Poor sounding movies?

[frostbyte]

I think I know the answer to this, but I'd like to get other's thoughts as well. A couple coworkers were talking and said that they hate movies that have a poorly recorded audio making it impossible to balance the dialogue from the music/action sequences. They would be great for everything, but you couldn't hear the dialogue without turning it up way too much. No happy medium to be found. I mentioned that it was probably their set up instead of the actual recorded track on the movie. They of course thought I was crazy because they have some awesome set up (not knowing what I have). I have never found a bad movie I couldn't hear the audio on and the movies they were talking about were blockbuster movies that shouldn't have issues like this. Am I wrong in thinking it's likely their set up or equipment?

 

[j_garcia]

I run into the odd movie here or there that has low dialog, but I agree with you, it sounds like a setup or equipment issue to me.

 

[markw]

I think you're on to something when you told them it might be what they are listening to them on. There's a reason center channes were developed and I do know that when I listen to a movie on built-in TV speakers, the speech can be hard to comprehend.

But, don't foce the issue with the muggles. Just say "yeah" and move on.

 

[FirstReflection]

They probably have their seats pushed right back against the back wall. Many, many people have their couch or chairs positioned that way. It destroys dialogue intelligibility due to the very strong reflection off of the wall directly behind the listeners' heads.

Pull the seating forward, even just 2 feet or more, and the sound changes dramatically! Add some acoustic treatments to the back wall, and it improves even more

People so often blame poor quality audio on the wrong things. They blame the speakers. They blame the recordings. In reality, it's most often the room acoustics and positioning of the seat and speakers!