Hi,
Myself and many other users have commented on how low and poor sounding dialogue is when watching movies (especially at lower volumes) in dolby 5.1 from any source. The speaker centre channel is not balanced in terms of volume. I and many others are constantly turning up trying to hear speech and then down when predicting something loud is about to occur. There's many topics on here about it, just do a quick search to see. I really hope something can be done about it. Have the option to annoy hell out of neighbours or simply not hear dialogue that well.
Maybe something can be done to increase the volume of centre channel when using 5.1 or improve the speech enhancement that doesn't make that much difference. Either way this issue was with soundbars and cheap 5.1 systems back in early 2000s. Thought Sonos would be ahead of the times here and have options to improve it. You have night mode which makes things sound worse due to removal of bass etc, maybe have some dynamic range control that doesn't totally wipe out the bass.
Either way. Have to turn back to use stereo sound when watching movies and such a waste of my play 1s are rears as it just sounds so unbalanced and awful.
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In my experience, this is often poor mastering of the origination source. That being said, I also do keep the Sonos features of Dialog enhancement (and Night mode) turned on at all times, day and night, and at all volume levels....not that I ever get particularly loud (I think).
Are you using this feature as well?
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1948
Now, I'm certainly not going to argue that additional flexibility wouldn't be helpful. It would be nice to have a center channel control, much like Sonos offers the ability to control the surround sound volume.
Are you using this feature as well?
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1948
Now, I'm certainly not going to argue that additional flexibility wouldn't be helpful. It would be nice to have a center channel control, much like Sonos offers the ability to control the surround sound volume.
Are you using this feature as well?
https://support.sonos.com/s/article/1948
Now, I'm certainly not going to argue that additional flexibility wouldn't be helpful. It would be nice to have a center channel control, much like Sonos offers the ability to control the surround sound volume.
Hi, yes I am using that feature. Works well in stereo mode but don't notice much difference to dialogue in 5.1.
Totally agree. All they need to do it have centre channel adjustment like they do for the rears and the problem would be fixed imo.
The trouble with night mode is it takes away depth to the voices as well, which makes them sound worse in many instances. It's not the answer. The difference between dialogue levels and actions scenes is ridiculously large and I agree it's probably down to poor mastering. But Sonos could easily develop something such as a centre channel volume adjustment to overcome such issues. Many other systems have something similar.
The only thing I can think of that would be a potential solution would be simple "compression" of the volume difference that are presented in a stream....which I think is somewhat what the night mode does. But, I'm not an audio engineer, so it's possible that someone who is at Sonos can come up with something 🙂
Let's hope so. Does any of the audio engineers look at these threads? I hope so. It's the one thing that is seriously letting the beam down.
Not 100% sure, but I would expect that if not, the Forum staff puts together a summary of data that transpires here for consumption of the team in general.
The best work around which is pretty stupid having to do it. Is night mode, speech enhancement on and then turn bass up to full. It's far from ideal when all is needs is to be able to increase volume of centre channel.
I’ve had this on my playbar since I got it about 3 years ago and it’s never been fixed, heard that the beam had improved speech so didn’t think it would suffer from the same problem, but it does.
Have it at a decent volume for speech and when any action happens it’s stupidly loud, turn it down and can’t hear a thing that’s being said.
I have the speech enhancement on at all times and it’s slightly better but massive room for improvement. Wish I didn’t need it on as I think it makes everything sound tinny, I don’t bother with night mode as it just sounds like all the bass has been turned off. Hoping a solution is made but after 3 years with the playbar nothing has ever been done.
Have it at a decent volume for speech and when any action happens it’s stupidly loud, turn it down and can’t hear a thing that’s being said.
I have the speech enhancement on at all times and it’s slightly better but massive room for improvement. Wish I didn’t need it on as I think it makes everything sound tinny, I don’t bother with night mode as it just sounds like all the bass has been turned off. Hoping a solution is made but after 3 years with the playbar nothing has ever been done.
Have it at a decent volume for speech and when any action happens it’s stupidly loud, turn it down and can’t hear a thing that’s being said.
I have the speech enhancement on at all times and it’s slightly better but massive room for improvement. Wish I didn’t need it on as I think it makes everything sound tinny, I don’t bother with night mode as it just sounds like all the bass has been turned off. Hoping a solution is made but after 3 years with the playbar nothing has ever been done.
It's the most annoying thing. I agree. The balance is way off on any movie. They just don't seem bothered enough to improve it, wouldn't even take much a few software options. Speech enhancement barely does anything when not in stereo mode. Shame I've gone past the 14 days and invested in play 1s otherwise I'd return it. Sonos keep blaming the source. Funny not an issue on other speakers where you have more options.
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