What causes delay in wireless headphones?

Question

I want wireless headphones with little delay. The application is metal detecting. Some companies have started selling wireless headphones for metal detecting and they are 2.4ghz. Is there anyway to determine latency without testing them? There are many 2,4ghz headphones on the market. The reason I don t just buy the ones that I know work from the metal detecting suppliers is because they charge $150 to $300, which seems excessive.

Answer 1

Analog - to - digital and digital - to - analog conversions,

which cannot be avoided, play a large part in it.



If you were to do everything in the analog domain,

the delay would be so small as to be unnoticeable.



Therefore, I strongly recommend using ordinary wired headphones.

Answer 2

As another answer says, bluetooth headphones generally do introduce significant latency due to the way they work.

Both Bluetooth and normal (11b/g/n) WiFi work on 2.4GHz; Also many other "unlicenced" short range radio devices. The frequency band does not help in determining how they operate..





Non-bluetooth wireless headphones - eg. "FM" linked ones - do not have any latency (in any functional sense) but need a matched transmitter or "base unit" that plugs in to the audio source, which is not really practical for a metal detector that you are using away from power sources.



I've never seen any purely battery operated ones that are not bluetooth.

Answer 3

Basically it is a touch and go type of issue. What causes the delay is that the signal is sent to your receiver and then translated and sent to your wireless headphones.

Unfortunately most of the time there is always going to be some delay But how much depends on quality of the product and wireless ability.



Latency

This is a major issue with Bluetooth headphones.

Latency is the short delay between an audio signal being sent and when you can hear it. You won’t notice it when listening to music, but if you’re watching a video or playing a game, it can cause the sound to be out of sync with the picture.



Latency varies depending on the hardware and software setups you have. aptX HD has significantly reduced latency compared to the older codecs. Apple’s use of AAC with the Airpods has minimized it to barely perceptible levels.



So depending on your use and how the signal is being sent...could make a difference on how long that latency is. I do not have a metal detector to do any testing. But unfortunately I think that the latency issue will not completely go away.