Because I watch a lot of TV at night once everyone else has gone to bed, cranking up the volume isn’t an option. But sometimes, even if I watch in the evening, I have to turn up the volume to hear softer dialogue, then turn it back down when there’s loud background music or booms and bangs in an action show. This frustrating is something most people have encountered at one point or another.

My solution for this is to usually keep the TV lower than I’d like, especially late at night, and turn on the captions. In fact, I have become so accustomed to captions that I feel weird watching shows without them! But they get in the way of the scene. Some network channels even annoyingly position them over a character’s face, with no option to relocate the text. So, it’s not an ideal solution. But your TV may have a setting that can help that you aren’t even using. And it isn’t just TVs that have a dialogue clarity feature. You can find this option in other home theater gear, too. It’s even offered by some streaming devices and one streaming service.

Boost voices, tone down the rest

Dialogue clarity is the best feature you aren’t using

Dialogue clarity boosts the sound of dialogue while toning down background sounds like loud booms, bangs, and music or soundtracks. It’s called something different with every TV. I have a Sony Bravia 9 in my living room, for example, and it’s called Voice Zoom. Samsung calls it the Active Voice Amplifier, which boosts dialogue volume relative to ambient room noise. Some Hisense TVs have a feature called AI Clear Voice that uses AI to increase voice volume and enhance clarity while reducing background noise; LG calls it Clear Voice or Clear Voice Pro. Fire TVs have a hidden feature too called Dialogue Enhancer, which you can toggle between low, medium, and high. Some TVs have a specific Dialogue or Speech mode, meant for watching things like news and reality shows, that you can use for other content if you find the dialogue tough to hear. I tried this while watching Reacher, and while the difference was subtle, it did help.

You may find other settings, such as dynamic range compression, that can better balance loud sounds with quiet dialogue. It’s a trade-off since you won’t get the same cinematic experience you might in a theater. But you also aren’t going to feel the rumble of the furniture when there’s a huge explosion, then struggle to hear what a dying character is whispering right after. There may be other settings you can play around with. Some TVs let you manually adjust the equalizer. Others have auto volume adjustments that can at least prevent startling volume increases when you switch from one channel to the next, or when a commercial comes on. If you have difficulty hearing dialogue on your TV, however, there’s a chance you can fix it with one or more of these settings.

Speaker options for clearer dialogue

Go beyond the TV

You may get better results by adjusting the settings on your connected audio devices and the TV. Most of us, after all, don’t watch TV while listening through the TV’s built-in speakers. You will at least have a soundbar, or potentially a full home theater system. And while you should still adjust the TV’s settings to enhance dialogue, consider what features other connected audio devices may offer. For example, Sonos soundbars have a feature called Speech Enhancement that boosts audio frequencies of human voices.

You could also just tone down the bass. Since human speech typically exists in the midrange, if you crank up the bass, you’ll get an immersive experience, but it can drown out dialogue. This can mess with the balance if you want to listen at a comfortable level. Next, consider adding rear speakers to the home theater setup. Since these speakers sit behind you, they might help make dialogue clearer and more intelligible.

Other AV gear can help

Check every device, and you might be surprised

Along with the TV, speakers, and soundbars, most AV receivers have dialogue clarity options. You’ll see names like Clear Voice and Dialogue Lift with Yamaha, Dialog Enhancer with Denon, and ARC Genesis room correction with higher-end Anthem models.

The Apple TV 4K streaming media player also has an Enhance Dialogue feature, with options such as Enhance, Enhance More, and Voice Isolation. You’ll find the options under the Accessibility menu. The feature works with the Apple TV 4K second-generation or later model.

Failing that, consider investing in headphones like the Sennheiser RS 275 TV Headphones, which have become my favorite pair, or the Sonos Ace headphones. Not only do they allow me to hear dialogue more clearly, but I can also listen at a volume I want without waking anyone up. And with both, since the audio is directly pointed to my ears, hearing dialogue is never an issue.

One streamer can help, too

One streaming service has a native settings option you can use to enhance dialogue as well. Amazon Prime Video’s Dialogue Boost can be a game-changer. This AI-powered feature intelligently analyzes scenes in a show when dialogue might be hard to hear, isolates the dialogue, and then enhances the sound so it’s clearer.

Hidden in the Audio settings menu, you can toggle between Medium or High. It’s not available for every show or movie on the streamer, but you’ll find it on many, including all Prime Video originals. I tried it with shows like Fallout that have a lot of shifts from loud to quiet moments, and it works well.

Don’t miss a word

Turn those captions off

If you see someone with captions perpetually on their TV screen, it probably means they watch a lot of TV at night or need to keep the volume low because of other family members, like a spouse working from home or a baby sleeping nearby. It’s seemingly the only option, short of frustratingly keeping the remote by your side and constantly adjusting the volume up and down as needed. Otherwise, you might jump out of your seat one moment, then use the 15-second skip back button to hear a piece of crucial dialogue you missed the next. But it isn’t the only option.

Start with your TV and look for the dialogue enhancer option, whatever it’s called. Then move on to your audio gear and check the menu or companion app for an option to boost dialogue. Finally, your streaming box and even your streamer with Prime Video have options to help, too. Captions are an easy last-resort solution, but they take away from the story. So, unless you have a valid reason to use them, like being hard of hearing, this handy feature lets you turn captions off for good and actually listen to all sounds at a comfortable level.