# Speakers with scratchy sound **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speakers-with-scratchy-sound/855630 "2020-06-13T22:53:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Danger\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Danger\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danger_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speakers-with-scratchy-sound/855630/1 "2020-06-13T22:53:43Z")
I don’t know how to properly described this, but I have a brand new sound bar connected to my TV with ARC. I have noticed that the voices sound kind of scratchy/buzzing when they pronounce the letter s. Do you know what might cause this? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speakers-with-scratchy-sound/855630/2 "2020-06-13T23:53:38Z")
Torn speaker cones / badly centered voice coil / piece of ferrous debris stuck in the magnet. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2020, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speakers-with-scratchy-sound/855630/3 "2020-06-13T23:57:07Z")
> [@Danger\_Man](#): > > I don’t know how to properly described this, but I have a brand new sound bar connected to my TV with ARC. I have noticed that the voices sound kind of scratchy/buzzing when they pronounce the letter s. Do you know what might cause this? Could be a bad connection somewhere, either between you TV and the soundbar, or internal to the soundbar. Or it could be a blown tweeter. Or it could be bad settings somewhere. I’ve got an old amp that sounds great most of the time, but has loose input solders. So every now and then I get scratchy s’s until I futz with the inputs. ---
**Author:** ![icbm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@icbm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icbm)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2020, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speakers-with-scratchy-sound/855630/4 "2020-06-14T03:40:04Z")
I haven’t used ARC to connect any devices I own. Is there any way to set the level of the audio being sent to the soundbar? You could be overdriving the signal and that could cause scratchy Sses. Experiment with turning down the TV’s volume level and turning up the sound bar volume level so the volume you hear is the same but the signal level the TV sends is lower. Any better? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2020, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/speakers-with-scratchy-sound/855630/5 "2020-06-28T01:49:09Z")
Likely. There now seems to be a thriving online business in DIY speaker cone surround replacement kits. I did the 14" woofers on my pair of Infinity speakers a few years back. Cheap, easy, and they sound great again. Naturally, I’ve since lost the name of the company that sold them. At worst, on a TV you can probably buy cheap replacement speakers. If TV has a headphone jack or bluetooth output, be certain that sounds OK before proceeding. You _might_ have a pre-amp problem instead.