Music too loud in TV and films

Baldbloke

Baldbloke

Baldbloke

Associate
Joined
26 Nov 2010
Posts
1,389
Location
Thorne Yorkshire
So called "background" music is ridiculously loud on just about every tv show or film. Drowns out the dialogue. Background music? Nah, it is foreground these days. Pain in the ****!

I sit with the remote, finger on the volume control, repeatedly adjusting the volume to minimise the intrusion of stupidly aggressive loud music in every tv show or movie I watch.
The audio settings in TVs don't cut it. I've tried the settings on 3 or 4 televisions. No joy there.

Googling the issue suggests I should get a 5.1 sound setup and fiddle with the settings on that may help. I don't want to have multiple speakers around my tv or lounge but if that's what it takes then I will. Although I'd much prefer to have the audio just coming from my tv speakers.

Any good solutions anyone?
 
If you don't want all the speakers of a 5.1, you could just do a 3.0 or 3.1, that way you have a centre speaker for a lot of the dialogue and the 2 sides for the rest, sub woofer optional.

With an AVR running that you can then tweak the levels of the sides compared to the centre to your liking.

Edit : a soundbar would be even less obtrusive and a good one will also help make dialogue clearer.
 
Last edited:
With today's tech, rather than a bulky 5.1 AV Amp system and the speakers to match, the vast majority of people just buy a soundbar instead. Some come with a Subwoofer (x.1 where x=number of speakers inside it) & some without (x.0) but all of them will provide better sound than TV speakers (2.0) which have to do everything (voice/music/bass/treble etc) all at the same time, which means voice usually gets lost in the sound mix.

Obviously some modern TV shows/Films now seem to almost deliberately "hide" the voice, so even the best system won't make that really crystal clear, but overall a soundbar will cover 85%+ of TV/films most people watch. There's a HiFi section of the forum, so its probably best to ask for help with any specific makes/models etc in that section.
 
Soundbar then might be a good option. If I had my way I'd eliminate the music completely, 100% then, if need be, re-apply it in tiny increments if need be. I doubt any electronic wizardry could do that properly though.

Any recommendations for soundbars to help with this then? I'd like to try a decent soundbar if it could prove effective. . Anyone got any make/model that they know can help reduce the "background " music please?
 
Last edited:
Apparently they don’t do stereo sound mixes anymore so that’s probably why some people suggest a 5.1 system or soundbar.

I find it a bit hit and miss with different films the extent to which this is a problem.
 
Baldbloke said:
Soundbar then might be a good option. If I had my way I'd eliminate the music completely, 100% then, if need be, re-apply it in tiny increments if need be. I doubt any electronic wizardry could do that properly though.
Click to expand...

Yea, that's not going to be an option.

Baldbloke said:
Any recommendations for soundbars to help with this then? I'd like to try a decent soundbar if it could prove effective. . Anyone got any make/model that they know can help reduce the "background " music please?
Click to expand...

It's not so much about reducing the background music, more enhancing the clarity of the dialogue.

The main criteria for which one is your budget, here's a range from entry level to high end.

www.whathifi.com

Best soundbars 2025: options for every need, recommended by our experts

The smartest, most compact, and very best TV soundbars to take your home cinema sound to the next level
www.whathifi.com www.whathifi.com
 
Baldbloke said:
Soundbar then might be a good option. If I had my way I'd eliminate the music completely, 100% then, if need be, re-apply it in tiny increments if need be. I doubt any electronic wizardry could do that properly though.

Any recommendations for soundbars to help with this then? I'd like to try a decent soundbar if it could prove effective. . Anyone got any make/model that they know can help reduce the "background " music please?
Click to expand...

I just bought a cheapish £120 Samsung soundbar which came with a sub and it's perfectly good. Worth getting an optical cable as well.
 
If going for a soundbar for speech clarity I'd make sure it's a 3.0 as a minimum. The center channel really helps in that regard.
 
Last edited:
Freakbro said:
It's not so much about reducing the background music, more enhancing the clarity of the dialogue.

The main criteria for which one is your budget, here's a range from entry level to high end.

www.whathifi.com

Best soundbars 2025: options for every need, recommended by our experts

The smartest, most compact, and very best TV soundbars to take your home cinema sound to the next level
www.whathifi.com www.whathifi.com
Click to expand...
Wow. Some of those prices :) I had no idea they could go that high :).

I'm guessing soundbars are mainly aimed at giving high quality sound and higher volume rather than filtering dialogue though.

