HomePod Mac audio lag?

The 2-second delay is a buffer interval that's inherent to Airplay 1. It should be basically imperceptible with Airplay 2, according to the WWDC talk from last year.

Airplay 2 details | MacRumors Forums

The two seconds of latency are an artifact of the architecture of Airplay 1. Once Airplay 2 rolls out (very soon, I hope) it should go away.

Technical discussion here.

As noted above this is due to limitations with AirPlay 1, and should be addressed in AirPlay 2 which is coming soon.

tt2

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I have the same king of audio sync problem using Airplay from iTunes on iMac / AirportExpress (synced) and Apple TV 4thgen (some ms delay). Checked the TV whether there was a setting for audio sync delay but nothing. All on my LAN network (no wifi)

Got the same problem. If I play a video on my MacBook Pro using VLC, QT, etc, the audio is always out of sync by seconds. However, if I drag that same movie into iTunes and play it with my Apple TV, the audio is in sync. If I watch anything with my iPhone X, iPad Pro and airplay the audio to HomePod, it’s out of sync. This really *****.

Also, it you have any devices connected to your network that can timeout and need to ping the network such as a NAS, this can cause an audio delay or brief interruption to playback

When you say " I select the HomePod as a audio output there seems to be a small amount of lag with the audio of about 1 to 2 seconds with videos and audio from the computer." are you referring to Airplay from menu bar ( top left ) or System Preferences audio ?

I have experienced lag as well, but in a different situation: When I play music via iTunes on the Mac and select multiple speakers via AirPlay, I hear a significant echo due to the audio being out of sync. One speaker is the HomePod, the other is an AirPlay compatible receiver.

It's driving me CRAZY! Bluetooth speakers aren't even this bad... it makes the HomePod completely un-usable for gaming or anything that requires realtime audio. iTunes/Safari is buffering up the audio before it starts playing. I tried AirFoil but can't figure out a solution for this... Apple needs to provide a solution, turn on bluetooth audio or allow realtime streams direct using AirPlay... maybe AirPlay 2 will have an option to eliminate the buffer?

I completely agree. It truly makes my $350+ speaker completely useless for my day to day. I turn it off and use my iMac audio all day when working just so my audio is actually sync'd up with what I'm working on. How could this have been so poorly overlooked? It's wireless basics IMO. Love the sound of the speaker but the lack of integrating it correctly with macOS blows my mind.

Is this something being looked into? I was showing videos of my trip to my friends via VLC Player ant the video sound lags for about 2 seconds, it's such a waste of money when you can't use such an expensive purchase as a speaker if its not with an apple app?

Me too. When connection with the earphone and sing a song i heard a voice echo. How can to solve this . Maybe turn down the minimum echo sound

stupid question, of course it is the latter.