ARC and EARC in soundbars?
Q My old TV broke after over a decade of good service. So, I bought a new ‘smart’ set. The picture’s great, but the sound, while an improvement on my old set, is a little tinny. I’ve been looking at various soundbars, as these seem like a simple solution. Are they any good? If so, could you tell me how best to connect one? I believe I need to use the Audio Return Channel (ARC) HDMI socket from my TV, but some soundbars seem to have EARC. I’m not sure what that is, or the difference. Could you help? Malcolm Brennan
A Problems Solved isn’t the place for an exhaustive exploration of the soundbar market, but you shouldn’t be disappointed by the output of a decent soundbar. Good-quality examples, even compact models like the Sonos Beam pictured above (£418 from www.snipca.com/43634), deliver powerful and immersive audio.
As for how to connect one, yes, ARC is the easy way these days. The newer EARC variant is ‘enhanced’, able to carry more data. This enables compatible sets to connect to soundbars and speaker setups that support the latest ‘multidimensional’ audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. It also adds some mandatory extra features, such as lip-syncing correction.
Now, EARC itself is part of the newest HDMI 2.1 standard, which has been around for about five years.
Many new soundbars and TVS support it, but by no means all. The relevant socket on your TV might be labelled ARC or EARC, but neither is a certainty, because not all manufacturers bother to apply these labels, even if the set supports the technology. You didn’t tell us your exact TV model, so check in the manual or with the maker. That applies also for any soundbar you buy, though ARC at least is pretty much a given with any modern model.
One more caveat is that, if you’re connecting two EARC devices, be sure to buy an HDMI cable that’s up to the job – meaning one graded as ‘high speed’ (pictured left) or HDMI with Ethernet.