#21

LG make ace TVs for a good price. They support nearly all apps too.

#22

These days I find TV speakers don’t separate out the dialogue enough from the background sound.

That’s probably a combination of flat-screen speakers, TV production, and my age.

1 Like
#23

yeah it’s just everything being squashed into the mid range

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#24

Yer da watches ITV through built-in speakers at 90% volume and is still straining to hear it.

TV on 14" portable CRT through proper speakers is a million times preferable experience to tinny built-in speakers on even the lushest of screens.

No need for anything fancy expensive. See above, about my 90s JVC mini system boxes still loyally serving. I’m no audiophile.

It’s about the physical volume required to create the full range of soundwaves.

Means you can have the volume down low, but it’ll still be clear enough to hear everything properly.

(Can’t be doing with try-hard overly-boomy home cinema efforts, either - they seem to go too far the other way by creating a soup of disparate sounds, or maybe I’ve only heard bad examples?)

#25

No neighbours :relaxed:

Yeah this is basically the issue. Watched The Green Mile recently and spent the whole film fiddling with the volume, and still missed half the dialogue. Haven’t even attempted watching the new Blade Runner (saw in cinema), as seems like it would do it a grave injustice.

Think I am actually going to end up buying a relatively cheap TV and a decent sound system.

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#26

Very much this. It’s a brutal triple whammy.

Haven’t really looked into it that much, but it’s a very common complaint, from what I gather. Definitely a production trend towards going heavy on the music soundtrack, Peaky Blinders stylee (though I wouldn’t single out PB as being a particular offender, that show actually does a decent job of not letting the speaking voices get muddied up - it’s the copycats who use the music track as a lazy/easy go-to).

#27

Have just reminded myself how poor DAB radio audio is, and switched over from the Denon mini system radio to the TVs BBC Sounds app. The inconvenience of a few seconds and a couple of extra button presses initially, but it’s night and day by comparison.

Amazing how you just get used to what’s familiar.

Hands up, I was kinda on the fence about HD when it first arrived. Partly due to my meh attitude to visual quality generally, and having a small screen for so long, so the jump from an old 14" CRT to a 32" flat screen dwarfed the difference between SD and HD at the time. Have since moved on to a 43" screen and going back to non-HD channels is quite jarring.

#28

There’s also the problem on satellite and cable of bandwidth. Unless you’re watching a flagship channel the compression on the sound is really, really nasty.

#29

If I were to buy a tv i’d get one of the philips ambilight, the ambilight gimmick is really nice and enhances my enjoyment considerably (I dont have a philips one but a dream screen kit that adds the same thing).

Instead of a soundbar maybe consider getting a mini hifi or using one if you already have it. I have a little pioneer one from richer sounds, TV sounds really good through it, actually got me back into listening to CDs too. I don’t use it for TV anymore as I got a Logitech z906 surround sound, price of these fluctuate wildly but are the kind of thing that get blown out really cheaply every so often

2 Likes
#30

I really like my soundbar (Samsung) I got it as a deal with my TV and it has a separate subwoofer but it’s wireless so you just stick it in the corner next to a power plug. It really helps with seperating the vocals and has good quality audio. Works nicely as a bluetooth music player. I think soundbars are better now than they used to be, and mine looks quite slick just behind the TV (which is hanging from a bracket)

#31

Ignore the screen! I was showing off to @hip_young_gunslinger

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#32

Haha, I thought the one consensus I had found was to avoid soundbars :upside_down_face:

I managed to find a temporary solution by connecting my TV to a wireless speaker using an aux cable, and using youtube via my Switch.

#33

There are a lot of crap soundbars out there, for sure.

#34

Not sure how good a TV purchase it’ll be for HDR as it has no local dimming but it seems like a solid 4k set otherwise. The roku features are insane. The os is great for a TV at any price