HDMI ARC or Optical out ?


Coming out of the back of the TV , I have a choice of "optical audio out" or "HDMI ARC" .
Does one method have any advantages over the other ?
If so , why ?

Thank you and be safe .
saki70

saki70
Perhaps not as critical, there are lots of HDMI cable options, though videophiles seem to like Wireworld

The thing with HDMI cables is that they are typically engineered to use the best wire for only the 4 primary data conductors (which are actually 8 wires in a balanced-data configuration).  The remaining wires for hand-shake / data / network / ARC are usually much lower quality and lower awg.  For this reason, there are many HDMI cables that perform excellent for audio/video from HDMI source, but they are not the most optimum for ARC usage (which is really a talk-back protocol).

On the current line of Wire World, the Silver Sphere looks okay because ALL wires are the same awg silver-clad OFC.  However, Wire World does not use larger awg conductors anymore.  It is likely that this Silver Sphere uses smaller 28awg or 30awg conductors.

The Nordost Hemdall 2 indicates 19 x 25awg solid-core silver plated conductors.  That's the only cable I have seen that supposedly uses high grade conductors for ALL pins of the HDMI cable.  This cable is definitely expensive ($800 retail for 2 meter), so I'm not sure if that's in your budget.

There might be others that have good ARC wire.
I have been using a Wireworld Supernova 7 glass optical with good results. It's surprisingly affordable too.
There really is not a discernable difference in the sound quality between the optical audio out or the HDMI/ARC .
 But... with the HDMI/ARC connection , I have retained the volume/mute functions on my Roku remote control . These functions were lost when using the optical out function .

Thank you to all of you for your help .
Be Safe