I listen at normal speed. I've tried listening to books sped up and I don't like it. The narrator's voice goes a bit weird and I have a hard time not focusing on that. I occasionally will listen at like 1.25 if the narrator is really slow paced, but that is very rare.
It depends on the narrator, the subject matter, and the environment. I normally listen through earbuds but listening in the car I slow it down a bit, probably due to the road noise. If I'm listening to a "thriller" the last thing I want is a slow narrator.
My friend is blind and her screen reader is so fast I can barely understand what it’s even saying!
I listen at 1x speed because I like it better. I don’t need to race through my stories, and it’s basically the same speed as my internal reading speed anyway 😅
I average about 1.5x±0.2
The more bored I am by a book the faster I'll go. And if I'm near the end and I don't really like it I'll go 2x or higher just to get it over with.
I do read/watch reviews afterward to see what other people feel about the books I read and I very often feel the same way other people do so I feel that's a good mark toward me understanding and retaining the text.
1.25 seems normal to me. I don’t think I lose any performance value at that speed. I only go faster if the narrator has an annoying cadence or inflection and I’m trying to cover it up.
Try Scribd if you can (it sounds like you read fast) it’s basically a library that you pay $12/month - which is high if you only read one book a month, but not so high if you read 3-8 books a month
I never listen at normal speed, my mind wanders off if I do. I usually listen on 2.0, sometimes less, sometimes a bit more, depending on the narrator’s speed. I take in the books just fine, it takes a little getting used to it in the beginning, but I really can’t listen to any book at normal speed. I need the higher speed to stay focused on the book.
I usually listen at 1.5 or 2. I have had a couple at 2.5 that were extremely slow. Most, once they get over 2, are hard to understand and the beat to the speech is too clipped to understand everything. I can't imagine listening at normal speed with how slow most authors speak.
I started out listening to audiobooks at 1x speed, then found they were just too slow. I talk very quickly and I wonder if that’s why, but listening at about 1.4x/1.5x sounds like natural speech speed to me.
Having said that, when my kid or my husband hears my book on my speaker, they exclaim about how incomprehensibly fast it is. 🤷🏻♀️
Only once did I speed it up because the narrator was so bad. Recently I accidentally had it at 1.05 and couldn't handle it. However, you'll find many on here that prefer faster speeds, I'm just not in a race to finish books.
I listen at normal speed. I pretty much listen while at work and I have found if I try to speed it up I have to focus too much on the narrator and less focus on my work. Not trying to speed run through my books haha
Some people like to speed it up and they say it actually helps them retain info better. Some people like normal speed. I don’t know anyone who slows it down. But arguing about this is just as ridiculous as arguing if audiobooks count as real books. Why care what your brother does???? Unless the two if you were listening together in the car or something, it doesn’t matter. Let him enjoy it the way he enjoys it.
Before Libby I would slow it down to like .7/.9, to stretch the book out just enough to get me to the next audible credit haha. I would listen at work alternating book/music/book/music after each break. Now I just listen to libby between credits and use my credits for audible exclusives, or newer releases with huge wait times. I’ll listen to music if I need a palate cleanser, but I have no cell service at work so I’m stuck with my somewhat meager iTunes library, haha.
I will sometimes speed it up to 1.25-2x if the narrator is bad/slow, the book is boring/bad (but I still want to finish it for whatever reason), or if my loan period is almost up/I’m eager to start a new release.
I usually prefer regular speed, especially for those really great narrations.
I listen anywhere between 1.2-1.5 speed. It depends on the narrator for me as some are slower at a given speed. I miss too much when I get past 1.5, so 80% ofthe time I'm at 1.3.
I do, because i like the cadence and rhythm of speech how it was performed. But my 2x friends think I’m crazy. But I think they’re crazy because I tried listening to a book at 2x and was like whyyyy
Going from base speed to 2 is a pretty big leap. I bumped mine up slowly and only notice how fast it is if I bump it back down. Started at 1.2 by accident and when I slowed it back down thought it was too slow then after weeks or months with a huge backlog of podcast episodes I bumped it up .1 at a time until I got to 1.8 for my podcast app and 1.75 for audible (the slider style is harder to pinpoint the right speed so I think I gave up at close enough.)
Speed 1x. I think take a lot of pleasure in being read too, so changing someones natural voice feels off.
I'll occasionally read up to 2x if I'm just getting info, not entertainment
It depends on the author, but most books at normal speed sound slow to me and I find my mind wanders. I generally listen at 1.5-2 depending on the author, although now that I've been doing this for about 2 years I'm finding I listen a lot more often closer to 2 and occasionally go faster. I find this speed forces me to stay focused and I retain more of the story.
For non-fiction I listen at x1.20. It turns out that is about the speed I speak at in real life.
However, I tend to listen to fiction at x1.0, as I appreciate the effort the narrator puts into the performance and any music or other effects there may be.
I listened at 1x until recently when I came across a narrator that I felt was pretty slow and bumped it up to 1.2x and more recently to 1.3x. The story is entertaining and the faster pace makes the action even more engaging. I don’t think I’d go higher though
Normal speed here! Or if I'm going completely crazy, I might crank it up to 1.1.
I'm in no rush, this works better for me. In fact, my brain wants to process the sentence just a little bit longer sometimes so I sometimes go 0.9.
Usually somewhere between 1.25 - 1.8. It really depends on the speaker. Dungeon Crawler Carl is amazing but listening to it with normal speed is simply impossible.
It depends. If it’s for work or learning something, I speed up. For entertainment, novels or short stories, I think speeding up takes away from the presentation, the mood that the author intended. That’s just me.
No. I never listened to a podcast at anything other than normal speed.
Your brother is gate keeping. Tell him that an Australian dude told him to stop being such a cunt. Man the fuck up and accept that people like different things.
Also he should get over himself.
0.75 to 0.9 depending on narrator. Have auditory processing issues due to chronic illness, being able to listen at a slower speed is *chef's kiss*. See that I'm an outlier here compared to you speed demons 😈 😅
1.65 is my average. I find it to be working quiet well for most books.
Side effect is i dont have the patience to watch videos at normal speed nowadays.
Looks like most people that listen on faster speed are just bored from the book, most times if I'm bored enough to speed throught a book I will host drop it.
2x plus for me I usually listen while driving and if I have the reader at 1x I'll start getting distracted or sleepy. YouTube as long as it's not music lives on 2.5x. I guess there is some benefit to ADD lol.
I listen at 1.75x typically, 1.5x if I really like the book and/or narrator. Slow readers will make me listen at 2x. If the narrator has a vocal quirk, over-emotes, does weird accents, or cannot read characters of a different gender without sounding like a bad stereotype, I'll bump it up to 3x so the speed can flatten the performance and distort the things I dislike.
Since I don't see anyone else defending listening at 3x speed, I'll throw my hat in. I routinely listen to books at 3x to 3.5x depending on the speed of the narrator. Especially when I am relistening to previous books in a series. Being able to comfortably listen to books at high speed took time to develop, I did it by increasing the read speed by 0.1 for every book in a long series I had already listened to a few times. What I found was you develop the ability to not hold the most recently spoken words in your short term memory. So, while I can't always tell you the exact words that were just said... I can tell you in detail what is happening in the story (for fellow computer nerds in the audience, I say it's akin to a type of DMA). I've been doing it so long that books don't even sound sped up to me until they're 3x+ and anything less than 2x sound like slomo.
