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Audio is coming but voice is not coming with new soundbar


Badhan

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I have Samsung UN50MU6070 55 inch smart tv, and got the Klipsch Bar 48 soundbar today which I connect with my tv with HDMI arc. Now the weird part audio and music is working fine, even I can listen to music at Youtube, but when I am trying to play a video at Netflix or Amazon, then I am only getting the audio and very little to no voice. Please help!!

Edited by Badhan
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Welcome

 

I don't know anything about soundbars but I think they are separated into 3 parts/speakers as far as the sound goes.

To me it sounds like with some inputs the center set of speakers are not playing. Like with the regular home theater if your center is not playing you get very little voices since that's where it comes from.

 

Check in the menus of whatever is feeding the signal to make sure it's set to multi channel, if it is all coming from the tv sometimes different things on the tv can output different signals and this could be the problem.  To me it sounds like the bar is not getting the multi signal from all sources. I would start by going through all the menus. 

 

.

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Not sure how this could happen with an HDMI connection, but from your description it sounds like the left and right channels are out-of-phase. If the soundbar adds the left and right input channels to produce the center output channel, then anything that is in both of them (such as vocals) will cancel if they are out-of-phase.

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  • 5 months later...

@Badhan

I just discovered this post...

 

My BAR 48 is connected to my Samsung TV via the HDMI-ARC connection.

 

I have experienced the same issue. I will also lose audio completely if I skip forward or backward multiple times while watching a program.

 

I have opened a support request with Klipsch tech support but have yet to hear back from them.

 

I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone.

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Certainly the OP got it worked out some way (even if that meant returning the soundbar and going another route) but has shown the discourtesy of not providing closure if so.

 

At any rate I'm just seeing this thread, and I'd be inclined to agree with Edgar for the very most part.  The only caveat is that unless the unit is subtracting left from right instead of adding them, for the middle channel only, but leaving everything else alone, if a single channel somehow got reversed polarity early on, there should also be a marked lack of overall bass as well.

 

My '12 Harley touring bike has a CD player in the factory H/K head unit.  I forget what it does with a "straight" CD but think it's proper, but when playing a disc with MP3s, it swaps the channels!  I have to swap channels while encoding the music so it plays back correctly.  They haven't had a firmware update in years, so I doubt it'll ever get fixed (perhaps in part my fault for not conveying my findings to them, and they're a regular customer of my kid sister [freelance safety/compliance engineer, or thereabouts] up by Milwaukee, so I'm sure I could get "heard").

 

I guess my point is, (I should say that "thumbing" through the Harley firmware images, I recall character strings of "Mercedes" [just maybe "BMW", but I think not], a definite German influence is indicated, as I believe the "H/K" that did this was a German branch) these "folks" (Harley, Klipsch [I surmise]) are "buying" an electronics package to become part of their product.  Their folks are tweaking the code, at a minimum, and passing it on.  My NAD C338 integrated amp has a "Librewireless" module for the Bluetooth/DLNA/Chromecast_audio.  Same thing.  The OS on that module contains much impertinent stuff for the specific implementation.  Back to my point.  If Klipsch is in fact buying their electronics elsewhere, even to their specification, or whatever they're doing, it's been my impression over the past couple of years here on the forum that they'd be better off sticking with passive loudspeakers only.

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4 hours ago, glens said:

If Klipsch is in fact buying their electronics elsewhere, even to their specification, or whatever they're doing, it's been my impression over the past couple of years here on the forum that they'd be better off sticking with passive loudspeakers only.

@glens

I'm a new Klipsch customer and new to this forum (~5 months). I'm well aware of Klipsch's reputation for producing quality products and that, in part, influenced my decision to purchase the BAR 48. During the past five months I have encountered almost a dozen issues with this product that I have documented and reported to Klipsch technical support and all of which have been referred to engineering. All of these issues, I might add, are with the firmware or other active components. As I browse through posts from owners of other Klipsch soundbars I find similar issues.

