Onkyo TX-NR709 Zone 2

[sldrozd]

New to this forum and Home Theater, long time audio fan. I recently purchased an ONKYO TX-NR709 Receiver. I like it very much, and so far I have 2 questions,

I am using it as a 5.1 system with a powered Zone 2 and when I listen to music (95% of the time) there is a noticable time delay between zone 2 and the main listening room.

1) Is there anyway to get rid of the time delay? its annoying....The source for both zones is the same (net, pandora or rhapsody).

2) There appears to be very little control over the zone 2 sound, pretty much just source and volume.....what are the eq settings for zone 2..flat? is it using the same crossover points as what is set for the main listening room (zone 1 ) front left and right speakers??? how do I change them for just Zone 2?

I sent a question to ONKYO and they said do a firmware update, but the only update thats available appears to be related to video processing. I have not run the update yet.

Thanks - Stephen

 

[TLS Guy]

New to this forum and Home Theater, long time audio fan. I recently purchased an ONKYO TX-NR709 Receiver. I like it very much, and so far I have 2 questions,

I am using it as a 5.1 system with a powered Zone 2 and when I listen to music (95% of the time) there is a noticable time delay between zone 2 and the main listening room.

1) Is there anyway to get rid of the time delay? its annoying....The source for both zones is the same (net, pandora or rhapsody).

2) There appears to be very little control over the zone 2 sound, pretty much just source and volume.....what are the eq settings for zone 2..flat? is it using the same crossover points as what is set for the main listening room (zone 1 ) front left and right speakers??? how do I change them for just Zone 2?

I sent a question to ONKYO and they said do a firmware update, but the only update thats available appears to be related to video processing. I have not run the update yet.

Thanks - Stephen

The time delay is due to the speed of sound. So you will never get the sound synchronized in both rooms at the same time.

 

[sldrozd]

not due to the speed of sound, I can stand with 1 ear in Zone 1 and the other in Zone 2, the delay is about 1/2 second, and the distance between my ears is not 500 ft, (assuming speed of sound is 1000 ft/sec). My wife will tell you I have a big head, but its not that big.....LOL

 

[TLS Guy]

not due to the speed of sound, I can stand with 1 ear in Zone 1 and the other in Zone 2, the delay is about 1/2 second, and the distance between my ears is not 500 ft, (assuming speed of sound is 1000 ft/sec). My wife will tell you I have a big head, but its not that big.....LOL

Yes, but what are the speaker path lengths to your ears in zone 1 and zone 2? That is the critical issue.

 

[sldrozd]

good point. the distances however are within 10-15 ft and the sound delay is a good 1/2 second. I think there must be some signal processing going on to divide the stereo signal into the 5.1 and this causes the delay. I used to have just a stereo amp driving the two zones (a and b) and the time delay was barely noticeable (due to the distance difference to the speakers as you point out)

 

[TLS Guy]

good point. the distances however are within 10-15 ft and the sound delay is a good 1/2 second. I think there must be some signal processing going on to divide the stereo signal into the 5.1 and this causes the delay. I used to have just a stereo amp driving the two zones (a and b) and the time delay was barely noticeable (due to the distance difference to the speakers as you point out)

You are correct. Latency is a big problem with digital systems. There is no answer for your problem.