Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Interesting information. Thanks much Bill.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Based on my 1-minute Google search, I think I did the opposite, per: "The voiced speech of a typical adult male will have a fundamental frequency from 85 to 155 Hz, and that of a typical adult female from 165 to 255 Hz."

I will confirm when the cat has finished her nap in my lap. I know you understand my dilemma, Chris

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Figure-ground discrimination is a new term for me. Googling "Auditory figure-ground discrimination" filtered out all the pyschological, visual examples that came up initially.

Very interesting reading!

TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

I’ve seen that information also, but it’s referring to the lower frequencies or “pitch” of the voice (that contains a good portion of the energy) which are not important for emphasizing speech. The critical range which contains the sibilants that make speech intelligible are centered around 800Hz to 1KHz and extend up to 2-2.5 KHz. In amateur radio, where intelligibility is critical and we don’t want to waste energy on the lower octaves which do nothing to convey information, we set our EQ to boost frequencies in the 1K to 2K range and cut frequencies lower and above that. Now the downside of setting your EQ like that is it may sound a bit thin for music and other types of programming and nasally for voices. In the end, Dbx Pro decoding and a good center channel speaker will address this problem better (but more expensive).

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

These graphs illustrate why certain microphones work better for male or female speech... or speech in general. Such mics have boosts in parts of the spectrum where the vocal energy is weakest. Taking it further, these graphs are "in the aggregate" representations. Outliers will need different mics or additional EQ or de-essers to control sibilance and nasal sounds.

As to "Clear Voice" sound bars, I have never seen such a term. But my Samsung has a mode for vocals that does kill off a lot of non-vocal frequencies. It tends to kill off all the "pleasantry" in music, however.

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Chris and Bill, thanks so much! Bill, here is one:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/home-entertainment/best-soundbars-to-enhance-tv-dialogue

Yamaha SR-C20A
Best for tight budgets, newer TVs
The Zvox soundbars are great, but they lack HDMI connectivity. The compact Yamaha SR-C20A not only offers the ease of HDMI ARC hookup -- which is found on most newer TVs -- but also has a dedicated Clear Voice mode to make dialogue a little easier to understand. It's also the least-expensive option on this list. Read our Yamaha SR-C20A review.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Our Samsung has a "Voice" mode and an ARC (Audio Return Channel) HDMI port. It also has Blue Tooth, and a 3.5mm (1/8" stereo mini jack) input. We sometimes play our iPhones through it, and I've plugged computer audio into it as well.