A Question for the experts here! (1 Viewer)

[Mr.Wizzle]

Hey all!
I recently bought a new samsung LCD TV and I'm wanting to improve my sound quality, but most of all I want to BALANCE the overall volume of the things I watch.

What I mean is this...I live in a quiet condo complex and I have no need for skull crushing sound but my main issue with all the TVs I have is that I'm always forced to ride the volume control no matter what I watch. My hearing is fine yet during shows I'm always turning up the parts with dialogue, then racing to turn down any part such as cars going by or planes taking off etc. I no longer am able to sit, relax and completely lose myself in a program due to this situation. Again, this is not just my personal pet peeve...my wife and others understand the situation.

I have been told that a home theater system will do wonders for this issue. I also dont want to invest cash into something that wont solve my issue. As a life long musician I have worked with compressors that balance volume.

Is there anyone here that can shed some concrete light on my issue? Will a nice Home theatre in a box help with my problem. You input is greatly appreciated!!!!!!!!!!

Jerry

 

[JohnRice]

What you want is a receiver with a dynamic range control. Most if not all have this, but I can't attest to most HTiBs. There are two common ways you can accomplish what you want. First is the dynamic range control which most (maybe all) digital surround receivers have. This lets you basically preset how much you want to limit (actually, compress) the dynamic range of audio material. This is usually buried somewhere in the configuration of the receiver. A better way may be something like Pioneer's "Midnight" mode. Different manufacturers have the same feature, but use different names. This does basically the same thing, but usually is just on or off. It doesn't have any variables like the other method. However, you can turn it on and off with a simple push of a button. Some DVD players also have dynamic range controls, but that will only work with DVDs. Also, these modes typically DON'T work with DTS soundtracks.

Also, with a receiver, you get a center, dialog channel. Setting the center channel a bit louder than normal will also help to reduce the dynamic impact of surround segments.

So, you just need to make sure any receiver or HTiB you look into has one or both of these options.