The best Auracast transmitters for a TV, by situation

A TV transmitter takes the sound out of your television and broadcasts it, so anyone in the room can listen on their own earbuds, headphones or hearing aids at their own volume. Nobody pairs, and visitors can join. There are plenty of boxes that do it now, and the right one depends less on sound quality than on two things: what sockets your TV has, and who is listening.

Check these first

Your TV's audio outputs. Look at the back of the set. Most transmitters take optical (a square socket, often labelled Digital Audio Out) and a 3.5 mm headphone socket. Only a few take HDMI ARC directly. If your TV has HDMI ARC and nothing else, either buy one of those or add an HDMI audio extractor; Avantree sells its HAX06 for exactly this.

The audio format. Avantree's Audikast boxes accept PCM audio only. If the signal light flashes, Avantree's support page says to set the TV's Digital Audio Output or Digital Sound Format to PCM. It's worth doing on any transmitter that goes quiet over optical.

Hearing aids need Standard Quality. Most hearing aids only decode a 16 or 24 kHz broadcast, not 48 kHz. A transmitter that can't be set to Standard Quality may be invisible to them. Our sample-rate guide explains why and how to change it.

Lip-sync. Makers quote latency of about 60 ms for most of these boxes; a HearingTracker forum test measured 120 ms on the Audikast 4HA. That is fine for television for most people. If lip-sync matters to you, the Sennheiser BTA1 has a video-delay adjustment in its phone app.

For hearing aids

The Avantree Audikast 4HA (US$79.99) is built for this job. It has a separate Hearing Aid Mode. Avantree's guide is blunt: "Hearing aids cannot join unless the mode light is solid white." Press the right-hand Auracast button once to start broadcasting; hold it to switch between solid white (hearing aids) and solid orange (other Auracast devices). If your aids still won't join, Avantree's troubleshooting steps start with confirming the light is white, then stopping any other audio on the aids and rescanning in the hearing-aid app.

It also lets you set a custom broadcast name and an encryption passcode through Avantree's update tool, and Avantree lists QR pairing among its features. Inputs are optical and 3.5 mm. Avantree's product page says to check your exact hearing-aid model in its compatibility checker first.

If you wear ReSound or Jabra aids, the ReSound TV-Streamer+ (about US$220 through the HearingTracker shop, or from your clinic) is the hearing-aid maker's own answer. It broadcasts an open or password-protected Auracast stream that other receivers can join too, so the rest of the family isn't locked out. Inputs are optical and 3.5 mm.

For the whole family's earbuds

The Sennheiser BTA1 (US$129.95) is the one to get if your TV's best output is HDMI ARC. It takes HDMI ARC, optical and 3.5 mm, reaches up to 50 m, has hearing-aid modes and lets you adjust the video delay from Sennheiser's app. It is Auracast only, so it won't pair older Classic Bluetooth headphones. Sennheiser also sells it bundled with its RS 275 headphones for US$299.95.

The Humantechnik earisMAX (£143.99 at Sarabec in the UK) is the other HDMI-capable option you can buy today. It adds a microphone input and a PC app for setting a password, and Humantechnik quotes under 60 ms latency. It can also pair with a single Classic Bluetooth device instead of broadcasting.

Cheapest that works

The HomeSpot BA210 v2, at about US$50, is the budget box hearing forums keep recommending. It takes optical, 3.5 mm and RCA. The catch is setup: naming the broadcast and setting a passcode needs a web app, a Chromium browser and a USB cable. Some owners report echo when their phone's Bluetooth is also on.

For US$30 more, the Avantree Audikast 4 (US$79.99) has the same white-light Hearing Aid Mode as the 4HA and can switch to Classic Bluetooth for one pair of older headphones. It does one or the other, not both at once.

If your TV already has it

Check before you buy anything. LG's 2025 OLEDs (B5, C5, G5, M5) and QNED85A and up gained Auracast in a free update from July 2025. It's in the Sound menu, and you can choose 16, 24 or 48 kHz; pick 24 kHz for hearing aids. Panasonic's premium 2024 and 2025 sets got it by firmware from December 2025, and Philips is rolling it out across most of its 2026 range. Samsung has it on higher-end models only, such as the Neo QLED 8K and Micro LED, so check Samsung's support page for your exact model. See every TV in the database.

Side by side

The Oasis Aura is the long-range choice, at about 100 m. Australia's Audeara box is the one in University of Queensland lecture theatres. The MOER needed a firmware update and its 24 kHz setting before one owner's Jabra aids would join.

USB dongles such as the Creative BT-W6 and Avantree DG60 Aura are for computers and consoles, not TVs. The home setup guide covers those.

Coming, not here yet

• Avantree MediaCast (US$119.99): HDMI ARC and optical, on pre-order with shipping from 31 December 2026.
• Avantree AuraCoil TV set (US$239.99): an Audikast 4 plus a neckloop for telecoil hearing aids without Auracast. On pre-order.
• Arendi Auracast TV Streamer: a Swiss design listed as expected from summer 2026, with no retail listing yet.

We'll move them into the picks once they ship and owners confirm they work. The transmitter list is kept up to date in the meantime.