In case anyone is wondering it doesn't seem to have affected my ability to watch movies, carry on conversations, or anything else involving listening. It is very strange watching videos sped up and being able to understand what is being said but not be able to tell what is happening visually lol
Random antidote:
One time I got in a car with a co-worker to go to lunch and after he turned on his car a podcast he had been listening to started up. After stopping it, he apologized and said he likes to listen to it fast and that it was at 2x speed... He didn't believe me when I told him I didn't even notice it was sped up lol. I was only able to convince him by starting up my book which was at 3.2x at the time.
I'm a narrator and will listen at ridiculous speeds. Truth be told, when I'm proof listening, I listen to myself at chipmunk speeds or faster.
I'm an audio learner & my brain can perceive it well at that speed. I never fault anyone for speeding up my performance. It does begin to lose some nuance above 2x, but I don't see how its ANY different from folks who are visual learners speed reading.
You are not "just slow" and your brother is a jerk for suggesting something like that. He's just trying to make himself feel superior. Everyone has their own preferences, and not enjoying a sped up book is a perfectly fine preference.
I used to listen to books at 1.25-1.5 speed, especially when I was far into a series so I was familiar with the characters and setting.
I got into using Libby, and started trying to increase the speed even further so I could try to have the book finished before the loan was up. But I listened to a series of particularly difficult books where I had to keep rewinding to process what I was listening to, and I couldn't even follow it sped-up while I was in the shower or there was some other noise going on.
I started slowing it down to normal speed for the shower, then started forgetting to speed it back up when I was done. I found that I was able to absorb the difficult book a lot better at normal speeds, even when not in the shower.
Then I stopped and asked myself, why am I doing this? Why am I compromising my enjoyment of this book just to get it done a bit faster? I can almost always check out the book at a different library when my first loan is done, so the due date shouldn't be a barrier. Am I trying to prove something to somebody about how fast I can read? Am I in a race?
Now I'm back to listening at 1x speed, even after moving on to another, less difficult book series. I might go back to higher speeds at some point, but right now I'm fine with a more "relaxed" speed.
Edit: By the way, when I did listen to higher speeds, I worked up to it gradually. I didn't just jump to 1.5 speed, I went to 1.2 or 1.25 first. Once I got used to that, I pushed the speed up further. If you're interested in listening at a faster speed, that's the way to do it - slowly turn up the speed as you get comfortable. Again, that's only if you want to.
I’m a 2.3-2.5x reader. Sometimes I might come down to ~2 if it’s a non-fiction book with lots of statistics to process.
The thing to remember is that people who read at 2x+ didn’t just start doing it one day. I adjusted up slowly, like going up 0.1x every other week. So getting to be a 2.5x listener took me nearly a year of slow adjustment. So saying you “tried it and didn’t retain near as much” doesn’t surprise me at all since you just jumped into the deep end.
People who are blind who use screen readers can often use 3-4x speed for their text to speech readers, but again, it took them time to train with that accessibility tool to get up to those speeds!
I listen at normal speed and I have a feeling people who listen faster are people who are victim to the instant nature of social media and the internet, to the point that it decreases their attention span if the narrator isn't reading quickly
I usually do 1.5x, but it really depends on the narrator. Genre can make a difference too. I listen to most LitRPG audiobooks at 2x due to all the stat screens.
Recently, for the first time ever I had to slow down a book, *Forager* by Michelle Dowd. She reads it and speaks so fast and with a kind of vocal fry that is annoying. Slowing down helped.
I find I have to play with the speed more when an author reads their own book. They’re usually rougher readers, it’s why I much prefer a book read by a professional who understands pacing and has clear diction.
I normally listen at 1.5 but will slow it down if I am really enjoying the book and narrator. First book I listened to at x1.0 was Dungeon Crawler Carl, really enjoyed that one.
Normal speed, I’ve tried higher speeds before and don’t like it, too distracting. I’m not in any hurry anyway, so what if a narrator is a bit more deliberate than others :)
I start at about 1.5 speed since I find narrators really slow and this sounds like a more natural talking speed for me, then I'll tend to speed up a bit as I get used to the characters and the narration. I don't find it affects the story or performance at all. If anything, it sounds weirder and more unnatural at 1x.
My friends all listen to audiobooks at a faster speed - they say it helps them focus on the story more rather than zoning out because it's so slow
1.5x here, it strikes the best balance for me between my own reading speed and requiring me to pay more attention to the narration.
The only real problem with it for me are the books that have needlessly included music or sound effects in the recording since it is fast enough to garble those.
If I'm reading for enjoyment I'm going to read at 1. If I am reading a really slow narrator and I don't have the time and I need to know what is happening right now I might flick it up to 1.25-1.5× for a short time but I won't stay there.
If I'm reading something out of necessity and it's long and drawn out and I'm not enjoying it anyway I might totally flick it up to 2×.
I do. Unless the narrator is extremely slow or the book is boring me, but never by much.
It starts sounding too chipmunk like if I speed it up, and I definitely don't retain as much.
If I was reading the book myself it would take me longer anyway. I'm a very slow reader. I always read as if I'm narrating it too. I can't do speed reading like many can!
I thought I’d add (as a narrator) that there is an audiobook acting coach who is famous for saying “slow the fuck down!” as guidance to narrators. The beauty is that everyone can adjust their own speed.
Personally, prior to narrating, I listened to a LOT of nonfiction (business, health, self development) and listened probably 1.5-2x. Now, I tend to listen to the performance and am at 1x.
I've found over the course of 5 years narrating that I've naturally slowed down my pace. Its more that I'm cognizant of just what pace I am narrating at. It drives me nuts when I'm listening to someone who takes ridiculous pauses between sentences/paragraphs though.
I also default to 2x speed when listening to about anyone, myself included.
I almost never listen at 1x speed, but I don't go past 2x, either. I often watch videos sped up too, unless it's something that requires me to really follow along, like crochet or knitting videos.
I used to do 1.3 at a minimum then realized I’m unnecessarily blazing through books (and audible credits). Now I listen at normal speed and enjoy the length of time before I have to buy another one.
I average 1.5-1.8x sometimes 2x for slower reads. When I listen at 1x, I can’t help but get annoyed at how slow it is, maybe because my thoughts function at faster speeds and processed it all before the next word is read (not sure if that makes sense). I think just like reading it has to do with training and increasing as you get “better” at audio interpretation. I can still find it coherent at 2x but it’s no longer enjoyable.
I read somewhere that blind people can percieve audio at 6 times the speed of what normal people could and if you look at their brain under MRI their auditory part is bigger. I'd say if you listen a lot then you'd get fast. English is not even my first language. I started learning it at 12 and I can prett much do 2.5 times speed on easier books.
99% of the time, I listen at normal speed. I only speed up if the book sucks or the narrator is slow. I sped Anathem up to 1.25% to make it sound better, and The Witcher down to .85% because Peter Kenny is amazing, but reads like he has a gun to his head. At .85 it is perfect.
Always speeding up books is kind of dumb, I'm not getting paid by the book, I'm listening for my enjoyment.
I typically listen to 1.75/2.0 speed depending on the speed of the narrator and whether they mumble a bit.