For me, the clarity of the dialogue is not a problem. I hear it fine. Voices are not a problem. (Hearing was tested 3 years ago and I had good hearing then).
It's the volume of the music and sound effects that just makes me jump out of my chair. So blooming loud. Then, maybe I've got sensitive hearing or some sort of obscure OCD thing about sound effects and blaring music. Then again, I could be just a grumpy old man. My Mrs agrees with the latter.

I'll have a look at getting a soundbar around the £200 mark. Find out if it helps. Maybe spend more if results are encouraging.
 
Last edited:
Baldbloke said:
Wow. Some of those prices :) I had no idea they could go that high :).
Click to expand...

It's a bottomless budget in the hifi world :D
Baldbloke said:
I'm guessing soundbars are mainly aimed at giving high quality sound and higher volume rather than filtering dialogue though.

For me, the clarity of the dialogue is not a problem. I hear it fine. Voices are not a problem. (Hearing was tested 3 years ago and I had good hearing then).
It's the volume of the music and sound effects that just makes me jump out of my chair. So blooming loud. Then, maybe I've got sensitive hearing or some sort of obscure OCD thing about sound effects and blaring music.
Click to expand...

That's the way it's mixed as source, so unfortunately not a lot you can do with that. The extra dialogue clarity just helps hear it over the background sound.

Baldbloke said:
Then again, I could be just a grumpy old man. My Mrs agrees with the latter.
Click to expand...

Haha, yea well a good soundbar will enhance the booms too :p
Baldbloke said:
I'll have a look at getting a soundbar around the £200 mark. Find out if it helps. Maybe spend more if results are encouraging.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's how we all start... ;)
 
Agreed OP.

And it isn't anything to do with the sound set up either as such, as it is apparent on all sorts of different sound systems that I have/have experienced. Some films and TV are just terribly mixed and have an absurd disparity between dialogue, effects, foley and music etc
 
Last edited:
Baldbloke said:
It's the volume of the music and sound effects that just makes me jump out of my chair. So blooming loud. Then, maybe I've got sensitive hearing or some sort of obscure OCD thing about sound effects and blaring music.
Click to expand...

Not really, thats just "modern" sound mixing, done by people who have no idea that people want a fairly level volume between music and voice. You'll notice lots of modern TV reviews state that the actors are "mumbling" a lot, thats not the actors, thats the garbage sound mix which pushes the soundtrack too high and drops the voice too low into the mix. Professionals who do this, and directors who demand it, should be publicly flayed alive for me, and no I don't think thats excessive :D
 
I had a decently reviewed mid range soundbar with surround speakers and subwoofer from Sony a couple of years ago and voice in a lot of films/TV was often drowned out by music or background sounds. Not many options to adjust but nothing really helped. Eventually changed it to a high end Samsung Q950A soundbar and the difference was night and day. I can only assume that the Sony had a really weak centre speaker or it just didn't process it properly. Won't ever buy Sony again.
 
I recently bought a Sennheiser Ambeo Mini which is well out of the £200 price range but excellent. The software is really good (best out there, some say?) and has a "dialogue enhancer", but also has centre channel adjustment which I use instead. (Sounds more natural I think). I used to have a AVR and 2.0 floorstanding speaker setup and even though overall it sounded great in my small lounge, dialogue was still a problem due to no centre channel. I have the budget, but not the space for a 5.1/7.1/Atmos setup.
 
ianh said:
Not really, thats just "modern" sound mixing, done by people who have no idea that people want a fairly level volume between music and voice. You'll notice lots of modern TV reviews state that the actors are "mumbling" a lot, thats not the actors, thats the garbage sound mix which pushes the soundtrack too high and drops the voice too low into the mix. Professionals who do this, and directors who demand it, should be publicly flayed alive for me, and no I don't think thats excessive :D
Click to expand...

It's a bunch of things, actors mumbling, everything being mixed for high dynamic range, and downmixing to stereo being crap in general.
 
  • Like
Reactions: KIA
Baldbloke said:
So called "background" music is ridiculously loud on just about every tv show or film. Drowns out the dialogue. Background music? Nah, it is foreground these days. Pain in the ****!

I sit with the remote, finger on the volume control, repeatedly adjusting the volume to minimise the intrusion of stupidly aggressive loud music in every tv show or movie I watch.
The audio settings in TVs don't cut it. I've tried the settings on 3 or 4 televisions. No joy there.

Googling the issue suggests I should get a 5.1 sound setup and fiddle with the settings on that may help. I don't want to have multiple speakers around my tv or lounge but if that's what it takes then I will. Although I'd much prefer to have the audio just coming from my tv speakers.

Any good solutions anyone?
Click to expand...

Watching dune 1 (2 was fine) couldn't hear anything.

Watched it again before dune 2 at home and had to turn centre up a ridiculous amount. Everyone found it much much better.

Don't understand why they do that
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom