Speaker delay settings (1 Viewer)

[DaveWeis]

Hi All,

I just hooked up my new JVC RX-8030VBK receiver over the weekend. I know it is considered pretty low-end in this forum but I must say I'm very happy with it so far. Best feature set for the buck in my opinion, and I realize the 130-watt per channel rating is inflated, but it does go plenty loud for me.

Anyway, I had a few questions about speaker delay settings. My JVC lets you input the distance from the front, center, and rear channels to the listening position. This got me thinking... what about the sub? Shouldn't I be able to adjust the delay for the sub? Luckily my sub is close to my furthest speaker (Front Right), so I wouldn't want a delay there anyway, but it seems that many receivers do not allow you to input a delay for the subs. What's up with that?

Secondly, this got me thinking... setting a delay in some of the speakers so that sound reaches the listening point at the same time is done at the expense of unsyncing the audio from the video. So which is more noticeable, front speaker sound being slightly off from rear speaker sound or all speaker sounds being slightly off from the video?

I'm guessing that our brains can't truly detect sound delay differences of ten or twenty milliseconds, and they probably can't detect if the audio is out of sync with the video by even 50 milliseconds. Just something for my brain to worry about. Please provide insight!

Thanks,
Dave

 

[Jeff Meininger]

I can tell when the audio is even a little bit out of sync. It's annoying, but I haven't found that it's made much better by avoiding delay settings.

As for whether or not good speaker delay settings are important, all I can say is "I'm not sure". I would guess that the real test would be trying to get a stereo image between your front-left and surround-left speakers from the listening position. Due to most room layouts, it's not going to be a spectacular image, but any image at all will add "surround" to your "surround sound". Not sure what material would be good to test this.

My friend's Denon 3803 has a delay setting for the sub. Supercool! I think most receivers don't bother, though, because it probably doesn't matter nearly as much. If you want to worry about the sub blending with the mains, it sounds like you have it in a good spot. The other thing to mess with is the "phase" control on the sub (if you have one).

Also, in a very boomy sub or very overhanging room, setting delay on the sub would exacerbate the problem... at least the listener would perceive more "boom" I think.

 

[Jamey F]

I also have the 3803. It had delay settings for every speaker (including the sub). I noticed a huge difference in stereo/direct modes when changing the delay settings but less so with HT.

 

[Craig_Kg]

Many subs have a phase control which will serve this purpose.

 

[DaveWeis]

Thanks for the info Guys! I tried the phase setting on the sub and it didn't make much difference, so I think it's pretty much in sync with no delay at all.

Thanks Again!