[ProAudio] Bluetooth Latency (or Baby's First Bluetooth)

[Louis Judson]

I’ve been through the same thing, Mike, with the same Monoprice units when they were on sale for $22. My house is not big enough for the delay to be ignored! The only cool thing about those “transceivers” is that they also have Toslink digital if you like that. Hmm, I wonder if the latency is different using the digital connexion? I also think that it is characteristic of BT not the Monoprice units…

I then found audio over cat5 cables at PartsExpress for an even lower price, so ran ethernet to the back room and it works pretty well. It’s RCA, not XLR, and sensitive to levels (some hum happens) but no latency…
<https://www.parts-express.com/Audio-RCA-L-R-Stereo-Extender-Over-Ethernet-Cable-up-to-250-ft.-183-337 <https://www.parts-express.com/Audio-RCA-L-R-Stereo-Extender-Over-Ethernet-Cable-up-to-250-ft.-183-337>>
<L>
Lou Judson * Intuitive Audio
415-271-8070 mobile

I'm just a simple sound engineer, nothing more, nothing less.
-- paraphrase of the Dalai Lama.

> On May 15, 2021, at 2:23 PM, Mike Rivers via ProAudio <proaudio at bach.pgm.com> wrote:
> 
> I had the nutty idea of using Bluetooth as a wireless way to put a pair of extension speakers (PreSonus Eris 3.5BT) in my kitchen, fed from the audio going to the living room speakers. This isn't for mastering or any sort of critical listening, just to have some music playing, or occasionally a radio news program, while I'm making dinner or washing dishes. And I needed an excuse to get a pair of small speakers anyway. 
> 
> Since the living room system is all old school, there's nothing Bluetooth there, so I went on line looking for a Bluetooth transmitter, and was surprised to find that they weren't  common as dirt these days - I guess that's because everything that the industry thinks needs it (whether it does or not) has it. I was hoping for something kind of "pro" like the Radial Bluetooth DI, but that's a receiver and not a transmitter, designed to play your phone into your PA system and such. Web search yielded brand names I'd never heard of, with prices ranging from aroung $12 to $60. I settled on one for $30 that Monoprice sells (I've been happy with their stuff in the past) and so that's what I'm working with. 
> 
> I was pleasantly surprised that, with only a little fooling around, after connecting audio to the transmitter, it paired it up with the speakers. I was somewhat concerned because neither the speaker nor the transmitter had a display so I wouldn't know what it was doing, or trying to do, but by golly I got music coming out of the kitchen speakers. I'm aware that there's a Master/Slave relationship between two units trying to connect, and that there's only one of each. Since the speakers don't send out any Bluetooth data, that makes it a slave, and switching the transmitter/receiver to the Transmitter mode makes it a master. So far, so good. 
> 
> I'm aware that Bluetooth communication has some associated latency but I didn't expect it to be as much as it is with this setup. When standing where I could hear both sets of speakers, there was a substantial delay. This morning I measured it a couple of times pairing, un-pairing, pairing again and it's not consistent, but delay was as great as 1.1 seconds. Distance is about 25 feet, though that doesn't seem to matter other than whether it pairs or not. I tried it with a set of Audio Technica Bluetooth headphones and, while I didn't make a measurement, the delay sounded about the same as with the speakers. So this is a bit of a confirmation that if there's a bad performer here, it's the Monoprice transmitter and not the PreSonus speakers. 
> 
> If this is typical of BT latency, then so be it. If it should be a lot less, like in the 100 ms range or so, then maybe this Monoprice transmitter isn't all it should be, or it's broken. 
> 
> Any experience that might suggest where to go from here other than return the transmitter and scrap the idea?
> -- 
> For a good time call http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com <http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com/>_______________________________________________
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