TV voice clarity equalization for external speakers

[Thelo80]

Hi! My tv is connected to external speakers using the headphone out. It sounds better than the tv speakers. However, I have too issues:

1. It is hard to understand the dialogues in movies due to how loud the background music and effects are in the mix. In soccer games it is annoying to hear the crowd that loud. It is on top of the announcers.
2. The problem in1 is even worse at night. I have to change the volume to hear the voices, and then lower it when the music and effects are high.

I was thinking of buying a FBQ6200hd or similar to raise the mids for more voice clarity and the limiter to avoid the crazy peaks of music and effects. Better hardware than software to make adjustments to flat eq when listening to music.

Do you guys have any advice? What is the frequency range for voices?

Thanks

 

[DVDdoug]

It's a common complaint with movies which are mixed to be listened to "loud" in theaters.

I don't watch soccer but maybe it's mixed that way to make it seem more exciting. I don't have that problem with most sports. (I've been to a few auto races where the sound of the cars makes it impossible to hear the announcer... Auto racing is much better on TV!)

What is the frequency range for voices?

The "main voice frequencies" are between about 200 and 500Hz. But the voice has harmonics & overtones (like all natural sounds) and covers most of the audio range and boosting the higher frequencies (maybe 5 - 10KHz) will boost the "T" and "S" sounds to help with intelligibility.

You can cut the bass without hurting clarity.

1. The problem in1 is even worse at night. I have to change the volume to hear the voices, and then lower it when the music and effects are high.

Audio Video Receivers have a dynamic range compression option (sometimes "DRC" or "Midnight Mode") but it may only work with surround-sound movies. And with an AVR and surround sound you can (usually?) bring-up the center channel which contains the main dialog. That should also work with sports if they are broadcast in surround.