why does playing 3 different TV’s/media devices, all synced playing the same thing, sound like 3 “layers” of sound instead combining into one sound?

Question

Is it because they aren’t TRULY synchronized? Because the different quality of speakers don’t make perfect sounds waves that can line up/combine/harmonize?

Are there any instances these sounds WOULD combine, like with some kind of program or piece of hardware? How is this different than something like a concert where you can’t perceive the individual speakers?

(I have a decent understanding rudimentary physics/sound and a good understanding hearing/the vestibular system/cranial nerves btw! Im not actually 5 haha)

In: 2

Answer 1

It only takes 10 milliseconds of latency to be audible, and sound travels 1 meter in 3 milliseconds. So devices 3-4 meters apart playing synchronized sound will have audible latency. Also, the audio processing from modern compressed audio formats may take different amounts of time on different devices.

In a stadium with multiple speaker systems, the sound engineers use delay equipment to keep all the sound synchronized across the stadium. There are some multi-room music players that can synchronize audio by listening for the other speakers, but not all systems have this. I think there may be some audio apps for phones that can do this as well.