Whether you’re into fighting games like Smash or competitive shooters, a split-second audio delay can mean the difference between reacting in time or getting KO’d before you even see the hit coming. That’s why understanding audio latency is absolutely essential for anyone serious about immersion, timing, and performance: what it is, how it affects gameplay, and how to eliminate it so you can win the fights you currently can’t.
In this post, we’re breaking down what audio latency actually is, why it matters more than you think, and how switching to low-latency audio gear can seriously improve your gaming experience—just like it did for one pro who won a whole tournament after swapping his AirPods for something wired. Because when you hear things before you can actually see them, it can make all the difference between taking that L, or bringing home that W.
Let’s set the stage…
The year is 2021 and the world has been shut down by the virus that shall not be named. We zoom in on a player streaming his tournament run.
The game? Super Smash Brothers Melee, one of the most technically demanding competitive games in the world. The player? Liquid Hungrybox, one of the all time greats, who has been in a major slump since the game has been switched to being played online.
His results haven’t been bad but certainly a far cry from his past as the undisputed number one in the world. This tournament has been going alright so far and he’s dancing along to the music playing in his AirPods when he receives a message in his chat. He reads it out loud:
“You should switch to a wired headset, Bluetooth headphones add 12 frames of audio delay”
“Oh…”
He takes the AirPods out and switches to wired earphones. He wins the tournament.
In a game like Smash that runs at 60 frames per second, 12 frames is equivalent to 1/5th of a second. Could that really have made the difference?
That’s the question we’ll be answering today: What is audio delay or ‘latency’? Why and when does it matter?
And how do you get rid of it?
What is audio latency?
Latency is a delay in information transfer, often lumped under the umbrella-term ‘lag’. In gaming, this manifests as network latency, often measured as ‘ping’ (Round Trip Time, or RTT), i.e., the precise delay, in milliseconds, between an input command being sent from your client device and the game server acknowledging and reflecting that action across the network. The higher the ping, the higher the latency.
For audio, it’s the amount of time between when something shows up on the screen and when you hear it, kind of like the amount of time between seeing a bolt of lightning strike and hearing the thunder. It occurs because, when audio information is transferred wirelessly, it takes time for the signal to be encoded, transmitted, then decoded. This is measured in milliseconds, so the longer the ms, the more latency it has (more about this later).
Every wireless or network technology has some kind of latency, Bluetooth included of course. To complicate things even more, different wireless technologies have different amounts of latency. In this article, we’ll guide you through the basics of why (and when) reducing latency matters, and direct you to some solid, low-latency wireless options for gaming earbuds.
When is latency a problem?
Always!
If you’ve never tried playing games with a Bluetooth headset, you may be wondering why this matters: you’ve been watching films and TV shows with your Bluetooth headphones for the past 10 years and never noticed this ‘latency’ problem. Typically, latency isn’t an issue when it comes to watching films because modern technology has ways to compensate, but for online gaming, audio latency has remained a huge problem due to the need for instantaneous updating of information. In fact, latency is the primary reason for why wireless headphones and earbuds are nowhere to be found at any competitive gaming events (for now), and precisely why HungryBox had to ditch his AirPods.
We’re not going to go too much into it in this post because Super Smash Bros. is a whole different rabbit hole, but to give you a brief overview, Smash is no regular fighting game. It is as much of a platformer as it is a fighting one, and every bit of movement from the length of animation to the is calculated down to the exact number of frames that it takes to perform each action. Some players even say that certain sounds and audio cues precede specific actions, giving you, the player, an unparalleled asymmetric advantage, making zero latency a key essential in the realm of Super Smash Bros.
Latency is measured in milliseconds (ms, thousandths of a second). That may seem like a ridiculously small amount of time to be splitting hairs about, but it’s noticeable. Picture playing an FPS where when you pull the trigger, you see the muzzle flash, but only hear the sound noticeably later. Audio latency is not only annoying but also harmful to gameplay; hearing delayed sounds means you’ll also be delayed when reacting to crucial sound cues like footsteps, gunshots, and reloading sounds. Some versions of Bluetooth have up to 150ms of latency. This is the main reason why we don’t recommend using traditional Bluetooth earbuds like AirPods for gaming.
Let’s go back to Hungrybox. Remember him? He had 12 additional frames of lag – that’s 200ms, around the latency of many Bluetooth versions. In Smash Bros, there are moves that require you to react within 250ms. With 200ms of latency, that only gives you a 50ms window to react, which is outside of human perception. Without latency, you’d have the full 250ms, which, according to research, is enough time to react to audio cues:
But even if you’re not a competitive gamer, if you don’t pay attention to latency when choosing your wireless audio devices, there will always be issues when syncing audio with visual actions, and the mismatch between sound and picture can ruin your immersion and gaming experience. So, how do we fix this?
Low-Latency Audio Gear
The simplest solution is, of course, just to use a wired connection. But that would mean giving up on the sheer convenience of using wireless earbuds. Luckily, the technology surrounding audio latency is rapidly improving, and there are already options for wireless gaming earbuds mainly using two technologies: Bluetooth and 2.4Ghz.
The first thing to look for is any device that highlights low or ultra-low latency, specifically for gaming (bonus points if they tell you how many milliseconds of latency their connection actually has). As we’ve already established, the most common wireless protocol, Bluetooth, usually has a latency of between 100-150ms, and most devices still use older versions or unoptimised versions of Bluetooth that can have latencies of up to 300ms.
There are some Bluetooth devices that support aptX Low Latency, which is a codec that is designed to reduce latency to under 50ms; however, this is not supported by all devices and can decrease audio quality, and 50ms is still noticeable. While Bluetooth is a ubiquitous technology with unparalleled convenience and integration, it has its limitations (as we’ve seen).
Now, what is this 2.4GHz thing?
This is another method of wireless encoding and transfer of data that functions as an alternative to Bluetooth. 2.4GHz offers significantly lower latency and greater sound transfer at the slight cost of convenience, 2.4GHz devices require a separate dongle. However, by simply using 2.4GHz, the latency decreases to around 20ms, which is more than good enough for almost all gaming. Most gaming earbud options support both Bluetooth and 2.4GHz (with a dongle).
Our Recommendations
So, now for the big question: What should I buy?
If you’re a hyper-competitive pro level gamer, you will absolutely want to go for something wired …why risk it with any latency at all?
However, if you are a casual to moderate player and don’t want to give up the convenience and comfort of wireless earbuds, you can opt for a pair as long as they have 2.4Ghz. Or those with a good enough Bluetooth protocol, as long as you get one that has the best version + codec combo you can get.
Regardless of what kind of gamer you are, if you plan to game with wireless earbuds at all, the latency is something you must pay attention to for a decent experience.
You can check out our recommendations for low-latency wireless earbuds designed specifically for gaming in this article.
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