Amp Ultra latency (gaming?)

[jabbr]

the Amp Ultra apparently has at least 50ms of latency for its processing, and this cannot be bypassed. If my TV has a response time of ~10ms in gaming mode, will the ~40ms lag behind the image be noticeable?

right now my setup is really low latency. TV > SMSL DAC > Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp (class D)

In Movie / Filmmaker mode where the TV lives for movies and TV via appleTV, the latency of the TV is is around 60ms... so that seems close enough to the Ultra. There is also an audio/video sync setup on the Apple TV so lip-sync, etc isn't a real concern there. Mostly I'm just worried it will be a bad setup for game mode.

 

[Wiimer]

the Amp Ultra apparently has at least 50ms of latency for its processing, and this cannot be bypassed. If my TV has a response time of ~10ms in gaming mode, will the ~40ms lag behind the image be noticeable?

right now my setup is really low latency. TV > SMSL DAC > Onkyo A-9555 integrated amp (class D)

In Movie / Filmmaker mode where the TV lives for movies and TV via appleTV, the latency of the TV is is around 60ms... so that seems close enough to the Ultra. There is also an audio/video sync setup on the Apple TV so lip-sync, etc isn't a real concern there. Mostly I'm just worried it will be a bad setup for game mode.

Hi

I haven't tried it myself, but I suspect it would be problematic in action games.

If your TV has Bluetooth output, connect headphones and measure the latency. If the Bluetooth connection latency is around 50ms, you can simulate the expected performance when connecting the Amp Ultra.

 

[Vladetz]

Amp ultra latency been measured by someone on this forum?

 

[Wiimer]

Amp ultra latency been measured by someone on this forum?

I guess someone posted this somewhere.

I connect the Pro to the sub out of the Amp Ultra and compensate for a 53ms sub delay with Subwoofer Sync. This indicates there is generally a delay of around 50ms.

 

[jabbr]

50ms might be tolerable or not very noticeable. I'm mostly playing non-competitive games on Switch 2.

I'm wondering if Wiim could implement some kind of pure direct mode that bypasses the large processing buffer and just uses the DAC -> Amp directly.

Coming from RME World, where I'm use to ~3ms RTL, this is kinda scary!

 

[jabbr]

does anybody know if the latency is lower than 50ms when using optical or HDMI ARC?

I'm wondering about how much the ADC of the ultra contributes

 

[Wiimer]

does anybody know if the latency is lower than 50ms when using optical or HDMI ARC?

I'm wondering about how much the ADC of the ultra contributes

If the delay is caused by the DSP, I guess the ADC's impact is minimal. After some testing, the Amp Ultra may exhibit more delay compared to other WiiM devices.

Results from connecting the WiiM mini to 3 devices in sequence—Amp Ultra, Ultra, and WiiM Sound—and executing Auto Sync in group playback.

1. Connected the Mini to the Amp Ultra (Optical-in) and performed auto-sync on the Mini during group playback with the Ultra. 109ms

2、Connected the Mini to the WiiM Sound (Aux-in) and performed auto-sync on the Mini during group playback with the Ultra. 44ms



3, Connected the Mini to the Ultra (Line-in) and performed auto-sync on the Mini during group playback with the Amp Ultra. 46ms



Additionally, when creating a group with Ultra and Amp Ultra, and running auto-sync on Ultra, the latency was 3ms. The same result was observed with other device combinations.

 

[jabbr]

@Wiimer whoa, thank you for doing all the testing. So If I'm understand right, the RCA input actually has less latency than the optical? The ADC processing takes less time than parsing out the bits over the digital options... 100+ ms would be useable for gaming through television.

I imagine it would be the same or worse situation through HDMI ARC

 

[Wiimer]

@Wiimer whoa, thank you for doing all the testing. So If I'm understand right, the RCA input actually has less latency than the optical?

No, I don't think so. I believe these are differences in the devices being used. I initially said around 50ms, but that was the latency for the WiiM pro.

This is a latency test for the Amp Ultra connected to the TV via HDMI. (It appears to be roughly 100ms.)
View attachment 7fae8bd5-c224-4a69-88b3-2e9021fe04a1-1_all_3271.mp4

How you feel about this is up to you.

 

[jabbr]

thank you for investigating that!

 

[Wiimer]

@Wiimer whoa, thank you for doing all the testing. So If I'm understand right, the RCA input actually has less latency than the optical? The ADC processing takes less time than parsing out the bits over the digital options... 100+ ms would be useable for gaming through television.

I imagine it would be the same or worse situation through HDMI ARC

Btw, since I wasn't sure about that point, I also checked the Amp Ultra's Line-in.

Mini(Aux-out) -> Amp Ultra -> Speakers

As before, I created a group with the Mini and Ultra, and when I ran Auto Sync on the Mini, it was 102ms. It's odd that the analog has slightly less latency, but the results are nearly identical.