Question about soundbars
 

I have an LG 65" 65UM7300PUA TV, an Onkyo TX-8555 2 channel stereo receiver, 2 Sony tower speakers. I'm thinking about adding a soundbar for the center but I'm unsure if I even can, with a stereo receiver. I was looking at the LG SPM2 2.1 Soundbar but I don't know if I can even connect it with my current setup. I can connect 2 sets of speakers to this receiver, with a button I can choose A/B or A&B. Don't know if I could make that work somehow. I'm guessing there is a connector on the TV somewhere for external speakers but I've never looked into it before and frankly, while I know quite a bit about computers, I'm kind of sketchy on audio/video equipment. My thought process here is to make dialogue in blu-ray movies clearer.

Any ideas?

Re: Question about soundbars
 

Would a 2.0 soundbar work better?

Re: Question about soundbars
 

Here was some advice I used;

https://www.popsci.com/story/diy/mov...uiet-too-loud/

https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-m...ialogue-clear/

I don't think a 2 channel stereo receiver has the ability to separate beyond simple left and right. When Blu-rays and DVDs are mixed for 7.1 or 5.1 surround and then get remixed for 2-channel, there are compromises. I also think new films are mixed with low dialogue audio offset with LOUD gunshots and explosions. "Heat" on Blu-ray was one of my earliest examples of this.

Re: Question about soundbars
 

Bummer... :(

Re: Question about soundbars
 

The modern mixes are absolutely the issue. They're *not* mixed to make dialog easier to hear. I attempted to cure that with a sound bar and it was completely ineffective for that issue. The *only* cure I've found to date is use SDH and just keep the sound levels set based on the stupidly loud sfx/music levels or just wear headphones so the rest of the house doesn't complain about the TV being "too loud."

To answer the original question about audio output on the TV - most TVs have a "digital out" port that can be used for separate audio output - it's what I used to drive that soundbar I used for testing. If you have a true "surround" system that can take full advantage of a 5.1/7.1 mix then it might be possible to turn up the "center" channel, where most dialog *should* be, while turning down the "surround" channels to "fix" that issue.