 

You say, "they'd be better off sticking with passive loudspeakers only." Perhaps, but market conditions change and vendors need to explore new market segments to stay competitive. I do believe there is a large demand for soundbars and I'm glad to see that Klipsch has stepped up to the challenge. Having said that, their current line of active products is plagued with issues that basically make them unusable in certain situations for which they were designed and marketed. Whether or not the active components in these products were developed by Klipsch or sourced from third parties is irrelevant. These products are marketed under the Klipsch brand and are having a negative impact on the Klipsch brand reputation. One way or another, it is Klipsch's responsibility to resolve these issues.

 

It's unfortunate but but it does happen, to all vendors, that new products sometimes experience unforeseen issues. What is important is how they deal with them and in my opinion Klipsch is not handling this well at all. 

  • Technical support will only say that these issues have been reported to engineering and that they will provide updates when they hear back from engineering. Of course, engineering has not yet reported back (or so I'm told) and despite my many requests, tech support has made no effort intercede on my behalf. In effect, it appears their primary function is to ensure customers remain ignorant about the number of issues reported and the steps (that may or may not) being taken to get them resolved.
  • Customers are told to return their products to the retailer from whom they purchased it and ask for a replacement. As discussed in these forums, the replacements may have more issues that the product being returned. This suggests strongly that there are internal quality assurance issues that need to be addressed. Furthermore, Klipsch is aware that many of the reported issues are related to firmware defects which will also be present in any replacement product.
  • Tech support will not even confirm that the issues I've reported can be reproduced. All they will say is that there has already been one firmware update released and that will not be the last.
  • I have pointed out to them that I am about half way through my warranty. I have asked about what happens if these issues are not yet resolved when my warranty expires. I have not yet reserved a response.

Obviously, there is a lot of concern about how these issues are being handled. What I find most disturbing is the apparent lack of interest in getting these issues resolved. Yes, the products affected by these issues are entry level products and may not generate the same revenues as some of the more traditional products but, on the other hand, a huge number of customers are affected. Take a look at the number of views generated by a couple of threads in only a few months (these numbers keep increasing daily).

In conclusion, I agree that products containing active components do appear to experience more issues than more traditional products but the real issue here just how Klipsch is dealing with this!

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Purely speculative on my part in thinking that you call customer service, they pass an email to engineering, who then contact a different customer service or engineering team on the other side of the world.  Could be yet more layers than that, with upwards of a week before the customer service you contacted even gets the first response, when everyone's healthy and working full time.

 

Surely there are a multitude of these products in use throughout the world, with the reports we see here representing an even lower than anticipated level of trouble overall?  I'm not so much a fan of the generally current business model (not singling out Klipsch) but what's to be done about it as merely an end user?  Take business elsewhere?  Most likely the same thing only different there...

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41 minutes ago, glens said:

Purely speculative on my part in thinking that you call customer service, they pass an email to engineering, who then contact a different customer service or engineering team on the other side of the world.  Could be yet more layers than that, with upwards of a week before the customer service you contacted even gets the first response, when everyone's healthy and working full time.

 

@glens

True... Even at the best of times it takes time to verify, diagnose, correct, and test issues involving firmware but how much time is sufficient before expecting some kind of response? These issues have been around since the product was first introduced.

 

42 minutes ago, glens said:

Surely there are a multitude of these products in use throughout the world, with the reports we see here representing an even lower than anticipated level of trouble overall?  I'm not so much a fan of the generally current business model (not singling out Klipsch) but what's to be done about it as merely an end user?  Take business elsewhere?  Most likely the same thing only different there...

Some companies are much more transparent when dealing with such issues. I prefer to give companies, and people, the benefit of the doubt. Early on I could have returned my soundbar to the retailer but I decided to give Klipsch the opportunity to correct the defects. Had they been more forthright about the number and severity of these issues I may very well have opted to return the device. 

 

While we can take our business elsewhere, and some of us have already done so, I prefer to hold such companies accountable for the products they produce and for the misleading advertising that describes how they had hoped such products might perform. At this time all I can do is to raise awareness so that new customers just encountering these issues have the information they need, and that I didn't have, to decide a particular course of action.

 

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