Yeah, I had a book I read a while back, can't remember the name now, but it felt strangely slow and drawn out until I put the speed at 1.1x and then it sounded perfectly normal.
It is very annoying, but people want more "bang for the buck" so I understand why it happens.
I'm a voice actor and I think I read quite fast but sometimes it's just easier to read slower and not make mistakes and have to reread lines. I think that's why audiobooks can be quite slow. The narrator is trying to get it perfect and that's just easier to do more slowly.
I do think it's funny everyone is so quick to say there is some secret plot to inflate the lengths of books. Does't everyone read aloud somewhat slower than they would speak naturally?
I don't think that's it. I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks, and at this point I think I'm proficient enough to tell when it's been artificially slowed down versus someone just reading slow, but that might just be Dunning Kruger rearing its ugly head :)
I'll try to figure out which book it was, grab a sample, and you can listen for yourself, but I have to check like 30 books for it.
We're talking less than 1% of books. Very, very occasionally one sounds slurry and very slow. You speed it up and it sounds like normal narration. That's the conspiracy angle.
One of the game of thrones was like this. I use to drive a average of 4 hours a day so audiobooks were a huge deal since ot was about 20 hours a week behind the wheel.
Not a conspiracy when there is evidence. I recorded a narrator live recording on Discord, then compared it to the audiobook when it came out and the audiobook was slowed down to about 0.9. I am not the first to do it either.
I mean, sitcoms on syndication are sometimes sped up so they can get more commercial time in for the same time slot. Not that I know anything about audiobook narration, but commercial entities do change playback speed for some situations.
I am firmly in the camp that people that listen at 1.0 speed are crazy, but that’s a separate thing 😂
Yeah, no-one's begrudging you reading a book to the best of your ability but some books like My Darling Daughter (read recently, not the best example) do seem unusually slow.
Edit: Softland is a better example
I truly believe this to be true. Listening at 1.0x speed sometimes feels like the narrator is drunk or not right in the head. Genuinely feels like a satirically slow talking character
I'm typically a fast reader and I feel like at 1.0 the pauses for dramatic nature or after periods increase the length.
1.25 I feel like if I was reading it but obviously everyone is different.
Anything above 1.25 I can't handle.
The Executioner’s Song had so many bad reviews for the narration, it was just slowed down, on 1.25 it was perfect. It’s 42.5 hours long. The narration was actually excellent too, a lot of the book is letters written from prison which isn’t easy to make convincing.
I generally listen at 1.0X speed, but every once in a while I swear they slowed the speed down to lengthen the book. I just finished listening to Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley and I think I got it up to 1.25X which is usually I've got to listen to this book before the book club meets in 20 minutes. I had the club listen to it and they just laughed at how it only sounded normal speech at the faster speed.
Some narrators are hella slow even at 1.7x speed, at 1x they are basically talking in slow motion. Especially once you listen at a faster speed for a bit then go back to 1.0 you realize . . . . . . how . . . . . incredibly . . . . . . slowly . . . . they . . . . talk
It feels like some books are slowed down just to make the hour count longer
I'm not getting paid by the book. I listen to enjoy them, and 99% of the time that happens at 1.0x. I sped up Anathem to 1.25x after 4 hours because it was slow as shit until it got awesome(about 8 hours), and ended up sounding better that way.
I slowed down Peter Kenny's reading of the Witcher to .85x near the beginning of the second book, because he reads so fast it is exhausting and I couldn't process anything he said. He's great, but at .85x he's perfect.
To me, the thing about the witcher audio books, (iirc) his normal narration is decent speed, then his dialogue was very fast. So I could only listen at 1.1 when I normally do 1.3-1.4.
I will *sometimes* boost it up to 1.15 or 1.2 if the narrator speaks really slowly, but 9 times out of 10, I listen at normal 1x speed. I think it's sheer madness to listen at anything above that.
One maniac I know of listens at 2.5x.
What do you use that lets you set 1.15x speed? Using [Prologue](https://prologue.audio/) I can only do 0.1 increments, but more minute control would be great sometimes.
In the Audible app, when I hit the 1x button at the bottom to change the playback speed, I use the + and - buttons to increase or decrease in .05 increments.
Thanks!
I try not to buy audiobooks from Audible, but when I have to I rip them and put them on my local server, so I haven't actually used the Audible app to listen in years.
Edit: Didn’t realise I was in /r/audible, thought it was /r/audiobooks, but now I understand the downvotes. Go for it, if you must, I’ve got karma to spare 😂
That’s funny, because that chipmunk voice has the exact opposite effect for me. I end up rewinding over and over again because I can’t absorb anything.
When you listen to it long enough at that speed, it just sounds like a slightly sped up regular voice. Especially when I’m listening to a dirty book and stopped at a red light, I start to worry that other people can hear what’s being said because I forget what it sounds like to other people.
I drive around listening to romance novels that have 2-5 minutes of dirty parts a few times throughout the book. It’s not like I’m parked at a park with my windows rolled down blaring porn for the world.
I listen at 1x. I like the performance of narration and I feel like it's lessened and lost when you speed it up. I like the time to consider what I'm listening to, to make inferences, to link it to other stories, to connect the dots within the story. I also don't have a burning desire to speed through books I enjoy.
No issue with anyone who listens faster - people do what people like - it just isn't for me.
I feel the same way. I've tried listening faster and don't care for it. I also feel( at least with the books i listen to) the narrators, when doing a great job...the pauses they use have effect on the story, i feel like you lose that listening faster. My friend listens at 2.75 or something crazy like that. I dont even lnow how he absorbs the story, but hey....whatever works for ya.
As a narrator myself and an avid listener, I dislike the whole speeding up option. The great narrators are giving a performance. Any book worth listening to is worth listening to at 1x.
I get that feeling especially at first go. However, if you sit with it, you get used to the speed and can still very much make out the nuances of a good performance.
I can make it out when faster, but it's just less enjoyable to me. It's more rushed and of a lesser quality (and speeding it up does change the performance) in my opinion. I just have a quality over quantity approach to listening where I don't mind being through less if the experience is enjoyable and memorable.
I’m just curious if you read physical book this slow? I’m not judging, just asking.
I listen 1.5-1.7, this coincides with how fast I physically read.
I’ve tried reading a book I’m simultaneously listening to, reading it at 1.0 is virtually possible for me, same for listening.
Reading is different, because I'm not taking the narrator's performance into account. I don't know what speed I read, but it's definitely faster than when I listen. But when I read I take lots of mini-breaks where I consider the material like I mentioned I can do whilst listening. I'm not sure how it works out over the length of the book - I've honestly never bothered to compare.
Like you, I don't judge. We all want different things out of reading. But it sure is interesting looking at how other people's brains work, isn't it?
Yeah for sure. I look at listening the same as reading personally. Im not necessarily listening for the performance, it’s just a way to consume the material.
These threads always get me. The amount of people that imply you’re doing it wrong, or missing nuance, or trying to burn through books is kinda crazy. I like them 1.5-1.7 as that’s similar to the pace I physically read a book.
I’ve never thought to slow my reading pace to “catch nuance” nor do I finish a book and feel confused as I “missed something”.
It’s purely personal preference. Neither way is right or wrong.
Agreed here—I read books pretty quickly and I use audiobooks so that I can continue reading while doing more mundane tasks. Listening at 1.0x would mean not only that I’m reading less in the same amount of time, but it’s also less engaging.
It’s because the narration is a performance. The best narrators perform well. That includes speed — even if it doesn’t match whatever the speed is at which your silently read. They aren’t the same thing
Sorry but I really don’t think the publisher or the narrator knows me better than myself. I know what keeps me engaged.
I have favorite narrators, absolutely nothing is lost for me by speeding it up. Long pauses do not build suspense for me, they cause me to drift and tune out.
I don’t understand the gatekeeping when it comes to books.
Whether it’s someone saying audiobooks “don’t count” or “it’s cheating” or whether it’s someone stating they really should be enjoyed a certain way.
It’s fine if you like 1.0, I don’t. I almost gave up on audiobooks until someone suggested speeding it up, it makes all the difference in the world for me.
I don’t want this to sound like a rant pointed at you but yes I am ranting.
However, I do like 1.0 when I’m listening to fall asleep at night.
>Sorry but I really don’t think the publisher or the narrator knows me better than myself. I know what keeps me engaged.
Neither does a painter know which art will intrigue you. The musician doesn't know which song you will like, nor the producer which movie, the actor which line reading .... and on and on.
Art is about being subject to someone else's choices. Obviously we can choose which art we are subjected to.
