Question Wireless headphones for Home Cinema and Music?

Loup Garou

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Dec 28, 2019
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The house rules against noise disturbance are rather strict in the apartment block into which we will be moving soon. I am setting up a Home Cinema system there and like my Sci-fi movies and music (Iron Maiden, Def Leppard etc). I decided to get wireless headphones (non-bluetooth) for late listening so that I don't disturb neighbours or my wife and opted for Sennheiser RS195, which works with a Radio Frequency transmitter. The problem is that the system is based around a Soundbar and unlike traditional AV receivers, soundbars don't have headphone sockets. Since I need the soundbar to mute while using headphones, I seem to be stuck.

Of course, the OLED TV has a headphone socket but will the soundbar mute itself if I plug the transmitter to it? Both the TV and soundbar are eARC compatible.
 
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I have a pair of Sennheiser RS220's for the same reasons. Panasonic TV, no sound bar but linked to a Panasonic home theatre system. My TV does not mute when headphones are plugged in so I need to mute via the TV remote... no great hardship. Your set-up may be different. Ensure the TV headphone output set to max and control the volume with the headphone volume control.
 
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Loup Garou

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Thank you. In my case, I am not certain if the eARC has also got to be disabled.

I plan to connect the 4K BD Player and Sky Q box via HDMI to the inputs in the Soundbar and not the TV. The HDMI-out from the Soundbar (ARC) then goes to the TV. There is also a CD Transport (Cambridge Audio CXC) that will be plugged into the soundbar's optical input.

The TV's own speakers will be disabled.

I am not sure what path the audio signals will take with this setup. If they remain at the soundbar level and don't reach the TV, then plugging the headphones to the TV may not work at all. But I feel that there must be a reason why most 'Smart' TVs manufactured in the past few years have suddenly been provided with headphone sockets.
 

Loup Garou

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Thanks. Since the question I made my choice and very happy with it. Sennheiser RS 195 for the main Home Cinema and Sennheiser RS 175 for the bedroom. Both are plugged into the TV's headphone sockets but the devices are going via soundbar and NOT plugged direct to the TV.

Everything works like a peach, though the procedure is slightly different in the 2 rooms. With the LG OLED TV, I use the TV's smart remote to change audio setting from defaulting ARC to "Audio out". This mutes the soundbar and channels the audio into the headphones, which have bass boost, surround mode etc. It is even easier in the bedroom where simply witching off the soundbar activates the headphones.

In both cases the headphones remain permanently plugged into the TV and sitting on the charger. A full charge is good for 20+ hours but that is immaterial as after watching a movie at night (which is when the headphones are used), I simply switch the phones off and place it on the charger station.
 

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