Windows 10: Audio latency suddenly increases soon after getting new headphones

When I get a new pair of headphones or a new windows installation, there is very little audio latency, and then it suddenly worsens to about 80ms after some time. I've been trying to figure this out for a few months with no luck. 80ms could be ignored, but I play rhythm games, and it gets annoying.


The first time this happened was when I built this PC with my dad. I had the Logitech G Pro X headset wired USB, and I played games with no latency just after we built the PC. However, after about an hour, I reopened Osu, and there was an ~80ms audio delay. The audio delay was noticeable in every rhythm game I tried, and I have no idea what caused it.


I deduced that it was the headset itself, but I recently got the Beyerdynamic DT 770 pro headphones with the FiiO K3 DAC. I was also playing rhythm games with very little latency when I got these headphones. Unfortunately, similar to before, the audio was delayed by ~80ms the next day. Neither reinstalling the apps and drivers nor minimizing the buffer size in the FiiO control panel helped. Apparently, the DT770s and FiiO K3 DAC aren't even supposed to have that much of a delay.


Things I've tried that did not work:

• Decreasing buffer size
• Disabling audio enhancements
• Disabling exclusive mode on the audio drivers
• Uninstalling other audio devices
• Reinstalling the audio drivers tried for both Logitech G Pro X and FiiO K3
• Getting different headphones only temporarily fixed latency
• Reinstalling windows/building a new computer I had this delay on the MSI laptop I had beforehand

I'm lost on what's causing this and how to fix it. I'm not even sure if Windows is at fault here, but it's probably not a single game's fault, as this delay is noticeable across Osu, Muse Dash, and a couple of Roblox games.


To explain how I hear the audio delay, the time between when I press the key and when the sound plays in-game is much more noticeable with the ~80ms delay than without. It also causes me to press keys too late when I time my keypresses to the music because the game is ahead of the music.

:)

 

Bluetooth Headphones Latency Problem

So, when I watch a YouTube video, there is almost NO latency. But, when you play any game, the latency suddenly jumps up higher and it is noticeable.

The latency is around 150ms-200ms, which is a problem for me. However, with Youtube video, there is like 30ms-40ms. Let's say you shoot a gun in a game, when you shoot it, for a fraction of a second, you won't hear anything, then the sound renders in. This
is a problem for me since my other wireless headphones won't work anymore, which I have to use my Bose Bluetooth headphones.

If there is a way to lower the latency when playing games, please tell me.

 

Move audio to one side for speakers but not headphones

Hello J1mmyth3F1sh,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

• Is your headphones getting detected in the Playback settings?
  
• Are you trying to play the audio on both Speakers and Headphones at the same time?
  

Ideally, if you have configured Sound settings to play on your left speakers, the same goes with the headphones. The sound starts playing only on the left side of your headphones according to the settings changed.

Meanwhile, we can try configuring the headphones and change the balance level in the sound settings and see if it works. Kindly check with the steps listed below and see if it helps.

Method : Run audio test for your headphones.

• Open Control Panel from the Start menu and click on
  Sound.
  
• In the Sound window, click on your
  Headphones and select Configure option at the bottom left.
  
• By running the test, check if both sides of your headphones are working fine.
  

If that doesn’t help, I would suggest you to check with the audio balance by following the steps listed below:

• Open Sound settings from
  Control Panel, and right click on the Headphones to open its
  Properties.
  
• Click on Levels tab and select
  Balance button. In the Balance window, you can use the slider to balance both left and right headphones equally.
  

However, I commend and appreciate you for recognizing this behavior. This is a valuable suggestion as there may be other users with a similar requirement. Hence, I suggest you to leave a
Feedback for this product so
that our developer team can look into this and check if it can be implemented in the future updates.

Regards,

Mala S

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

[WTB][EU]   Beginner audiophile headphones

i would also recommend looking at the Audio Technica m50s if this is your first step into audiophile headphones.

most of the cans you listed will also need an amp to push them.