Soundbar / speaker advice for TV

[kuato_lives]

Hi,

Looking into connecting some additional speakers for my LED TV - seems most stuff I watch these days has really quiet dialogue mixed in with deafening sound effects

I have some nice bookshelf speakers but my amp is analogue only so thought about getting an Onkyo A-9010 for the necessary optical connection to my TV.

My question is whether this set up would just give me louder dialogue but also boost the sound fx to ear-splitting levels (I’m assuming there’s no way to enhance the dialogue only with my planned set up?).

Don’t want to waste money on a soundbar if this only gives the same increased volume overall.

Anyone got any advice/suggestions for enhanced dialogue (there’s no option in the Samsung TV sound settings), or can confirm that using bookshelf speakers in a similar set up to what I’ve described is worthwhile?

Thanks.

 

[Hojo Norem]

I'd go with your amp and speakers. Soundbars are good at what they do, but one thing they don't help with one but is stereo separation.

If you have the ability to set up your speakers wide apart then do it! I don't watch much broadcast TV these days, but I'd wager that part of the problem with dialogue in some programs are the sound designers not accounting for the poor speakers in the majority of TV these days.

One last thing, in some cases some sound effects are supposed to be loud. Quite a few TVs let you compensate for that though. What you might be looking for in your TVs sound settings is something along the lines of 'dynamic range compression' or DRC. If your TV has it then it may be turned off or set to low. You won't hurt anything by experimenting.

With all these sounndbars and and bluetooth speakers nowadays, a lot of people just don't realise how much better a good pair of properly positioned speakers and a decent amp sounds.

 

[kuato_lives]

Thanks for the reply. Definitely prefer to use my speakers/amp as listen to music mainly and really just want to be able to boost my TV dialogue sound. I’ll mess around with the sound settings some more, see if things improve any. Thanks again

 

[ZedEx48K]

Honestly, if you really want to separate and control the vocal channel you want an AV amp (I love my Denon Atmos amp, as my hearing is a bit f**ked so it helps me hear what people are saying easier).

 

[strykr]

Must say ive been very dissapointed with soundbars. I bought a 100 quid lg one with a sub and it went back in the box after 2 days, sounded terrible despite reviewing well.
Then my inlaws got a sonos beam i hooked up for them and it sounds merely 'ok' to my ears...

Stick with your amp. Roll off the lows and boost around 1-4khz to hear dialogue better

 

[muddymusic]

I didn't have as much space for AV gear when we moved house so I sold my lovely 5.1 system and bought a mid-priced soundbar with separate sub.

What a load of sh*te it is in comparison....I expected lower performance of course but it was a huge downgrade from the full setup although considerably better than the tv speaker of course.

Dialogue is just too quiet, no real dynamics at all and the placing of the sounds is all wrong so you lose the whole direction of things going on screen. When I come to change that I'll either go with a Sonos soundbar which is one of the few that can actually do a decent job of it (and can link in to the rest of my system), or perhaps go to a micro 5.1 system.

 

[muddymusic]

Well there we go Rich, 2 nice matching views on this in the space of a few minutes

 

[kuato_lives]

Cheers fellas, I have a Samsung LED and not sure Samsung support Dolby Atmos...? Was going to be a somewhat expensive solution to be honest, although Richer Sounds looked to do a decent Denon package. Think I’ll look to upgrade to a 5.1 AV system when I get a new TV down the road. Seems to be the way of the world these days: spending >£1000 on a new TV? Yep. Ok, now you need to spend >£500 a new AV and speaker set up to get decent sound out of it!

 

[RygarR]

True dat. But be careful when buying av shizz not to get dragged along with the hype. Audiophiles and their reviews are notorious for bigging up tiny differences in performance that you won't be able to hear. The test equipment in the lab can pick em up, but the majority of typical vaccers' ears won't. You also won't use half the high end inputs, and don't need to pay for them #justsayin

Cheers fellas, I have a Samsung LED and not sure Samsung support Dolby Atmos...? Was going to be a somewhat expensive solution to be honest, although Richer Sounds looked to do a decent Denon package. Think I’ll look to upgrade to a 5.1 AV system when I get a new TV down the road. Seems to be the way of the world these days: spending >£1000 on a new TV? Yep. Ok, now you need to spend >£500 a new AV and speaker set up to get decent sound out of it!