Music on AirPlay

There could be other reasons, but the most likely reason is the hardware which processes the digital signal does so at different rates on each sound system.

You don't hear audio from the Apple TV, you hear from the device the Apple TV is connected to (mine work in perfect sync with other devices). in any case there are no settings you can change to help you.

Hello Fish,

I have the same problem. I am so glad it is just not me. If you have a good ear as most audio people do you can hear this. Church it is not the device. When I airplay from my office, to a bose portable with APeX, and an apple tv gen 3 or gen 1 you can hear a slight delay with the apple tv the most. For me all speakers are on the same floor so I am about 20 ft from each speaker and it sounds like an echo, right fish? I even tried to swap out "devices" and it is still the same thing.

I bought all Bose the "Best type A Device" to solve this but still a problem!???

Fish, the best way to "solve" this the way I found it. get all "devices" playing a song that it happens the most with. I found most pitpull, LMFAO, or even something with a steady beat. Play the apple tv as loud as you need it to be first. Then raise the sound on your other device slightly louder then the apple tv. This also works in reverse too. APeX and my office does not matter, they sound great together. I also have the gen 1 Apple tv and the same thing happens with it. I moved to a larger house and wanted the "Apple airplay" party but became a bust with this problem.

IF there are others out there PLEASE post here to get this solved. Apple knows this because it also happens at the store!!!!!

Unfortunately I must disagree with you. If it was the Apple TV it would occur from me too. It doesn't. In fact on high-end audio equipment there is usually a delay settings to compensate for such factors, so it exists throughout all equipment, it is not a problem with the Apple TV.

what type of apple equipment are you using? All my friends, family even my brother who is the bigest audio person I know to the point he does his own audio hears it?

I agree with you to a point. If the compensation factor you speak of was comming from the same sorce ie: apple tv to sound system then to wireless speakers yes there will be a compensation and nothing will be heard. But when iTunes does the compensation for you (the little lines at the top) when you connect to multiple airplay speakers, to the have mutiple devices in perfect sync and just the apple tv to be off is a little odd??? Also to have it just happen with gen1 and gen 3 Aptv I think there is an apple problem? maybe you need to have your speakers a little louder or say in the next room?? If they are very far from each other you will not hear it because of the distance. But when you have a party and you want to play music so people can talk to each other so a high speaker to room ratio is required.

This question has been raised a number of times in this community, and I have tested it many times before. I have seven Apple TV's (first, second and third generation models) some are simply connected to TVs and others go through sound systems. Additionally I have a number of airport expresses which are also connected to sound systems. Not only are they all in sync with each other, but they are also in sync with the Mac when it plays the music at the same time. One of the tunes I have tested it with is wipeout, I have chosen this because I think it is likely a very good test for the setup. I have actually been very impressed how this all works, which is why I am very reluctant to accept that there is a problem with the Apple TV. I often wonder if the users network has a hand in their problems.

I am by far trying to be dificult but if this question has been raised a number of times before with no good answer why is it still comming up?? I have been reading here since gen1 so I know I did not miss the correct answer. Could it just happen with a small number of devices and not a house full of them? If my PC/mac are hard wired with cat 6 and so is the APtv1 &3 how can it be a network issue? I have tried so many different ways to connect (hard wired to wireless, wireless to hard wire, and wireless to wireless) If it was network shouldn't it happen some where in that mix of connections? I just gave up until I saw this post. I understand that it works perfect for you but still why is it still here every so often? I do not see people here messing with there networks with Qos and so. Please help me with the understanding why it could be their/ my network???

I suppose I don't really have the full answer for you, I know it works fine for me, it therefore seems illogical that it can be the Apple TV. It's not as though I am immune to out of sync audio, I am often frustrated by out of sync audio between different TVs running the same over the air broadcast.

it is almost that bad and I agree! I have seen and read many of your past post so I guess you would have a good answer if there was one. It is just so annoying to have to play with the sound on each device to get it in a "good sounding sync". It sounds like you are in a large outdoor stadium when they play the clapping and you hear it from the speakers and then hear it bounce off the walls. Sorry to press you so hard with this one but since I got you online and talking I thought I would take advantage!

Keep up the good work

By the way are you listening in the same room to all sets of speakers, whilst some users have suggested the speed of sound as a possible reason, which is quite unlikely unless we are talking buildings the size of a stadium, construction materials are a different matter, some materials can change the speed of sound so much it is possible to notice the difference from one room to another.

no I am not in the same room. I have tried that to just see if it was a bad speaker, or like you say different material from room to room, but it is even worse. My office is about 15 feet from APeX, and the APeX is about 10 feet from the apple tv. the TV speakers are on the back wall set up to just come from one spot and not suround. I have a some what open floor plan so the sound is not bouncing off walls or going around areas. I agree the speed of sound is very unlikly. I see what you are saying in regards to the building and materials. I used it in 2 different houses so I do not think that is it. each speaker is about 10-20 feet from eachother. I have tried them loud, soft and even on different floors. With different floors they sound good because of the speed it takes to get to me. It is the weirdest thing. I even went to an apple store and tried to play music from a mac and and the apple tv they had and still had the same problem. Yes the size made a big diifence so we tried on basicly right next to it. I went extra early so no one was there and the employee was so bafiled. I do not see that having type A speaker and type B speaker will make that much of a difference. But I could be wrong since it looks that people that have multiple types have this problem. But if that was the case I would of heard it since at one point I had gen1 connected to the tv with the speaker out connection split to 2 different types of speaker and they were in perfect sync no "echo". I am a big tester before I complain about something so I have tried every which way from south. I even tried to switch the speakers in the the different room. Also had Gen 1 and gen3 playing the song one wired one wireless and they were in sync for the most part. It is just ApeX and PC/Macs that are off. But ApeX and computer are in perfect sync??????

If you are up to it since it looks like this is a topic you are tired of answering but try to have the speakers in the next room and play something newer. Say a song that just has a "boom-boom beat". Start off with low volume and raise one at a time. If they are in sync you sould not hear an echo. I say a boom-boom beat because opra of clasical does not have a problem. And no I do not think wipe out is clasical!

I will bookmark this thread, and give it a try when all the equipment is free, some of my equipment tends to be in use most of the time in my household.

I'm no expert on this but I think BOSE speakers uses bluetooth for wireless connectivity whereas AppleTV uses wi-fi. Hence potential sync problems as the two data streams are generated using fundamentally different signal processing systems.

thanks for the info but we are just talking about apple tvs and ApeX connections. Yes Bose now has 1 bluetooth speaker but that is new and something totally different.