Low sibilance TV

Hi Electricsparc,

Sorry you have not been able to achieve what you want from the sound of your tv

I have done a bit of research and looking at an online user guide for a model very close to yours, it does seem to have similar settings to my tv

On page 159 (maybe different page in your manual, but will be nearby) there is a section called "Adjusting various sound settings (e.g. bass/treble/balance)"

download.sony-europe.com/.../14HE334111_EN_print.pdf

I would experiment with the sound mode and surround mode settings, but reset the bass/treble first just to see which mode works best. You may find if you select [Sports], [Cinema], [Music], or [Game] futher options will open up

I know you don't want surround stuff, I just found it by accident expecting it to sound awful, but on my tv, which the simulated surround sound on, and sound booster on, it really improved the sound very noticably for me

Once your happy with sound mode, then modify bass/treble or other filters

Regarding tv input not being same looking for soundbar. You can connect them with an optical cable, so the signal is digital. Technically signals should be identical across different tv sets, in practice thats not the case, but they will be very similar at worst. If you can find a store which can demo it on a sony tv, that should be really close. 

Random

Thanks for the replies.  We ended-up with a Sony KDL48W705CBU as the (Limited) reviews I managed to find said the sound was not that bad.

I have spent an hour or so playing with the settings, and despite turning the equaliser to minimum at all frequencies above 200Hz there does not seem much else I can do to reduce the sibilance.

This is not a sound quality issue -  It seems to me that the ‘better’ quality sound systems produce more of the higher frequencies and so more sibilance.

I don’t know why TV sound engineers don’t use de-essers as a matter of course. It’s a shame you can’t buy one that will work on the composite audio produced by a TV rather than needing to work on the speech component alone as this would solve my problem.

I don’t really care if it is mono, stereo or surround.  If there were old fashioned hisses, crackles and pops that would also be OK.   I just want to minimise the sibilance. 

I have tried time and again to design something that will remove sibilance from composite audio, but all I manage to do is remove the high frequencies altogether and so you can’t make out what is being said.  I think DSP is required with a very fast processor to actively seek out the sibilant points and remove only them and not the high frequencies, but although I am an electronic engineer, my programming abilities are too limited to attempt this type of project.

I guess the next step is to go around the shops listening to sound bars as you have advised – The potential problem here is that the sound bar will only reproduce (To varying qualities) what it is input from the TV.  As I won’t have my TV with me it will be difficult to assess the sibilant performance.

I guess I can’t make things any worse!

Sorry if I sound an ungrateful complainer, I really do appreciate the replies and will let you know what happens.

Thanks.

Hi Electricspark

This past year my new obsessional interest has been in music and hi-fi, and there are many aspects to sibilance.

Tvs are poor for sound quality these days, although I have got good results from my 5 year old sony bravia 40nx803. Sound quality was really bad out of the box, but I played around in audio settings, and there was one of these wizzy virtual surround sound options, and I set it up. I didn't get any real feeling of surround, but the quality of the sound improved massively. Very acceptable for tv viewing, I am very critical on sound quality. I don't know if newer sony models will sound ok.

There can be many causes of the sibilance, you are not going to remove it completely, as naturally the sibilance sound occurs. A guy at work has  a speech impediment, and the sibilance around his S sounds are really pronounced.

It is very difficult for a microphone to record these sounds, and the resulting recording can replicate the sound, but in a much dryer sound. This then gets exagerated as audio circuits are designed to give a very detailed sound, the raw edge of a guitar pluck. High compression adds to this with poor mixing when the sound engineer just maxes out the channel levels to make it sound "better" on the tinny mobile phone playback.

Just realised I am ranting on about this, sound bars can improve the sound, but can block the remote control sensor, my dad bought a sound base which sits under the tv sound.

Whatever you choose, best to try and hear it for yourself in a store, not ideal as it does not replicate your living room, and try and play around with audio settings. Take a look at the sony tvs, I have always been impressed with audio quality of sony products through the years

Random

Hi Electricspark,

The problem with newer TVs is that because they are very slim, they can't fit them with decent speakers.  The ones they do fit are usually quite small compared to the TV, and generally pump the sound out from the bottom and lower back of the TV - not ideal for decent sound.  I would guess that the TVs in many hotels are of this slim design.

The better TVs made now do have audio adjustment settings, where one can alter not only treble and bass, but other things, like settings for changing audio depending on where the TV is situated.

The problem still exists though, that most modern TVs are too slim to fit good speakers for good audio. The other solution might be to invest in a "sound bar", which is basically a separate speaker (or speakers) with an amplifier, which allow much better audio (and almost certainly less sibilance).  Some are quite expensive, but there are a few cheaper alternatives which should hopefully solve the problem.

The fact that some people like to hang their TVs on the walls now (undesirable because of the strain on the neck) also encourages the manufacturers to put speakers right on the bottom of the TV.  We need more aspies in technical design departments!