UKC

Further to my earlier thread - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=656148&v=1#x8470757 - I'm afraid we're no further forward, plus we've now seen poor reviews of the one we've got.
Before we resort to returning it to the retailer I'm thinking of calling in an "expert" to see if we've got it set up properly.
Just wondering who to contact. Would it be a straight forward "TV Engineer" or some sort of sound engineer?
Thanks for any advice.

In reply to mypyrex:
Didn't see you original post, but going back to that; a possible long shot if it's setup and not a faulty or poor quality sound bar.

I've Bose speakers for my tv which are fantastic and there is no distortion even at a level far too loud for my comfort. However when I set them up originally, the tv speakers were not disabled automatically on set up and I did not realise this initially. This meant that when the volume was increased both the TV speakers and the Bose speakers were working but competing and the overall effective was poor due to the poor quality of the tv speakers. Once I disabled the tv speakers all was well. Could your tv speakers possibly still be working and creating the distortion?

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Thanks, I had read something about that. I've got the tv sound turned right down to 0 but I probably need to check whether that amounts to the same thing as disabling the speakers.

In reply to mypyrex:
May depend on tv and it's setup options. I actually control the Bose speakers with the normal tv remote so my tv speakers have to be disabled (i.e. switched off in the setup menu). If you use a separate remote for volume, probably the tv speakers will remain off.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

I get quite depressed at being flummoxed by all this ever changing technology. Oh for good old days of a simple on/off switch and volume control.

In reply to mypyrex:

What TV?
What Bose sound bar?
How are they connected?

In reply to captain paranoia:

LG

Bose Solo 5

Haven't a clue The lad did it at Christmas

In reply to mypyrex:
We TV Engineers are a bit few and far between and rather expensive these days, what with the disposable nature of TV sets.

I would suggest downloading this app https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/speaker-meter/id338004164?mt=8
you are looking for your speakers to have a fairly consistent frequency response at all volumes

Play White noise (download here http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_whitenoise.php ) through your speakers (equal energy at all frequencies) and you should see the frequency tail off at about 18 to 20Khz. it does not matter exactly where it tails off but it should be fairly consistent as you take the volume up and down.

If it's not consistent as you bring the volume up then you either have something broken or poor quality and I would take it back. There is not much you can get wrong with the set up of sound bars these days the most common mistake seems to be using the Analog audio input which is low quality, on the Solo 5 make sure you are using the Coaxial or optical input.

Any questions feel free to PM me

In reply to mypyrex:

What model of TV exactly? I was going to dig out the manual and see what it had to say.

Connection: is there any sort of cable connecting the TV and sound bar? Have a look...

(This is beginning to sound like one of the enquiries on the WD MyCloud forum I recently gave up on; people not reading manuals, and not answering diagnostic questions completely...)

In reply to captain paranoia:

I'll have to look at the tv model in the morning. It's connected by cable(?as opposed to wirelessly?) I'm sorry if I'm sounding vague but you are dealing with an old fart.

In reply to mypyrex:
A quick google shows you will have a universal remote with the Bose. More likely you'll have to disable the tv speakers as the Bose remote will control all your tv functions including the sound of the built in speakers.
Edit: this could be automatic though on set up.
PS I can empathise with you about modern stuff as I struggle to keep up nowadays.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

I've just been into the "Setup" menu and have turned the speakers OFF

In reply to mypyrex:


Hope that's improved the sound by doing that.

If not, others on here maybe able to help more or failing that could be a case of returning the sound bar. An alternative might be to contact Bose for help (or the retailer) before returning.

Anyway hope you get sound working for you.

In reply to Climbing Pieman:

Thanks for the help. I thought this morning that I'd cracked it. I made sure that the TV speakers were off then jiggled around with the volume and bass settings. I was watching a current affairs programme and I had the sound level at about half of what I would have had it pre-sound bar.

We then sat down about half an hour ago to watch a film we'd recorded last night but were back at square one. With the sound level set Hugh Bonneville, who I consider to be a good actor and speaker, appeared to be mumbling as did the many Americans. If they weren't mumbling they were shouting which rendered them equally inaudible. There was then a terrible explosion of background music which deafened us with huge BOOM, BOOM and reverberated around the room.

We switched it off

This only bears out my feeling that the sound in films and plays is, for some reason or other, inferior to that of things like news broadcasts and current affairs. I NEVER have any difficulty listening to George Allagiah.

In reply to mypyrex:

It may be down to surround sound settings. Current affairs programmes are likely to use simple L/R audio. Films are likely to use 5.1 channel audio, with speech mostly presented on the 'centre' channel. If your sound bar is decoding L/R, and not centre, speech will be very quiet.

Again, what model TV is it, and exactly what type of connection is it between TV and soundbar: what socket is the cable connected to on the soundbar? Aux? Optical? Coax?

In reply to mypyrex:
Another google suggests it's a fairly basic sound bar, but it does have a specific dialogue mode. One review I read said "the Dialogue mode will be useful for anyone hard of hearing as it not only emphasises spoken word but also decreases the bass to improve intelligibility."

Looks like you will need to go into the controls of the Bose and set the Dialogue mode to on if it is not already on. Also bear in mind your sound bar is only stereo when setting up output in the tv menu.

That said having a quick read of reviews, it says it is an easy setup and with some of the comments on speech clarity that to me suggests what you are hearing could be as good as it gets unfortunately. Possible it's faulty though. Bose are normally very good quality. Given your need for clear speech I think it it was mine I would cut my losses and go for a better sound system. My Bose system copes with all types of transmissions and never needs adjusting between different types of programs, and always clear at all volumes.

In reply to mypyrex:

could it be the poor quality of tv dramas?
https://rts.org.uk/article/sounding-inaudible-dialogue-rife-among-dramas