EA3 as an audio over IP solution

[pdapice]

Maybe this is a rookie question...but...
With the cost of a used EA-3 approaching >$100 it seems like a great solution for getting bi-directional audio over IP

I have a zone setup with a 5.1 AVR and also speaker level output from my whole home audio
I would like to add that zone's TV output as an option to the whole home audio system and would also like the option to pipe the whole home audio into an AVR.

I could accomplish this with some baluns i guess, but i think that an EA3 would be a quick and easy way to accomplish all of this and more

is this just "standard" or are there some downsides to doing things this way?
or is there a better way?

[RAV]

Delay.
Any digital to analog and back processing is going to add time delay between the two amps (whole home system vs home theater receiver)

[pdapice]

That was my primary concern. how bad is it in practice though?

 

[zaphod]

Baluns is a cheaper way to do this, assuming that you have a LAN drop available.

[cshepard]

On 12/26/2024 at 12:54 PM, pdapice said:

That was my primary concern. how bad is it in practice though?

 

It’s a delay of several seconds. Not viable for video’s audio.

[cbasssssss]

I have an Atlona AT-HDR-M2C that came with a rack I bought. seems like a good piece of HW.

[pdapice]

4 minutes ago, cbasssssss said:

I have an Atlona AT-HDR-M2C that came with a rack I bought. seems like a good piece of HW.

quite overkill for my needs at the moment

[pdapice]

On 12/30/2024 at 8:53 PM, cshepard said:

It’s a delay of several seconds. Not viable for video’s audio.

adding the EA3 to the current stream from another room has been spot on with no audible delay, so are you saying that piping the audio in the other direction adds several seconds? is this something you have personally experienced or are you just speculating?

[cbasssssss]

1 minute ago, pdapice said:

quite overkill for my needs at the moment

Im interested in moving it if your interested....shoot me a PM

[cbasssssss]

Just now, cbasssssss said:

Im interested in moving it if your interested....shoot me a PM

I also have AC-EX70-UHD-KIT, AT-UHD-EX-70C-RX, and an AT-UHD-EX-100CE-RX if your interested

[pdapice]

2 minutes ago, cbasssssss said:

I also have AC-EX70-UHD-KIT, AT-UHD-EX-70C-RX, and an AT-UHD-EX-100CE-RX if your interested

thanks but none of those fit my needs at the moment

[cshepard]

On 1/2/2025 at 12:33 PM, pdapice said:

adding the EA3 to the current stream from another room has been spot on with no audible delay, so are you saying that piping the audio in the other direction adds several seconds? is this something you have personally experienced or are you just speculating?

Okay, I’ll try to be nice here. I’ve been installing & programming C4 for 18 years. I wouldn’t have said what you are trying to do isn’t viable if I were just speculating. Of course adding the EA3 to the current stream *of AUDIO* plays with no audible delay. There is a delay of a couple seconds where the controller the audio originates from goes out over the network so that the EA3’s audio will be in sync. You don’t know there’s a delay because there’s nothing to compare it to. But when you add video in the mix, now the audio delay becomes much more apparent. Go ahead & try it. The video’s audio from your TV will be in sync across all your zones, but it will be multiple seconds behind the video.

[pdapice]

1 hour ago, cshepard said:

Okay, I’ll try to be nice here. I’ve been installing & programming C4 for 18 years. I wouldn’t have said what you are trying to do isn’t viable if I were just speculating. Of course adding the EA3 to the current stream *of AUDIO* plays with no audible delay. There is a delay of a couple seconds where the controller the audio originates from goes out over the network so that the EA3’s audio will be in sync. You don’t know there’s a delay because there’s nothing to compare it to. But when you add video in the mix, now the audio delay becomes much more apparent. Go ahead & try it. The video’s audio from your TV will be in sync across all your zones, but it will be multiple seconds behind the video.

ok, that makes more sense then. Still it might be ok for what i am trying to accomplish. I will have to try it and see