Arc vs optical

Home Theater Speakers Archive
1

ok please read. Good luck.

 

so I just bought the Bose sound bar 700 and 2 subwoofer 700’s and I was never looking forward to the hdmi arc connection. I have a harman kardon 7.0 klipsch setup. Something important to mention is I am not using any of the new harman kardon receivers i use a harman kardon 3650.

 

Harman kardon went down the drain the last decade...I bought my mom a soundtouch 300 which led me to get the newer soundbar 700 and subs for myself. And I am dreading the arc audio quality. Most tv’s have the option for multi channel arc functionality. My LG tv does.

 

My problem isn’t the capability. It’s the sound quality I get when using arc. So right now I use my roku that I run through my harman kardon receiver. when streaming music and watching movies I use my roku. When gaming I use a “HDfury” hdmi audio extractor that way I don’t have to run video through the harman kardon receiver.

 

Now that i have given an idea of my current setup which will be replaced when the Bose equipment arrives. Is there any fix to poor arc audio because very few forums show up when I type it in google. Another thing to mention is I see a lot of people saying the “surround speakers for the Bose are poor and quiet” and tbh this could be the output they are using. Or this could be the movie they are watching. In every movie 90% of the dialogue comes from the center channel. I feel like these people who buy Bose don’t understand what true surround sound is.

 

Surround sound is good when gaming and I think it’s good for music. The only thing I think it’s iffy on is for movies and that’s why people buy surround sound. Which is really ironic cuz it’s so mediocre especially with the horrible streaming quality which is compressed and terrible in general (especially on Netflix and hulu). Disney plus has the best streaming in terms of audio quality. For the Bose 700 which doesn’t have a hdmi audio input for whatever reason the Bose devs thought was a good idea.

 

I guess they didn’t think about the suffer in sound quality that is present when using arc. ONE THING TO MENTION! Bose automatically detects hdmi over optical. So make sure to UNPLUG HDMI WHEN TESTING SOUND QUALITY USING THE OPTICAL CONNECTION.

 

I would say for those gaming (Xbox or PlayStation) try both the optical running directly from the console to the soundbar and see if there is a increase in sound quality vs using the arc connection. One thing I want to remind everyone reading is there IS A BIG DIFFERENCE  in frequency response vs resolution they are 2 completely different things. And many times a good frequency response can be better than a higher resolution stream that has poor sound aka tinny and flat. I am going to trying using optical myself because I hate hdmi arc.

 

I am very confused as to why Bose decided to go this route. I wish I had the option to use a hdmi in on the Bose sound bar 700. Ok to stay a little on the positive side streaming music directly from the sound bar is so amazing. It’s amazing. It sounds good. It sounds as good as a flac file. I don’t know exactly **bleep** kind of technology Bose engineers did to accomplish this. But props to Bose.

 

This is the reason I’m replacing my current 7.0 setup. Which is good don’t get me wrong but not even close to the quality i hear/heard from Bose. I wish audiophiles didn’t hate Bose so much. Cuz as much as buyers from Bose can be stupid and don’t know anything. Bose makes some good products because even tho Bose seems to be “over priced” my 7.0 system cost me over 2.7k and the Bose ended up being 2.6 so the price difference is so similar.

 

Anyways this is all I have to say and it’s 3:06 in the morning so I apologize for any typing errors or poor grammar 

2
 wrote:

ok please read. Good luck.

 

so I just bought the Bose sound bar 700 and 2 subwoofer 700’s and I was never looking forward to the hdmi arc connection. I have a harman kardon 7.0 klipsch setup. Something important to mention is I am not using any of the new harman kardon receivers i use a harman kardon 3650.

 

Harman kardon went down the drain the last decade...I bought my mom a soundtouch 300 which led me to get the newer soundbar 700 and subs for myself. And I am dreading the arc audio quality. Most tv’s have the option for multi channel arc functionality. My LG tv does.

 

My problem isn’t the capability. It’s the sound quality I get when using arc. So right now I use my roku that I run through my harman kardon receiver. when streaming music and watching movies I use my roku. When gaming I use a “HDfury” hdmi audio extractor that way I don’t have to run video through the harman kardon receiver.

 

Now that i have given an idea of my current setup which will be replaced when the Bose equipment arrives. Is there any fix to poor arc audio because very few forums show up when I type it in google. Another thing to mention is I see a lot of people saying the “surround speakers for the Bose are poor and quiet” and tbh this could be the output they are using. Or this could be the movie they are watching. In every movie 90% of the dialogue comes from the center channel. I feel like these people who buy Bose don’t understand what true surround sound is.

 

Surround sound is good when gaming and I think it’s good for music. The only thing I think it’s iffy on is for movies and that’s why people buy surround sound. Which is really ironic cuz it’s so mediocre especially with the horrible streaming quality which is compressed and terrible in general (especially on Netflix and hulu). Disney plus has the best streaming in terms of audio quality. For the Bose 700 which doesn’t have a hdmi audio input for whatever reason the Bose devs thought was a good idea.

 

I guess they didn’t think about the suffer in sound quality that is present when using arc. ONE THING TO MENTION! Bose automatically detects hdmi over optical. So make sure to UNPLUG HDMI WHEN TESTING SOUND QUALITY USING THE OPTICAL CONNECTION.

 

I would say for those gaming (Xbox or PlayStation) try both the optical running directly from the console to the soundbar and see if there is a increase in sound quality vs using the arc connection. One thing I want to remind everyone reading is there IS A BIG DIFFERENCE  in frequency response vs resolution they are 2 completely different things. And many times a good frequency response can be better than a higher resolution stream that has poor sound aka tinny and flat. I am going to trying using optical myself because I hate hdmi arc.

