Connecting TV to Audio Leveler to Soundbar (1 Viewer)

[MovieFan54]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum and would like to ask for help with a problem. I have a Hisense 65" 4k TV and a Samsung HW-A58C Soundbar. I love them both, but neither have the option of sound leveling to balance soft dialogue with loud explosions, music etc. I got tired of having to constantly adjust the volume manually, so I purchased a stand alone device, a Rolls Stereo Program Limiter (SL33B) with the hope of leveling the audio from the TV to the Soundbar. The device only has RCA connections and the soundbar is connected with an hdmi cable to the TV's hdmi Arc port. Now getting the device connected from the TV to the soundbar is the problem. I tried running an hdmi to rca converter from the TV to the Rolls device. Then, the rca connection from the Rolls to an rca to hdmi converter to connect a 2nd hdmi cable to the soundbar. It might sound confusing. Basically trying to do (hdmi to rca to device to rca to hdmi). The conversion I tried doesn't work. If anyone has any suggestions on how to achieve this, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Welcome to the Forum!

If the conversion approach did not work, then the only thing that will is to use RCA outputs from the TV to the Rolls, and then RCAs from the Rolls to the soundbar. If those connections aren’t available on your equipment, unfortunately, your best – and probably only – option is to get a soundbar with built-in level balancing.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[MovieFan54]

Thank you for your reply. I'm afraid that's the problem. The soundbar only has an hdmi input and the TV's RCA only looks like input for older things like a VCR. No output there. There's another idea I may try. The TV has a headphones jack and the Rolls has that input/output to. If I can get that to a device that has bluetooth, I can send that to the soundbar which has that as an input too. If that too fails, I've since found the phone number for the Rolls company and see if they know of anything more. Thank you again for replying. I do appreciate it.
Paul

 

[JohnRice]

You might have more luck raising the center level and lowering the surround levels, if the soundbar has those options.

 

[MovieFan54]

Thank you. I have played around with that, but I will go back and try again. Worth another look.

 

[JohnRice]

The complaint you made is virtually always due to poor levels calibration. Of course, that is using a traditional, receiver based surround system, but the problem is the same. I've never had a soundbar and don't know what adjustments they tend to have.

Personally, I always raise the center a bit and lower the surrounds from what measures as "correct". Also, virtually all surround receivers have a "Midnight Mode" or some other name, which tones down the dynamics of soundtracks, which also might help, but the levels need to be adjusted first. I don''t know if soundbars typically have that.

Finally, I don't think your sound leveler can accomplish that you want. That's just not what sound levelers do. They're really for leveling the volume of different songs, channels, or sources. Not leveling, or compressing a single source.

 

[MovieFan54]

The soundbar I have has a setting which is supposed to lower levels of higher volumes, but it doesn't seem to do it. I did reduce the rear speakers and will see if that helps.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Something to keep in mind, bypassing the HDMI connection will eliminate the soundbar’s 5.1 processing.

That is, assuming it is enabled via by both the TV and soundbar, and actually makes an audible difference over non-5.1 surround sound. Most of us here don't put much stock in the 5.1 claims of soundbars.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[MovieFan54]

Thank you. I do realise that. The problem sometimes even happens with mono audio of older films, so for those it won't matter. I do like to hear 5.1 in newer shows and films though, so I'll still use the original setup most of the time. I'm more forgiving of loud audio explosions than my wife, lol. That's why I'm trying to get this other option working for occasional shows and films that we watch together. I'll let you all know how I make out.

 

[danielanderson4500]

Instead of all those converters, try using an optical audio cable if your soundbar supports it. It should give you better sound quality.

 

[MovieFan54]

Hi. Yes, thank you for the reply. I've been meaning to get back to this thread. That's exactly how I solved it. Ran a 3.5mm connection from the headphones out of the TV to the Rolls device (which luckily had this connection input too). Then from the 3.5mm out of The Rolls to an analogue-to-digital converter to the soundbar (which had the optical input). It works great and does just what I needed - balancing levels so I don't have to manually adjust anymore between dialogue and loud music, explosions, etc. What's nice is that I can easily switch between this setup and the TV arc out HDMI if I want to hear 5.1 on a particular movie. I've got the best of both worlds now.