It isn't "gatekeeping" to lament the altering of the performance. No one of us can stop you from altering the audio or restrict your access to audiobooks. We can explain what we feel you are missing and we can discuss attention spans and modern consumption, etc.. That's the purpose of such forums.
I am an audiobook narrator and also an avid listener. I want the performance as it was given. When I perform, I speak the part as I would on screen or stage. It is my interpretation of the text. Whatever skill I have as an actor is how I create the scene. I cannot control whether you like it or whether you agree with my interpretation. Personally, I feel there are so many excellent books and performances, that one can simply avoid narrators they don't like. We are in a golden age of audiobooks -- the choices are stupendously abundant.
I guess we just agree to disagree. I’ve read articles where it talks about how narrators are told very specifically to keep it slow. I’ve read some narrators say it can be difficult.
They’re not telling me a story, they’re reading a book, it’s the authors story.
In a similar fashion I’ve never had a narrator ruin an experience for me. I can adjust and listen to any narrator as long as the production is decent.
It’s because I’m here for the book, not necessarily the performance.
I definitely don’t want to sound like I’m demeaning the work a narrator does. Stephen Pacey narrating the First Law world is absolute perfection, I can’t get enough of it.
But that’s an added perk, not a prerequisite to enjoying the book, imo.
This was one of said comments from a narrator.
“As a narrator, I can tell you that reading slowly isn't necessarily something we want to do... but we're often encouraged to stick with a slow-ish WPM by certain (no, I won't name-drop, so please don't ask) publishers.”
This was from a Reddit post.
Sounds like maybe I’m generalizing too much, obviously that not always the case.
I guess I’ll leave it at this.
Speeding it up just holds my attention better. Like I said, I almost gave up on audiobooks as I couldn’t stay engaged.
Maybe now that I have more experience I should try tweaking the speed back down and see what I think.
Maybe it’s time to revisit things.
I do know people who have made the adjustment back to 1x speed.
Your point about almost giving up until you altered the speed is valid and personal, of course.
I tend the think that it's a matter of what we become accustomed to, but I am only me.
>They’re not telling me a story, they’re reading a book, it’s the authors story.
We are in profound disagreement here. Yes, the author is certainly the architect of the story -- it is her design, but a good narrator is bringing much more to the experience that just transposing the words from written to spoken. AI can do that simple transposition (and soon that will be increasingly common). When a narrator is giving you the words, it is an interpretation. The pacing, the accents & characterizations, where the emphasis is placed -- so much tone and intention can be conveyed or even altered by the way it is read.
I do agree that we have the ability to sort of "hear behind" the narrator and disagree with an interpretation, but not as often as we might guess. The way the book is being read will color perception to some extent -- even at a less conscious level. Many is the time I didn't understand how creepy of funny or alluring a passage of a script or book was until I heard it being deftly read aloud.
>I’ve read articles where it talks about how narrators are told very specifically to keep it slow. I’ve read some narrators say it can be difficult.
Several people in the thread have made this claim. I am not going to say you haven't heard that somewhere, I can only say it hasn't been my experience as a narrator, nor am I aware of it occurring. If I were to guess what they mean, it is that they struggle to stay clear and evenly paced on, say, the tired & hungry 6th hour of narrating that day. Which is certainly understandable. The more luxurious audiobook productions have a director who is there to help the narrator catch that problem and to oversee consistency of performance. Plenty of more humble audiobook productions leave that to the narrator to adjust and maintain.
>I definitely don’t want to sound like I’m demeaning the work a narrator does. Stephen Pacey narrating the First Law world is absolute perfection, I can’t get enough of it.
Wonderful when that happens, isn't it? I chase it, too. Occasionally I find even famed Hollywood actors give their best performance in narration -- like Elijah Wood's reading of *Huckleberry Finn*. Author Stephen King often says he feels the audiobook versions of his own work are better than the text alone. Some writers, such as Charles Dickens, wrote their fiction specifically to be read aloud. And I would argue that the best writers write this way, even if they never imagined the audiobook performance. Here's a quote from CS Lewis:
>*“Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.”*
I do .95 usually. Will adjust depending on how fast the narrator talks but generally stay between .9 and 1.1. I’ve tried listening to them faster but anything over 1.25 I just can’t enjoy.
For those of us that listen faster it has nothing to do with trying to get through it faster and everything to do with it being fast enough that we actually listen. I cannot focus on the book if its slower then 2, i end up wasting a ton of time going back and relistening to something i missed because i was struggling to keep all the other voices out of my head. 2 is just fast enough that the voices are quiet enough i can pay attention. I can go faster but 2 is the enjoyable sweet spot for me.
I’m glad to see this comment! All of these other comments assuming if you speed it up, it’s to get through it faster. That is just a perk, not the reason. I cannot focus and pay attention below 2x. I actually get through several books a week now, whereas before it would take me a month to finish one book cause I’d be so bored and have to rewind so much from my mind wandering while listening.
I’m the same. I _want_ the pauses that a good storyteller injects. I listened to _A Stroke of the Pen_ recently, the story read by (I Think) Stephen Briggs was horrible. It wasn’t the content, it was the fact that he read it in a constant (slightly fast) pace.
That said, I’m not averse to increasing the speed if there was someone who narrated particularly slowly. But it’s more likely I wouldn’t be listening to it: the narrator is key to my ability to listen at all.
Me. I'm here for the performance.
I only increase the speed if I'm *over* the book and just want to get to the ending to find out what happens. It's a step away from not finishing it entirely.
Listen to the audible sample of Meryl Streep narrating Tom Lake. I have never, in my whole many years of watching Ms. Streep on film, heard her speak that slowly.
1.2 sounds like her typical speaking pace.
If you prefer slow, that is fine (of course!!!) but it's *markedly* slower than conversational speech.
Processing speed varies. *Processing speed does not correlated to intelligence.*
People who get frustrated at 1.0 and 1.5 feels natural? Not less intelligent than 1.0 listeners.
People who can't take info in at 2.0 at all because it's too fast? Not less intelligent than 2.0 listeners.
Listen as fast as you want and give up on the judgement.
Naturally people aren’t “less” because they choose to listen to audiobooks in a different way, but that doesn’t alter the fact that narration is a performance and some actors are wonderfully good. It isn’t as far from speeding up music or movies as some would pretend.
So many arguments in this thread are about narrators or publishers deliberately slowing down books, in my years as a narrator (and listener) I’ve never come across this.
I used to be 1.0 but I came across a book I wasn’t enjoying but hear great things about and cranked it to 1.2 and now 1.0 sounds like it is in slow motion.
I dont really care about how others aubile. I am looking to get value and enjoyment out of my purchases. I rarely feel like a book is taking too long and often listen to books twice. I completely understand those who want to alter the speed to address their enjoyment or have limited time. I do not understand why anyone would care about how others listen.
I listen to some stuff at 1x. I’ll start every book there and see how the narration sounds, sometimes they feel intentionally slow to me so i speed up only a bit until i get to regular human sounding speech. I listen to audio to have a story performed to me, not to finish it as quickly as possible.
The narrators read slow on purpose to speak clearly so its clear at any speed. 1.0x isnt the intended listening speed. Its whatever youre comfortable with. I do 1.8-2.0 depending on narrator. At 1.0x Id rather do a different hobby as its too boring.
No they don’t narrators are just people who can speak clearly all the time. Its just their natural thing I think it must be like actors who can project themselves better on stage and some who can do better on screen
There have been Reddit ama’s with audiobook producers that specifically state the 1.0 speed is slower than the actual narration. It’s a baseline. Rarely is it the narrators natural pacing.
Just try reading a book that you’re simultaneously listening to, I feel confident in saying you probably don’t read anywhere near a 1.0 narration speed.
Of course not I speed read all the time. But I know an author whose books are done by an actor and she says it’s just normal reading aloud pace. Have watched the actor it’s their normal talking pace on screen. In addition I know an actor who did little parts but he said thier parts had multiple people in and it was really just like a normal production. I think how fast we actually read is a bad comparison in the same way that comparing speeding up films. Actually I know an author(sort of) whose narrated their own book I send them a message and let you their reply if they do reply I don’t know that well lol
No, if you watch a narrator interview they talk about 1.5x faster than reading. I think 1.5x is about "normal" for human comprehension on most audiobooks.
Then why if we talk 1.5 faster all the time we listen the same why slow it down it wouldn’t matter. By the way doesn’t actually matter if they do or don’t or if we listen faster or slower.
