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Soundbar - voice is very bad

  • 14 February 2018
  • 9 replies
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I have invested in a Soundbar and 2x Sonos One for 5.1 Dolby. Playing Bladerunner blue ray via Xbox is impossible as the 5.1 results in voices being inaudible.

It all works if I set the Xbox to uncompressed stereo rather than uncompressed 5.1.

This is NOT what I bought the system for. In
simple terms the system is NOT fit for purpose.

How do I resolve this? When will it get fixed.

Tried nighttime mode, tried voice enhance... non of them work.
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Best answer by Airgetlam 15 February 2018, 00:45

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9 replies

Airgetlam
You've got several potential issues.

Are you selecting the 5.1 Dolby Digital track when playing the Bladerunner Blueray? Or are you depending on the XBox to transcode the signal for you? That might be one potential area to look at. The PLAYBAR can only play the signal it is handed, it's not something that does a lot of modification of the signal, unless it's a PCM/Stereo siganl, in which case it does generate a little bit of information for the surround speakers to play.

Did you also purchase a SUB to go with the PLAYBAR? If you want a true 5.1 sound, you really need that extra punch for the bass.

The simple fact is that DTS isn't Dolby Digital. If you are relying on another box to do transcoding for you, you're dependent on that software's ability to do transcoding....and transcoding is never as good as an originally mixed soundtrack. It's an estimation by software as to what it thinks might be the correct sound.

If that disc has a Dolby Digital soundtrack, use that. Connect the BluRay player directly to the TV via HDMI , so that the XBox isn't in the middle muddling things up.

You may find a slightly better sound.
Bruce
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Sonos app indicates it is playing 5.1, so I feel safe in assuming it’s gettingnthe right signal. Sound is amazing, voices cannot be heard.

No I don’t have the Sub, I assume this (being base) would not impact the voices?

Not sure what DTS has to do with this as Blueray is Dolby 5.1, Xbox is set to pass dolby 5.1, tv is set to pass Dolby 5.1 and playbar reports playing 5.1 and it sounds like 5.1 (good surround sound effect) but no voice.

I appreciate your response, I have carried out significant due diligence.

Changing output form Dolby 5.1 to stereo results in immediate clarity on th voice.

Why is this broken, when is it getting fixed?
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To clarify, the Xbox IS the blueray player. For fun I also tested my Samsung Blueray player, same
Issue, same results switching from Dolby to stereo.
R
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I am also planning to invest in a Sub for the system, but if this is the poor quality I get from the playbar, I’m not going to invest further. Right now after finding my Ghost in the shell BR with Atmos and my Bladerunner BR with Dolby 5.1 sound so rubbish, tempted to send the whole lot back!
Airgetlam
OK, my apologies if I made assumptions. But generally speaking, the majority of BluRay discs that I own are DTS soundtracks, not Dolby Digital. The original DVDs were generally Dolby Digital, but when BluRay came out, most discs were encoded in DTS. I made the assumption that your XBox was transcoding to Dolby Digital for you, which might have been the cause of your issues.

You're certainly right that not having a SUB in your current system should make no difference to the voices, or the center channel.

But, if as you say, the Sonos controller is showing 5.1, then it is getting a Dolby Digital signal. Have you tried connecting the PLAYBAR directly to the XBox, and remove the TV set as a potential issue, just temporarily?

In any case, I'd recommend that within 10 minutes of playing this disc, you submit a system diagnostic within 10 minutes of experiencing this issue, and call in to Sonos to discuss.

Without giving Sonos some hard data on what the issue might be, they're not going to be able to fix it.
Bruce
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Thanks for the comprehensive responses. I will follow your advice and see if Sonos support can assist. It is very easy to replicate in both cases. Thanks!
S
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You're certainly right that not having a SUB in your current system should make no difference to the voices, or the center channel.


I think it would make a difference. The SUB would take some of the base away from the PLAYBAR and PLAY1's, therefore giving them more MID range to concentrate on, this was certainly my impression, I haven't tested it.

Have you done the Trueplay tuning?
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Yes I have run the 5rue tuning. I cannot stress enough how poor the voice is, it was inaudible and overpowered by the ambiance and music in the film.
Elliott H
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Have you tried adjusting surround levels found under settings+Room settings+advanced settings?
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