Your TV's Sound Is Bad. These Free Fixes Make It Noticeably Better

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The dirty secret of the modern TV industry is that picture quality has never been better and audio quality has arguably never been worse. As displays have gotten impossibly thin and engineering resources have poured into panel technology and processing, the speakers have gotten smaller, weaker and increasingly pointed away from the person trying to watch. The result is breathtaking visuals paired with audio that can make dialogue hard to follow and action sequences sound like they're happening in another room. The good news is that a few settings adjustments can help, and every one of them is free.

There's no setting that will magically transform your TV's audio into movie theater sound. Physics is at play, and the tiny speakers in skinny modern TVs just can't create quality audio. However, there are some settings and other tricks that might help.

TV settings for better sound

TV manufacturers know that...

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