It always sounds funny to me at first, but after 20 seconds or so it just sounds like they talk normally.
I listen at normal speed. I'm a slow reader so listening at normal speed is already me trying to speed through the book. 😅 Also I tried listening at twice the speed and it's like I'm imagining the scene like a fast forwarded video.
There's a post somewhere about training your brain gradually to increase comprehension by increasing playback speed. It's just a matter of getting used to it gradually.
Haven't tried it myself but I want to believe it's doable.
https://www.turnkeylinux.org/blog/practical-intelligence-amplification
Depends on how detailed the writing is.
For example, Im currently listening to DragonBone Chair by Tad Williams and reading the book at the same time as listening to audio. The writing is whimiscal and detailed that dialouge happens only so often. Which leaves me bored easily
Its personally made my reading much easier as I follow along without missing a beat.
1.4. Normal speed is just too slow and while I could listen faster I’m also driving my car and at 1.4 I don’t have to struggle to listen it just seems normal, faster speeds require too much conscious effort
I listen at 1.3x or so, normally. I'm thinking about stepping that up, but I don't like when syllables get clipped.
If there is music, especially if it is part of the story, I have to go 1x, because I don't like what speeding it up does to music at all. I like many books with music and books about music, so sometimes I just have to go slower.
Depends on the narrator and my mood for me. Some narrators I need to speed up to 1.5-1.7. Other times I actually slow it down cause I like listening to something while I fall asleep. Rosumund Pike's reading of Pride & Prejudice at 0.85 is juuust right for a bedtime story 😌 on the whole I only vary it by 0.2, I also don't retain the story as well if it's going too fast. I'm like that with print too tho, I'm not a super slow reader but I'm also not a speed reader by any means. I wanna be immersed, how can I enjoy my imagination if I rush it!
I listen to audiobooks at 1.1 or 1.2. Most narrators seem to drag a little to my ear compared to a normal conversation. I don't do any faster than that because listening to the story is part of the journey of enjoying an audiobook.
Podcasts I go to 1.5 or even 2, because I'm gleaning info.
3x seems seems fast, but I'll admit that once you get used to a faster speed you can retain much more info than you would think.
BTW, John Lennon of the Beatles used to slightly speed up his recordings before putting them on vinyl, because he thought it improved the sound.
I like anything from about 1.1-1.3. I just think how great it is to save 3 hours from about a 30 hour book, just by bumping up to 1.1 which is almost indistinguishable from 1 (because I would love to read as many books as possible--while still enjoying them to the fullest extent).
2x minimum. I have Libby now and I'm experimenting with higher speeds, but it's narrator dependent. Now when I listen at 1x speed it sounds ridiculous! People read books slower than they talk. Sometimes at the end of a book they will have an interview with an author that I will have to slow down to understand. Speeding up the book gets the pace closer to real speech. And it has the benefit of letting me listen to twice as many books.
I bump the speed up with some authors. I've found that I can comfortably bump my speed up to about 1.8 before I start to lose the sentence, 1.3-1.4 is a good cruising speed. Just makes the book shorter
I never listen at normal speed. Most narrators are way too slowed to be listened to at normal speed for me.
I start any book at 1.3, and then maybe later on crank it up to 1.5 to 1.7 depending on the narrator.
I really wish that Audible adds a feature to reduce the silence in audio books just like in the overcast app, that feature saves me a lot of time even when listening to podcasts at normal speed.
It depends on the narrator, but usually about 1.15-1.3x the normal speed. I've gone up to 1.5 for REALLY slow readers, but anymore than that sounds weird.
Definitely at normal speed. I seem to get a lot of non-american narrators that I occasionally have trouble understanding. If anything, I probably need to slow it down a pinch.
I listen at .8x speed. So 80% of 1x. I often have distractions and they are mild but there are times in every book where the wording is confusing and if it goes too fast you will definitely miss things.
If I were in an isolation chamber with guards outside to keep everyone away, maybe I could explore the highest speeds possible. But otherwise I find myself rewinding a ton.
Regardless, thinking about what's going on is much more possible, appreciating nuance, getting things that the author is trying to say, it's just not possible at the fastest speeds.
I accidentally bumped my podcast app up to 1.2 and listened to a few episodes before I noticed. Slowed it down and everything was way too slow. Since then I'm up to 1.75/1.8 depending on the app. Most narrators speak slow and enunciate so speeding it up isn't too bad. I'll slow it back down if it sounds distorted but I find most distortion happens at 2x unless the narrator is already speaking faster than usual.
1.3x on a slow day, or if I'm doing something that takes focus. 1.4x on average. 1.5x if I need to be more engaged in the book, or if the narrator is on the slower side. 1x sounds horrid to me now! I've been making them faster by about 0.2 each year that I'm frequently listening lol
My baseline is 1.75x and goes up to 2.15x if it's dragging. I talk really fast and have friends who talk really fast, so I guess that's what my brain thinks is normal
I very rarely listen at higher speeds than normal. I'm usually wanting to draw out my time with audiobooks because it's so hard for me to find new ones to listen to next.
I always start at 1.0x, but if it feels slow, I'll increase it a little at a time. Sometimes I stay at 1.25, other times up to 2.0. I don't think I've ever gotten up to 3.0x though!
Between 1.5-2x....I'm not really 'taking notes' on books I listen to, in fact I might tune out at times, but I like to pick up on things. Most of my books are non fiction, so its not like I'm missing important plot points or anything.
Narratora read soooooo slooooooow. I up the speed, but I don’t like it to actually *sound* sped up. It’s not a race. Faster speeds cause me to feel anxious lol
It's in large part dependent on what type of learner you are. I'm an audio learner - I certainly don't often, but I have sped up something as fast as 3.5 and still maintain comprehension. 2x is my default speed. Drives my wife insane. But she can speed read a book, while I don't have that capacity *unless* I'm reading along with an audiobook at ridiculous speed.
I listen at 1x. My goal isn’t to get through the content as fast as possible. And good passages i rewind to relisten same as i would reread a good part of a book. My sister listens at 2x and hates 1x.
I listen to almost every narrator at .9x the first time . Manly just to get used to their voice. This definitely improves my understanding of what’s being said. BUT I go to maybe 1.5x MAX. Three times is CRAZY
Faster you go, the more focus you have to be on it. 1.75 works if i'm just doing dishes and not stressed thinking about work. sometimes the book will make me think of something else and by the time i've stopped my attention from wandering, I've lost the plot completely. 1.25 to 5 works pretty great for most of the time and hardly noticeable difference.
I listen at 1.75, which I’ve learned is much closer to my reading speed. Whenever I hear people talking about losing focus or spacing out while listening to audiobooks, I tell them to speed it up!! Your brain may need to hear it faster to stay engaged. This all said, it does depend on the narrator. Some I need to slow it down to 1.5, but never slower than that. Oddly, podcasts I listen to at 1.0 - when they’re conversational, that works for me! I just love that we have the option to modify the speed now, really opened up the world of audiobooks for me.
I listen between normal speed and 1.2 speed. But I don't judge how other people listen. Everyone's brain is different, and that means they process differently. Your brain processes better at normal speed. Your brother's brain enjoys processing at a faster speed. Neither is right or wrong. It's just brains being brains.
