Weird audio issue between Sony LED and Klipsch Soundbar

I

IMTheWalrus

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Hey everyone, was hoping for some help with this item because I can't figure it out for the life of me. Recently I got a Klipsch soundbar and a new Sony 4K LED set. The TV has optical out, so I run all of my HDMI into the TV, and then optical out to the soundbar.

For the most part the sound is great and everything, but for some reason I have these weird cut outs, usually at the beginning of a sound. It's almost like the sound bar is detecting a signal before actually outputting everything, but by then the first half second of sound is gone. For example, when I'm playing Mario Maker like the first note of the song doesn't play but then the rest plays fine. Or if I'm playing MGS5 if there's no other sound and then a brief audio clip plays the first word gets cut off and then plays normally.

I've looked through the settings on the TV which seem simple, and the sound bar doesn't appear to have any settings really. Any ideas?
 
donluca

donluca

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It could be due to several things.

First suspect is the optical connection. Optical connections have to go through two stages to deliver the signal from one end to the other: it first has to convert the electrical signal to optical (light impulses) and then back to electrical. There's a small buffer generally which causes the delay, muting the first half second or so of the signal.
I had this problem when I connected my PS2 with optical to my Logitech Z-5500 setup.
If this is the problem, switching to HDMI or Coaxial connection fixes the issue.

Second suspect may be either the D/A circuits in the soundbar or TV. To avoid an annoying "click" they might use an aggressive mute function to prevent the click go through the speakers when signal first gets in.
If there's no option to change this in the soundbar or TV I'm afraid you'll have to live with it.

Third and last thing... check if the cable is well inserted on both ends! ;)
 
I

IMTheWalrus

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donluca said:
It could be due to several things.

First suspect is the optical connection. Optical connections have to go through two stages to deliver the signal from one end to the other: it first has to convert the electrical signal to optical (light impulses) and then back to electrical. There's a small buffer generally which causes the delay, muting the first half second or so of the signal.
I had this problem when I connected my PS2 with optical to my Logitech Z-5500 setup.
If this is the problem, switching to HDMI or Coaxial connection fixes the issue.

Second suspect may be either the D/A circuits in the soundbar or TV. To avoid an annoying "click" they might use an aggressive mute function to prevent the click go through the speakers when signal first gets in.
If there's no option to change this in the soundbar or TV I'm afraid you'll have to live with it.

Third and last thing... check if the cable is well inserted on both ends! ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply. I'll check the cable and perhaps even swap it out to see if that fixes it. I don't think HDMI or Coaxial will work with the soundbar as an input. Maybe HDMI, but I'm not sure if the TV has HDMI out. I could probably do RCA out, but I would really rather not do that...

I suspect you are right about the stages. What you are describing sounds a lot like my problem.
 
donluca

donluca

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Since the soundbar is stereo (I believe) you might get good results with the simple stereo RCA cables. Definitely worth a shot.
 
I

IMTheWalrus

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donluca said:
Since the soundbar is stereo (I believe) you might get good results with the simple stereo RCA cables. Definitely worth a shot.
Click to expand...

So when I got home I checked that out and the TV only outputs optical :/ I put in a trouble ticket with Klipsch so we'll see what they say. I think it's the soundbar, but I really don't know for sure.
 
donluca

donluca

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An headphone output would work fine as well. You just need a stereo 3.5mm jack to stereo RCA cable.
 
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