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Would a sub added to playbase solve the dialogue issue in movies?

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Hi there,

Just got a playbase from a friend and added two play 1 I already have as surround. The sound is great on Music, YouTube, TV news, but it performs really bad on dialogue/quiet scenes in movies (from Netflix) with dd 5.1. Disappointed.

The sound level on dialogue /quiet scenes is simple too low compared with action scenes, it is really hard to understand and the overall experience is very bad if I have to constantly adjust volume. What more interesting is, the dialogue in an action/loud scenes is fairly clear and loud, I don’t know why.

As for speech enhancement, it did little help, although night mode do increased dialogue level and lowered loud sound, but the sound feels too “thin” for me and not very pleasing, I don’t want to use it except for late night.

Did some researches from the community, found no answers to this question: Would a sub added to Playbase solve the dialogue issue in movies?

I live in an apartment, for now I think the bass from Playbase itself is good enough for me, so I wouldn’t want to add a sub simply to improve the power of bass, but I wonder, would it increase the dialogue level due to now it is a full 5.1 system, no need to downmixing from source anymore? If so, I might consider add a sub.

Any insights would be much appreciated!

I connect the Playbase with my Sony Bravia TV, set digital audio output as Audio 1, choose “compressed” in Dolby Dynamic Range, did Trueplay a few times, and EQ settings are:

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melvimbeAnswer

I doubt you would find much difference in the dialog. It is true though that after you add the sub, the playbase will stop player those lower notes and dedicate resources to the higher frequencies, but I’m not aware that dialog would be played at a higher volume as a result.

I do notice from your settings that you have specified that your surround speakers are 10 ft/3 meters behind your main seating area. That’s going to result in your surrounds playing rather loud to accommodate for the distance. Might be worth adjusting the TV level down to. I am guessing at this, but perhaps you’re adjusting the volume based on what you’re hearing from surrounds instead of the playbase. You’re hearing dialog better during action scenes if some of the dialog is coming through surrounds at that time.

Danny

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Airgetlam

How certain are you that you’re getting a Dolby Digital signal to the PLAYBASE?

If I were to guess, I would expect that either the PLAYBASE was getting a stereo signal and interpolating the center and surrounds, or there is an issue with the center speaker in it. Have you contacted Sonos directly?

Bruce

R

rxishereAuthor

Contributor I

How certain are you that you’re getting a Dolby Digital signal to the PLAYBASE?

If I were to guess, I would expect that either the PLAYBASE was getting a stereo signal and interpolating the center and surrounds, or there is an issue with the center speaker in it. Have you contacted Sonos directly?

I’m quite sure because when I play digital TV news, it showed in the app’s control page as below:

Whereas if I play movies from Netflix, it is like this:

Interestingly, the dialogue level from PCM stereo is actually much better for me compared with DD 5.1 content, I watched trailers of No Time To Die and Matrix 4 from YouTube, which is stereo, and the difference between dialogue and action sound effects is acceptable to me.

I did contact support team before and submitted the diagnostics, they said there’s no issue from their end, I guess this means there’s no hardware problems? They also suggested me to use stereo if I think the dialogue level is too low in DD 5.1….

K

Kumar

a lot of people have been asking for center channel adjustment (you can find forum topics on it).

sonos has simply said it is under consideration but no time line given so it may never come.

In the meanwhile, short of changing over to a solution with a dedicated centre channel speaker with its own volume control, sub titles is the solution. Since I see many not English movies with English sub titles, this isn't a challenge since I am now used to seeing movies that way.

K

Kumar

Another mystery to me is, if me keep turning on Trueplay, would it gradually improve the overall experience? If so, I’d keep it on for while

Keep it on if you like what it does when it is on; it has no learning ability over time, assuming that is what you are referring to.

If there is anything that will make this seem to be the case, it is that your brain will get used to its adaptation, and make it seem better than it does now.

R

rxishereAuthor

Contributor I

Another mystery to me is, if me keep turning on Trueplay, would it gradually improve the overall experience? If so, I’d keep it on for while

Keep it on if you like what it does when it is on; it has no learning ability over time, assuming that is what you are referring to.

If there is anything that will make this seem to be the case, it is that your brain will get used to its adaptation, and make it seem better than it does now.

Yes, I am referring to the learning ability over time based on particular environment.. so it is not the case, I’ll try manually tweak EQ settings later

K

Kumar

Yes, I am referring to the learning ability over time based on particular environment

Trueplay does not have this ability. It is a one time thing, the tuning it does. Which is also why it has to be redone if speaker placement changes.

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