 

I am very confused as to why Bose decided to go this route. I wish I had the option to use a hdmi in on the Bose sound bar 700. Ok to stay a little on the positive side streaming music directly from the sound bar is so amazing. It’s amazing. It sounds good. It sounds as good as a flac file. I don’t know exactly **bleep** kind of technology Bose engineers did to accomplish this. But props to Bose.

 

This is the reason I’m replacing my current 7.0 setup. Which is good don’t get me wrong but not even close to the quality i hear/heard from Bose. I wish audiophiles didn’t hate Bose so much. Cuz as much as buyers from Bose can be stupid and don’t know anything. Bose makes some good products because even tho Bose seems to be “over priced” my 7.0 system cost me over 2.7k and the Bose ended up being 2.6 so the price difference is so similar.

 

Anyways this is all I have to say and it’s 3:06 in the morning so I apologize for any typing errors or poor grammar 

If it helps I investigated this and it seems to be an issue between ARC and eARC. Bose supports eARC which supports lossless audio including LPCM 7.1.

 

The issue is if you have a TV that only supports ARC and not HDMI 2.1's eARC, as you would not get the full capabilities & sound quality of eARC using an ARC TV. So I made a guide to help people get the best out of their system.

 

I hope you find the linked information helpful 🙂

3

Do you have a question?  Get a TV that supports the audio you're looking for.

4

My tv is only a couple years old. It should be that I have to buy a new tv. I guess I’ll be using optical which at times can be better but idk. I’m not buying a new tv that supports formats the soundbar doesn’t just to have a better sound quality. That is both silly and ridiculous. I’ll figure a way out. I might try to use my “HDfury” (you can look it up) and use the hdmi audio on the “HDfury” out to run into the Bose arc input. If it works then I will not have any issues 

5
 wrote:

My tv is only a couple years old. It should be that I have to buy a new tv. I guess I’ll be using optical which at times can be better but idk. I’m not buying a new tv that supports formats the soundbar doesn’t just to have a better sound quality. That is both silly and ridiculous. I’ll figure a way out.

I gave you all the information you needed in my post. This is a known issue with ARC TV's which has been widely reported on and discussed for many years now. All of those issues were resolved with the new eARC standard. The SoundBar 700 supports eARC and supports LPCM 5.1 over eARC.

 

I don't see the logic in blaming Bose for including advanced features like eARC in your SoundBar just because your TV does not support it. Luckily that standard is still backwards compatible and supports ARC TVs. ARC/eARC or optical connections are typical solutions for SoundBars in the market which don't include a receiver. As most people who want to use a SoundBar do not even know about lossless sound and simply want to plug it in to hear sound 🤷‍♂️

 

But luckily there are solutions as I showed in that post. One of the best and simplest is to purchase a TV that supports eARC.

 

 wrote:

I might try to use my “HDfury” (you can look it up) and use the hdmi audio on the “HDfury” out to run into the Bose arc input. If it works then I will not have any issues 

That's not going to work. Read the guide I linked you to earlier to understand why.

6

are you kidding me? WHEN DID I BLAME BOSE. ITS PRESENT WITH MY HARMAN KARDON KLIPCH 7.0 SETUP AS WELL. I KNOW ITS A HDMI ISSUE NOT A COMPANY ISSUE.... wow you clearly didn’t read my post well. Anyways I have switched my tv to “pcm” instead of “auto” and it seemed to help.

7
 wrote:

are you kidding me? WHEN DID I BLAME BOSE. ITS PRESENT WITH MY HARMAN KARDON KLIPCH 7.0 SETUP AS WELL. I KNOW ITS A HDMI ISSUE NOT A COMPANY ISSUE.... wow you clearly didn’t read my post well. Anyways I have switched my tv to “pcm” instead of “auto” and it seemed to help.

I read your post, I answered your post. Shouting only comes off as rude and does nothing but make people not wish to help you 🤷‍♂️

 

Your Klipch receiver does not have eARC it came out in 2011. I know you know that but even if it did, it would now work as you need an eARC output, not an eARC input (please read what I shared directly from hdfury in my guide about this very issue).  So your receiver doesn't really improve anything with your current setup aside from possibly being used as an HDMI switch.

 

The SB700 must be connected to an ARC/eARC HDMI out port or an Optical out. ARC & Optical does not support LPCM 5.1, but can offer DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1 in bitstream mode. In PCM mode your TV only outputs 2.0 using ARC and Optical... So you are listing to stereo sound being converted into 5.1 by the SB700. 

00227116_HDMI ARC connection-2.png

That is unless you go with the solutions mentioned in the guide as it should help answer everything for you 😉

 

I get that you wish it had the HDMI Input found in the ST300 (I wrote a ST300 guide as well). I have found that I always have to research what I purchase. Sometimes I overlook an item I didn't realise I counted on and if it doesn't match my needs I return it. 

 

If you don't want an eARC solution as mentioned in the guide for the SB700. You said "I bought my mom a soundtouch 300" maybe she would like an upgrade and allow you to swap out the systems. If that doesn't work, return it and get another ST300 second hand 🤷‍♂️

8

 Thanks for the detailed post. 

I agree, the audiophile criticism is off base. I delayed getting into Bose because I paid too much attention to the negative criticism.

 

My present HT system includes a Cinemate 130, Samsung series 8000 tv, and wireless tv cable player. I tie everything together using HDMI ARC and CEC. Everything works and sounds great! 

 provided a very informative table that further supports the use of HDMI ARC considering bandwidth. As an aside Netflix now streams using HQ Audio, another reason to use the ARC connection on your TV and SoundBar. Don’t worry about E-ARC and your present TV and Bose gear. The Bose SB 700 setup doesn’t support the additional channels.

 

I do recommend however, using the ARC port on your SoundBar and TV and giving CEC a try, to control all your gear.

 

 

 


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