Mi Box Audio Sounds Terrible

by OligarchyAmbulance

I have a Vizio P series (4K Smartcast) and decided to pick up a Mi Box for Sling TV/PS Vue, since they're just kind of clunky only casting them. I'm finding that the audio sounds considerably worse through the Mi Box than through Google Cast straight to the TV. The biggest difference is in Netflix. It sounds low quality, and there are drastic changes from quiet to loud. I'm running a 5.1 sound bar system, over HDMI ARC. I've tried the three different audio settings (PCM, HDMI, and SPDIF), but I don't notice any difference between any of them, nor do I know what is actually changing between them. Is this an issue with the Mi Box or am I do something wrong?

miloworld

I don't even get surround sound from my MiBox... (my receiver supports DD+)

Uninterested_Viewer

Generally, large differences between quiet and loud is a telltale sign of high quality audio- poor quality would compress that dynamic range. However, you also mentioned it sounds "low quality"?

Are you sure you're not confusing quieter at a given volume setting with being low quality? It's possible your previous setup had some sort of compression setting turned on (often called "night mode") that you perceived at being higher quality because the quieter parts of the audio were boosted.

YESWAYHONEY

Well this worries me...I have a mibox on the way to replace my HTPC. I'll be pissed if the sound is shit.

mfGLOVE

I have a Mi Box and an old Samsung so audio has always been pretty horrible. I wonder if anyone can suggest a simple Bluetooth speaker that would work well with the Mi Box? Nothing fancy, I just hate continually having to turn the volume up and down when watching content in Kodi. It's either way too loud or way too quiet. How can I even this out with a simple, external speaker?

darknessgp

Do you have a way to bypass the HDMI ARC? My setup has my Mi Box running straight into a receiver and then the receiver has a video out to my TV. I've not ran into any issues with it. Netflix sounds just like it does from my old roku.

YESWAYHONEY

Did you find a solution to this? Just got a Mibix and the sound is messed up. It's like it's missing a channel or something?