TV through NDX - poor SQ

Hello, I’ve connected my TV (LG OLED) to my NDX via Toslink optical for occasionally use. I’m quite surprised with regard the SQ; it seems quite “thin” lacking tone and bass. Switching to radio and streaming the sound is far better (normal). Additionally, the sound from the TV is much quieter requiring volume increase on the amp.

The TV is set to optical out, and bypass.

Any thoughts on the SQ difference, or is just the SQ from the TV that’s the default.

Thanks

I suspect its the TV. I have a Sony on my NDX, sound is not that good but its better than the TV set sound. And the volume level is appreciably lower that any other source.

Thanks, Mike. It’s probably what I suspected and good confirmation re the sound differential from TV as source compared to other inputs
Thanks

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Are you able to feed it from a set top box instead of direct from the TV ? Our Virgin V6 box into an NDX2 can sound good with well produced material. Same volume discrepancy here between TV and other sources though.

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James, thank you for this - I also have Virgin V6 box so I’ll look at option

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I dint have any issues both my lg oled optical output

There is setting to output to tv speaker and optical out at the same time which degrades the sound

It should on optical output solely

Other than that it’s quite ok

Thanks, yes the TV sound output is switched to optical only. I’ve connected via the V6 optical out as @james_n suggested which did improve the sound, however to me still not on par with radio or UPnP.

I use my LG OLED (a G1) with toslink out into my Akurate DSM and at times I actually get surprised by how good it sounds. I set the TV output to optical only and PCM, and use a fairly simple Chord C-lite cable (10m - gotta love optical connections).

My other, older OLED (a B6) did not play nicely with the Akurate at all, and actually had dropouts. I had to get the signal from the Roku and from my PC for that.

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The low volume is described in the FAQs somewhere; it’s related to down-mixing to stereo and avoid clipping. You can mitigate it somewhat my raising the „input gain“ on a Uniti, but maybe that’s not available on NDX due to fixed output.
I still need to use higher volume level, than for other sources.

I like output from 2011 LG TV through Nova; the TV should not be able to do much wrong, and no analog processing involved hopefully. It might mess up mixing in the LFE (subwoofer) channel, loosing a bit of bass. Of have a low volume „center“ channel, making speech difficult to understand. (But my Nova places this pretty in the front on my soundstage; no problem for me.)

What you can try: if you have a source feeding the TV (setup box, Firesticks, DVD/BlueRay, AppleTV, …) it might have the option to already down-mix and send stereo to the TV. (Instead of having the TV perform the down-mix. The source might also be able to get a stereo mix, e.g. from a streaming provider instead of down-Mixing itself.)
Maybe the different implementations sound differently.

Where can you adapt to ‘optical output’ only? With my Sony Oled via ND5XS2 i face the same issues via toslink, especially the low volume but also a bit lack of body.

Yes, same here 10 m toslink cable - having listened to some differing programmes, some are better than others but on the whole more bright and thin than radio or UPnP.

I was able to select optional only in the main audio settings, but as you confirm the SQ is lacking body - but vocals are very clear though

I’ve taken the sound from the set top box (virgin) and this does provide a better sound, the downside is no sound if you want to play just the smart TV. Vocals are clear whichever way I connect which is a bonus
Thanks

Okay. Will check setop box but we hardly watch TV. It is used for the occasional film via smart tv apps or Youtube. Blu ray via player works better but also lacks volume.

That could be down to the source program. I really only use my TV’s audio output for movies (with the Roku) and for games (PC). My Blu-Ray player is connected directly to the DSM via HDMI, and I don’t really need to use much different volume levels for any of these .

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Will depend on the TV. I have a Panasonic and such an option is nowhere to be found, annoyingly. (However, I don’t have a low volume or poor sound over optical either, so I just turn the TV volume to zero)

Cheers. I will have a check how it works for my tv

I’ve got the same setup. Sound quality is fine. Certainly not poor. And there is no significant difference in volume levels.

My setup is Optical Only and I think there is maybe another setting like PCM in the advanced settings.

The only significant difference in setup is that the majority of our viewing is from Sky Q via the tv. I don’t know if that makes a difference.

Have you tried using a digital input on the Nait? I’m not familiar with the amp just throwing that out there. I use toslink from my Sony Bravia to the digital input on my 272 and it sounds great.

The LG TV UI supports different digital audio out formats. Try something else. Can’t recall what setting i have nut it sounds so good.