort and if set too low it won't affect the audio very much. I recommend setting your TV at about 80 maximum output and set your amplifier low at first. Play a part of a program that is particularly loud. Set the threshold really low. (This controls at what volume the limiting effect is triggered. The lower the threshold, the more it limits.) Use the make up gain control to bring the normal sound level back up. You should see the red light flashing when the effect is working on louder moments of sound. When the threshold is low and the make up gain is high, the light will flash a lot or stay lit which probably means the sound is distorting. Experiment and adjust. When it sounds right to your ears, then set the level on your home theater amplifier to your liking.

I was a little skeptical about this product based on some of the reviews I've read online (e.g., thumpy sounds, negatively affected sound quality, etc.), I did not experience anything like this, although I do agree with some of the reviews that instructions on how to best set up the limiter were lacking. But fortunately, some of the previous reviewers provided their own tips, which I employed and that helped me with my setup. So I'd like to share my own tips based on my use case in hopes that they may help someone else.I am in a band that runs its own sound, and I use my iPod to play break music. While the songs on my iPod have the same general ballpark output level, some songs would still play louder than others, and I'd have to run back to the stage to adjust the fader on the sound board. This limiter solved that problem.I started by setting the playback channel fader on the sound board to unity (nominal position for playback).On the Rolls SL33b Limiter: (1) Initially set the Gain dial to the 12 o'clock position and the Threshold dial to the 9 o'clock position; (2) Adjusted the Gain dial on the limiter to set the volume desired in the house; (3) Adjusted the Threshold dial until the red Gain Reduction light would slightly flicker. Using this setup, when louder songs played, the red light flickered less and stayed solid red slightly longer, which meant the limited was engaging. Note however, that this setup did NOT peg the Gain Reduction light at a solid red when a loud song came on, which would have meant extreme limiting. I did not experience any thumping noises or altered sound quality because the limiting in my case was not severe. This was probably due, in part, to the fact that the output levels of the various songs on my iPod were not drastically different from one another.Bottom line: This worked well for my use case, and I am very happy with the purchase.

as described. limits by attack threshold with gain, 2 channels (RL), 3.5mmRCA jack in/out. 15v 500mahI love it

I use this for my TV. The sound travels from my TV headphone jack to this compressor/limiter then to an equalizer and then to a set of powered speakers. When watching programs, I would continually have my hand on the remote adjusting the volume to decrease the loud sections and boost the quiet sections. It just seemed like a lot of work. After plugging this in it is amazing how well it evens out the sound volume. Sometimes I will still make minor adjustments when commercials come on, but it is hardly necessary. I will always be using a limiter/compressor like this in the future. I don't like the wide swings in volume that occurs with a usual broadcast, so I set the threshold dial all the way to the left and then increased the makeup gain dial to a comfortable volume setting that works well as a baseline for my remote volume control. That's it! There is a green LED power button that is brighter than I would prefer, and a red LED indicator that never comes on. The unit is really set and forget. I do not hear any introduced distortion or noise. Perhaps I would if I was using a high output volume from the TV, I don't know, but it never degrades the audio signal for me. Obviously, this device only works when you are hooking up external speakers since it must be inline.

I have some cranky next-door neighbors. This thing gives me peace of mind when I'm watching an action movie or something where the audio levels jump all over the place. Makes dialogue easier to hear too.

The volume on social media videos is all over the place. One is soft and the next is super loud. This controls the maximum volume very well. You still need to turn softer vids up but then the next loud one doesn't blast out your speakers. Very happy with it.

I wanted it to limit the volume levels for streaming video. Does what it should do. Well-built as usual for this company.

Nothing!

If you use speakers for your tv sound (not the built in tv speakers) this device allows you to limit the volume that comes out of your speakers. This eliminates the problem of loud sounds, commercials or scenes when you are trying to watch a movie without disturbing your neighbors. The sound is a bit distorted when it hits the limit but this is to be expected. One note, the first one I got had a defective dial, but I easily returned/replaced it with a working unit. The instructions aren't great, the best way to use it in my opinion is to turn the volume of your speakers to very low, set the threshold to the minimum and the gain to the minimum as well, then slowly bring up the threshold till the red light flickers dimly when you are listening to a normal volume on your tv. If it's too quiet at that setting, and you don't want to/can't adjust your speakers more, bring the threshold up and slowly bring the gain up until the red light flickers dimly. Basically this gets the normal sound to be close to the threshold, and loud sounds will be dampened. Obviously you may need to play around with it yourself. One awesome feature is that it's a simple printed circuit board with easy access to the components, so if it ever breaks I imagine a repair would be easy enough.

Nicely made. Auto levels my stereo for streaming background audio while I work.

I have always preferred to use an equalizer with my home system. Modern receivers, however, are not equipped to use one. I am streaming hi res audio from My Roku using an external HDMI to analog converter, then to my equalizer and then to the receiver's AUX input.Without the limiter, the input volume was very high, peaking at 6db according to my EQ's spectrum analyzer.The limiter allowed me to turn the input volume (voltage) down to where only a few frequencies peak above 0db infrequently. This has taken care of an annoying boom in bass at around 60hz that I had before this.I have noticed that the audio compression portion has to be set somewhere near the same as the limiter or there is a good chance for distortion. But, it works very well being set similarly.For the price, I am very pleased.

Here's a tip: Keep the two knobs as mirror images of each other. For example, if the left knob is at the 2:00 position, put the right knob at the 10:00 position.This device works exactly as intended. When the TV's background music would otherwise get too loud, this device limits it.There's one thing that's a bit surprising at first, but you get used to it: The volume levelling works in both directions. So, the soft click sound you hear when you (e.g.) make channel selections on your TV are now amplified. Again, not a big deal, just something to get used to.

After a little tweaking the loud stuff wasn't so loud and the soft stuff wasn't so softAwesome

I bought this because Hulu apparently can't figure out how to level their content and commercials, so the commercials are super loud compared to the programming. I feel like Hulu owes me $70.For this purpose, it works great. Rolls had been around for a long time. I have mine between my TV's output and my sound bar's input. I have the makeup gain at around 0 db, and the threshold at around -11db and then the sound bar has it's own volume control, but I imagine this will vary based on what equipment you're using. My only tiny complaint is that I had to switch from the optical output from my TV to the analog 1/8 stereo output. But I don't notice a real difference in quality. So far it's working great, and I don't have to jump for the remote when commercials come on anymore. Seriously. Someone tell Hulu to send me $70 bucks!

I know a little about audio, so it wasn't a stretch to grasp how the knobs control the effect. The folks that are freaking out don't really understand the top and bottom of the dynamic. Cheers.

I was skeptical of this particular device, and it does lack many of the controls you would find on commercial audio gear. However my use is fairly simple, I want to make sure the volume level does not jump all over the place. By setting a fairly restrictive threshold, and a substantial makeup gain it does exactly what I wanted. low volume sounds are boosted, high volume sounds are reduced and the overall output is more comfortable.If you're needs are simple, and you don't want to allocate the funds and space for commercial gear, this is an excellent option.

This levels the field. Be it streaming media or broadcast this will clamp down on those loud bursts that are supposed to be limited by the broadcaster.Works well for amateur radio also.For the tech types its a limiter and preamp. Sudo AGC. It's a variable gain amplifier controlled by a user adjustable optically coupled feedback loop. An LED let's you know when its clipping . Simple and effective when set correctly.The device seems made in USA with solid steel case and controls.External 15vdc 500ma power is China but works well. The audio connectors are good quality and labeled so one actually read it. As an retired electronics tech I definitely plan on keeping this around for my audio needs.