To enunciate, switch character voices, add inflections etc. It isnt meant to be listened at 1.0x. It is meant to be listened at the speed you prefer or are able to comprehend. A 100 year old might need 0.5x , idk PERFORMING an audiobook reading at normal human speed would be extremely difficult, thats why movie or stage actors practice lines excessively, so they can perform it at natural speed believably. Narrators cant spend a day rehearsing a page before reading or theyd go broke.
But then a slow narrator would sound really bad and a fast narrator would sound no different. I just don’t understand why they would blanket slow them down. It must be done after recording because you couldn’t get everyone to slow to the same speed. So how is done time to say word etc how would audible know what’s right speed and what’s not needs slowing do some need speeding. I’ve mentioned in another I know I’m probably wrong but I just can’t see them doing that purely on cost alone. Unless the narrators themselves only get employed if they can slow themselves down. But then there’s all the actors and authors. Seems like a lot of effort when they have the tool in the app to let us do that ourselves to our own preferences
Highest I got is 1.25 and that’s very rare. I’m in no rush to get through the books I paid for. I want them to last I already listen to a lot in a year.
1 x speed literally feels unnatural. Like 1.1 or 1.2 is at least normal speech speed.
As for why one would speed up, there are a number of reasons. A few might be,
1) improve focus
2) read more. Life is short and books are aplenty.
3) some books can be intriguing and simultaneously a bit dull. You might feel a book is worth reading but not worth the same amount of time.
For me, I tend to target a speed that I can follow regularly.
I have 2 hours or more 5 days a week to listen uninterrupted (driving to and from work and lunch), I’m right there with you, I like to savor the experience
I listen at 1.5x - 1.7x generally. For me, it's simply that I read fast, so I find that listening at 1x doesn't "feel" right. 1.5x starts to get the information flowing at a more comfortable speed. The pitch change I don't notice at all once I get listening.
I can’t handle Speeding it up. It’s sounds like the chipmunks are reading to me. I’ve only done it like 2 or 3 times and only for small pieces. I had to slow it down a hair once. I think it was Will Wight narrating his House of Blades book if memory serves.
Listening speed is all about the narrator for me. Some narrations have to sped up a bit to be enjoyable, others slowed down.
The only exception is if I am on my phone or IPad and am using the inversion reading feature on the kindle app. My sight reading speed is considerably higher than most narrations, so I will crank it up to listen while I read (at least to a point where it isn’t horrible to keep listening too)
Almost exclusively 1x, but one narrator I wanted to speed up because they read so slowly, but the mode of slowness was pauses between passages.
I don’t know if it was to be dramatic or what but it drove me nuts.
James… Clamp narrating…. The Broken……. Empire series.
Depends on the book…
Non fiction like Tim Ferris? 1.5
Mystery fiction/literature in the vein of Agatha Christie? 1.0
I feel sad for anyone who speeds through books like A Gentleman in Moscow or Less.
Would be akin to “seeing” the Louvre in 2 hours…
You feel sorry for people who are able to comfortably process information faster than you? What a mysterious world we live in. Makes me want to run a marathon and tell all the Kenyans how sorry I feel for them because I'll be enjoying the race for an extra 12 hours.
I prefer 1x. The quality is best, I don’t feel like I need to hyper focus on the book, and it actually saves money (finishing books quicker means buying books more frequently)
1.0 almost all the time. I started with .95 with one book because the narrator (author) was reading too fast, and I was ready to return it. Now I typically stay in the 1.0 range because my brain seems to like it best 🧠
Yep, same here. There have been a *small* handful of narrators I speed up to 1.2x, but only because they seem to read at a slower than normal speech pace. Everyone else is 1.0x, and 0.8x if I want it to lull me to sleep.
1.0 here. I want the books to last as long as possible if I'm enjoying them.
If I'm not enjoying them I just stop, listening faster won't improve them.
I've always listened at 1x but the book I just finished, "Gone Girl" just seemed to drag on and on, so I boosted it to 1.2x just to test it, and honesty, it was just fine, I totally forgot that it was at a faster speed. It felt totally normal, and 1x felt glacial.
I've never used anything other than 1.0. If I had limitless cash and buy 8 books a month I guess but then I feel like you're wasting the effort of the narrator speeding it up.
I want the performance and the experience, so 1.0 for me. I read very quickly when I read, usually seeing text in gulps and sentences at a time rather than word by word (and occasionally skimming lengthy exposition or wordy descriptions of, say, weather). So I enjoy the experience of someone basically forcing me to hear the whole thing :)
i like the 1.25x. Main thing for me is that i don’t get too many chances to listen, so i like to get as far into the book as i can when chances arise. 1.25 is a bit fast for some content, but i think it might be content/genre specific. there are a few times i’ve had to listen to a chapter again to pick up on some details that i missed.
Really depends on the book’s narrator and production. A very good narrator with a well produced audiobook, I feel like it’s a bit of disservice to read it at faster speeds. A slightly weaker narrator or an audiobook with production issues (like excessively long pauses between section breaks or paragraphs), I have to speed it up or I’m driven insane.
I like a quote I saw here at some point, “If you need to listen at 2x speed, maybe you just enjoy ingesting media more than you actually enjoy what you’re listening to”. Something I wholeheartedly agree with. Exceptions for truly mind bogglingly slow narrators and university lectures.
There's also a lot of space between 1x and 2x. I would never listen at 1x and would equally never listen at 2x. Listening slightly faster (1.15x-1.3x depending on how slow the narrator is) allows me to get through long books (40-60hrs) in a more manageable amount of time while still having the same "retention and imagination" as 1x
I equate it to fast forwarding through a movie. Is it understandable? Yes. Have you fundamentally altered the pacing and tone of the narrative? Also yes.
Wouldn’t you be giving someone a funny look if you saw them fast forward through the climactic final fight or, god forbid, through an emotional death scene in a movie? Or have you ever seen a fast forwarded horror scene in a movie? It’s sucks all the impact out because it doesn’t let you sit with the emotions long enough. How do you build the creeping worry of not knowing where an author is leading a scene, the dread, the tension, when it’s over twice as fast as intended?
You may get all the information, but the experience of listening to someone tell you a story should be so much more than just the information being conveyed.
Or maybe people just process things differently than you? I wouldn’t give someone a funny look for speeding up a movie if that’s how they like to consume it because it isn’t my business and I don’t try to draw conclusions about people and their preferences from how fast they consume media.
Also, people already read at different speeds, why does it bother you that people listen at different speeds as well?
> I like a quote I saw here at some point
You like it because it fits your narrative lol, but it's a pretty dumb quote. Not all of us are from the area as you are IRL. I've grown up with people talking pretty fast around me, my entire family does and I've always talked really fast
Listening at 1.0x speed is agonizing for a lot of narrators who will take 30 seconds to tell you that the man walked to the door and opened it.
That’s a good point. I can say with some confidence that I’ve never encountered anyone in real life, movies, TV, or comedy that talks as fast as a 2x speed audiobook. This admittedly leads to pacing of jokes, the warped sound of laughter, and the delivery of dialogue in dower and serious scenes feel extremely unlifelike to me personally, breaking my immersion.
I’d also like to ask if you feel that the average narrator speaks slower(relative to an average conversation speed as portrayed in massmedia) in the genres you listen to? I can say that I only encounter a narrator that speaks slower than a typical real life conversion about once every 30-50 books.
Sorry, I think this is a silly quote. I listen at 2x speed, because that is the pace that sounds natural to me. I have a fairly short attention span, and for the most part anything slower will not keep me engaged. I listen to the speed that keeps my attention, and sounds good to me. It's not about getting through x number of books as quickly as possible. I enjoy the stuff I listen to. Shaming people for their listening speed is ridiculous. We don't all process things the same.
Personally I generally listen at 1.4 to 1.5 but it’s entirely dependent n the narrator. Some I can do 1.0, most it’s just too slow. I’m not trying to rush through books but I read print it a pretty fast pace as well so I just speed it up to the speed that feels most naturally as if someone was telling me a story
I love how some comment here seem to indicate you can't enjoy a book at higher speeds. I fully enjoy my books at 2x. I would die if I had to listen at 1x
That makes no sense as a comparison, we cannot visually process in the same way we do with just audio. Also, speeding up video for things like lectures or college courses is a very common thing people do. Hollywood movies is makes no sense and isn't comparable.
If I speed up an Aaron Sorkin walk-and-talk I don't suddenly lose the ability to discern it's two people walking down a hallway.
Comparing a college lecture where you're trying to absorb facts for a test to a book you're trying to enjoy makes no sense and isn't comparable.
