TV audio dialogue - need new TV?

[Mashuguna]

I have an older Samsung flat screen and a Vizio audio bar and the sound is terrible. The biggest issue is dialogue. It is frequently muffled to the point that we turn the show off

Do you think I need to adjust sound settings? Or should I invest $500-600 in a new TV and sound bar?

We are not movie fanatics that need 4k and surround sound. I just want to watch The Walking Dead and understand what they are saying

 

[Barty1884]

Which Vizio sound bar? The TV should have nothing to do with it here, as all your Audio should be from the soundbar.

What connection is used from the TV to soundbar? Toslink? HDMI?

Mess around with the settings for the soundbar. Disable any 'surround sound' that may be on by default, and see what your results are then.

 

[americanaudiophile]

I doubt that a new TV will help. A new soundbar is more likely to solve the problem.
Most soundbars are designed to try to simulate a home theater which means playing loud and with a lot of bass. They often have no clarity at low volumes which is the problem a lot of people have with the built in TV speakers.
There are soundbars that are clear at all volumes. Some examples are Cambridge Audio, Sonos, Paradigm, and Denon Heos. A soundbar with a dedicated center channel may have better dialogue since that separates the voices from the other sounds. A bad subwoofer can muddy the sound.

 

[smorizio]

i would do a factory reset on the tv and sound bar see if anything changes. also if your cable box is a few years old i would update it with your cable comp. a lot of the new cable boxes now have digital audio out that can go dir into the sound bar and can bypass the tv.