4 ms·

I have the same sound issues with a lot of stuff, my current theory at this point is that TVs have gotten bigger and we're further away from them but speakers h

by rtpg 9mo ago

I have the same sound issues with a lot of stuff, my current theory at this point is that TVs have gotten bigger and we're further away from them but speakers have stayed kinda shitty... but things are being mixed by people using headphones or otherwise good sound equipment it's very funny how when watching a movie on my macbook pro it's better for me to just use HDMI for the video to my TV but keep on using my MBP speaker for the audio, since the speakers are just much better.

greatgib 9mo ago
It is a well known issue: https://zvox.com/blogs/news/why-can-t-i-hear-dialogue-on-tv-anymore?srsltid=AfmBOooo70Xs3hL0Wfrwy8usfD9Mkh-g9VNwHAGJDBaPIxYoWk93r_Ca https://zvox.com/blogs/news/why-can-t-i-hear-dialogue-on-tv-... I don't find the source anymore but I think that I saw that it was even a kind of small conspiracy on tv streaming so that you set your speakers louder and then the advertisement time arrive you will hear them louder than your movie. Officially it is just that they switch to a better encoding for ads (like mpeg2 to MPEG-4 for DVB) but unofficially for the money as always...
- nutjob2 9mo ago
  I think the issue is dynamic range rather than a minor conspiracy. Film makers want to preserve dynamic range so they can render sounds both subtle and with a lot of punch, preserving detail, whereas ads just want to be heard as much as possible. Ads will compress sound so it sounds uniform, colorless and as clear and loud as possible for a given volume.
  - ajmurmann 9mo ago
    Even leading ads out the dynamic range is really an issue for anyone not living alone in a house with no other homes very close.
- ribosometronome 9mo ago
  I feel like the Occam's Razor explanation would be that way TVs are advertised makes it really easy to understand picture quality and far less so to understand audio. In stores, they'll be next to a bunch of others playing the same thing such that really only visual differences will stand out. The specs that will stand out online will be things like the resolution, brightness, color accuracy, etc.
  - aidenn0 9mo ago
    I have a dedicated multi-channel speaker system and still have the problem
- PunchyHamster 9mo ago
  > I don't find the source anymore but I think that I saw that it was even a kind of small conspiracy on tv streaming so that you set your speakers louder and then the advertisement time arrive you will hear them louder than your movie. It's not just that. It's obsession with "cinematic" mixing where dialogues are not only quieter that they could, to make any explosion and other effects be much louder than them, but also not enough above background effects. This all work in cinema where you have good quality speakers playing much louder than how most people have at home. But at home you just end up with muddled dialogue that's too quiet.
mhitza 9mo ago
Sure, but it's the job of whoever is mastering the audio to take such constraints into account.
- fuzzfactor 9mo ago
  Bass is the only thing that counts. Doesn't matter if it makes vocals part of the backgroud at all times.
  - Tempest1981 9mo ago
    True. I can tell when my neighbor is watching an action film, due to the rumbling every few minutes. And silence in between.
array_key_first 9mo ago
If anything I'd say speakers have only gotten shittier as screens have thinned out. And it used to be fairly common for people to have dedicated speakers, but not anymore. Just anecdotally, I can tell speaker tech has progressed slowly. Stepping in a car from 20 years ago sound... pretty good, actually.
- klodolph 9mo ago
  I agree that speaker tech has progressed slowly, but cars from 20 years ago? Most car audio systems from every era have sounded kinda mediocre at best. IMO, half the issue with audio is that stereo systems used to be a kind of status symbol, and you used to see more tower speakers or big cabinets at friends' houses. We had good speakers 20 years ago and good speakers today, but sound bars aren't good.
  - Twisell 9mo ago
    On the other side being I needed to make some compromises with my life partner and we ended up buying a pair HomePod mini (because stereo was a hard line for me). They do sound pretty much ok for very discreet objects compared to tower speaker. I only occasionally rant when sound skip a beat because of WiFi or other smart-assery. (Nb: of course I never ever activated the smart assistant, I use them purely as speakers).
- vvillena 9mo ago
  A high end amp+speaker system from 50 years ago will still sound good. The tradeoffs back then were size, price, and power consumption. Same as now. Lower spec speakers have become good enough, and DSP has improved to the point that tiny speakers can now output mediocre/acceptable sound. The effect of this is that the midrange market is kind of gone, replaced with neat but still worse products such as soundbars (for AV use) or even portable speakers instead of hi-fi systems. On the high end, I think amplified multi-way speakers with active crossovers are much more common now thanks to advances in Class-D amplifiers.
  - lotsofpulp 9mo ago
mancerayder 9mo ago
I have a relatively high end speaker setup (Focal Chora bookshelves and a Rotel stereo receiver all connected to the PC and AppleTV via optical cable) and I suffer from the muffled dialogue situation. I end up with subtitles, and I thought I was going deaf.
- Avamander 9mo ago
  I strongly recommend you try adding a center channel to your viewing setup, also a subwoofer if you have the space. I had issues with clarity until I did that.
- rtpg 9mo ago
  I legit would recommend you try the "macbook pro speaker" test if you have one... it was really night and day for me

