Soundbar

[bjf123]

I have an Apple TV 4K and recently got a new 65” 4K TV and am thinking about adding a soundbar. I’m not a big audiophile so I’m not looking for a mega surround sound setup. A simple soundbar and maybe a subwoofer would be fine. I’m curious about how to add the soundbar to the mix. We don’t watch anything directly on the TV, instead having everything through the Apple TV or apps like YouTube TV, BritBox, Prime Video, etc.

From what I’ve read, the setup would be using HDMI from the Apple TV to HDMI In on the soundbar and then from HDMI Out on the soundbar to the physical TV. It seems like every soundbar I look at only has one HDMI port and an optical port. How would I hook this up?

 

[Bigwaff]

Your new TV supports eArc.
https://www.crutchfield.com/learn/what-you-need-to-know-about-hdmi-arc-and-earc.html

TV > eArc HDMI > soundbar.
TV > HDMI > AppleTV

 

[JulianL]

Your new TV supports eArc.
https://www.crutchfield.com/learn/what-you-need-to-know-about-hdmi-arc-and-earc.html

TV > eArc HDMI > soundbar.
TV > HDMI > AppleTV

A solid answer, and I really hope I don't come across as annoying, but in the context of the question I thought it might be helpful to re-order your connection diagram so that, while it's saying exactly the same thing, it's maybe a bit more intuitive (easy to understand) since it follows the direction of the audio signal...

AppleTV -> HDMI -> TV
TV -> eArc HDMI -> Soundbar

Like I say, exactly what you said just maybe a bit easier to understand in the context of a "how do I route the audio?" question.

 

[bjf123]

Thanks. That explains everything. I was not familiar with eARC. I had to stick my phone behind the TV and take a photo of the HDMI ports to see that port 2 is marked as ARC/eARC.

 

[bjf123]

Now the issue in finding a soundbar that supports eARC but doesn’t come with a lot of speakers which seems to be the norm. Just looking for a soundbar and maybe a wireless subwoofer. Don’t need anything more than that.

 

[bjf123]

Looks like either of these would work for me.

TCL S55H 2.1 Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer for Smart TV | Dolby Atmos DTS:X Auto Room Calibration| 220W Power Wireless Bluetooth Home Theater Audio | App Control & Remote Control | Latest Model https://a.co/d/0eCu7AnM

ULTIMEA 5.1CH Surround Sound Bar with Subwoofer, Dolby Atmos, VoiceMX, BassMX, APP, 300W Soundbar for Smart TV, Home Theater Surround Sound System for TV, BT 5.4, Poseidon M60 (2025 Model) https://a.co/d/0bB0GpHZ

 

[Bigwaff]

Sonos Beam or Arq. Have had both through all the Sonos app drama, etc, which did not impact me. They’ve worked like champs. And sound great, too. Costco got good deals.

 

[cynics]

Looks like either of these would work for me.

TCL S55H 2.1 Sound Bar with Wireless Subwoofer for Smart TV | Dolby Atmos DTS:X Auto Room Calibration| 220W Power Wireless Bluetooth Home Theater Audio | App Control & Remote Control | Latest Model https://a.co/d/0eCu7AnM

ULTIMEA 5.1CH Surround Sound Bar with Subwoofer, Dolby Atmos, VoiceMX, BassMX, APP, 300W Soundbar for Smart TV, Home Theater Surround Sound System for TV, BT 5.4, Poseidon M60 (2025 Model) https://a.co/d/0bB0GpHZ

Don't know if you made a decision yet but eARC will revert to ARC if that's all the receiver has. I only bring this up because even streaming audio will sound significantly better through well designed and high quality drivers than lossless through (possibly) cheap drivers....

Although that said, anything sounds better than speaker TV's....

Good luck...

 

[Kenny99]

I would suggest the Vizio Elevate 5.1.2 from Amazon. It has the latest features (Dolby Atoms) and buying from Amazon you can return it if you don't like it.

 

[texag76]

I can absolutely recommend the Hisense soundbar. It's fairly new and outperforms the much pricier Samsung I was using. Take a look :

Hisense - AX5140Q 5.1.4 Channel Soundbar with Wireless Subwoofer and Rear Speakers, Hi-Concerto, Dolby Atmos, and DTS: X​

 

[bjf123]

I ended up going with the Ultimea 5.1. So far so good. The sound is much better than the TV speakers. Haven’t yet had time to watch a movie to see how that sounds for that.