Do you think I'll have latency issues using my stereo?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Do you think I’ll have latency issues using my stereo?

Hello. I’m planning to go with a traktor S2 as my first controller. However, I’m a little bit worried about the current equipment I have.

My laptop’s sound comes from a 3.5mm input to RCA input. The RCA is plugged into the back of the stereo receiver and the 3.5mm jack goes in the headphone output on my laptop.

I plan to use my stereo with the traktor s2, but I wonder if I’ll have latency issues doing this.

Does anybody here use their computer speakers or their stereo receiver while mixing?

Should I just go and buy a set of monitors for the midi controller instead?

2

I use an audio 4 dj and my stereo (20yr old AIWA sterio, still the best sound I have ever herd, better than most monitors) and I don’t have any latency issues.

3

It’s not so straightforward. With a normal analogue stereo amp, your ear’s distance to the speaker is the only meaningful source of delay. With home theatre receivers with processing turned on, the processing latency varies a lot, but certainly isn’t designed with live performance in mind. If you have a home theare receiver, make sure the input you use is in “direct” mode.

4

Nope. It’s a Panasonic brand stereo receiver with two speakers that came with it.

It’s a setup kind of like this.

I’ll buy some proper monitors later, but right now I may have to make due with what I have.

5

Grab yourself a set of these

500×500 86.6 KB

Run them from the s2 outputs straight to your stereo inputs. and your done.

The s2 has a soundcard so there is no need to do it this way. Read the manual once you get the s2 :wink:

6

Ah, Thanks!

And thanks to everyone else that replied, too.

7

Some of these stereos use DSP chips on them to “enchance” the sound which adds latency (i had this issue on an old amp i used to own). However theres usually the ability to bypass the DSP (digital signal processing) chip which will get rid of the latency :slight_smile:

8

Great information, thanks!

9

I use my DSP as a master eq. I don’t have a latency issue, although I do use a car head unit so it might be different.

10

Some of them use really cheap DSPs and add a lot of latency.

It’s more a problem with home theater systems (because of the surround sound processing) than bookshelf systems, but it might be something to consider.

11

is it a problem yes

should you care no

those sort of systems will add latency, will it be enough to make a difference to you, probably not but possibly. however if you wait till you can afford decent motors swell so another 400 you will have missed out on time homing your skills. 90% of the worlds top djs will have started with a pair of belt drive tables and a 2 channel mixer that was held together with tape. and as for the stereo they probs got that off there nan

12

It isn’t possible to learn to mix when you’re dealing with half a second of latency, which is what some of those stupid systems cause.

All that latency and cost just to make music sound worse. I don’t get it.

13

I use a 15ft RCA cable from the output of my mixer to my Yamaha receiver and have no problems. I also use an Audio 2 DJ card for dual my audio.

14

Do you think I’ll have latency issues using my stereo?

I’ve used optical out from my computer to my pioneer home theater system and have had no issues but I switch it to 5 channel mode instead of surround

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