Best Home Sound System for Dialogue in Movies and on TV

[jordanpaulbrown]

My grandfather is in need of a new home sound system that can boost the dialogue/spoken word he hears on television news programs, sitcoms, and movies watched. The subwoofer and low end/boom of the speakers has never been a problem. The problem is picking up those mid level and high levels on the dialogue. When there is too much bass, it just gets suppressed like listening under water for him. The louder they turn up the volume to hear the dialogue, the more boomy it becomes.

Is there a sound system out there (a sound bar, a 5.1, anything really) that would allow you to mix the audio to achieve the most desirable sound to the user? Not just have to use pre-sets. I was hoping to keep it under $500 is the only other thing, but if it needs to go over that's OK. Thank you in advance! This would be a big help.

 

[jordanpaulbrown]

P.S. even with the subwoofer completely off, the dialogue is still really muffled on our pre-sets and even when the speakers are set to FLAT.

 

[shadyJ]

What kind of AVR is he using? What speakers? Speaker placement can make a big difference with regard to dialogue intelligibility. Describe his speaker layout.
If his system is really old or not up to the task, I would get a receiver and a 2 channel setup. Here is a setup for $500 that will bring intelligibility to dialogue: two Infinity Primus p163 speakers plus this H/K AVR 1700 receiver.

 

[SearchofSub]

Get the speakers more out into the room. I think they are too close to the walls.

If your grandfathers reciever has MCACC or advanced MCACC goto manual setup and lower the 1khz and 2khz region and that should fix the overwhelming bass issue.