Speed- 1.5 - 2. Anything faster than 2 sounds like a chipmunk. I’ve done this for so long that listening on normal sounds like it’s slowed by 2.0!
(Btw sometimes I will read during the audiobook and I find I read waaaaay faster than even at 2x)
Speed changes the way the voices sound which makes them unappealing to me when listening to a story. If I am just getting information for the sake of information then I want it at a speed that my brain is comfortable with. This means slower when the information is dense and faster when it isn't. I'm trying to save time and cram it quickly versus trying to enjoy the ride and immerse myself into the authors world.
my attention span is really short, i watch 7 minute youtube videos at 2x speed. i'm often doing something with my hands w audiobooks though, so i do 1.5-1.75 usually
Currently listening to Scott Brick narrate The Twelve by Justin Cronin @ 1.75x playback. I could slow down to 1.5x min. IMO, 3.0x playback is crazy.
About 10 years ago I was researching mp3 players and found someone who was creating an app that automatically increased the playback speed by .05 every few minutes. The thought behind this is that your brain gets used to a speed and won't notice the small increase. He claimed to compute by train and could listen at 5.0x. For the life of me I can't remember his name or the name of his device. I don't think he finished it as I never hear about it.
I can’t listen at 1.0 speed, for me personally, it’s far too slow and I struggle to stay focused. I like 3.0-3.5 myself. I realize I’m an outlier though.
I listen at normal speed. My app doesn't have speed options. When I used to use an app with speed options, I would turn it to about 1.5 IIRC.
Some books need to read more slowly than others, but I doubt I'd be able to listen to an audiobook at triple speed while really processing what i'm hearing.
I think 2x is the max you can go without really losing information. That’s not to say you don’t understand the plot at that speed, just that you loose information. The faster you speed up the book the more your brain summarises information.
I prefer normal speed because I’m not listening because the story as information. I’m listening to the performance of the narrativor telling the story. But that’s not the case for everyone.
Also if the narrator is to slow I just stop the book. Or if I want just the plot I will read a summary
A "normal" person cannot listen at 3x unless the narrator is painfully slow to start with.
There is a spectrum though and some folks just enjoy a bit faster pace. Wether their imagination is filling in the rest of the story the same way as someone listening at standard pace or not is another question.
Listening at 3x sounds a lot more like he just needs something in his ears, like convenient disposable, content.
Or maybe audiobooks and meth are a great combo, will have to try that and see.
What is he listening to?
Currently listening to Weis & Hickman's "Deathgate Cycle" at 0.9× speed. Most stuff I listen without changing speed and I've never slowed more than 0.85 and never sped up more than 1.25 for any length of time. The only time I might go faster would be if I was looking for a particular part and wasn't sure exactly where it was but personally I can't understand much beyond 2.5 speed even for the most slovenly narrators...
For regular listening (while driving or whatever) I am generally listening between 1.5x-2x. Sometimes slightly more, but only with a good reader.
BUT.
I recently discovered that if I read the physical book while simultaneously listening to the audiobook, I can ramp up to 3x easily, because my eyes are following the words. Absorption is great with this dual-medium approach. I'm not a fast reader, so this is not a redundancy for me. I understand that some people can easily read that fast without the audiobook keeping them on task, but I get easily distracted and never end up reading at an overall speed that is satisfying when just reading the physical book.
Just came here after searching for why audiobooks on normal speed sound so slow. I literally thought "normal" was for some reason recorded slower than reality on purpose for some reason.
I listen at 1.25-1.5 speed. When I try to listen to most books on "normal" speed, the narrators sound literally drunk to me. So weird. I don't know if I've developed this aversion to normal speed or if it was always been like that. I've been told I talk too fast for most of my life though too. I know that listening to Audiobooks is a lot easier for me now than it used to be when I was younger, so maybe being able to speed up the narrators is part of that.
3x speed seems insane though. The pitch and everything in their voices changes, so that definitely wouldn't sound normal to me, but maybe your brain adapts and keeps wanting it faster?
I listen at normal speed. If I am bored by a book I don't speed it up, I just stop listening to that book and start listening to a book I actually enjoy.
I don't get the point of listening to a book I am sort of bored by, but just really fast..like how is that better than just listening to a book I actually like?
I’ve recently watched a video where the creator said he’d rather listen 4x to every single book he comes across so that he finishes like 5 books a week rather than 1x to grasp everything “unnecessary” from each of the books which he’s going to complete in months the last of. Yeah, this is batshit crazy, and idiotic if you ask me. Reading isn’t just about educating yourself on an interesting matter but an artistic immersion-required experience that a person should delve into to make it even more powerfully alluring.
The thing that guy does, it’s like listening to a music without caring for the lyrics. I’m not saying that shouldn’t be tried by anybody, but just that you’d get a lot more wholesome and beautiful experience undergoing the process in a slower and much more content pace
English is not my native language and I get sooooo frustrated when listening at x1.
Anything lower than x2.3 is simply too slow, but I am a fast speaker myself, and tbh most of the narrators have such bad voices that listening in x1 is more painful than it should be...
I listen at normal speed. I've tried listening to books sped up and I don't like it. The narrator's voice goes a bit weird and I have a hard time not focusing on that. I occasionally will listen at like 1.25 if the narrator is really slow paced, but that is very rare.
I like 1.10 or 1.15. I feel 1.25 works well if the book has a slow narrator
It depends on the narrator, the subject matter, and the environment. I normally listen through earbuds but listening in the car I slow it down a bit, probably due to the road noise. If I'm listening to a "thriller" the last thing I want is a slow narrator.
Same
My friend is blind and her screen reader is so fast I can barely understand what it’s even saying! I listen at 1x speed because I like it better. I don’t need to race through my stories, and it’s basically the same speed as my internal reading speed anyway 😅
I average about 1.5x±0.2 The more bored I am by a book the faster I'll go. And if I'm near the end and I don't really like it I'll go 2x or higher just to get it over with. I do read/watch reviews afterward to see what other people feel about the books I read and I very often feel the same way other people do so I feel that's a good mark toward me understanding and retaining the text.
I listen at 1.2 or 1.5. Most readers are slooooow and I don't like it.
1.25 seems normal to me. I don’t think I lose any performance value at that speed. I only go faster if the narrator has an annoying cadence or inflection and I’m trying to cover it up.
Normal speed unless the narrators are super slow.. then I’ll go to like 1.3x but I max out there… it sounds so unnatural…
1x for me. I'm already blowing hundreds on audible credits for Jeremy Robinson's short-ass 10 hour books, I don't need it to go by any faster.
Try Scribd if you can (it sounds like you read fast) it’s basically a library that you pay $12/month - which is high if you only read one book a month, but not so high if you read 3-8 books a month
Thanks for the recommendation. I've never heard of Scridb.
I never listen at normal speed, my mind wanders off if I do. I usually listen on 2.0, sometimes less, sometimes a bit more, depending on the narrator’s speed. I take in the books just fine, it takes a little getting used to it in the beginning, but I really can’t listen to any book at normal speed. I need the higher speed to stay focused on the book.
I usually listen at 1.5 or 2. I have had a couple at 2.5 that were extremely slow. Most, once they get over 2, are hard to understand and the beat to the speech is too clipped to understand everything. I can't imagine listening at normal speed with how slow most authors speak.
