Can’t hear what’s playing on TV? It’s not your ears, it’s the flat screen. These affordable soundbars can help

What happened

According to The Guardian’s linked report, Can’t hear what’s playing on TV? It’s not your ears, it’s the flat screen. These affordable soundbars can help, Get rid of subtitles to hear what movies and TV shows are supposed to sound like – for as little as $130 I tested 42 pairs of wireless earbuds to find the best in the US, and I never want to listen to Fast Car again Sign up for the Filter US newsletter, your weekly guide to buying fewer, better things Your TV sounds awful. That’s not an indictment of your shopping skills, your budget or even the TV’s manufacturer. It’s just basic physics. The tiny speakers crammed in modern flat-screen TVs simply can’t reproduce the physical sound waves as well as the larger speakers in older TVs. And you don’t need to crave window-rattling action sequences to notice the problem. It also shows up in television shows, making dialog difficult to hear. Continue reading…

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Technology coverage for readers following technology, science, product policy, markets, infrastructure, and the public consequences of innovation. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked report is dated 2026-07-29T14:15:34+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: Can’t hear what’s playing on TV? It’s not your ears, it’s the flat screen. These affordable soundbars can help via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.