Why is TV sound so awful these days?

[ShoemanGB]

  Anybody else noticing how hard it is to understand dialogue at times?  Sure, the music and explosions sound good.  My wife fires up the subtitles a lot, or worse rewinds (now I'm showing my age  ) which irks me to me end when I'm in the flow of the show.  She sent me this NYT article which at least shows we're not going any more deaf than usual and it's not necessarily our TV and sound bar although I get the feeling a new bar purchase is in the future if the problem persists.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/17/technology/personaltech/subtitles-streaming-shows-speech-enhancers.html

In the end the author gives at least a mention that the $900 sound system did not do much better most of the time.
 Thoughts?   I know we have some broadcast engineer's here I'd love to hear their takes on it.

[acheld]

I have the same issue, though I purchased some small Bose speakers many years back (like a soundbar) that really help. I read the same article, and I do think their conclusion that a soundbar helps is correct.

My personal take on "why" is that many if not most folks are watching on their "devices" and not on TVs per se, and that the audio mix is optimized for streaming and phones/tablets, rather than for large format TVs and oldsters like me.

[Williamblake]

Dialogs are too quiet, explosions are too loud. It is that way since i can remember. The effect is much worse with a TV's integrated speakers.

[mresistor]

I don't have that problem since I've worn hearing aids since she 90s and the newer ones I have from Phonak have a bluetooth device to transmit the tv (or any other ) audio to my hearing aids.
It has basically been a Godsend for me since my hearing loss is complicated by lack of ability to discriminate some consonant sounds too. Sometimes I think I use 1000 calories trying to understand
spoken dialog.

[EL34]

subtitles are a must sometimes
My sound goes from the Roku into a 5.1 surround sound system via optical cable
I have a big sub woofer
My TV has the sound turned off internally
TV speakers on the big LED tv's are not meant to be used 

[PRR]

Not so much that soundbars=good but that onboard=BAD. Has been that way since 1957 or longer. 99 cent 4 inch speaker shooting out the side of the cabinet. "Progress" is 2 inch speakers shooting out the back of the flatscreen. A soundbar has a chance of smacking you in the face with its 99 cent midrangers.

If you rigged a couple of good 8-inch Champ speakers to smack you in the face, you'd hear dialog great. But there's no useful audio output on many TVs.

And yes, the kids mixing shows today-- while I have trouble diagnosing sound now, I am SURE that I hear phase mix-ups between shows/commercials and even in the same program. (Different from the old soap-opera phase twist as actors moved closer to set wall.)

This is before we get to ZOOM and other low-bandwidth video+audio contraptions. Zoom and Cisco and others clearly let the audio go to hell trying to not show breakup in the vision. But in a talking-head show, 20 seconds of head and you could freeze the video with less impact than woo-whoo audio flanging.

And then there is pure greed. Some tooth ad had a poor talker with a script too long for their ad-buy. Audacity has a tool to "remove pauses". Shtalkdliktisandnobudyculdunnerstnd.

If not too vain: Headphones. There are kits to mount a mike at the TV (or anything) and wireless to phones. Crap sound is still crap sound but not more-crapped by room acoustics or neighbors knocking on the wall.

[mresistor]

The stock speakers in televisions  since forever are definitely not manufactured by Fostex.

[separateness]

Audio mixing has gone to pot anymore. Even in or perhaps especially in movies. I suppose along with over using heavy color filters, they teach new producers that extending a dynamic range beyond usable and alternating between an actor mumbling his lines and some ridiculous explosion is how you wow the audience. The writing isn't much better. For my money, none of it is worth a red cent and I rarely watch movies newer than the 1940s

[ShoemanGB]

if you rigged a couple of good 8-inch Champ speakers to smack you in the face, you'd hear dialog great. But there's no useful audio output on many TVs.

 

Hmmm....  I think I need to take a look at my TV's outputs.   A couple of home built cabs with Champ speakers and a stereo Class D or whatever the new cheap power amp boards nowadays might be worth a try.  Certainly cheaper than the boutique soundbars sell for.  But then I'd still need a sub woofer for the Jurassic Park T-Rex foot steps and Star Wars death ray planet zapper boom/rumble.  Crap.  Never mind.  Subtitles it is I guess.   

[shooter]

don't believe my leds has a stereo/line-out, fiber, check, dolby XX, check, firewire...