Is It Your Hearing, or Is It Your TV?

Struggling to hear your TV is a telltale—and frustrating—sign of hearing loss. Unfortunately, modern TVs, speakers, and other factors don’t make it any easier.

Why Hearing Your TV Is Sometimes Hard    

Your TV speakers do not provide adequate sound quality. The speakers in your TV are likely tiny, offer unsatisfactory sound quality, and are set to the manufacturer’s setting. To fine-tune your listening experience, go to your TV’s Sound menu and select Dialogue, News, or Speech Boost mode to make speech clearer. Also, consider turning down the bass, which can overwhelm dialogue.

Soundbar or external speaker snafus hinder clear listening. These devices likely provide better sound than your TV speakers, but they can still be insufficient. You’ll want to ensure speakers aren’t too close to a wall or inside a cabinet, to activate the speech-improving Movie mode on your soundbar, and to remove speaker grills.

Movie dialogue is getting more challenging to understand. Many of today’s films use a more real-life style, where you’re not supposed to hear every word and the actors mumble. On set, capturing speech with a boom mic close to an actor may not work with the visuals of the shot, leading to softer, more indistinct dialogue. In addition, mixing sound for TV streaming can be challenging, resulting in less-than-optimal sound quality.

Regardless of your TV settings, if you find yourself turning the TV volume up, you should talk to our expert audiologists about a hearing test.

At Fort HealthCare Audiology, we offer several Bluetooth®-enabled hearing aids that allow you to stream sound from your TV directly to your hearing aids to ensure you don’t miss a word. Call (920) 563-6667 in Fort Atkinson or (262) 473-8920 in Whitewater to make an appointment to get a hearing checkup and try them out for yourself!