Soundbars

[RAF96]

I used to have a Sony Surround Sound system - came with six speakers - one being a "whoofer" about the size of a packing case. If you had a good (??) war movie, you could hear the bullets and shells coming past your ears - from behind - and with the volume right up, the whole road could enjoy the sound - I think it threw out 800watts - I gave it to a charity shop!

I had a Sony 800 theatre system. Same double wardrobe for a woofer but the best bits were the golf ball sized speakers. Perfect clarity and quality of reproduction. Its failing was it couldn’t do the surround bit properly. I bought it after a demo at a sound show but took it back to the shop and asked the guys there to demonstrate how to set it up for pucka surround. They failed to so do, so in the end I flogged it.

The thing was the previous TV I had was a huge cabinet of a thing but the inbuilt pseudo surround
was superb and as you say I used to duck as the bullets went past. It went belly up and its replacement wasn’t half as good, hence buying the Sony system.

I now have a Sony sound bar with a wireless woofer and that is very good. Setting it up with my Phillips TV, Manhattan FreeSat box, Lg blu-ray player and Apple-TV was a challenge. It is supposed to have settings for clear speech, movies, music, and a host of other things that seem OK for now so I don’t fiddle with them.

[GeoffAlan2]

I've lost all sound above 4000Hz. My hearing below that is not too bad, so my hearing aids progressively boost the sound from about 3500Hz up. If there's background noise, they boost that too. So in a crowded room I'm effectively deafened by the row.

Watching TV I sit with the remote in hand to boost the volume when some actors speak. At the moment we're re-watching Ashes to Ashes. While Keeley Hawes is a great actor, in her more 'confidential voice' neither I, more my wife, whose hearing is normal' can make out what she is saying.

Add background music in modern movies, and we use the subtitles. As has been said, most older films aren't an issue but, given the volume level most cinemas now routinely use (remember them?) modern film makers have become lazy when it comes to TV audibility.

The same applies to some TV sport. Pitch-side pre-match interviews in the 6 Nations coverage is a waste of time as the crowd noise renders the whole thing inaudible. Once the commentators take over with their lip microphones all is OK. Same background noise, better 'mike' and the background noise isn't picked up.