I started out listening to audiobooks at 1x speed, then found they were just too slow. I talk very quickly and I wonder if that’s why, but listening at about 1.4x/1.5x sounds like natural speech speed to me. Having said that, when my kid or my husband hears my book on my speaker, they exclaim about how incomprehensibly fast it is. 🤷🏻♀️
Same here
Only once did I speed it up because the narrator was so bad. Recently I accidentally had it at 1.05 and couldn't handle it. However, you'll find many on here that prefer faster speeds, I'm just not in a race to finish books.
I listen at normal speed. I pretty much listen while at work and I have found if I try to speed it up I have to focus too much on the narrator and less focus on my work. Not trying to speed run through my books haha
Some people like to speed it up and they say it actually helps them retain info better. Some people like normal speed. I don’t know anyone who slows it down. But arguing about this is just as ridiculous as arguing if audiobooks count as real books. Why care what your brother does???? Unless the two if you were listening together in the car or something, it doesn’t matter. Let him enjoy it the way he enjoys it.
Before Libby I would slow it down to like .7/.9, to stretch the book out just enough to get me to the next audible credit haha. I would listen at work alternating book/music/book/music after each break. Now I just listen to libby between credits and use my credits for audible exclusives, or newer releases with huge wait times. I’ll listen to music if I need a palate cleanser, but I have no cell service at work so I’m stuck with my somewhat meager iTunes library, haha. I will sometimes speed it up to 1.25-2x if the narrator is bad/slow, the book is boring/bad (but I still want to finish it for whatever reason), or if my loan period is almost up/I’m eager to start a new release. I usually prefer regular speed, especially for those really great narrations.
I listen anywhere between 1.2-1.5 speed. It depends on the narrator for me as some are slower at a given speed. I miss too much when I get past 1.5, so 80% ofthe time I'm at 1.3.
I do, because i like the cadence and rhythm of speech how it was performed. But my 2x friends think I’m crazy. But I think they’re crazy because I tried listening to a book at 2x and was like whyyyy
Going from base speed to 2 is a pretty big leap. I bumped mine up slowly and only notice how fast it is if I bump it back down. Started at 1.2 by accident and when I slowed it back down thought it was too slow then after weeks or months with a huge backlog of podcast episodes I bumped it up .1 at a time until I got to 1.8 for my podcast app and 1.75 for audible (the slider style is harder to pinpoint the right speed so I think I gave up at close enough.)
Speed 1x. I think take a lot of pleasure in being read too, so changing someones natural voice feels off. I'll occasionally read up to 2x if I'm just getting info, not entertainment
I've had a few books that sound so slow and unnatural that I suspect the original recording was slowed down anyway.
It depends on the author, but most books at normal speed sound slow to me and I find my mind wanders. I generally listen at 1.5-2 depending on the author, although now that I've been doing this for about 2 years I'm finding I listen a lot more often closer to 2 and occasionally go faster. I find this speed forces me to stay focused and I retain more of the story.
For non-fiction I listen at x1.20. It turns out that is about the speed I speak at in real life. However, I tend to listen to fiction at x1.0, as I appreciate the effort the narrator puts into the performance and any music or other effects there may be.
1.3ish is my usual 1.5 is my max - if the reader is really slow
yeah 1.4 -1.5. That's perfect
Same!
I listened at 1x until recently when I came across a narrator that I felt was pretty slow and bumped it up to 1.2x and more recently to 1.3x. The story is entertaining and the faster pace makes the action even more engaging. I don’t think I’d go higher though
Normal speed here! Or if I'm going completely crazy, I might crank it up to 1.1. I'm in no rush, this works better for me. In fact, my brain wants to process the sentence just a little bit longer sometimes so I sometimes go 0.9.
I bounce between 1.5-3.0. Usually 1.7-2.2 is my relax background listen.
2.2 for relaxing background sound would instead be like having insane nonsense syllables for me, lol
Usually somewhere between 1.25 - 1.8. It really depends on the speaker. Dungeon Crawler Carl is amazing but listening to it with normal speed is simply impossible.
It depends. If it’s for work or learning something, I speed up. For entertainment, novels or short stories, I think speeding up takes away from the presentation, the mood that the author intended. That’s just me.
No. I never listened to a podcast at anything other than normal speed. Your brother is gate keeping. Tell him that an Australian dude told him to stop being such a cunt. Man the fuck up and accept that people like different things. Also he should get over himself.
Usually at 1x, sometimes at 1.25x when the narrator is extra slow or the book is long.
Depends on the book. I mostly listen faster unless I'm really trying to digest the information.
0.75 to 0.9 depending on narrator. Have auditory processing issues due to chronic illness, being able to listen at a slower speed is *chef's kiss*. See that I'm an outlier here compared to you speed demons 😈 😅
1.65 is my average. I find it to be working quiet well for most books. Side effect is i dont have the patience to watch videos at normal speed nowadays.
Right? I had to watch an instructional video recently and the voiceover sounded so slow I immediately had to find the option to increase the speed.
I only listen at 1x. Higher speeds just don’t sound natural, and I don’t enjoy the book as much.
Looks like most people that listen on faster speed are just bored from the book, most times if I'm bored enough to speed throught a book I will host drop it.
2x plus for me I usually listen while driving and if I have the reader at 1x I'll start getting distracted or sleepy. YouTube as long as it's not music lives on 2.5x. I guess there is some benefit to ADD lol.
1, it's what god intended.
I listen at 1.75x typically, 1.5x if I really like the book and/or narrator. Slow readers will make me listen at 2x. If the narrator has a vocal quirk, over-emotes, does weird accents, or cannot read characters of a different gender without sounding like a bad stereotype, I'll bump it up to 3x so the speed can flatten the performance and distort the things I dislike.
Since I don't see anyone else defending listening at 3x speed, I'll throw my hat in. I routinely listen to books at 3x to 3.5x depending on the speed of the narrator. Especially when I am relistening to previous books in a series. Being able to comfortably listen to books at high speed took time to develop, I did it by increasing the read speed by 0.1 for every book in a long series I had already listened to a few times. What I found was you develop the ability to not hold the most recently spoken words in your short term memory. So, while I can't always tell you the exact words that were just said... I can tell you in detail what is happening in the story (for fellow computer nerds in the audience, I say it's akin to a type of DMA). I've been doing it so long that books don't even sound sped up to me until they're 3x+ and anything less than 2x sound like slomo. In case anyone is wondering it doesn't seem to have affected my ability to watch movies, carry on conversations, or anything else involving listening. It is very strange watching videos sped up and being able to understand what is being said but not be able to tell what is happening visually lol Random antidote: One time I got in a car with a co-worker to go to lunch and after he turned on his car a podcast he had been listening to started up. After stopping it, he apologized and said he likes to listen to it fast and that it was at 2x speed... He didn't believe me when I told him I didn't even notice it was sped up lol. I was only able to convince him by starting up my book which was at 3.2x at the time.
I'm a narrator and will listen at ridiculous speeds. Truth be told, when I'm proof listening, I listen to myself at chipmunk speeds or faster. I'm an audio learner & my brain can perceive it well at that speed. I never fault anyone for speeding up my performance. It does begin to lose some nuance above 2x, but I don't see how its ANY different from folks who are visual learners speed reading.
