OS 10.10.1 Yosemite has Bluetooth Audio Delay (lag, latency)

This procedure is a diagnostic test. It makes no changes to your data.

Please triple-click anywhere in the line below on this page to select it:

defaults read com.apple.BluetoothAudioAgent | pbcopy

Copy the selected text to the Clipboard by pressing the key combination command-C.

Launch the built-in Terminal application in any of the following ways:

☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)

☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.

☞ Open LaunchPad and start typing the name.

Paste into the Terminal window by pressing the key combination command-V. I've tested these instructions only with the Safari web browser. If you use another browser, you may have to press the return key after pasting.

Wait for a new line ending in a dollar sign ($) to appear below what you entered.

The output of the command will be automatically copied to the Clipboard. If the command produced no output, the Clipboard will be empty. Paste into a reply to this message.

The Terminal window doesn't show the output. Please don't copy anything from there.

In the Sound preference pane, select the Sound Effects tab. From the popup menu, select

Selected sound output device

if it's not already selected. Test.

As far as I can tell, it's a bug. I haven't seen any consistent reports of a workaround.

Possible Solution:

Ever since my upgrade from Mavericks to Yosemite (early 2013 rMBP), I've had BT issues. More dropouts than lag, but this solution may solve both issues. Also, to my understanding, it solved someone else's WiFi issues.

Steps:

1. Open Finder
2. Press Command+Shift+G
3. Type /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
4. Backup all of the files at this location
5. Delete all of the files in this location
6. Reboot

Directly before doing this, my BT audio would dropout every 15-30 seconds or so.

Directly after doing this, my BT audio hasn't dropped out at all. I've been listening for about 30 minutes.

Finally, I can listen to audio wirelessly again!

I'm not sure it is a problem with Yosemite, per se. I was under the impression that the audio latency with Bluetooth speakers is intrinsic to Bluetooth technology caused by the time it takes for the audio signal to travel to the device. I'm willing to accept I'm wrong on this given that some of you have only noticed this problem recently. I, personally, have always experienced audio latency on all operating systems (Windows, Mac OS) and with any bluetooth device I've owned in the past.

Currently, I have a Bose Soundlink and Yosemite, and the latency seems similar to previous device/OS combinations.

My solution is to use VLC to watch movies and then set the audio offset (Window > Track Synchronisation) to -0.002s.

NB. This site (bearing in mind it's selling a product) seems to imply that audio latency is down to the Bluetooth standard and the audio codec used. It quotes the "standard" Bluetooth latency as being approximately 150ms. Its product allegedly reduces this latency to 32ms.

Interestingly, if audio from an iOS device is sent to the Bluetooth speaker via AirPlay, there is no lag.

Here are my results. Still have crazy choppy audio with these settings.

{

"Apple Bitpool Max (editable)" = 80;

"Apple Bitpool Min (editable)" = 80;

"Apple Initial Bitpool (editable)" = 80;

"Apple Initial Bitpool Min (editable)" = 80;

"Negotiated Bitpool" = 80;

"Negotiated Bitpool Max" = 80;

"Negotiated Bitpool Min" = 80;

}