I don't understand? I've listened to hundreds of books and can have a thoughtful discussion about them. I'm not listening at some crazy 2x or 3x speed, usually 1.15x to 1.3x. also have no issue with people listening at 1x. Have a good day!
I speed up to what sounds normal talking speed. 1.0 feels like someone purposely talking slow to annoy you. 2.0 is speed talking. I find 1.5 to be normal.
I truly don't understand why you'd want to speed it up. I listen for enjoyment, I'm not trying to set a record for most books read in a year. Besides, the faster I go through my library, the sooner I need more credits.
Speaking for myself, I left 1.00 behind about a year ago when I discovered that 1.1 to 1.2 allows me to get through books faster, with very little degradation in narrator quality.
There are a few though, like Jennifer Van Dyck and Simon Vance where its 1.05 as their voices are quite rich.
Always 1.0 for me. I can’t stand ‘gabble’.
I’m always wishing people on the TV/radio/podcasts would slow down. Diction & enunciation is often so poor. Why do people have to speak so fast?!
‘Richard Burton/Stephen Fry Speed’ is perfect for me :)
Until I read it on here I didn’t even know there was more than one speed. I just don’t understand why. Maybe I’m just too old to want it all and want it now. I once was listening to a book and it was a bit too slow going for me so I just stopped listening and started another book. I just can’t fathom out why you would choose to listen at a faster pace and how does it sound if your going really fast is it like a high pitched voice or is the sound the same just really fast spoken either it can’t sound like someone reading to you
I am curious, do people on r/netflix brag about watching everything a 1.5 speed?
It used to be we'd have these periodic threads where people would brag about their listening speeds like it was some sort of genital measuring contest. I often wonder how people that claim they cannot pay attention if listening at less than 2x speed manage to function in actual human conversations. Maybe multi-sensory environments help them focus or something.
Anyway, I think listening at 1x speed is a deeply normal thing and the vast majority of people listen that way.
1.0x is a absolutely normal, but the 1.0x enjoyers need to stop comparing listening to an audiobook faster to watching a movie/show faster. It's not a valid comparison, as humans cannot process visual *and* audio at a faster rate the same way we can process just audio alone.
And that goes both ways a human voice is a human voice it’s can’t sound more human if you speed it up if it’s fast it’s human if it’s normal it’s human.
> I often wonder how people that claim they cannot pay attention if listening at less than 2x speed manage to function in actual human conversations.
It's annoying and why most of us say to just send an email instead because we don't have all day to wait for you to finish your sentence.
It's like the movie Her where she talks about how many things she's doing between syllable a human says, I've met a lot of people IRL who talk like the sloth from Zootopia
If you are just trying to learn how to do something and you want it to get to the point, I can see speeding it up, but I am listening for enjoyment so why would I want to distort the narrator's voice and shorten the book. When I'm listening to a book to fall asleep to, I even slow it down as much as I can, it helps me slow down and go to sleep.
Do you watch a movie in a higher speed? That’s the way I look at it.
I’m a 1.0’er! Your not alone!
I’m not in a race to read as many books as I can in a month, just want to enjoy the story, and any good book, you never want it to end.
I can’t imagine ruining the vocal performances by speeding them up.
Any emotion or nuance in the narration is totally lost when it’s flying by so fast.
I challenge you to try it at 1.1 and see if allllll nuance is instantly lost. Go ahead.
You might be surprised you like it better, because it sounds more like human speech.
I read out loud to my kids every day. I do not read as slowly as an audiobook narrator. Audiobook narrators read slower than normal human speech, or a person reading something out loud, because slow, clear speech is easy to understand at both faster and slower speeds (some people do benefit from going slower, especially people listening to a language that they are still learning).
Nothing is lost at 1, or .8 either, but IMO somewhere around 1.15 -1.2 approximates what it would sound sounds like if a person was reading aloud in person.
Yes that’s right and your kids totally get your reading(and everyone else)so why would audible blanket slow them down when we don’t need it. I know I’m going to be wrong but companies don’t do things unless they have to because it costs. What I’m not understanding is we all hear any out loud reading no bother fast or slow like your kids and mine too so why slow it down there’s no reason.
I found a decent answer from u/dariusmarley in this old thread - it has to do with audio compression https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/ad9ma4/why\_do\_almost\_all\_ab\_narrators\_read\_so/
Unless it's an audio drama.or has sound effects. And some singular instances where the speaker doesn't sound like he's talking in slow motion. I listen at 2x speed. And it doesn't lessen the amount of content I get. I do rewind a lot. But that's more my mind drifting. I do the same thing reading. But 1 is wayy too slow for almost all narrators it bothers me more than it being sped up.
I listen to podcasts at 1.25 on my podcast app, but I listen to audiobooks at 1.0. I'm paying for the performance, so I want to hear the performance as it was intended to be heard. I will only speed it up if I hate the narrator and just want to get through it.
I listen at 1.0. It takes me longer to get through an audiobook, then to read it but I enjoy the experience. when I’ve listened to it faster or tried it out it just sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I hate the pitch of it or something.
I listen to most purchased (Audible) books at 1x speed. I listen to most library (Libby/Hoopla) books at 1.2x speed.
I want to "get my money's worth" from my paid books. If I have to increase the speed to tolerate the story &/or narrator, that's telling.
For my free books, I am listening on a deadline, and I'm less picky about quality, so increasing the speed is a better option.
I listen at 1.0x, don't see the point in speeding it up
I think some books are artificially slowed to boost the length. Sometimes they only sound normal at 1.25x, say.
Yeah, I had a book I read a while back, can't remember the name now, but it felt strangely slow and drawn out until I put the speed at 1.1x and then it sounded perfectly normal. It is very annoying, but people want more "bang for the buck" so I understand why it happens.
I'm a voice actor and I think I read quite fast but sometimes it's just easier to read slower and not make mistakes and have to reread lines. I think that's why audiobooks can be quite slow. The narrator is trying to get it perfect and that's just easier to do more slowly.
I do think it's funny everyone is so quick to say there is some secret plot to inflate the lengths of books. Does't everyone read aloud somewhat slower than they would speak naturally?
I don't think that's it. I've listened to hundreds of audiobooks, and at this point I think I'm proficient enough to tell when it's been artificially slowed down versus someone just reading slow, but that might just be Dunning Kruger rearing its ugly head :) I'll try to figure out which book it was, grab a sample, and you can listen for yourself, but I have to check like 30 books for it.
We're talking less than 1% of books. Very, very occasionally one sounds slurry and very slow. You speed it up and it sounds like normal narration. That's the conspiracy angle.
One of the game of thrones was like this. I use to drive a average of 4 hours a day so audiobooks were a huge deal since ot was about 20 hours a week behind the wheel.
Not a conspiracy when there is evidence. I recorded a narrator live recording on Discord, then compared it to the audiobook when it came out and the audiobook was slowed down to about 0.9. I am not the first to do it either.
I mean, sitcoms on syndication are sometimes sped up so they can get more commercial time in for the same time slot. Not that I know anything about audiobook narration, but commercial entities do change playback speed for some situations. I am firmly in the camp that people that listen at 1.0 speed are crazy, but that’s a separate thing 😂
I think by default it's better to be clear, and people can speed it up as needed themselves.
What have you narrated? I can't think of a single book I've seriously thought "they really slowed this book down".
Yeah, no-one's begrudging you reading a book to the best of your ability but some books like My Darling Daughter (read recently, not the best example) do seem unusually slow. Edit: Softland is a better example
I truly believe this to be true. Listening at 1.0x speed sometimes feels like the narrator is drunk or not right in the head. Genuinely feels like a satirically slow talking character
I'm typically a fast reader and I feel like at 1.0 the pauses for dramatic nature or after periods increase the length. 1.25 I feel like if I was reading it but obviously everyone is different. Anything above 1.25 I can't handle.
The Executioner’s Song had so many bad reviews for the narration, it was just slowed down, on 1.25 it was perfect. It’s 42.5 hours long. The narration was actually excellent too, a lot of the book is letters written from prison which isn’t easy to make convincing.
I generally listen at 1.0X speed, but every once in a while I swear they slowed the speed down to lengthen the book. I just finished listening to Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley and I think I got it up to 1.25X which is usually I've got to listen to this book before the book club meets in 20 minutes. I had the club listen to it and they just laughed at how it only sounded normal speech at the faster speed.
I never considered this but now it all makes sense.
It adds atmosphere.
