That's a really sad percentage of people listening to such subpar sound that they might as well not be. I understand not everyone can afford nice audio, but a soundbar is such a drastic improvement, VHS=>DVD level of improvement, while a soundbar to surround is a DVD=>BluRay improvement. It's great for those with discerning taste, but not noticed by the vast majority.
Granted, I'm not an audiophile, but I've been in/around audio mix bays long enough that I notice shit audio. It's one of those things that once you see/hear it, you can't un-see/un-hear it. Sometimes I really wish I took the blue pill in this regard
Modern TV speakers are so bad that you need a soundbar just to get back to the level of bad audio present in any standard stereo mid-sized CRT TV in 1990. There’s no room for decent-sized speakers, they’re often pointed some weird direction due to space or aesthetics or both, and none of the TV makers care to try to make them work as well as they possibly could (see: the tiny speakers in iPads) because anyone who gives a shit is gonna get a soundbar or receiver anyway.
On top of this, many soundbars have their own upgrade paths that are "good enough" and the end result is essentially equivalent to a surround sound system.
My soundbar can connect a second wireless subwoofer as well as a rear speaker set, and the setup process is extremely easy, which is one of the major hurdles with Hi-Fi equipment.
Average person just can’t tell the difference. My parents have a sound bar but half the time I visit the tv is set to use the built in speakers and they don’t even notice.
The average person consumes lossy-compressed movies and music through their phone or laptop. They wouldn’t know high quality sound if it trumpeted down from god.
I swear there's something genetic about it; I can see the difference between VHS and 4K clearly every time, but I have to remind and point it out to my wife (she couldn't care about the difference between the VHS-quality rip of a movie and the 4K blu-ray).
It has to be absolutely seamless; the received stopped working and the TV was making the noise instead, and it took a month for me to be finally arsed to go fix it.
We have traditional cable TV, where there are standard def channels on, say, channels 2-99 and then identical HD channels from 702-799, and my wife constantly lands in the SD channels by accident and doesn’t notice the difference. I have switched back and forth between the same show on SD and then HD to show her the huge difference and she just shrugs and legitimately doesn’t see it or care.
I did the A/B test between an OTA broadcast and the cable channel to show people just how poor the cable compression really is. The majority of people could see the difference, but like you mention there's always at least one person claiming to not see it. These are definitely not someone to hire as a QC/QA team member!
I've processed lots of sources with 5.1 audio that have "interesting" issues of various types. My favorite is when the LFE channel has a full range signal instead of a low pass filtered one. When that data is down mixed by what ever chip is doing it, there's way more data in the mix resulting in not what one would hope. These are studio provided sources that have been outsourced to 3rd parties for various reasons, but the LFE is often the red headed step child of audio data.
Idk why they have to make it so weird. My 2.1 setup just has the sub get the full signal and the built in filter takes care of it. Id been reading about how 'perfect' the atmos to stereo conversion is... what an odd issue to run into to throw a wrench in that(or just use it as a consumer). I guess theatres really need that LFE channel.
God, does 5.1 or better really shine on 90s surround sound movies. And occasionally newer ones, but a lot more back then.
They also hadn’t given up on original music. It’s crazy how much the soundtrack elevates otherwise-not-amazing films like Twister. I desperately wish they’d at least go back to caring about that.
We used to listen to a lot of music with Dolby ProLogic enabled even though the music clearly isn't encoded with that in mind. Since ProLogic works off of the audio phasing to decide what is sent to the rear speakers, a lot of the effects used in the music mix trigger ProLogic to send random things to the rear. It's an interesting experience. Maybe less so without the use herbal remedies too.??? Some of the call&response type lines from Beastie Boys would very clearly come from the rear, and was quite startling the first time hearing it. With 5.1 and beyond, everything is discrete tracks, so that trick no longer works. Do modern surround units even do ProLogic any more?
Granted, I'm not an audiophile, but I've been in/around audio mix bays long enough that I notice shit audio. It's one of those things that once you see/hear it, you can't un-see/un-hear it. Sometimes I really wish I took the blue pill in this regard