Audio Reference level – more numbers & less frustration.

[Neil Ryan]

[LandofNid] “In my experience you can set your audio to whatever level you prefer as long as it can be heard clearly, and does not distort….It really is subjective and it depends on the final output format.”

With the greatest of respect, your experience is far from the truth.
Consider why there are organizations like SMPTE, EBU etc. These organizations develop standards – which users such as TV networks adopt – so that we all know exactly where we stand when producing masters, doing dubs, encoding etc. Reference tone at the head of a tape is exactly that – a reference. It is put there so that a user can set up a device (such as a VTR) and then play the program knowing they are listening to it as the maker intended.
If the makers of the program – and in this case, everyone involved in the audio process – do their jobs correctly, then their content will, as you said ““be heard clearly” and will ““not distort” once the reference tone is set correctly.
It most definitely is NOT a subjective thing.

Regards,