Re: OT question about sound cards/chip-sets and high-end music systems
Rob Owens put forth on 10/8/2009 5:28 PM:
> On Wed, Oct 07, 2009 at 10:38:41PM -0500, Stan Hoeppner wrote:
>> Rob Owens put forth on 10/7/2009 8:02 PM:
>>
>>> When streaming music, if you play it on 2 different computers will the
>>> music be in sync? I'm thinking of a sort of "party mode" where I want
>>> the same thing playing in several rooms of the house.
>> Depends on your distance to each loudspeaker. Sound waves travel at
>> approximately 1,125 ft/s depending on air temperature and humidity.
>> Thus, if you're not standing at an exact same distance from each
>> speaker, the sound will arrive at your ears at different times, creating
>> an echo effect or a muddying of the material, depending on the time
>> delay between arrivals. This doesn't take into account reflections off
>> things such as walls, floors, ceilings, and furniture, which all reflect
>> sound to a degree, causing additional 'late arrivals'.
>>
>> In short, if you want decent stereo sound quality, limit the number of
>> speakers to two, and sit in one spot equidistant from each. In a "party
>> mode", who the f--k cares, you have been and wine and what not, and
>> you're playing it loud enough to be annoying anyway. At that point,
>> what does it matter?
>>
> I'm aware of the distance to the speaker issue. I was wondering mainly
> about network latency. I ran a test using icecast2 to stream to a
> couple of machines, and there was a pretty big time difference (maybe
> half a second). I was using one old laptop, though, so I'm not sure if
> the delay was due to network latency or due to slow processor and/or bus
> speed of the old laptop.
Put all 3 computers in the same room (same table if you like) connected
to the same hub/switch (if not wireless), and test the actual sound
delay, if any. You will now know with certainty how much delay is
analog from the speakers to your ears, vs how much is due to the
computers. Troubleshoot from there.
--
Stan
Reply to: