Clear TV dialogue -- soundbar, or home theater system?

[Irishman]

As I get up there in years (late 50s), my hearing sure isn't what it used to be. Making out the dialogue on TV is difficult sometimes.

So when I recently joined the 21st century and bought an HDTV, I was disappointed to find that the sound was even worse than it was on my old CRT...and that was nothing to write home about. From what I see on the internet, bad audio on HDTVs is a fairly common complaint.

So I'm pondering either a soundbar or a 5.1 system. I have no particular models in mind at this time. But in the opinion of one columnist I read, home theater systems (as opposed to soundbars) are virtually always the better choice for someone wanting clear center channel dialogue.

Before I delve further, I thought I'd see what the MacRumors community has to say on that. Has anybody else looked at it from this angle (center channel clarity)? Frankly, I don't need a speaker in every corner, and I like the simplicity of a soundbar. But will a soundbar give me clearer dialogue?

BTW, I'm under no delusions that, with my hearing loss, I'll never have to rely on closed captioning. It's just that I think a newer, better TV should involve a step up, not down, in audio quality.

Hi Thomas!

You've asked some engaging questions and it's encouraging, because it shows you're really thinking about your choices, instead of just jumping at the first budget option that shows up on a Google search!

The brain trust at MRs has given you some solid advice and information, but there's one small thing that I had hoped would have gotten more attention. If you're going to go the sound bar route, you've got to make sure that your HDTV has one or the other of these - a free HDMI port that you're not planning to use for other components, OR a clearly-labelled audio output. [Most TVs have audio inputs, usually either red and white analog stereo, or some even have a digital input like digital coax (looks like a single RCA jack) or fiber optic (AKA optical or S/PDIF), but unless labelled otherwise, inputting sound is all they can do.]

And, of course, the sound bar must have an output to match the TV for them to work. Make sure you get all this figured out before you take the plunge, so you're not stuck spending extra time and money shopping for and ordering adapters and whatnot, or worse, returning the sound bar and starting all over again.

Here's from the wire cutter review of that Vizio you linked to:

"However, if your TV has no audio outputs, which is unfortunately becoming more common, you might need a soundbar with HDMI. Most TVs with HDMI have one HDMI port that supports Audio Return Channel (ARC). This lets the TV output sound over the same HDMI cable you use for input. Since almost all receivers support this, and some soundbars with HDMI, we are starting to see TVs without other audio outputs. If your TV only has HDMI with ARC, you’ll want to pick a different soundbar that supports that. We have a choice for you later in the article."

The Vizio bar doesn't have HDMI.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/vizio-2...wNw-d7mEYQAJKE9DfVhGswb7_A#tab=specifications

 

[Thomas Veil]

Thanks for the ongoing interest and advice.

I thought I'd update this, however belatedly. I did get the Vizio soundbar. It mates with my JVC TV just fine via optical. I was pleased to find it instantly improved my ability to understand dialogue from my TV and DVD player.

This was especially satisfying with a DVD set of The Avengers that I got for Christmas. (No, not those Avengers. The Avengers. )

Amazingly in this day and age, the DVDs come totally without closed captions, either embedded on the DVDs or hidden in the vertical interval. And I had a really rough time making out what anybody was saying. With the soundbar, I can hear virtually everything. ("Mrs. Peel...we're needed!")

Of course, TV shows today have a much wider dynamic range. What that means to hearing-impaired folks like me is that the dialogue is sometimes "muddied up" by other sounds. Still, the soundbar is a great improvement. I've cut down on my need to use closed captions a lot.

The only place where dialogue still sounds consistently weak is NFL games. I don't know how they mix the sound on those things, but I have to strain to hear the announcers over the crowd noise. I've noticed that sometimes I can hear the quarterback on the field better than I can hear the play-by-play guy in the booth! And that's true whether I'm using the TV's own speakers or the soundbar.

 

[old-wiz]

This was especially satisfying with a DVD set of The Avengers that I got for Christmas. (No, not those Avengers. The Avengers. )


Amazingly in this day and age, the DVDs come totally without closed captions, either embedded on the DVDs or hidden in the vertical interval. And I had a really rough time making out what anybody was saying. With the soundbar, I can hear virtually everything. ("Mrs. Peel...we're needed!")

Captions often don't show up in DVDs of older programs. For example, I'd love to buy the Inspector Morse DVDs, but none of them are captioned. Now days the captions work differently due to HDMI - they have to be handled separately. You have to go to a DVD's menu and click on captions or SDH.

 

[ActionableMango]

Boost the center channel

Looks like I'm too late to chip in for OP, but just in case anyone else has this problem, I'm answering anyway.

I'm surprised nobody is mentioning this, but in nearly all decent 5.1 receivers you can adjust the relative volume of each individual channel. I have the exact same problem as OP, and solved it by simply boosting the center channel's volume relative to the other channels. I've never seen this feature in a soundbar, although I admit I've only handled a few of those.

Dynamic range can really suck some times. For example you turn the volume low because the sound effects are so loud that they melt your face off, but then the dialog is too quiet because you set the volume too low. Many receivers have dynamic range compression (DRC, or some other name like "night mode"), which also helps for those movies with way too much dynamic range, but I have found this does not work on all digital audio types. Something to do with the encoding or decoding process makes some audio streams incapable of being affected by DRC. Or perhaps it is just my specific receiver that cannot apply DRC to all digital audio types, and perhaps others can.