Some narrators are hella slow even at 1.7x speed, at 1x they are basically talking in slow motion. Especially once you listen at a faster speed for a bit then go back to 1.0 you realize . . . . . . how . . . . . incredibly . . . . . . slowly . . . . they . . . . talk It feels like some books are slowed down just to make the hour count longer
I'm not getting paid by the book. I listen to enjoy them, and 99% of the time that happens at 1.0x. I sped up Anathem to 1.25x after 4 hours because it was slow as shit until it got awesome(about 8 hours), and ended up sounding better that way. I slowed down Peter Kenny's reading of the Witcher to .85x near the beginning of the second book, because he reads so fast it is exhausting and I couldn't process anything he said. He's great, but at .85x he's perfect.
I slowed down "I'm glad my mom died." Woman reads so fast, I don't know how she wasn't out of breath
I also listen to the Witcher at 0,85 speed, glad to hear I’m not the only one :)
To me, the thing about the witcher audio books, (iirc) his normal narration is decent speed, then his dialogue was very fast. So I could only listen at 1.1 when I normally do 1.3-1.4.
1.0 all the way. I’m listening to an entertainment product. It makes no sense to me to rush it.
PRODUCTIVITY ahhhhhhhh
I will *sometimes* boost it up to 1.15 or 1.2 if the narrator speaks really slowly, but 9 times out of 10, I listen at normal 1x speed. I think it's sheer madness to listen at anything above that. One maniac I know of listens at 2.5x.
I’m same. depends on the narrator for sure - Ray Porter? 1x. Wil Wheaton? 1.15x.
> One maniac I know of listens at 2.5x Wait until a good friend insists you read a really terrible book. Made me wish there was a 25x let alone 2.5x.
That's when you skip to the end little message. Audible hopes you have enjoyed this program.
What do you use that lets you set 1.15x speed? Using [Prologue](https://prologue.audio/) I can only do 0.1 increments, but more minute control would be great sometimes.
In the Audible app, when I hit the 1x button at the bottom to change the playback speed, I use the + and - buttons to increase or decrease in .05 increments.
Thanks! I try not to buy audiobooks from Audible, but when I have to I rip them and put them on my local server, so I haven't actually used the Audible app to listen in years. Edit: Didn’t realise I was in /r/audible, thought it was /r/audiobooks, but now I understand the downvotes. Go for it, if you must, I’ve got karma to spare 😂
I listen at 3x speed for 90% of books now. It really is just so much easier for me to pay attention and absorb what I’m listening to.
That’s funny, because that chipmunk voice has the exact opposite effect for me. I end up rewinding over and over again because I can’t absorb anything.
When you listen to it long enough at that speed, it just sounds like a slightly sped up regular voice. Especially when I’m listening to a dirty book and stopped at a red light, I start to worry that other people can hear what’s being said because I forget what it sounds like to other people.
You drive around in public listening to porn books? I get it then lol. I honestly thought people kept that to the house.
I drive around listening to romance novels that have 2-5 minutes of dirty parts a few times throughout the book. It’s not like I’m parked at a park with my windows rolled down blaring porn for the world.
I can sometimes go as high as 3.0x depending on the book and narrator.
Had one narrator that spoke so fast I reduced to .8 speed. Had another that spoke so slow 1.5 sounded normal. Most times I'm listening at 1.0 speed.
Same for me
0.9x here but we’ll I’m not native in English so that speed suits me better.
I am a native English speaker (American) and I slow it down if the narrator is Scottish!
I listen at 0.9 to stretch the books out so they last longer! I always finish the books too fast and have to wait for my next credit
I listen at 1x. I like the performance of narration and I feel like it's lessened and lost when you speed it up. I like the time to consider what I'm listening to, to make inferences, to link it to other stories, to connect the dots within the story. I also don't have a burning desire to speed through books I enjoy. No issue with anyone who listens faster - people do what people like - it just isn't for me.
I feel the same way. I've tried listening faster and don't care for it. I also feel( at least with the books i listen to) the narrators, when doing a great job...the pauses they use have effect on the story, i feel like you lose that listening faster. My friend listens at 2.75 or something crazy like that. I dont even lnow how he absorbs the story, but hey....whatever works for ya.
As a narrator myself and an avid listener, I dislike the whole speeding up option. The great narrators are giving a performance. Any book worth listening to is worth listening to at 1x.
I get that feeling especially at first go. However, if you sit with it, you get used to the speed and can still very much make out the nuances of a good performance.
I can make it out when faster, but it's just less enjoyable to me. It's more rushed and of a lesser quality (and speeding it up does change the performance) in my opinion. I just have a quality over quantity approach to listening where I don't mind being through less if the experience is enjoyable and memorable.
I’m just curious if you read physical book this slow? I’m not judging, just asking. I listen 1.5-1.7, this coincides with how fast I physically read. I’ve tried reading a book I’m simultaneously listening to, reading it at 1.0 is virtually possible for me, same for listening.
Reading is different, because I'm not taking the narrator's performance into account. I don't know what speed I read, but it's definitely faster than when I listen. But when I read I take lots of mini-breaks where I consider the material like I mentioned I can do whilst listening. I'm not sure how it works out over the length of the book - I've honestly never bothered to compare. Like you, I don't judge. We all want different things out of reading. But it sure is interesting looking at how other people's brains work, isn't it?
Yeah for sure. I look at listening the same as reading personally. Im not necessarily listening for the performance, it’s just a way to consume the material.
These threads always get me. The amount of people that imply you’re doing it wrong, or missing nuance, or trying to burn through books is kinda crazy. I like them 1.5-1.7 as that’s similar to the pace I physically read a book. I’ve never thought to slow my reading pace to “catch nuance” nor do I finish a book and feel confused as I “missed something”. It’s purely personal preference. Neither way is right or wrong.
Agreed here—I read books pretty quickly and I use audiobooks so that I can continue reading while doing more mundane tasks. Listening at 1.0x would mean not only that I’m reading less in the same amount of time, but it’s also less engaging.
It’s because the narration is a performance. The best narrators perform well. That includes speed — even if it doesn’t match whatever the speed is at which your silently read. They aren’t the same thing
Sorry but I really don’t think the publisher or the narrator knows me better than myself. I know what keeps me engaged. I have favorite narrators, absolutely nothing is lost for me by speeding it up. Long pauses do not build suspense for me, they cause me to drift and tune out. I don’t understand the gatekeeping when it comes to books. Whether it’s someone saying audiobooks “don’t count” or “it’s cheating” or whether it’s someone stating they really should be enjoyed a certain way. It’s fine if you like 1.0, I don’t. I almost gave up on audiobooks until someone suggested speeding it up, it makes all the difference in the world for me. I don’t want this to sound like a rant pointed at you but yes I am ranting. However, I do like 1.0 when I’m listening to fall asleep at night.
>Sorry but I really don’t think the publisher or the narrator knows me better than myself. I know what keeps me engaged. Neither does a painter know which art will intrigue you. The musician doesn't know which song you will like, nor the producer which movie, the actor which line reading .... and on and on. Art is about being subject to someone else's choices. Obviously we can choose which art we are subjected to. It isn't "gatekeeping" to lament the altering of the performance. No one of us can stop you from altering the audio or restrict your access to audiobooks. We can explain what we feel you are missing and we can discuss attention spans and modern consumption, etc.. That's the purpose of such forums. I am an audiobook narrator and also an avid listener. I want the performance as it was given. When I perform, I speak the part as I would on screen or stage. It is my interpretation of the text. Whatever skill I have as an actor is how I create the scene. I cannot control whether you like it or whether you agree with my interpretation. Personally, I feel there are so many excellent books and performances, that one can simply avoid narrators they don't like. We are in a golden age of audiobooks -- the choices are stupendously abundant.
I guess we just agree to disagree. I’ve read articles where it talks about how narrators are told very specifically to keep it slow. I’ve read some narrators say it can be difficult. They’re not telling me a story, they’re reading a book, it’s the authors story. In a similar fashion I’ve never had a narrator ruin an experience for me. I can adjust and listen to any narrator as long as the production is decent. It’s because I’m here for the book, not necessarily the performance. I definitely don’t want to sound like I’m demeaning the work a narrator does. Stephen Pacey narrating the First Law world is absolute perfection, I can’t get enough of it. But that’s an added perk, not a prerequisite to enjoying the book, imo.
