Podcast Volume Too Low on Mac? Make It Louder

You're listening to a podcast on your Mac. The host sounds fine, but the guest, recording on a laptop mic in their kitchen, is barely audible. You turn the volume up to 100%. Now the host is too loud and the guest is still quiet. The problem is in the recording, not your Mac.

Why some podcasts are so quiet

• Guest mic quality: the host has a proper setup, the guest is on earbuds or a laptop mic. The difference in level can be large.
• Little or no post-production: professionally produced shows even out their levels. Many indie shows, interviews and live recordings don't.
• Natural dynamics: some producers deliberately keep a wide range between loud and quiet parts, so the quiet parts stay quiet.
• Different loudness between shows: one podcast is mastered loud, the next one quiet, and you keep reaching for the volume.

Check your podcast app first

Before boosting anything, check the app you listen in:

• In-app volume: if your podcast app has its own volume slider, make sure it's at maximum.
• Loudness or voice settings: some podcast apps and players offer a setting that evens out loudness or makes voices clearer. Look in the app's settings or playback options.
• Spotify: if you listen to podcasts in Spotify, check its playback settings for Normalize volume. It's mainly built for music, so results with podcasts vary. See Spotify volume too low on Mac for more Spotify checks.

Check macOS

• Output device and volume: System Settings > Sound > Output. Make sure the right device is selected and the volume is at maximum.
• Headphone safety: if you use headphones and your Mac shows a Headphone Safety option with "Reduce Loud Audio" turned on, it may be capping your volume.
• Restart Core Audio: if audio seems stuck at a low level after sleep or a device change, run sudo killall coreaudiod in Terminal.

Boost the podcast app past 100%

If everything is at maximum and the guest is still hard to hear, you need to go above what macOS normally allows, but only for the podcast. Boosting everything would also make notifications, music and calls louder.

SoundDial gives every running app its own volume slider from 0% to 200%. Raise Apple Podcasts (or whichever app you listen in) above 100% in small steps, up to 160% or 180% if needed (a boost can clip on loud passages), while Spotify music stays at 40% and Slack at 15%. You can boost just the quiet app without touching anything else.

Why per-app instead of system-wide:

• Only the quiet podcast app gets louder
• Music stays at the level you chose
• Call audio stays where it was
• Notification sounds don't suddenly get loud

When you switch back to music, drag the podcast app's slider back down. Note that SoundDial works per app: if you listen to podcasts in a browser, all tabs of that browser share one slider. More on raising levels in general: boost Mac volume beyond 100%.

SoundDial, a per-app volume mixer for Mac lives in the menu bar, needs macOS 14.2 or later and costs €14.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store, no subscription.

Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store.