Bluetooth transmitter for Denon X2800 receiver?
Discussion
Just bought some Sony XM4 Bluetooth headphones. Sound great, but there's a bit of a delay when used with my Denon X2800 AVR.
Seems like this is caused by the laggy SBC codec that the Denon uses, as the headphones are fine when paired with the TV.
I'm thinking I could connect a low-latency external Bluetooth transmitter to the receiver's Zone 2 RCA pre-outs, and mirror Zone 1 to Zone 2.
Would that affect the Zone 2 speaker connections, which are currently used for a pair of Atmos speakers?
If it's going to work, any suggestions for a decent low-latency Bluetooth transmitter with RCA inputs?
Seems like this is caused by the laggy SBC codec that the Denon uses, as the headphones are fine when paired with the TV.
I'm thinking I could connect a low-latency external Bluetooth transmitter to the receiver's Zone 2 RCA pre-outs, and mirror Zone 1 to Zone 2.
Would that affect the Zone 2 speaker connections, which are currently used for a pair of Atmos speakers?
If it's going to work, any suggestions for a decent low-latency Bluetooth transmitter with RCA inputs?
The Zone 2 RCA connections generally require a source that is analogue. At the moment, your TV connection is likely a HDMI ARC or an optical. Neither of these are analogue. They are digital sources. This means you will get no sound from the TV connection for the Zone 2 audio selection.
Where you want to run the headphones for other sources from the amp rather than just TV, and your TV has an optical output, and you're happy to run the extra cabling, then an optical to analogue line converter will do the trick. This will provide the analogue stereo signal for a spare input on the X2800. Ebay or Amazon, around £7~£15.
Regarding Z2 speaker outputs, no, they won't be affected. You're using them for ATMOS, and so you did the Speaker Assign thing that switches them from being Z2 speaker outs to Atmos speakers instead. They are no longar Z2 speaker connections.
Where you want to run the headphones for other sources from the amp rather than just TV, and your TV has an optical output, and you're happy to run the extra cabling, then an optical to analogue line converter will do the trick. This will provide the analogue stereo signal for a spare input on the X2800. Ebay or Amazon, around £7~£15.
Regarding Z2 speaker outputs, no, they won't be affected. You're using them for ATMOS, and so you did the Speaker Assign thing that switches them from being Z2 speaker outs to Atmos speakers instead. They are no longar Z2 speaker connections.
Edited by Lucid_AV on Sunday 14th April 11:49
Lucid_AV said:
The Zone 2 RCA connections generally require a source that is analogue. At the moment, your TV connection is likely a HDMI ARC or an optical. Neither of these are analogue. They are digital sources. This means you will get no sound from the TV connection for the Zone 2 audio selection.
Where you want to run the headphones for other sources from the amp rather than just TV, and your TV has an optical output, and you're happy to run the extra cabling, then an optical to analogue line converter will do the trick. This will provide the analogue stereo signal for a spare input on the X2800. Ebay or Amazon, around £7~£15.
Regarding Z2 speaker outputs, no, they won't be affected. You're using them for ATMOS, and so you did the Speaker Assign thing that switches them from being Z2 speaker outs to Atmos speakers instead. They are no longar Z2 speaker connections.
Thanks for confirming that I can use the Zone 2 pre-outs without affecting the atmos speakers.Where you want to run the headphones for other sources from the amp rather than just TV, and your TV has an optical output, and you're happy to run the extra cabling, then an optical to analogue line converter will do the trick. This will provide the analogue stereo signal for a spare input on the X2800. Ebay or Amazon, around £7~£15.
Regarding Z2 speaker outputs, no, they won't be affected. You're using them for ATMOS, and so you did the Speaker Assign thing that switches them from being Z2 speaker outs to Atmos speakers instead. They are no longar Z2 speaker connections.
Edited by Lucid_AV on Sunday 14th April 11:49
The amp's manual says that zone 2 can be configured in "source" mode, where it will output whatever the main Zone is set to. In this mode, it will work with hdmi/optical signals.
If Zone 2 is set to play a different input to that playing in the main zone, it will indeed only work with analogue signals.
I guess that makes sense, as the amp only has one set of DACs, so can only process one digital input at a time. Zone 2 "source mode" presumably just routes the already converted main zone analogue signal to the zone 2 pre-outs.
Hopefully that means it will do what I need.
So, the final question is:
Will an external BT transmitter be less laggy than the basic SBC transmitter in the Denon?
Lucid_AV said:
Yep, the single set of DACs is the issue with most AVRs. Useful about the Z2 feature.
Hard to find anything with worse lag than SBC, so anything should be better than it's 150ms.
AptX Low Latency (Aptx LL) is the least leggy at 40ms. Do your phones support that?
Unfortunately no Aptx LL support.Hard to find anything with worse lag than SBC, so anything should be better than it's 150ms.
AptX Low Latency (Aptx LL) is the least leggy at 40ms. Do your phones support that?
I found out that my Shield TV also supports BT headphones. Since most of my viewing and music is done with the Shield, I paired the headphones to it.
No noticeable lag at all, but gets seriously out of sync (3 or 4 seconds) if playback is paused and restarted. Unusable. Seems to be a common complaint with the Shield "tube" model.
At least it proves that the headphones will work with the right setup.
I've ordered a BT transmitter that gets good reviews from Amazon to connect to the zone 2 pre-outs.
The BT transmitter arrived. 1Mii B03pro+.
Connected via the amp zone 2 pre-outs, paired the headphones using the "LDAC" setting. Works perfectly so far. Lip sync lag is minimal, and only really noticeable as an echo if the speakers and headphones are both running at the same time, with the earphones covering just one ear.
No dropouts so far.
Shame that Sony don't use Aptx LL - if I select that option on the transmitter, it just drops back to SBC.
Using the transmitter, I get the same very slight lag as the TV and the Shield at their best (and less than using the AVR's onboard BT), but with the bonus that all sources play nicely, and I don't have to fiddle with settings every time.
Connected via the amp zone 2 pre-outs, paired the headphones using the "LDAC" setting. Works perfectly so far. Lip sync lag is minimal, and only really noticeable as an echo if the speakers and headphones are both running at the same time, with the earphones covering just one ear.
No dropouts so far.
Shame that Sony don't use Aptx LL - if I select that option on the transmitter, it just drops back to SBC.
Using the transmitter, I get the same very slight lag as the TV and the Shield at their best (and less than using the AVR's onboard BT), but with the bonus that all sources play nicely, and I don't have to fiddle with settings every time.
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