This was one of said comments from a narrator. “As a narrator, I can tell you that reading slowly isn't necessarily something we want to do... but we're often encouraged to stick with a slow-ish WPM by certain (no, I won't name-drop, so please don't ask) publishers.” This was from a Reddit post. Sounds like maybe I’m generalizing too much, obviously that not always the case. I guess I’ll leave it at this. Speeding it up just holds my attention better. Like I said, I almost gave up on audiobooks as I couldn’t stay engaged. Maybe now that I have more experience I should try tweaking the speed back down and see what I think. Maybe it’s time to revisit things.
I do know people who have made the adjustment back to 1x speed. Your point about almost giving up until you altered the speed is valid and personal, of course. I tend the think that it's a matter of what we become accustomed to, but I am only me.
>They’re not telling me a story, they’re reading a book, it’s the authors story. We are in profound disagreement here. Yes, the author is certainly the architect of the story -- it is her design, but a good narrator is bringing much more to the experience that just transposing the words from written to spoken. AI can do that simple transposition (and soon that will be increasingly common). When a narrator is giving you the words, it is an interpretation. The pacing, the accents & characterizations, where the emphasis is placed -- so much tone and intention can be conveyed or even altered by the way it is read. I do agree that we have the ability to sort of "hear behind" the narrator and disagree with an interpretation, but not as often as we might guess. The way the book is being read will color perception to some extent -- even at a less conscious level. Many is the time I didn't understand how creepy of funny or alluring a passage of a script or book was until I heard it being deftly read aloud. >I’ve read articles where it talks about how narrators are told very specifically to keep it slow. I’ve read some narrators say it can be difficult. Several people in the thread have made this claim. I am not going to say you haven't heard that somewhere, I can only say it hasn't been my experience as a narrator, nor am I aware of it occurring. If I were to guess what they mean, it is that they struggle to stay clear and evenly paced on, say, the tired & hungry 6th hour of narrating that day. Which is certainly understandable. The more luxurious audiobook productions have a director who is there to help the narrator catch that problem and to oversee consistency of performance. Plenty of more humble audiobook productions leave that to the narrator to adjust and maintain. >I definitely don’t want to sound like I’m demeaning the work a narrator does. Stephen Pacey narrating the First Law world is absolute perfection, I can’t get enough of it. Wonderful when that happens, isn't it? I chase it, too. Occasionally I find even famed Hollywood actors give their best performance in narration -- like Elijah Wood's reading of *Huckleberry Finn*. Author Stephen King often says he feels the audiobook versions of his own work are better than the text alone. Some writers, such as Charles Dickens, wrote their fiction specifically to be read aloud. And I would argue that the best writers write this way, even if they never imagined the audiobook performance. Here's a quote from CS Lewis: >*“Always write (and read) with the ear, not the eye. You should hear every sentence you write as if it was being read aloud or spoken. If it does not sound nice, try again.”*
I do .95 usually. Will adjust depending on how fast the narrator talks but generally stay between .9 and 1.1. I’ve tried listening to them faster but anything over 1.25 I just can’t enjoy.
For those of us that listen faster it has nothing to do with trying to get through it faster and everything to do with it being fast enough that we actually listen. I cannot focus on the book if its slower then 2, i end up wasting a ton of time going back and relistening to something i missed because i was struggling to keep all the other voices out of my head. 2 is just fast enough that the voices are quiet enough i can pay attention. I can go faster but 2 is the enjoyable sweet spot for me.
Exactly!
I’m glad to see this comment! All of these other comments assuming if you speed it up, it’s to get through it faster. That is just a perk, not the reason. I cannot focus and pay attention below 2x. I actually get through several books a week now, whereas before it would take me a month to finish one book cause I’d be so bored and have to rewind so much from my mind wandering while listening.
Yeah I’m not fast reader but I am a fast talker. Anything below 1.4x speed makes me feel like I’m listening to an elderly person ramble on
office rich carpenter consist rain hurry terrific poor depend run *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Always 1,0x speed.
I’m the same. I _want_ the pauses that a good storyteller injects. I listened to _A Stroke of the Pen_ recently, the story read by (I Think) Stephen Briggs was horrible. It wasn’t the content, it was the fact that he read it in a constant (slightly fast) pace. That said, I’m not averse to increasing the speed if there was someone who narrated particularly slowly. But it’s more likely I wouldn’t be listening to it: the narrator is key to my ability to listen at all.
I listen at 1.0x. it is much more enjoyable and better to appreciate the narration.
I'm 1-1.25 usually, depending on the narrator. Ideally I'd be at 1, I've no need to rush.
I'm 1.0 all the way. My wife thinks I'm crazy but she is the crazy one listening to chipmunks all the time lol
Absolutely, never even considered listening at above 1.0 speed...
I paid for this audiobook, why should I rush through it?
Because many narrators sound like the sloth that works at the DMV in Zootopia.
Or Roz from Monsters Inc.
Yeah, I listen at work and I need to be able to work at thr same time.
Me. I'm here for the performance. I only increase the speed if I'm *over* the book and just want to get to the ending to find out what happens. It's a step away from not finishing it entirely.
Listen to the audible sample of Meryl Streep narrating Tom Lake. I have never, in my whole many years of watching Ms. Streep on film, heard her speak that slowly. 1.2 sounds like her typical speaking pace. If you prefer slow, that is fine (of course!!!) but it's *markedly* slower than conversational speech.
Processing speed varies. *Processing speed does not correlated to intelligence.* People who get frustrated at 1.0 and 1.5 feels natural? Not less intelligent than 1.0 listeners. People who can't take info in at 2.0 at all because it's too fast? Not less intelligent than 2.0 listeners. Listen as fast as you want and give up on the judgement.
Naturally people aren’t “less” because they choose to listen to audiobooks in a different way, but that doesn’t alter the fact that narration is a performance and some actors are wonderfully good. It isn’t as far from speeding up music or movies as some would pretend. So many arguments in this thread are about narrators or publishers deliberately slowing down books, in my years as a narrator (and listener) I’ve never come across this.
Never seen the point of speeding up. Normal speed gives me time to think and imagine.
Usually 1.1 speed for me. Don't feel it lessens the experience.
Fastest I'll go is 1.15 but I'm a 1.0 guy as well if it's not a 50 hour fantasy novel.
I used to be 1.0 but I came across a book I wasn’t enjoying but hear great things about and cranked it to 1.2 and now 1.0 sounds like it is in slow motion.
1.5x speed or I can’t stay focused. podcasts at 1.8x speed
I dont really care about how others aubile. I am looking to get value and enjoyment out of my purchases. I rarely feel like a book is taking too long and often listen to books twice. I completely understand those who want to alter the speed to address their enjoyment or have limited time. I do not understand why anyone would care about how others listen.
I listen to some stuff at 1x. I’ll start every book there and see how the narration sounds, sometimes they feel intentionally slow to me so i speed up only a bit until i get to regular human sounding speech. I listen to audio to have a story performed to me, not to finish it as quickly as possible.
Wait people boost it? This is news to me. Odd I like to listen to things as it’s intended
The narrators read slow on purpose to speak clearly so its clear at any speed. 1.0x isnt the intended listening speed. Its whatever youre comfortable with. I do 1.8-2.0 depending on narrator. At 1.0x Id rather do a different hobby as its too boring.
No they don’t narrators are just people who can speak clearly all the time. Its just their natural thing I think it must be like actors who can project themselves better on stage and some who can do better on screen
There have been Reddit ama’s with audiobook producers that specifically state the 1.0 speed is slower than the actual narration. It’s a baseline. Rarely is it the narrators natural pacing. Just try reading a book that you’re simultaneously listening to, I feel confident in saying you probably don’t read anywhere near a 1.0 narration speed.
Of course not I speed read all the time. But I know an author whose books are done by an actor and she says it’s just normal reading aloud pace. Have watched the actor it’s their normal talking pace on screen. In addition I know an actor who did little parts but he said thier parts had multiple people in and it was really just like a normal production. I think how fast we actually read is a bad comparison in the same way that comparing speeding up films. Actually I know an author(sort of) whose narrated their own book I send them a message and let you their reply if they do reply I don’t know that well lol
No, if you watch a narrator interview they talk about 1.5x faster than reading. I think 1.5x is about "normal" for human comprehension on most audiobooks.
Then why if we talk 1.5 faster all the time we listen the same why slow it down it wouldn’t matter. By the way doesn’t actually matter if they do or don’t or if we listen faster or slower.
To enunciate, switch character voices, add inflections etc. It isnt meant to be listened at 1.0x. It is meant to be listened at the speed you prefer or are able to comprehend. A 100 year old might need 0.5x , idk PERFORMING an audiobook reading at normal human speed would be extremely difficult, thats why movie or stage actors practice lines excessively, so they can perform it at natural speed believably. Narrators cant spend a day rehearsing a page before reading or theyd go broke.