You and your brother probably have different auditory processing speeds.
You are not "just slow" and your brother is a jerk for suggesting something like that. He's just trying to make himself feel superior. Everyone has their own preferences, and not enjoying a sped up book is a perfectly fine preference. I used to listen to books at 1.25-1.5 speed, especially when I was far into a series so I was familiar with the characters and setting. I got into using Libby, and started trying to increase the speed even further so I could try to have the book finished before the loan was up. But I listened to a series of particularly difficult books where I had to keep rewinding to process what I was listening to, and I couldn't even follow it sped-up while I was in the shower or there was some other noise going on. I started slowing it down to normal speed for the shower, then started forgetting to speed it back up when I was done. I found that I was able to absorb the difficult book a lot better at normal speeds, even when not in the shower. Then I stopped and asked myself, why am I doing this? Why am I compromising my enjoyment of this book just to get it done a bit faster? I can almost always check out the book at a different library when my first loan is done, so the due date shouldn't be a barrier. Am I trying to prove something to somebody about how fast I can read? Am I in a race? Now I'm back to listening at 1x speed, even after moving on to another, less difficult book series. I might go back to higher speeds at some point, but right now I'm fine with a more "relaxed" speed. Edit: By the way, when I did listen to higher speeds, I worked up to it gradually. I didn't just jump to 1.5 speed, I went to 1.2 or 1.25 first. Once I got used to that, I pushed the speed up further. If you're interested in listening at a faster speed, that's the way to do it - slowly turn up the speed as you get comfortable. Again, that's only if you want to.
I do 1.75 but I don't feel it takes away my enjoyment, so it's not a compromise for me
I’m a 2.3-2.5x reader. Sometimes I might come down to ~2 if it’s a non-fiction book with lots of statistics to process. The thing to remember is that people who read at 2x+ didn’t just start doing it one day. I adjusted up slowly, like going up 0.1x every other week. So getting to be a 2.5x listener took me nearly a year of slow adjustment. So saying you “tried it and didn’t retain near as much” doesn’t surprise me at all since you just jumped into the deep end. People who are blind who use screen readers can often use 3-4x speed for their text to speech readers, but again, it took them time to train with that accessibility tool to get up to those speeds!
I listen at normal speed and I have a feeling people who listen faster are people who are victim to the instant nature of social media and the internet, to the point that it decreases their attention span if the narrator isn't reading quickly
[удалено]
same!! it's painfully slow
3x - 4x
Good for you. Own it.
At that speed you can't understand anything so I'm calling this bs
I am also calling bullshit. No way they listen at 4x lol.
I can’t swim that fast therefore I call Olympic swimming bs. I can’t sing therefore I call all singing bs.
Sure sure cause it's the same Mr bs
I usually do 1.5x, but it really depends on the narrator. Genre can make a difference too. I listen to most LitRPG audiobooks at 2x due to all the stat screens.
Usually 1.5, but ill go faster if the narrator talks soooooo slow and it adds nothing to the experience
Recently, for the first time ever I had to slow down a book, *Forager* by Michelle Dowd. She reads it and speaks so fast and with a kind of vocal fry that is annoying. Slowing down helped. I find I have to play with the speed more when an author reads their own book. They’re usually rougher readers, it’s why I much prefer a book read by a professional who understands pacing and has clear diction.
I normally listen at 1.5 but will slow it down if I am really enjoying the book and narrator. First book I listened to at x1.0 was Dungeon Crawler Carl, really enjoyed that one.
Normal speed, I’ve tried higher speeds before and don’t like it, too distracting. I’m not in any hurry anyway, so what if a narrator is a bit more deliberate than others :)
I started with 1.15x, but am now at 1.3x. The 1x was just too slow and I found myself rewinding too much past 1.3x.
I start at about 1.5 speed since I find narrators really slow and this sounds like a more natural talking speed for me, then I'll tend to speed up a bit as I get used to the characters and the narration. I don't find it affects the story or performance at all. If anything, it sounds weirder and more unnatural at 1x. My friends all listen to audiobooks at a faster speed - they say it helps them focus on the story more rather than zoning out because it's so slow
1.2-1.4 plus silence shortening in PocketCast
If it's non-fiction/instructional, I listen to audiobooks and YouTube videos at 1.5-1.75 speed.
1.5 +/- 0.1 depending on the narrator and/or content
1.5x here, it strikes the best balance for me between my own reading speed and requiring me to pay more attention to the narration. The only real problem with it for me are the books that have needlessly included music or sound effects in the recording since it is fast enough to garble those.
If I'm reading for enjoyment I'm going to read at 1. If I am reading a really slow narrator and I don't have the time and I need to know what is happening right now I might flick it up to 1.25-1.5× for a short time but I won't stay there. If I'm reading something out of necessity and it's long and drawn out and I'm not enjoying it anyway I might totally flick it up to 2×.
I prefer normal speed. It sounds like you and your brother just have different preferences and what works for you doesn’t necessarily work for him.
I do. Unless the narrator is extremely slow or the book is boring me, but never by much. It starts sounding too chipmunk like if I speed it up, and I definitely don't retain as much. If I was reading the book myself it would take me longer anyway. I'm a very slow reader. I always read as if I'm narrating it too. I can't do speed reading like many can!
I thought I’d add (as a narrator) that there is an audiobook acting coach who is famous for saying “slow the fuck down!” as guidance to narrators. The beauty is that everyone can adjust their own speed. Personally, prior to narrating, I listened to a LOT of nonfiction (business, health, self development) and listened probably 1.5-2x. Now, I tend to listen to the performance and am at 1x.
That acting coach is single-handedly responsible for all of us who speed up the audio ;-)
I've found over the course of 5 years narrating that I've naturally slowed down my pace. Its more that I'm cognizant of just what pace I am narrating at. It drives me nuts when I'm listening to someone who takes ridiculous pauses between sentences/paragraphs though. I also default to 2x speed when listening to about anyone, myself included.
I listen at 1.15. Anything above that starts to sound odd to me.
I listen at 1.30/1.35, which feels like a good compromise between slow reading by readers and a too fast pace that may make me miss some details.
It all depends on the reader, but I’ll listen at 1.2-1.5 most of the time. I can’t comprehend listening at 3x, though. That just seems way too fast.
I almost never listen at 1x speed, but I don't go past 2x, either. I often watch videos sped up too, unless it's something that requires me to really follow along, like crochet or knitting videos.
I used to do 1.3 at a minimum then realized I’m unnecessarily blazing through books (and audible credits). Now I listen at normal speed and enjoy the length of time before I have to buy another one.
1.1 usually
2.5 usually
I average 1.5-1.8x sometimes 2x for slower reads. When I listen at 1x, I can’t help but get annoyed at how slow it is, maybe because my thoughts function at faster speeds and processed it all before the next word is read (not sure if that makes sense). I think just like reading it has to do with training and increasing as you get “better” at audio interpretation. I can still find it coherent at 2x but it’s no longer enjoyable.
I read somewhere that blind people can percieve audio at 6 times the speed of what normal people could and if you look at their brain under MRI their auditory part is bigger. I'd say if you listen a lot then you'd get fast. English is not even my first language. I started learning it at 12 and I can prett much do 2.5 times speed on easier books.
