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Need help configuring a 2.2 setup - decision paralysis.

Please consider if you want to watch streaming videos/film.

As long as I am listening to music it doesn´t matter. As long as I am watching videos from my HDD i can set audio sync delay in players (e.g. JRiver).
But as soon as I am watching youtube or streaming films via Netflix, Amazon the latency of my PEQs and software crossovers makes me crazy.

Has anyone found a way to set audio sync delay when streaming films?

@dualazmak @phoenixdogfan How about the latencies of your setups?
 
OP, given your requirement for seamless playback once tinkering has been done during setup, I think your reservations about PC use are largely justified.
Whilst streaming from a PC is fairly easy, I have never found it to disappear into the background as a process - it frequently calls for a degree of maintenance with nearly all methods of streaming. You also say you have found Remote Desktop software to be laggy; whilst it is better than before, I still detect latency in day-day use to a very noticeable extent.

I can't say that Wiim is entirely bug free either. The PEQs do work - and they're amazing - but very occasionally and randomly, and in a way I can't replicate in order to raise a ticket with them, a Wiim device will simply decide to turn the PEQs off. So whilst I'm generally happy with an amazing feature at a great price, it's also not "set and forget".

Re: solutions being future-proof, I think I've given up on that now :)

Another suggestion, and it can involve your PC (but extra cash outlay): what I have found joyous to use (but ultimately not got down the road of yet because I use Spotify so much) is Roon (with its ability to pull down from Qobuz). I've found it a pleasure to set-up, and also found it to be "set-and forget". You can use your PC as its source, and easily use your phone/tablet to play music. Free trial too.

There's plenty of mixed views about Roon on here (why pay for something you can get for much cheaper/free?) - and there's no argument there really. Only you can decide whether it's worth paying extra for something that's more "set-and-forget", works seamlessly, and which, depending on taste, looks gorgeous and serves up great artist info.

And finally, you mention the drawbacks of PC fan noise, which you won't have with your Mac.
 
@dualazmak @phoenixdogfan How about the latencies of your setups?
At least in my present (the latest) multichannel audio-visual hardware and software (signal path) setup, I have no lipsync issue at all.
You would please note I use my 55-inch OLED TV (4K 3840x2160 resolution; refresh rate 60 Hz) as second PC monitor (connected to PC with 10-m optical HDMI cable); see Fig.21 in that post.
Fig21_WS00007515 (3).JPG
As for spec of my audio (audio-visual) dedicated completely silent (fan-less, spindle-less) two PCs, rather outdated ones but much more than enough audio-visual processing abilities (no gaming use), you would please refer to Fig.33 in my post #931 on my project thread.
Fig33_WS00007503 (2).JPG
Please refer to my post here #509 (remote thread) regarding a kind of “reverse thinking” utilization of 4K OLED TV connected to PC in DSP-based multichannel audio rig for viewing and listening TV program and other video (YouTube, etc.), DVD movie, blue-ray-Disc movie, SSD-saved video files, and so on.

BTW, as I have recently also pointed here, just for sure and reminder, and only if someone reading this thread has confusion, we need to clearly understand the difference between relative latency difference (=time-alignment) among the SP drivers and total (absolute) latency, as I shared/reminded at the top of my post #493 on my project thread.
In my post #493, I wrote;
.....
You well know that, throughout this project thread, I have been using digital music players, such as JRiver, in PC, and feeding the digital signal in digital XO/EQ "EKIO" for crossover, and then sending the divided digital signals into DAC8PRO for multi-channel multi-driver multi-amplifier stereo music listening.

In the digital signal processing, we have so many buffers or latencies; JRiver output buffer, ASIO4ALL's I/O buffers, EKIO's processing buffer, DIYINHK USB ASIO driver's buffer, and so on. Consequently, it is not straightforward to exactly measure the "absolute delay" between the JRiver's "shout" and the final air sound kick-up by SP.

I usually set all the buffers in the digital domain in rather large size, so that I should not have any latency or delay problems; in our audio setup, we have no problem at all if all the bunch of the digital and analog signal (15Hz - 30 kHz) have identical amount of delay time from the signal origin at JRiver, and this is always the case in our digital (PC based) audio system.

The relative delay between the SP units, or "time alignment" in multiple SPs, however, is always one of the critical issues in audio system, especially the multichannel multi-driver multi-amplifier system, as you may agree.

I have been always take my attention and care on this issue, and in my very early posts #18 through #21, by using REW's wavelet analysis, I briefly checked that all of my SP units, super-tweeter (ST), Be-tweeter (TW), Be-squawker (SQ) and woofer (WO) have essentially no delay with each other, while my sub-woofer (SW) has 10 - 20 ms delay against the other SP units.


Now, I became really would like to establish my own simple, reliable and reproducible precision method for "time alignment" or "relative delay" measurement, and fine adjustment(s) if needed.
.....
 
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OP, given your requirement for seamless playback once tinkering has been done during setup, I think your reservations about PC use are largely justified.
Whilst streaming from a PC is fairly easy, I have never found it to disappear into the background as a process - it frequently calls for a degree of maintenance with nearly all methods of streaming. You also say you have found Remote Desktop software to be laggy; whilst it is better than before, I still detect latency in day-day use to a very noticeable extent.

I can't say that Wiim is entirely bug free either. The PEQs do work - and they're amazing - but very occasionally and randomly, and in a way I can't replicate in order to raise a ticket with them, a Wiim device will simply decide to turn the PEQs off. So whilst I'm generally happy with an amazing feature at a great price, it's also not "set and forget".

Re: solutions being future-proof, I think I've given up on that now :)

Another suggestion, and it can involve your PC (but extra cash outlay): what I have found joyous to use (but ultimately not got down the road of yet because I use Spotify so much) is Roon (with its ability to pull down from Qobuz). I've found it a pleasure to set-up, and also found it to be "set-and forget". You can use your PC as its source, and easily use your phone/tablet to play music. Free trial too.

There's plenty of mixed views about Roon on here (why pay for something you can get for much cheaper/free?) - and there's no argument there really. Only you can decide whether it's worth paying extra for something that's more "set-and-forget", works seamlessly, and which, depending on taste, looks gorgeous and serves up great artist info.

And finally, you mention the drawbacks of PC fan noise, which you won't have with your Mac.
Thanks for addressing PC usability and sharing WiiM feedback.

I've used Roon at a local HiFi dealer once for a few hours and liked it. That said, I really dislike the idea of paying $15/month just to integrate 1 other paid content subscription player.

The question of "why not use as cheaper WiiM player?" is fair though. In fact, I totally forgot that I still have a WiiM Mini here that I used in the past. Hadn't previously considered anything other than an Ultra bc I wanted USB out.

So I just dug up the Mini, updated the firmware and tested it via Toslink into my home theater setup with Qobuz through the WiiM player (which I hadn't used before, just Spotify). Sounds great.

I guess a MiniDSP SHD it is. I'll still try the PC route for streaming first but if I can't figure that out in a satisfactory way, I'll just use the WiiM Mini. Will report back later here with any useful findings.
 
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