diff --git a/cbd-tui/src/app/now_playing.rs b/cbd-tui/src/app/now_playing.rs
index 1bc2615..d02cb62 100644
--- a/cbd-tui/src/app/now_playing.rs
+++ b/cbd-tui/src/app/now_playing.rs
@@ -100,14 +100,16 @@ impl NowPlaying {
     }
 
     pub fn render(&self, f: &mut Frame, area: Rect) {
-        // Info block, progress row, then (when enabled) a spectrum row.
+        // Info block fills, then a fixed progress row and (when enabled)
+        // a fixed spectrum row. Length(1) is hard-fixed so the rows are
+        // never squeezed out by the block above them.
         let spectrum_row = if self.spectrum_enabled { 1 } else { 0 };
         let now_playing_layout = Layout::default()
             .direction(Direction::Vertical)
             .constraints([
-                Constraint::Min(6),
-                Constraint::Max(1),
-                Constraint::Max(spectrum_row),
+                Constraint::Min(3),
+                Constraint::Length(1),
+                Constraint::Length(spectrum_row),
             ])
             .split(area);
 
diff --git a/crabidy-server/src/lib.rs b/crabidy-server/src/lib.rs
index 5fee402..5e7656c 100644
--- a/crabidy-server/src/lib.rs
+++ b/crabidy-server/src/lib.rs
@@ -172,11 +172,15 @@ fn spawn_spectrum_task(
             let count = tap.frame_count();
             if count != last_count {
                 last_count = count;
+                if !was_active {
+                    debug!("spectrum: audio flowing, streaming bars");
+                }
                 was_active = true;
                 let bins = analyzer.analyze(&tap.snapshot());
                 let _ = update_tx.send(Update::Spectrum(SpectrumFrame { bins }));
             } else if was_active {
                 // Playback just went idle: drop the bars to the floor once.
+                debug!("spectrum: audio idle, bars to zero");
                 was_active = false;
                 let _ = update_tx.send(Update::Spectrum(SpectrumFrame {
                     bins: vec![0.0; spectrum::SPECTRUM_BINS],
diff --git a/crabidy-server/src/spectrum.rs b/crabidy-server/src/spectrum.rs
index 3263cb1..36f5bbf 100644
--- a/crabidy-server/src/spectrum.rs
+++ b/crabidy-server/src/spectrum.rs
@@ -60,14 +60,22 @@ impl SpectrumAnalyzer {
             return vec![0.0; SPECTRUM_BINS];
         }
         let n = self.window.len() as f32;
-        let magnitude = |c: &Complex<f32>| c.norm() / n;
+        // Single-sided amplitude (2/N): a full-scale tone reads near 1.0
+        // at its bin, so the bars fill for ordinary listening levels.
+        let magnitude = |c: &Complex<f32>| c.norm() * 2.0 / n;
         (0..SPECTRUM_BINS)
             .map(|bar| {
                 let lo = self.edges[bar];
                 let hi = self.edges[bar + 1].max(lo + 1).min(self.output.len());
-                let avg = self.output[lo..hi].iter().map(magnitude).sum::<f32>() / (hi - lo) as f32;
+                // Peak within the band, not the mean: a strong component
+                // must light its bar instead of being diluted by the
+                // quiet bins around it (which averaging does).
+                let peak = self.output[lo..hi]
+                    .iter()
+                    .map(magnitude)
+                    .fold(0.0_f32, f32::max);
                 // Log-compress: dBFS mapped onto [0, 1].
-                let db = 20.0 * (avg + 1e-9).log10();
+                let db = 20.0 * (peak + 1e-9).log10();
                 ((db - MIN_DB) / -MIN_DB).clamp(0.0, 1.0)
             })
             .collect()