Source
r/amazonecho•
Andyrew

Multiroom audio with an AV amp - delay?

Question

I've outfitted a lot of my rooms with Echos after the Black Friday sale recently, but my living room has an AV receiver and 5.1 system. I was thinking about buying an Echo Dot to keep on mute in my AV rack with line out connected to my amp. I'd really like to add this to a music group, but I know that typically the amp will add ~500ms delay to any audio or video inputs.

Is there a way to deal with this in the Alexa app? I've found conflicting information online. From what I can see in the app myself, any delay specific options seem to relate to Bluetooth, which I'm not using.

Posted Dec 2, 2023, 11:47 AM UTC

26
woody-99•

I use Echos as the music source as either stand alones or connected to power amps and I can't say that I can tell any delay at all. There are several groups in the house for multi room music that have both for sources.

1
crispy-bois•

If you value audio quality, I recommend getting the Echo Link for your A/V setup. The DAC in the Dots isn't the best.

That said, you shouldn't notice a delay either way.

1
bolts-n-bytes•

I do exactly what you’re saying and don’t notice a delay. In general, I find there can be slight delay amongst them already, though nothing that bothers me. I mostly control volume to make it so in each room I hear that room’s speaker.

I would also think the delay on an analog input isn’t half a second. I imagine on anything digital it may be.

1
AndyrewOP•

On an AV receiver because of the amount of DSP there is - frustratingly - delay introduced on even analogue inputs.

1
bolts-n-bytes•

Ah I see. Is there no mode that just does a straight feed no processing? I kinda always thought the “stereo” mode was that. Compared to all the other modes.

2
MrSnowden•

Not sure about 500ms but the echos will listen to each other and sync their delay. It’s pretty nice.

1
AndyrewOP•

Ah I didn’t know they actually did it with the microphone! I assumed it all happened over IP and they just know the inherent latency of each device in the group. I think I will just give it a go then and see what happens

1