An improved system for transmitting audio signals in a TV strewn employs an adaptive gain system. The system provides for sampling the audio signal in each of successive intervals in between 256 (2.sup.8) and 65,535 (2.sup.16) steps, for determining a reference voltage (i.e. maximum or mean, . . . ) amplitude for the interval, for dividing the signal into 256 steps, for providing a scaling factor for each of the steps which is a direct function of the reference voltage, and for transmitting the audio signal (interval) along with a code representative of the scaling factor to permit a receiver to faithfully reproduce the signal.