[dshea_32665]

I just got an M-Audio Transit for my iBook G4 and was playing around with the settings. I did the Input2,Output2, 24 bit setting like some have recommended. Not knowing what latency was I experimented with the settings and noticed that there was a noticeable sound change with each of the settings. High latency sounded slightly warmer but kind of dull, where low latency had great presence.

I did a search on this and read that latency shouldn't affect the sound quality. Is this true? and I take it if I don't get clips and gaps, that low latency is the ideal setting?

Just trying to understand how latency affects my listening. If anybody can help me I would greatly appreciate it.

(It is starting: Etys, Transit, the wallet is looking pretty scared as I contemplate the next step, or most likely steps. But the music sounds so good

)

cheers,
dshea

 

[breez]

I don't see how it could affect the sound quality, unless the hardware has problems keeping up with low latencies (the mentioned clicks and gaps). If you don't need a low latency for anything (like music production with your PC), just keep it high and far from the point where the crackles start just to be on the safe side.

 

[noir]

i have the m-audio transit too.
Latency doesnt matter at all for sound quality. mine is operating on 2in, 2out, 16bit. I don't want the transit or foobar to do the resampling, i rather let the DAC do that

 

[Zurg]

Just to add to what others here have said. Latency should have no effect on sound quality playback. It mostly becomes a synchronization issue when producing sound from external midi controllers or syncing external music sources. When you push a key on a midi keyboard, you want the sound to be produced with as little latency as possible, so it sounds instantaneous with the keypress.

For sound playback from the computer, it should only make a difference if the load on the machine causes gaps in the sound playback data stream. Increasing the latency will allow the computer to handle transient loads better and help insure a continuous data stream.

-Z

 

[dshea_32665]

Okay, today it doesn't seem to affect the sound. Truly bazaar. Sorry to have wasted band width, I guess I know more now what latency is.

Thanks again.

dshea

 

[Permonic]

I use following settings:

Operating Mode: 2 in, 2 out, 8000 Hz to 48000 Hz
Latency: High

In Foobar the playback is 24bit fixed-point, ASIO as an output.

If I use very high latency, it would shift the start of a track for a fraction of second, however it's sometimes audible on some tracks. High latency works fine for me.

 

[MiChael.]

Low latency is only really needed for music producing, e.g. soft synths. For listening it's needless, it just makes cpu usage higher and you lose safety. But there is one advantage, seeking forward and backward is faster with low latencies cause it uses less buffering. I'd claim any audible differences are placebo, unless if you use too low latency which makes sound all the way screwed of clips and gaps