Television Sound

It’s physics.

Treble speakers may be quite small in small enclosures so they will fit in a small case but they are very directional, if they cannot be mounted in the front their output goes elsewhere. Base sound requires bigger speakers and bigger volume enclosures but these will not fit in a small TV which is designed to be as small, flat and light as possible while containing the screen and circuitry.

So we have three choices:

  • go back to much bigger, heavier boxes with a front panel beside the screen,
  • or we put all the sound gear outboard in a soundbar/woofer setup,
  • or put up with midrange-only lo-fi sound.
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Hi @val2,

Also wondering what make and model of TV you have.

Most TVs have a sound profiles which can be changed (e.g. from normal to movie, music, voice etc) or have sound booster functions. Sometimes changing the sound profile can make the TV easier to listen to especially of the normal/standard setting isn’t best for your own hearing.

If you post the make and model, we can check to see if this option exists.

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I’ve made good use of a Logitech 2.1 computer sound system on a small 55cm TV. Just a subwoofer and two small satellite speakers. Needs a 3.5mm audio out or adapter to stereo RCA if that is what your TV has. Not exactly eat splitting Hifi by modern standards, but better than the integrated sound in the cheap smaller TV screens. There is a wide range of budgets and other makes if you look at computer stores or electrical depts. Prices start from around $60 up to several hundreds. It may be all you need?

Our ancient 720p Sony LCD flat screen has it’s speakers arranged along the bottom facing forward, just like a clip on sound bar. It works fine, but is fat by modern standards. Fashion statement it is not. Practical it is!

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one factor often overlooked regarding tv sound quality (which in general is usually bad), is what the actual program your watching sound mix is. many dvd and films are 5.1 dolby mixes, which, in most cases sound muffled when not properly ‘remixed’ or converted to stereo.

then there’s compression - where sound levels are forced to a consistent level and thereby lose definition - this is becoming more and more popular in both music and tv production,

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I don’t think I’ve ever heard a tele where the sound was ‘good’, but then for various reasons I suspect my hearing is less than ideal. My Sony tele is crap - but the addition of a pair of Bose ‘lifestyle’ speakers that I picked up for a song some years ago amps it up to acceptable levels - by acceptable I mean everyone else complains it’s too loud :slight_smile: I use the tele for playing audio via Kodi, Spotify, Youtube, etc and the occasional movie but never ‘television’ as such - no antenna - just a bit of Netflix now and then - so sound is via the net onto a jailbroken AppleTV, or Pi or the cast, so as @leslie.wand suggested, quality is probably the first victim in my setup - but quantity is fine !! :rofl:

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I bought the last CRT model Panasonic made and it had exceptional sound which included a built in sub-woofer. The cabinet size on old CRT’s made this possible. 14 years later a few months ago, it died and I bought a 55" LG OLED which has much better sound than I expected from a flat panel but have hooked it up to a 5.1 surround system as it still lacks ‘depth’.

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I have a 2011 Panasonic Plasma and Guns N Roses sounds great on mine too. Also the picture is still awesome, especially Star Wars on Blu-ray.

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This is a lengthy article, but I think it is worth the reading time, if you bemoan the state of audio in cinemas, streaming, broadcast TV, or physical media such as DVD and Blu-Ray.

TLDR; you’re not just imagining it or getting old. There really is a problem, and it’s complicated.

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So that explains why I couldn’t understand a word Bane was saying in that Batman movie. It was deliberate.

I first noticed this problem around the time of Romeo and Juliet. Here was a movie adaptation of Shakespeare, in which the words are all-important, and I could not hear what the performers were saying!

When I view a movie now, I turn on subtitles. I also keep the remote control on hand so that I can rewind when the words were too fast, and to turn the volume up for spoken scenes and down for action scenes. It is almost as if movie makers are focused too much on their ‘art’ and ignoring the fact that nobody will care how beautiful it is if they cannot understand the story.

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