You click on a YouTube video. The creator is speaking, but you can barely hear them. System volume is at max. YouTube's player volume is at max. You lean closer to your speakers. Still too quiet. You open Spotify — music blasts at full volume. So it's not your speakers. It's YouTube. Or more precisely, it's the video.
This is incredibly common, and it's not a bug. Some YouTube videos are just mastered at a lower volume than others, and macOS gives you no way to selectively boost browser audio.
Why some YouTube videos are so quiet
The video was recorded at low volume
Not every creator has professional audio equipment. A video recorded with a laptop microphone from across a room will be significantly quieter than one recorded with a proper condenser mic. YouTube normalizes volume to some degree (their "loudness normalization" targets -14 LUFS), but this doesn't fully compensate for extremely quiet source audio.
YouTube's loudness normalization
YouTube automatically adjusts video volume so loud and quiet videos play at roughly the same level. For loud videos, this means turning them down. For quiet videos, it means turning them up — but only to a point. If the source audio is very quiet, normalization can only do so much without introducing noise.
Browser audio is a second-class citizen on macOS
Safari and Chrome handle audio differently than dedicated media apps. They output through the browser's audio engine, which has its own volume ceiling. There's no way to boost a browser tab's audio from within macOS. The browser is one app with one volume level — even if you have ten tabs playing audio at different levels.
Quick fixes to try
Check YouTube's player volume
Hover over the speaker icon on the YouTube player and make sure the slider is at maximum. It's easy to accidentally drag this down, and it resets independently of your system volume.
Disable YouTube's loudness normalization
YouTube doesn't offer a user-facing toggle for loudness normalization. However, some browser extensions can bypass it. Search your browser's extension store for "YouTube volume normalizer" or "YouTube audio enhancer."
Try a different browser
Safari and Chrome handle audio differently. If a video is too quiet in one browser, try the other. Chrome in particular handles audio through a separate process (the "renderer"), which can sometimes result in lower output.
The real fix: boost browser volume beyond 100%
The underlying problem is that macOS doesn't let you boost a specific app's volume past 100%. Your browser is maxed out, but "maxed out" isn't loud enough.
SoundDial solves this by giving every app — including Safari and Chrome — an independent volume slider that goes from 0% to 200%. If a YouTube video is too quiet, drag your browser's slider to 150% or 180%. The audio is amplified in real-time without affecting any other app.
This is especially useful because:
- It's instant. Click the menu bar icon, drag the slider. You don't need to install a browser extension or change any settings.
- It's per-app. Boosting Chrome doesn't make Spotify louder. Each app stays independent.
- It works with any browser. Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Arc, Brave — if it's an app on your Mac, SoundDial can control it.
- It goes up to 200%. Double the normal volume ceiling. Even the quietest video becomes audible.
Get SoundDial on the Mac App Store — €14.99 one-time purchase, no subscription, macOS 14.2+.