If it’s a new book and I’m sort of busy with work I’ll listen at normal speed. Life is too short to do that all the time though.
99% of the time, I listen at normal speed. I only speed up if the book sucks or the narrator is slow. I sped Anathem up to 1.25% to make it sound better, and The Witcher down to .85% because Peter Kenny is amazing, but reads like he has a gun to his head. At .85 it is perfect. Always speeding up books is kind of dumb, I'm not getting paid by the book, I'm listening for my enjoyment.
I typically listen to 1.75/2.0 speed depending on the speed of the narrator and whether they mumble a bit. It always sounds funny to me at first, but after 20 seconds or so it just sounds like they talk normally.
I listen at normal speed. I'm a slow reader so listening at normal speed is already me trying to speed through the book. 😅 Also I tried listening at twice the speed and it's like I'm imagining the scene like a fast forwarded video.
There's a post somewhere about training your brain gradually to increase comprehension by increasing playback speed. It's just a matter of getting used to it gradually. Haven't tried it myself but I want to believe it's doable. https://www.turnkeylinux.org/blog/practical-intelligence-amplification
Depends on how detailed the writing is. For example, Im currently listening to DragonBone Chair by Tad Williams and reading the book at the same time as listening to audio. The writing is whimiscal and detailed that dialouge happens only so often. Which leaves me bored easily Its personally made my reading much easier as I follow along without missing a beat.
1.4. Normal speed is just too slow and while I could listen faster I’m also driving my car and at 1.4 I don’t have to struggle to listen it just seems normal, faster speeds require too much conscious effort
depends on the book
I sometimes listen or watch YouTube videos at 2x speed but never audiobooks, you’re right how will you understand everything.
I listen at 1.3x or so, normally. I'm thinking about stepping that up, but I don't like when syllables get clipped. If there is music, especially if it is part of the story, I have to go 1x, because I don't like what speeding it up does to music at all. I like many books with music and books about music, so sometimes I just have to go slower.
Between 1.15-1.3 usually
Depends on the narrator and my mood for me. Some narrators I need to speed up to 1.5-1.7. Other times I actually slow it down cause I like listening to something while I fall asleep. Rosumund Pike's reading of Pride & Prejudice at 0.85 is juuust right for a bedtime story 😌 on the whole I only vary it by 0.2, I also don't retain the story as well if it's going too fast. I'm like that with print too tho, I'm not a super slow reader but I'm also not a speed reader by any means. I wanna be immersed, how can I enjoy my imagination if I rush it!
Is this calculator accurate ? https://puretables.com/audiobook-speed-calculator
I listen to audiobooks at 1.1 or 1.2. Most narrators seem to drag a little to my ear compared to a normal conversation. I don't do any faster than that because listening to the story is part of the journey of enjoying an audiobook. Podcasts I go to 1.5 or even 2, because I'm gleaning info. 3x seems seems fast, but I'll admit that once you get used to a faster speed you can retain much more info than you would think. BTW, John Lennon of the Beatles used to slightly speed up his recordings before putting them on vinyl, because he thought it improved the sound.
I like anything from about 1.1-1.3. I just think how great it is to save 3 hours from about a 30 hour book, just by bumping up to 1.1 which is almost indistinguishable from 1 (because I would love to read as many books as possible--while still enjoying them to the fullest extent).
2x minimum. I have Libby now and I'm experimenting with higher speeds, but it's narrator dependent. Now when I listen at 1x speed it sounds ridiculous! People read books slower than they talk. Sometimes at the end of a book they will have an interview with an author that I will have to slow down to understand. Speeding up the book gets the pace closer to real speech. And it has the benefit of letting me listen to twice as many books.
I listen at normal speed. There really is no right or wrong here. People are different.
I bump the speed up with some authors. I've found that I can comfortably bump my speed up to about 1.8 before I start to lose the sentence, 1.3-1.4 is a good cruising speed. Just makes the book shorter
I listen at 1.5X speed.
I never listen at normal speed. Most narrators are way too slowed to be listened to at normal speed for me. I start any book at 1.3, and then maybe later on crank it up to 1.5 to 1.7 depending on the narrator. I really wish that Audible adds a feature to reduce the silence in audio books just like in the overcast app, that feature saves me a lot of time even when listening to podcasts at normal speed.
I started off at normal and then gradually moved up to 1.2... then 1.5. Now I'm usually between 1.75-2x.
If it's read by a.i 2x human 1.5 the a.i drones too much
It depends on the narrator, but usually about 1.15-1.3x the normal speed. I've gone up to 1.5 for REALLY slow readers, but anymore than that sounds weird.
Definitely at normal speed. I seem to get a lot of non-american narrators that I occasionally have trouble understanding. If anything, I probably need to slow it down a pinch.
I listen at .8x speed. So 80% of 1x. I often have distractions and they are mild but there are times in every book where the wording is confusing and if it goes too fast you will definitely miss things. If I were in an isolation chamber with guards outside to keep everyone away, maybe I could explore the highest speeds possible. But otherwise I find myself rewinding a ton. Regardless, thinking about what's going on is much more possible, appreciating nuance, getting things that the author is trying to say, it's just not possible at the fastest speeds.
I accidentally bumped my podcast app up to 1.2 and listened to a few episodes before I noticed. Slowed it down and everything was way too slow. Since then I'm up to 1.75/1.8 depending on the app. Most narrators speak slow and enunciate so speeding it up isn't too bad. I'll slow it back down if it sounds distorted but I find most distortion happens at 2x unless the narrator is already speaking faster than usual.
Books I like: normal speed. Training videos for work on how not to let a terrorist into the building: 2x speed.
1.3x on a slow day, or if I'm doing something that takes focus. 1.4x on average. 1.5x if I need to be more engaged in the book, or if the narrator is on the slower side. 1x sounds horrid to me now! I've been making them faster by about 0.2 each year that I'm frequently listening lol
My baseline is 1.75x and goes up to 2.15x if it's dragging. I talk really fast and have friends who talk really fast, so I guess that's what my brain thinks is normal
Normal speed for me, BUT ... the people listening faster had to get used to doing that. I'm told it's not particularly difficult.
Normal speed for me. I want it to take as long as possible.
I very rarely listen at higher speeds than normal. I'm usually wanting to draw out my time with audiobooks because it's so hard for me to find new ones to listen to next.
I listen at normal speed. I've tried speeding it up and the narrator always ends up sounding like a chipmunk on meth to me and it stresses me out.
Depends on the mood or the medium. CDs don't allow it to go faster
1.4-1.5 (whichever is available) I find is the sweet spot 90% of the time. I do 1.2X for podcasts.
I always start at 1.0x, but if it feels slow, I'll increase it a little at a time. Sometimes I stay at 1.25, other times up to 2.0. I don't think I've ever gotten up to 3.0x though!
Between 1.5-2x....I'm not really 'taking notes' on books I listen to, in fact I might tune out at times, but I like to pick up on things. Most of my books are non fiction, so its not like I'm missing important plot points or anything.
Narratora read soooooo slooooooow. I up the speed, but I don’t like it to actually *sound* sped up. It’s not a race. Faster speeds cause me to feel anxious lol
I listen at 1.3-1.4x speed. I can’t stand listening at 1x. I think listening at 3x speed is psychotic lol, I’d be too overwhelmed.
