74 JULY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE389
A
stelevisions have got thinner,there’s
less and less roominside for decent
speakers. If anything, TV sound has
generally got worse over the years, with the
exception of some higher-end models thatfit
larger,better speakers into the base of the set
or even into aseparatesoundbar.
There’snoneed to put up with whatyou’ve
got, however,asyou can improve the quality
of your TV’s audio,either by tweaking the
settings or by attaching an external soundbar.
We’ll takeyou through all the options for
improving your TV’s audio no matter which
route you go down.
Improve your TV’s audio
It makes sense to startwith whatyou’ve got,
tweaking your smartTV’ssound settings to
get the right sound for your living room.
Yo u’restill limited by the quality of your
overall speakers, so while you can make
things clearer,some limitations still remain.
In the audio settings menu, you’ll find a
range of settings beyond standardvolume
control. Options differ between
manufacturers, and moreexpensive
models generally have moresettings, so
you’ll want to have your manual close by
to see whatyou can do.
Thefirst thing you’ll probably see is arange
of different sound modes. Just as with image
settings, these arepre-set profiles designed
to change how your TV sounds. Often, the
sound profiles arelinked to aspecific type
of content, such as sportorfilms. Look out for
amode designed to makespeech clearer,
improving the frequencies thatpeople use
when speaking, and dialling back music and
other noises. This may be called something
likeClear Voice or similar,and this kind of
mode is useful with the recent trend for TV
shows thatuse mumbled speech overlaid
with thumping soundtracks.
Thebest thing to do,aswith picture
settings, is to startwatching something and
then pick asound profile thatsounds best to
you. Once you’ve got that, you can adjust the
profile further.Again, you may need to pick
different profiles for different inputs, such as
one for live TV and one for your Blu-ray player.
Fixyour sound equaliser
Thesound equaliser is similar to the controls
thatyou get on aHi-Fi, letting you adjust
specific parts of the sound range. Depending
on your TV,you may get bass, midrange and
treble controls, although you may find the
controls arelisted by frequency.Lower
numbers, such as 100Hz, arefor bass; higher
numbers, often presented in KHz, such as
1KHz, adjust the higher range.
Yo ucan use these settings to adjust how
your TV sounds. Formuffled speech, try
dialling back the bass and upping the
high-end and mid-range more; if films lack
impact, then adding abit morebass into the
mix can makeyour TV sound much better.You
can often get clearer audio with these settings,
although you’restill very muchlimited by the
quality of the physical speakers in your TV.
Adjustsound processing
Some televisions will have advanced
processing options inside, such as Dolby
Atmos or virtual surround settings. It’s worth
turning these options on and offtosee if
they can improve your TV’s sound quality
and makethings easier to hear.
Whatabout volume?
If you watch TV at night, you’ll be particularly
struck by how some things on TV arevery
loud, and some very quiet; in particular,you
may notice how adverts arealot louder than
the main show.Rather than reaching for the
remote every few seconds, some sets have an
auto volume control, which is designed to
even out the peaksand troughs, so you can
watch at relatively low volumes without
anything overwhelming you, while quieter
parts of the soundtrack can still be heard.
How to use external speakers
If you’ve come to the full limitations of your
speakers, then you might want to add external
speakers into the mix. Thereare several ways
of doing this, depending on the speakers
you’ve got and the inputsthey have.
If you have an old set of computer
speakers with a3.5mmaudio connector on
them, you can plug these into the headphone
jack on your TV.Turn your TV up to the right
volume for listening first, then connect your
speakers. Now,adjust the speakers’ volume
control until you’reatacomfortable volume.
Yo ucan now use your TV’s remote to adjust
volume up and down; just don’t touch the
physical control on your speakers.
HOW TOIMPROVE
YOUR TV’S SOUND
ABOVE:Changing the sound mode canhave an
instant impact on the quality of your TV’s audio
ABOVE:Auto volume control can help evenout very loudand very quietbits
ABOVE:Look for an optical S/PDIF output for
connectingupexternal speakers
