Sound Advice: Earbuds block nearly all outside noise

Q. I am looking for wireless earbuds with very effective noise cancellation. Is there anything comparable to the super-quiet Soundcore Space noise-canceling headphones you have recommended?
A. You are correct that the Soundcore Space headphones have extremely effective noise cancellation. I have recommended them to several frequent flyers, and they were shocked by how quiet they are. It is spooky, almost like being in space, as the name suggests.

I recommend sticking with Soundcore and trying the Liberty 4 NC earbuds, which offer 98.5% noise reduction and are only $99.99 per pair. (soundcore.com)

Q. My Hisense H9G TV has an eARC HDMI port. I am not currently using it and have my Apple TV streaming box connected to my Denon A/V receiver, which is then connected to one of the TV's non-eARC HDMI ports. Should I keep it that way or use eARC? I've always been under the impression that going through the receiver is the way to go, but with eARC I don't know.
A. Most TV HDMI ports are only inputs. An ARC or eARC HDMI port also can send audio out from the television to an external device. ARC stands for audio return channel, and eARC is enhanced audio return channel, which has more speed than the regular ARC. This allows it to support additional audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos.

Here is an example of how an ARC and eARC HDMI connection works in two directions. In a system there is an HDMI cable connected from the eARC port on the receiver to the eARC port on the television. A cable box is connected to an input on the receiver. When you select the cable box, the receiver plays the audio and sends the video signal to the television. If you enable CEC on both the television and the receiver, you will find that the television remote control controls the volume on the receiver, as well.

If you decide to watch something streamed from your smart TV, it will send the audio signal to the receiver for playback. Many soundbars take advantage of this by incorporating a single ARC port. Whenever you change the input on the TV, it sends the sound from the television to the soundbar.

The only way for you to use to use your AppleTV with eARC is to connect it to the television directly and then use eARC to send the sound back to the receiver. In your case, I believe you have the best solution connecting the Apple TV directly to the receiver. You might want to connect the receiver and TV by their eARC ports in case you ever want to use the streaming service on the TV. It will work the same as it does now with Apple TV, and you might find channels available on the Hisense Android TV that are not available from Apple.

Send questions to Don Lindich at donlindich@gmail.com. Get recommendations and read past columns at soundadvicenews.com.