Whole house wireless and time delay

[KEW]

I am considering going wireless, but isn't there a lag between the primary unit which is in "current time" and the secondary units which incur the delay of converting the signal to digital before transmission, then back to analog after transmission?
I know if I have the radio on the the kitchen, and the same station tuned on my HT in the living room it sounds crappy due to the time lag to process bass management etc for the HT.

 

[mmulhern]

Not sure which wireless solution you're considering. I played with trying to integrate a Sonos speaker with my existing my HT system (Yamaha RX-A2030, 5.1) and experienced significant delay on the wireless speakers. Already had HT, Outdoor and Kitchen speakers wired (Zone 1, 2 and 3 on the RX-A2030) but wanted more speakers throughout the house.

Forgive me if I'm treading on ground you've already walked over.

An AVR runs a processing delay on all audio. Sonos runs about a 70ms delay from their end transmit and send data, etc. This delay is NOT adjustable. If you could increase the Sonos delay you could use the Sonos connect as a source, run it through the ARV and then increase the Sonos delay to sync with the AVR processing.

The original Sonos software allowed for individual adjustment per speaker in order to compensate for this delay differential. They removed it several years ago for reasons I can only speculate about.

See this thread for a considerable chatter regarding the topic.
https://ask.sonos.com/sonos/topics/need_possibility_of_adding_delay_in_addition_to_the_normal_70ms

Sonos's attitude is that this has nothing to do with their product and is an AVR problem. I think that's a ridiculous response. Most people have a HT set up and want to put other speakers in their home without the wiring hassle. But they want the entire system to be in SYNC as a party mode.

In short, Sonos doesn't play 'nice' with anyone else even though a software patch will suffice. My advice is stay away from Sonos unless you are going ALL Sonos.

The other way to go is to try and find an AVR which has a manual delay per zone or output. Use the AVR as the source and sync to the wireless speakers. I spoke with Yamaha tech support regarding this but who knows if they'll take me up on my idea. I'm not aware of any AVR that can do it.

IMO there is a strong market need for a wired/wireless hybrid that stays in sync across the board. Maybe there's something out there I don't know about?

 

[crossedover]

Keep your HT separate from whole home in regards to sync. Always try to pass analog signals if possible.

 

[KEW]

mmulhern,
Thanks for the thorough response! I did not have a specific system in mind. Lots of companies advertise them (Aperion has one rated pretty highly), but they don't mention much about the timing problems and I thought maybe there was a solution. Unless the delay is extreme, I imagine they work fine for rears in an Audyssey system, it would just indicate the rear speakers were farther away and delay the other speakers to match.
They seem most common in use for subwoofer signals. I guess our lack of sensitive hearing in low frequency prevents delays in the milliseconds from being too obvious.

crossedover,
I'll give avoiding the HT some thought. With all the fluorescent bulbs, microwave, etc, I would think analog would be problematic. Is there a unit you can recommend (with a good return policy)?

 

[crossedover]

How many rooms are you thinking about? What's budget? And how would you prefer the zones?

 

[KEW]

Ideally 5 rooms.
I'm looking at it as first, find out how much it costs to do right, then I will decide whether or not to do it or to run wires.
Not sure what you mean about zones. I guess I would want to have TV in LR and music in all others, but I assume the HT would not be in the loop.

Thanks!
Kurt

 

[crossedover]

Ideally 5 rooms.
I'm looking at it as first, find out how much it costs to do right, then I will decide whether or not to do it or to run wires.
Not sure what you mean about zones. I guess I would want to have TV in LR and music in all others, but I assume the HT would not be in the loop.

Thanks!
Kurt

Rooms=zones. I'd run wires if it's not insane attic or crawl space. Cat 5e and speaker wire are cheap . You can do 6 source 6 zone for under 900 with key pads. Parts express has a unit that might work.
http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-dax66-6-source-6-room-distributed-whole-house-audio-system-with-keypads-25-wpc--300-585
I usually spec Niles Audio for key pads, but this system is a high value for function as long as your not doing critical listening. If you are in a single zone you can bridge the unused zone for 50wpc.

 

[KEW]

Thanks, that will get me started.