“Comparing the choice of using HDMI or Optical connections to a TV, does either provide inherently better sound quality?”
Answer This Question
1-5 of 5 Answers
I tried both connections and the audio quality appears to be equal. Keep in mind that this is a small bar, for small rooms. It is not made to be producing home theater level acoustics. The perk of HDMI is that the TV can control the bar (if the TV has that feature). I turn on my TV via the TV remote and it then turns on the soundbar. When I change the volume via the TV remote, it adjusts the soundbar volume. That functionality is not available via the optical connection.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.Both cables provide a digital audio experience, but HDMI offers more bandwidth for higher resolution audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD Master Audio. In general, you should always choose HDMI over optical if you have the option. If you only have the option to use optical, it will still be a good experience. Also, on a smaller sound system like this, only having 2.1 channel audio, there will not be a huge difference between the two connections. When you start getting into higher end, multi speaker surround systems, like Dolby Atmos, then using an optical connection would no longer even be an option. For a 2.1 system, just about any input will provide solid audio quality.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.In my opinion, HDMI and Optical both have equal sound quality. I hooked mine up with optical and it sounds great!
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.For 2.1 there is little perceptible difference between the two. HDMI helps mostly with blu ray/4k DVDs. But I have found that the Optical connection does quite well at emitting great sound quality from content on DVDs. Hope that helps!
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.From movabletypenyc.com. “Both HDMI and optical digital audio from one device to another are better than analog that can pass multi-channel audio. Both of these cables had pretty cheap. However, the simplest advice is to go with HDMI. The biggest difference is that HDMI can pass the higher resolution audio such as formats found on Blu-ray.” If you use HDMI, Sony recommends HDMI cable with Ethernet.
Sorry, there was a problem. Please try again later.