When the full speed is hard to follow I tend to try:
- keep 1.0x speed and stop the audio frequently so that my brain has a chance to catch up
- keep 1.0x speed and listen to the same text repeatedly while gradually understanding more bits and pieces
- use auto text to speach first (depending on how good this seems to work in my target language), and then listen at 1.0x speed
- 0.9x speed (I rarely go below that - since it does often sound less natural)
When the texts get easier I like to vary the speed, e.g.
- to use higher speeds to challange myself
- often this creates a condition of high focus (I need to focus intensly to understand)
- to get used to higher speeds since native speaker might also talk faster sometimes (at advanced level I would like to be able to sometimes listen faster than natives are usually speaking)
- to safe time (e.g. to be able to listen to more content)
- to keep myself interested, when the content is relatively easy to understand