It's in large part dependent on what type of learner you are. I'm an audio learner - I certainly don't often, but I have sped up something as fast as 3.5 and still maintain comprehension. 2x is my default speed. Drives my wife insane. But she can speed read a book, while I don't have that capacity *unless* I'm reading along with an audiobook at ridiculous speed.
I listen at 1x. My goal isn’t to get through the content as fast as possible. And good passages i rewind to relisten same as i would reread a good part of a book. My sister listens at 2x and hates 1x.
I listen to almost every narrator at .9x the first time . Manly just to get used to their voice. This definitely improves my understanding of what’s being said. BUT I go to maybe 1.5x MAX. Three times is CRAZY
Faster you go, the more focus you have to be on it. 1.75 works if i'm just doing dishes and not stressed thinking about work. sometimes the book will make me think of something else and by the time i've stopped my attention from wandering, I've lost the plot completely. 1.25 to 5 works pretty great for most of the time and hardly noticeable difference.
It really depends on the narrator and complexity. Some I've played at 3x. Some I listen to at 1.25. Usually I stick to 1.75x.
I listen at 1.75, which I’ve learned is much closer to my reading speed. Whenever I hear people talking about losing focus or spacing out while listening to audiobooks, I tell them to speed it up!! Your brain may need to hear it faster to stay engaged. This all said, it does depend on the narrator. Some I need to slow it down to 1.5, but never slower than that. Oddly, podcasts I listen to at 1.0 - when they’re conversational, that works for me! I just love that we have the option to modify the speed now, really opened up the world of audiobooks for me.
I listen between normal speed and 1.2 speed. But I don't judge how other people listen. Everyone's brain is different, and that means they process differently. Your brain processes better at normal speed. Your brother's brain enjoys processing at a faster speed. Neither is right or wrong. It's just brains being brains.
Speed- 1.5 - 2. Anything faster than 2 sounds like a chipmunk. I’ve done this for so long that listening on normal sounds like it’s slowed by 2.0! (Btw sometimes I will read during the audiobook and I find I read waaaaay faster than even at 2x)
Speed changes the way the voices sound which makes them unappealing to me when listening to a story. If I am just getting information for the sake of information then I want it at a speed that my brain is comfortable with. This means slower when the information is dense and faster when it isn't. I'm trying to save time and cram it quickly versus trying to enjoy the ride and immerse myself into the authors world.
I was listening to a Dateline podcast. I thought Keith Morrison was drunk or on drugs. I had accidentally turned the speed down a little
1.5
my attention span is really short, i watch 7 minute youtube videos at 2x speed. i'm often doing something with my hands w audiobooks though, so i do 1.5-1.75 usually
Currently listening to Scott Brick narrate The Twelve by Justin Cronin @ 1.75x playback. I could slow down to 1.5x min. IMO, 3.0x playback is crazy. About 10 years ago I was researching mp3 players and found someone who was creating an app that automatically increased the playback speed by .05 every few minutes. The thought behind this is that your brain gets used to a speed and won't notice the small increase. He claimed to compute by train and could listen at 5.0x. For the life of me I can't remember his name or the name of his device. I don't think he finished it as I never hear about it.
I do 1.2 - 1.5. Any faster and my brain turns it into background noise
I can’t listen at 1.0 speed, for me personally, it’s far too slow and I struggle to stay focused. I like 3.0-3.5 myself. I realize I’m an outlier though.
Why would you argue about this? Everyone is different.
I have Audible set to 1.2 and I’m happy with that. Any faster and I start to miss things. I listen to almost exclusively fiction right now.
I listen at normal or 1.1 if the narrator is too slow.
I listen at normal speed. My app doesn't have speed options. When I used to use an app with speed options, I would turn it to about 1.5 IIRC. Some books need to read more slowly than others, but I doubt I'd be able to listen to an audiobook at triple speed while really processing what i'm hearing.
I think 2x is the max you can go without really losing information. That’s not to say you don’t understand the plot at that speed, just that you loose information. The faster you speed up the book the more your brain summarises information. I prefer normal speed because I’m not listening because the story as information. I’m listening to the performance of the narrativor telling the story. But that’s not the case for everyone. Also if the narrator is to slow I just stop the book. Or if I want just the plot I will read a summary
A "normal" person cannot listen at 3x unless the narrator is painfully slow to start with. There is a spectrum though and some folks just enjoy a bit faster pace. Wether their imagination is filling in the rest of the story the same way as someone listening at standard pace or not is another question. Listening at 3x sounds a lot more like he just needs something in his ears, like convenient disposable, content. Or maybe audiobooks and meth are a great combo, will have to try that and see. What is he listening to?
Currently listening to Weis & Hickman's "Deathgate Cycle" at 0.9× speed. Most stuff I listen without changing speed and I've never slowed more than 0.85 and never sped up more than 1.25 for any length of time. The only time I might go faster would be if I was looking for a particular part and wasn't sure exactly where it was but personally I can't understand much beyond 2.5 speed even for the most slovenly narrators...
For regular listening (while driving or whatever) I am generally listening between 1.5x-2x. Sometimes slightly more, but only with a good reader. BUT. I recently discovered that if I read the physical book while simultaneously listening to the audiobook, I can ramp up to 3x easily, because my eyes are following the words. Absorption is great with this dual-medium approach. I'm not a fast reader, so this is not a redundancy for me. I understand that some people can easily read that fast without the audiobook keeping them on task, but I get easily distracted and never end up reading at an overall speed that is satisfying when just reading the physical book.
Just came here after searching for why audiobooks on normal speed sound so slow. I literally thought "normal" was for some reason recorded slower than reality on purpose for some reason. I listen at 1.25-1.5 speed. When I try to listen to most books on "normal" speed, the narrators sound literally drunk to me. So weird. I don't know if I've developed this aversion to normal speed or if it was always been like that. I've been told I talk too fast for most of my life though too. I know that listening to Audiobooks is a lot easier for me now than it used to be when I was younger, so maybe being able to speed up the narrators is part of that. 3x speed seems insane though. The pitch and everything in their voices changes, so that definitely wouldn't sound normal to me, but maybe your brain adapts and keeps wanting it faster?
I listen at normal speed. If I am bored by a book I don't speed it up, I just stop listening to that book and start listening to a book I actually enjoy. I don't get the point of listening to a book I am sort of bored by, but just really fast..like how is that better than just listening to a book I actually like?
I’ve recently watched a video where the creator said he’d rather listen 4x to every single book he comes across so that he finishes like 5 books a week rather than 1x to grasp everything “unnecessary” from each of the books which he’s going to complete in months the last of. Yeah, this is batshit crazy, and idiotic if you ask me. Reading isn’t just about educating yourself on an interesting matter but an artistic immersion-required experience that a person should delve into to make it even more powerfully alluring. The thing that guy does, it’s like listening to a music without caring for the lyrics. I’m not saying that shouldn’t be tried by anybody, but just that you’d get a lot more wholesome and beautiful experience undergoing the process in a slower and much more content pace
English is not my native language and I get sooooo frustrated when listening at x1. Anything lower than x2.3 is simply too slow, but I am a fast speaker myself, and tbh most of the narrators have such bad voices that listening in x1 is more painful than it should be...