by rtpg 9mo ago

greatgib 9mo ago

It is a well known issue: https://zvox.com/blogs/news/why-can-t-i-hear-dialogue-on-tv-anymore?srsltid=AfmBOooo70Xs3hL0Wfrwy8usfD9Mkh-g9VNwHAGJDBaPIxYoWk93r_Ca https://zvox.com/blogs/news/why-can-t-i-hear-dialogue-on-tv-... I don't find the source anymore but I think that I saw that it was even a kind of small conspiracy on tv streaming so that you set your speakers louder and then the advertisement time arrive you will hear them louder than your movie. Officially it is just that they switch to a better encoding for ads (like mpeg2 to MPEG-4 for DVB) but unofficially for the money as always...

nutjob2 9mo ago
I think the issue is dynamic range rather than a minor conspiracy. Film makers want to preserve dynamic range so they can render sounds both subtle and with a lot of punch, preserving detail, whereas ads just want to be heard as much as possible. Ads will compress sound so it sounds uniform, colorless and as clear and loud as possible for a given volume.
- ajmurmann 9mo ago
  Even leading ads out the dynamic range is really an issue for anyone not living alone in a house with no other homes very close.
ribosometronome 9mo ago
I feel like the Occam's Razor explanation would be that way TVs are advertised makes it really easy to understand picture quality and far less so to understand audio. In stores, they'll be next to a bunch of others playing the same thing such that really only visual differences will stand out. The specs that will stand out online will be things like the resolution, brightness, color accuracy, etc.
- aidenn0 9mo ago
  I have a dedicated multi-channel speaker system and still have the problem
PunchyHamster 9mo ago
> I don't find the source anymore but I think that I saw that it was even a kind of small conspiracy on tv streaming so that you set your speakers louder and then the advertisement time arrive you will hear them louder than your movie. It's not just that. It's obsession with "cinematic" mixing where dialogues are not only quieter that they could, to make any explosion and other effects be much louder than them, but also not enough above background effects. This all work in cinema where you have good quality speakers playing much louder than how most people have at home. But at home you just end up with muddled dialogue that's too quiet.

mhitza 9mo ago

Sure, but it's the job of whoever is mastering the audio to take such constraints into account.

fuzzfactor 9mo ago
Bass is the only thing that counts. Doesn't matter if it makes vocals part of the backgroud at all times.
- Tempest1981 9mo ago
  True. I can tell when my neighbor is watching an action film, due to the rumbling every few minutes. And silence in between.

array_key_first 9mo ago

If anything I'd say speakers have only gotten shittier as screens have thinned out. And it used to be fairly common for people to have dedicated speakers, but not anymore. Just anecdotally, I can tell speaker tech has progressed slowly. Stepping in a car from 20 years ago sound... pretty good, actually.

klodolph 9mo ago
I agree that speaker tech has progressed slowly, but cars from 20 years ago? Most car audio systems from every era have sounded kinda mediocre at best. IMO, half the issue with audio is that stereo systems used to be a kind of status symbol, and you used to see more tower speakers or big cabinets at friends' houses. We had good speakers 20 years ago and good speakers today, but sound bars aren't good.
- Twisell 9mo ago
  On the other side being I needed to make some compromises with my life partner and we ended up buying a pair HomePod mini (because stereo was a hard line for me). They do sound pretty much ok for very discreet objects compared to tower speaker. I only occasionally rant when sound skip a beat because of WiFi or other smart-assery. (Nb: of course I never ever activated the smart assistant, I use them purely as speakers).
vvillena 9mo ago
A high end amp+speaker system from 50 years ago will still sound good. The tradeoffs back then were size, price, and power consumption. Same as now. Lower spec speakers have become good enough, and DSP has improved to the point that tiny speakers can now output mediocre/acceptable sound. The effect of this is that the midrange market is kind of gone, replaced with neat but still worse products such as soundbars (for AV use) or even portable speakers instead of hi-fi systems. On the high end, I think amplified multi-way speakers with active crossovers are much more common now thanks to advances in Class-D amplifiers.
- lotsofpulp 9mo ago

mancerayder 9mo ago

I have a relatively high end speaker setup (Focal Chora bookshelves and a Rotel stereo receiver all connected to the PC and AppleTV via optical cable) and I suffer from the muffled dialogue situation. I end up with subtitles, and I thought I was going deaf.

Avamander 9mo ago
I strongly recommend you try adding a center channel to your viewing setup, also a subwoofer if you have the space. I had issues with clarity until I did that.
rtpg 9mo ago
I legit would recommend you try the "macbook pro speaker" test if you have one... it was really night and day for me