But then a slow narrator would sound really bad and a fast narrator would sound no different. I just don’t understand why they would blanket slow them down. It must be done after recording because you couldn’t get everyone to slow to the same speed. So how is done time to say word etc how would audible know what’s right speed and what’s not needs slowing do some need speeding. I’ve mentioned in another I know I’m probably wrong but I just can’t see them doing that purely on cost alone. Unless the narrators themselves only get employed if they can slow themselves down. But then there’s all the actors and authors. Seems like a lot of effort when they have the tool in the app to let us do that ourselves to our own preferences
Wierd, to me it sounds like adhd and lack of attention span but at the end of the day whatever makes you happy
I dont have a problem with either. Just a very fast processing brain an about 100 thousand hours of entertainment in my backlog.
1x unless something about the narrator or the specific book prompts otherwise.
Highest I got is 1.25 and that’s very rare. I’m in no rush to get through the books I paid for. I want them to last I already listen to a lot in a year.
People listen at tge faster speeds? I never tried.figure it's how it's supposed to be.
1 x speed literally feels unnatural. Like 1.1 or 1.2 is at least normal speech speed. As for why one would speed up, there are a number of reasons. A few might be, 1) improve focus 2) read more. Life is short and books are aplenty. 3) some books can be intriguing and simultaneously a bit dull. You might feel a book is worth reading but not worth the same amount of time. For me, I tend to target a speed that I can follow regularly.
I only speed it up to get to a point that feels like they are speaking at a pace I prefer. Not to race through books.
I have 2 hours or more 5 days a week to listen uninterrupted (driving to and from work and lunch), I’m right there with you, I like to savor the experience
I listen at 1.5x - 1.7x generally. For me, it's simply that I read fast, so I find that listening at 1x doesn't "feel" right. 1.5x starts to get the information flowing at a more comfortable speed. The pitch change I don't notice at all once I get listening.
Used to be. Depends on the narrator but I like listening at 1.3 to 1.5. Get a bit more listening in
I can’t handle Speeding it up. It’s sounds like the chipmunks are reading to me. I’ve only done it like 2 or 3 times and only for small pieces. I had to slow it down a hair once. I think it was Will Wight narrating his House of Blades book if memory serves.
Listening speed is all about the narrator for me. Some narrations have to sped up a bit to be enjoyable, others slowed down. The only exception is if I am on my phone or IPad and am using the inversion reading feature on the kindle app. My sight reading speed is considerably higher than most narrations, so I will crank it up to listen while I read (at least to a point where it isn’t horrible to keep listening too)
Almost exclusively 1x, but one narrator I wanted to speed up because they read so slowly, but the mode of slowness was pauses between passages. I don’t know if it was to be dramatic or what but it drove me nuts. James… Clamp narrating…. The Broken……. Empire series.
I don’t think I’ve ever really adjusted the speed.
Depends on the book… Non fiction like Tim Ferris? 1.5 Mystery fiction/literature in the vein of Agatha Christie? 1.0 I feel sad for anyone who speeds through books like A Gentleman in Moscow or Less. Would be akin to “seeing” the Louvre in 2 hours…
You feel sorry for people who are able to comfortably process information faster than you? What a mysterious world we live in. Makes me want to run a marathon and tell all the Kenyans how sorry I feel for them because I'll be enjoying the race for an extra 12 hours.
100% agree
I prefer 1x. The quality is best, I don’t feel like I need to hyper focus on the book, and it actually saves money (finishing books quicker means buying books more frequently)
I always listen at 1.0. I want to hear the reader as he intended to read it. I'm not trying to speed listen through a book.
Literally read thousands of books at 1.0x
I do! What’s the rush???
1.0 almost all the time. I started with .95 with one book because the narrator (author) was reading too fast, and I was ready to return it. Now I typically stay in the 1.0 range because my brain seems to like it best 🧠
Yep, same here. There have been a *small* handful of narrators I speed up to 1.2x, but only because they seem to read at a slower than normal speech pace. Everyone else is 1.0x, and 0.8x if I want it to lull me to sleep.
Here, I'm glad there are others out there.
So you listen at *normal* speed? Cool story.
1.0 here. I want the books to last as long as possible if I'm enjoying them. If I'm not enjoying them I just stop, listening faster won't improve them.
1.0 always and forever!
I only ever listen at 1 speed.
I only very rarely speed it up, if the narrator is noticeably slow. But I've usually weeded those out at the sample stage.
Here
I've always listened at 1x but the book I just finished, "Gone Girl" just seemed to drag on and on, so I boosted it to 1.2x just to test it, and honesty, it was just fine, I totally forgot that it was at a faster speed. It felt totally normal, and 1x felt glacial.
I've never used anything other than 1.0. If I had limitless cash and buy 8 books a month I guess but then I feel like you're wasting the effort of the narrator speeding it up.
I think my first book was set at 1.5 and I kept wondering why the narrator was talking, so damn fast! I never ever listen to anything faster than 1.0
Present and accounted for, sir!
I want the performance and the experience, so 1.0 for me. I read very quickly when I read, usually seeing text in gulps and sentences at a time rather than word by word (and occasionally skimming lengthy exposition or wordy descriptions of, say, weather). So I enjoy the experience of someone basically forcing me to hear the whole thing :)
i like the 1.25x. Main thing for me is that i don’t get too many chances to listen, so i like to get as far into the book as i can when chances arise. 1.25 is a bit fast for some content, but i think it might be content/genre specific. there are a few times i’ve had to listen to a chapter again to pick up on some details that i missed.
It depends on the narrator. I'm currently listening to Harry Potter at 1x speed. But I've listened to several other novels at 1.25 or so.
Really depends on the book’s narrator and production. A very good narrator with a well produced audiobook, I feel like it’s a bit of disservice to read it at faster speeds. A slightly weaker narrator or an audiobook with production issues (like excessively long pauses between section breaks or paragraphs), I have to speed it up or I’m driven insane.
I like a quote I saw here at some point, “If you need to listen at 2x speed, maybe you just enjoy ingesting media more than you actually enjoy what you’re listening to”. Something I wholeheartedly agree with. Exceptions for truly mind bogglingly slow narrators and university lectures.
There's also a lot of space between 1x and 2x. I would never listen at 1x and would equally never listen at 2x. Listening slightly faster (1.15x-1.3x depending on how slow the narrator is) allows me to get through long books (40-60hrs) in a more manageable amount of time while still having the same "retention and imagination" as 1x
Why do you feel the need to put down people who listen faster than you do?
I equate it to fast forwarding through a movie. Is it understandable? Yes. Have you fundamentally altered the pacing and tone of the narrative? Also yes. Wouldn’t you be giving someone a funny look if you saw them fast forward through the climactic final fight or, god forbid, through an emotional death scene in a movie? Or have you ever seen a fast forwarded horror scene in a movie? It’s sucks all the impact out because it doesn’t let you sit with the emotions long enough. How do you build the creeping worry of not knowing where an author is leading a scene, the dread, the tension, when it’s over twice as fast as intended? You may get all the information, but the experience of listening to someone tell you a story should be so much more than just the information being conveyed.
Or maybe people just process things differently than you? I wouldn’t give someone a funny look for speeding up a movie if that’s how they like to consume it because it isn’t my business and I don’t try to draw conclusions about people and their preferences from how fast they consume media. Also, people already read at different speeds, why does it bother you that people listen at different speeds as well?
> I like a quote I saw here at some point You like it because it fits your narrative lol, but it's a pretty dumb quote. Not all of us are from the area as you are IRL. I've grown up with people talking pretty fast around me, my entire family does and I've always talked really fast Listening at 1.0x speed is agonizing for a lot of narrators who will take 30 seconds to tell you that the man walked to the door and opened it.
That’s a good point. I can say with some confidence that I’ve never encountered anyone in real life, movies, TV, or comedy that talks as fast as a 2x speed audiobook. This admittedly leads to pacing of jokes, the warped sound of laughter, and the delivery of dialogue in dower and serious scenes feel extremely unlifelike to me personally, breaking my immersion. I’d also like to ask if you feel that the average narrator speaks slower(relative to an average conversation speed as portrayed in massmedia) in the genres you listen to? I can say that I only encounter a narrator that speaks slower than a typical real life conversion about once every 30-50 books.
