Want to listen really closely to what’s happening in Baby Reindeer? Are the explosions of Rebel Moon coming through a little bit too loud? It might have something to do with your audio settings. 

Netflix audio comes in quite a few different shapes and sizes, including a few main options: stereo (two speakers), 5.1 surround sound (five speakers plus a subwoofer, sometimes all contained in a soundbar and other times in multiple speakers around you), and Atmos (object-based audio). Your settings default to the highest level audio stream your device is capable of — so if you have a surround sound setup at home, you’ll get 5.1 surround sound or Dolby Atmos and, typically, if you have stereo, that will be your default. Even if you don’t have surround sound speakers, many smart TVs are capable of “downmixing” a surround sound audio track over stereo speakers, and will ask for 5.1 even if they playback in stereo. You might not notice a difference during your movie night or weekend stream, but sometimes it results in a mix that doesn’t sound quite as good as the original stereo version.    

If you want to change those settings, you should navigate to what you probably know as the “Audio and Subtitles” menu, on the bottom of the screen. Along with choosing dubs and subtitles, you’ll be able to change the audio track you’re listening to from “English [Original] (5.1)” to just “English [Original]” — whether you’re listening to a show in your own language, or a dub. This may help with any audio issues, but it depends on your television and a few other factors, including the setup of your soundbar (if you have one). Once you make those changes, your saved audio stream preferences will stay consistent from one show to the next, meaning you won’t have to go through the same process again and again each time you hit play. Your preferred settings will apply across all languages, but if you switch from one language to another and change the audio stream preference — say, from English [Original] to Spanish (5.1) — your language preference will be saved, but you’ll have to save your audio stream preferences again to lock them in.

Of course, if you want to make sure you’re not missing any key dialogue during your film or show of choice, there’s nothing to stop you from throwing on the subtitles as well. It’s your house. No one can stop you. That’s what freedom of speech is all about!

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