The best Bluetooth TV adapters are necessary additions for those with one of the best TVs that lack built-in Bluetooth capabilities. If your aim is to connect a pair of the best wireless headphones to your TV, these adapters will make streamline the process. From affordable and easy-to-use options, these adapters will get you listening to all of your favorite content in a breeze.
We all know that sound isn't the best when you're working with TVs that either aged or built for picture quality. It's why we always recommend one of the best soundbars to give your entertainment set up the right audio immersion, but there's always even more niche cases of when you need to stay quiet if your partner is sleeping or when taking care of a baby. Sometimes even the sound of your TV just isn't loud enough, and that's where the best Bluetooth TV adapters come into play.
Bluetooth TV adapters are available in a wide range of prices and versions, with a few variations on design and capabilities. Some of the best Bluetooth TV adapters also come equipped with a receiver mode, which lets you bounce audio from your phone, tablet or computer. Connect the adapter to a pair of wired headphones and you’ve got yourself Bluetooth headphones for a more personal audio experience.
The best Bluetooth TV adapters in 2024
Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate.
The Avantree Oasis Plus stands out as the most-feature rich option for Bluetooth TV adapters — and has the premium price to match. It can connect to almost any TV, thanks for inputs for optical digital audio, 3.5mm, and RCA. It’s one of the larger models on this list, but it uses the footprint wisely. The top panel includes volume controls, a Bluetooth pairing button, status lights to show the current input and more. It has one of the longest advertised range of any Bluetooth TV adapter: 164 feet. But that doesn’t take into account any walls or obstacles between you and the adapter.
The Avantree Oasis Plus lets you listen on two devices at once, or switch to receiver mode to stream from your phone. You can also use the unit’s outputs to directly connect to a soundbar or audio receiver — and use Bluetooth at the same time. However, it doesn’t have a battery. If you use your Bluetooth TV adapter a lot, it’s worth the cost to get the best.
The bigger and slightly more expensive cousin to our top pick, the TaoTronics TT-BA09 gives you an important upgrade over the TT-BA07: an optical digital input. That means you can stream better quality audio and it will work with most current TV models. You can also use the optical digital output to directly connect the unit to a soundbar and use it as a receiver if you want to stream music from your phone.
The TT-BA09 also includes a 15-hour battery; while less portable than the TT-BA07, at 2.4 x 2.4.x 0.8 inches it’s still easy to move. You can connect two devices at once to share the sound from your TV. In one way it’s inferior to the TT-BA07: the TT-BA09 has a wireless range of 33 feet, compared to 65 feet for the smaller unit from TaoTronics.
Slightly older TVs may have a coaxial digital audio output instead of an optical digital output; if you’re in this group, the 1Mii B06TX is the Bluetooth TV adapter for you. It’s the only model in this list that features the coaxial digital input. But it also has optical digital and 3.5mm auxiliary inputs (and comes with an RCA-to-3.5mm cable), making it the most flexible adapter overall. On top of that, it has the longest advertised range at 197 feet (though in real life inside conditions, with walls and other interference, the actual range is likely closer to 50-70 feet). It’s on the large side for these adapters at 3.6 x 2.4 x 0.9 inches, but thanks to its size it has space for volume controls on the unit.
The B06TX doesn’t have a receiver mode, though, meaning you can’t send music from your phone to it, and it lacks a battery.
The Aluratek ABC01F Bluetooth Audio Receiver / Transmitter is another good choice if you want a very portable Bluetooth TV adapter. Slightly bigger than the TaoTronics TT-BA07, the 2.1 x 1.5 x 0.4-inch ABC01F includes something the TT-BA07 doesn’t: volume control on the unit. With its small size, receiver mode and 10 hours of battery, the ABC01F is great for turning wired headphones into wireless ones. The volume buttons can also skip and replay music tracks when in received mode. It has a 3.5mm input and output, and comes with a RCA-to-3.5mm cable for connections to stereo inputs and outputs.
It’s 50-foot range isn’t quite as good as the TT-BA07’s 65 feet. It also costs more than our top choice, but is otherwise a very solid option if you don’t need an optical digital input.
If your TV has an optical digital audio output and you don’t need the latest Bluetooth standard, the Mee Audio Connect AF-T1 could be a good match for your Bluetooth TV adapter needs. In addition to optical digital, the Connect AF-T1 also has a 3.5mm input and comes with a splitter to hook to an RCA output. At 2.2 x 2.2 x 1 inches, it’s small enough to take with you and features 12 hours of battery life. You can connect two devices at once to listen with a friend.
As a result of using Bluetooth 4.0, the Connect AF-T1 only has a 30-foot range. It can only transmit sound, not receive it, so you can’t send music from your phone to it. It also lacks volume controls, something that some higher-end adapters offer.
How to choose the best Bluetooth TV adapter for you
When you’re shopping for a Bluetooth TV adapter, you want to make sure it can connect to your TV (or computer, if that’s your video source). Most TVs today will have a 3.5mm auxiliary output. Some come with an optical digital audio output or an RCA (stereo) output.
You should also think about the range: how far away will you be when you’re watching or listening? For TV watching, the range shouldn’t be much of an issue, but if you’re using the adapter to listen to music — or you’re sending audio from your phone to play over the adapter — you will likely want more range.
You may want to be able to send audio to two headphones or speakers at the same time if you’re watching TV with a friend. If you plan use it as a receiver or if you need to use it on more than one TV, a battery will come in handy. The size of the unit can also come into play if you plan to move it around or you don’t want it to be obvious.
Best Bluetooth TV adapter alternatives
There's more than one way to get sound from your TV to a pair of earbuds, fortunately. The latest way is via the Sennheiser TV Clear true wireless earbuds that basically work exactly like a Bluetooth adapter but without any of the extra setup.
They're like traditional true wireless earbuds, but the audio settings and listening experience can be customized with the TV Clear companion app, and the transmitter’s low latency streaming technology keeps audio and video in sync so there’s no delay in the audio.
For those who are hard of hearing, Sennheiser says that the system offers five speech clarity levels that can provide up to 20 dB high-frequency amplification to make it easier to hear what’s happening on the screen. You can also have one volume for the earbuds and one volume for the TV so that people in the room can hear what’s happening without listening to the content at a higher-than-normal volume.
Admittedly, Sennheiser can’t pretend the TV Clear is an entirely new concept — wireless TV headphones have existed for over a decade now — but Sennheiser is promising better customization options via the app, lower latency, multi-point pairing and a more approachable design that most folks are more familiar with.
And check out some of the best accessories for your home theater:
Best TV mounts | Best Bluetooth speakers | Best Soundbars | Best TV antennas | Best cheap TV antennas
- Using Bluetooth headphones on your TV? Here's what you need to know
- What is a smart TV? Our FAQ has the answers