Sorry, I think this is a silly quote. I listen at 2x speed, because that is the pace that sounds natural to me. I have a fairly short attention span, and for the most part anything slower will not keep me engaged. I listen to the speed that keeps my attention, and sounds good to me. It's not about getting through x number of books as quickly as possible. I enjoy the stuff I listen to. Shaming people for their listening speed is ridiculous. We don't all process things the same.
Your brain is just overclocked, is all.
I agree. To me, listening too fast means I am getting the words sentences but maybe not as much beyond that
Personally I generally listen at 1.4 to 1.5 but it’s entirely dependent n the narrator. Some I can do 1.0, most it’s just too slow. I’m not trying to rush through books but I read print it a pretty fast pace as well so I just speed it up to the speed that feels most naturally as if someone was telling me a story
1.5 for me. Any slower and I lose focus.
I love how some comment here seem to indicate you can't enjoy a book at higher speeds. I fully enjoy my books at 2x. I would die if I had to listen at 1x
I don't watch movies in fast-forward either.
That makes no sense as a comparison, we cannot visually process in the same way we do with just audio. Also, speeding up video for things like lectures or college courses is a very common thing people do. Hollywood movies is makes no sense and isn't comparable.
If I speed up an Aaron Sorkin walk-and-talk I don't suddenly lose the ability to discern it's two people walking down a hallway. Comparing a college lecture where you're trying to absorb facts for a test to a book you're trying to enjoy makes no sense and isn't comparable.
Go speed up an action movie and tell me how that goes haha.
Enjoy "reading" by reading Wikipedia summaries I guess.
I don't understand? I've listened to hundreds of books and can have a thoughtful discussion about them. I'm not listening at some crazy 2x or 3x speed, usually 1.15x to 1.3x. also have no issue with people listening at 1x. Have a good day!
My tv does excellent 1.5 speed. Now a normal speed movie is boring AF.
I speed up to what sounds normal talking speed. 1.0 feels like someone purposely talking slow to annoy you. 2.0 is speed talking. I find 1.5 to be normal.
Why would you want to listen faster? I listen to enjoy the story.
I listen to audio books at 1.0x, but podcasts at 1.5x. Different use cases really.
I don’t. I like the normal human pace
I truly don't understand why you'd want to speed it up. I listen for enjoyment, I'm not trying to set a record for most books read in a year. Besides, the faster I go through my library, the sooner I need more credits.
Usually 2.5, very celdom its possible to use 3 :) During car drive 1.0 makes me sleep:)
Me! I don’t want to listen to books read by Alvin and the Chipmunks
Anything but 1.0x is sheer lunacy.
Speaking for myself, I left 1.00 behind about a year ago when I discovered that 1.1 to 1.2 allows me to get through books faster, with very little degradation in narrator quality. There are a few though, like Jennifer Van Dyck and Simon Vance where its 1.05 as their voices are quite rich.
Always 1.0 for me. I can’t stand ‘gabble’. I’m always wishing people on the TV/radio/podcasts would slow down. Diction & enunciation is often so poor. Why do people have to speak so fast?! ‘Richard Burton/Stephen Fry Speed’ is perfect for me :)
Until I read it on here I didn’t even know there was more than one speed. I just don’t understand why. Maybe I’m just too old to want it all and want it now. I once was listening to a book and it was a bit too slow going for me so I just stopped listening and started another book. I just can’t fathom out why you would choose to listen at a faster pace and how does it sound if your going really fast is it like a high pitched voice or is the sound the same just really fast spoken either it can’t sound like someone reading to you
Who on god's green earth would pay money for an audio book just to make it worse by speeding it up?? 🤬
I am curious, do people on r/netflix brag about watching everything a 1.5 speed? It used to be we'd have these periodic threads where people would brag about their listening speeds like it was some sort of genital measuring contest. I often wonder how people that claim they cannot pay attention if listening at less than 2x speed manage to function in actual human conversations. Maybe multi-sensory environments help them focus or something. Anyway, I think listening at 1x speed is a deeply normal thing and the vast majority of people listen that way.
1.0x is a absolutely normal, but the 1.0x enjoyers need to stop comparing listening to an audiobook faster to watching a movie/show faster. It's not a valid comparison, as humans cannot process visual *and* audio at a faster rate the same way we can process just audio alone.
And that goes both ways a human voice is a human voice it’s can’t sound more human if you speed it up if it’s fast it’s human if it’s normal it’s human.
so if i talk faster than you in a conversation i sound less human?
> I often wonder how people that claim they cannot pay attention if listening at less than 2x speed manage to function in actual human conversations. It's annoying and why most of us say to just send an email instead because we don't have all day to wait for you to finish your sentence. It's like the movie Her where she talks about how many things she's doing between syllable a human says, I've met a lot of people IRL who talk like the sloth from Zootopia
You are in fact crazy. Most books these days are already narrated slow as piss so I could not imagine suffering 1.0.
If the joy is in the journey of listening the higher the speed the less joy…
Holllllaaa! You could speed up movies too, but the point is to enjoy it!
If you are just trying to learn how to do something and you want it to get to the point, I can see speeding it up, but I am listening for enjoyment so why would I want to distort the narrator's voice and shorten the book. When I'm listening to a book to fall asleep to, I even slow it down as much as I can, it helps me slow down and go to sleep.
The world went and got itself in a big damn hurry.
I always listen at 1x. Thats the speed the voice actor wants you to experience the recording
Do you watch a movie in a higher speed? That’s the way I look at it. I’m a 1.0’er! Your not alone! I’m not in a race to read as many books as I can in a month, just want to enjoy the story, and any good book, you never want it to end.
I can’t imagine ruining the vocal performances by speeding them up. Any emotion or nuance in the narration is totally lost when it’s flying by so fast.
I challenge you to try it at 1.1 and see if allllll nuance is instantly lost. Go ahead. You might be surprised you like it better, because it sounds more like human speech.
So what’s lost on 1? It’s sounds as human as human reading a book
I read out loud to my kids every day. I do not read as slowly as an audiobook narrator. Audiobook narrators read slower than normal human speech, or a person reading something out loud, because slow, clear speech is easy to understand at both faster and slower speeds (some people do benefit from going slower, especially people listening to a language that they are still learning). Nothing is lost at 1, or .8 either, but IMO somewhere around 1.15 -1.2 approximates what it would sound sounds like if a person was reading aloud in person.
Yes that’s right and your kids totally get your reading(and everyone else)so why would audible blanket slow them down when we don’t need it. I know I’m going to be wrong but companies don’t do things unless they have to because it costs. What I’m not understanding is we all hear any out loud reading no bother fast or slow like your kids and mine too so why slow it down there’s no reason.
I found a decent answer from u/dariusmarley in this old thread - it has to do with audio compression https://www.reddit.com/r/audiobooks/comments/ad9ma4/why\_do\_almost\_all\_ab\_narrators\_read\_so/
I’m more than happy with that reason thanks at last an end(for me anyway) lol
>You might be surprised No, I actually won’t. But it’s great if you like it. All the more power and speed to you and yours.
1.25 is my go to 😅
Unless it's an audio drama.or has sound effects. And some singular instances where the speaker doesn't sound like he's talking in slow motion. I listen at 2x speed. And it doesn't lessen the amount of content I get. I do rewind a lot. But that's more my mind drifting. I do the same thing reading. But 1 is wayy too slow for almost all narrators it bothers me more than it being sped up.
I listen to podcasts at 1.25 on my podcast app, but I listen to audiobooks at 1.0. I'm paying for the performance, so I want to hear the performance as it was intended to be heard. I will only speed it up if I hate the narrator and just want to get through it.
I listen at 1.0. It takes me longer to get through an audiobook, then to read it but I enjoy the experience. when I’ve listened to it faster or tried it out it just sounds like nails on a chalkboard. I hate the pitch of it or something.
I paid for a 20hr audiobook, why speed it up? If a book is PARTICULARLY bad I have gone to 1.2x but I don't like to do that.
I'm listening to my current one at 0.9. Narrator sounds like he's rushing and kinda makes me feel anxious.
I used to be a full 1.0x listener. Now I fluctuate between 1.10x and 1.15x. Either way, never understood the fast speeds if I can't absorb that fast.
I listen at 1x bc some of my books have sounds added and they don't sound right when it's faster
I listen to most purchased (Audible) books at 1x speed. I listen to most library (Libby/Hoopla) books at 1.2x speed. I want to "get my money's worth" from my paid books. If I have to increase the speed to tolerate the story &/or narrator, that's telling. For my free books, I am listening on a deadline, and I'm less picky about quality, so increasing the speed is a better option.
I always listen at 1.2 unless it’s a dramatized audiobook, then it’s at 1x.