If your Samsung TV automatically turns up its volume when life gets loud, it’s all thanks to a built-in feature called Active Voice Amplifier (AVA).
I caught this feature in action during a routine sweep of my living room. Pushing my vacuum cleaner toward the TV stand, I noticed something strange: the show I was watching suddenly cranked up its own volume. When I pulled the vacuum away, the sound dropped back down.
At first, I thought I was standing on the remote control. Turns out the TV was just working exactly as Samsung intended, which then sent me down a rabbit hole into its audio settings.
What is Active Voice Amplifier (AVA)?
Not every Samsung TV does this. Active Voice Amplifier (AVA) (or its upgraded cousin, AVA Pro), is a feature exclusive to Samsung’s mid-to-high-range models (typically the Q70 series and up), as it relies on a dedicated built-in microphone sensor on the set itself.
Part of Samsung’s Intelligent Mode suite, AVA constantly monitors the ambient noise in your living room. When the microphone detects a sudden spike in background noise like a vacuum cleaner, blender, or hair dryer, it automatically boosts the dialogue frequencies on screen so you don't miss a line. Once the noise stops, the volume settles right back down to normal.
On paper, it’s a brilliant feature for anyone who likes to multitask while watching TV. But the dark price of this convenience is clear: your TV is constantly listening. To catch that vacuum the second it turns on, the TV’s microphone has to stay permanently active, sampling the audio environment in your home.
The soundbar exception
If you use external speakers, there's an important catch. Plug in a standard soundbar or AV receiver, and AVA is automatically disabled because the TV passes audio control over to your external hardware.
There is one exception: Samsung’s Q-Series soundbars equipped with Q-Symphony. Because Q-Symphony syncs the TV’s built-in speakers and microphone directly with the soundbar, the system keeps its 'ears' open, allowing Active Voice Amplifier to keep running even through your external sound system.
How to turn off AVA on your Samsung TV
While it’s a clever piece of tech, I prefer controlling my own volume, and having my TV react every time I do chores was a bit unsettling. If you feel the same way, or just find the sudden, drastic volume jumps annoying, you can easily disable it.
Press the Home button on your Samsung remote and navigate to Settings (or All Settings). Then scroll down to General (or General & Privacy on newer models).
Select Intelligent Mode Settings and Toggle Intelligent Mode off completely, or leave it on and scroll down to disable just Active Voice Amplifier.
If the option is greyed out, make sure you are using the TV's internal speakers. If you have a non-Samsung soundbar plugged in, the feature will already be disabled automatically.
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Subscribe to Tom's Guide on YouTube and follow Tom's Guide Entertainment on TikTok and Instagram.
More from Tom's Guide
