I have a closed back headset and I’d like to hear my own voice when I speak in the mic without delay. I use a Schiit Bifrost DAC and Monolith Liquid Platinum amp. What could be a good solution here? I’m guessing I need a mixer that takes balanced input from the amp and the microhpone, mix it together and deliver it in balanced output without distorting the sound. If there is such a thing? Any other solution (except going open back)?
Windows PC?
- Open sound settings
- Click “Sound Control Panel”
- Click “Microphone”
- Right-click the microphone you’d like to hear and select “Properties”
- Click the “Listen” tab
- Check the box “Listen to this device”
While it will depend on your PC, for me, there’s no delay that I can notice.
Thanks for answer. This has a noticeable delay. If you ever tried without delay then you’ll notice it too. Some gaming dac/amps supports hearing your mic with no/minimal delay which is done in the dac/amp. But “Listen to this device” is software processed through OS so it adds delay and it’s not dependent on PC.
It is. I can hear the delay on my laptop. I can’t on my desktop.
I’m gonna assume that my ears didn’t change in thos fifteen seconds between tests 
Laptop is more modern though so euh… I don’t know on “what” it depends xD
The hardware option would indeed be a mixer or (usually cheaper?) an audio interface with direct monitoring. I have the u-phoria umc22 which was only €29 but i see is now €53 (wtf???)
1 Like
The windows “listen to this” function usually adds like 50-150ms delay on my system (Ryzen 5800X, RTX3070), definitely far away from latency free.
If you want to have mic monitoring with minimal delay, you will have to look into audio interfaces, which will replace your Bitfrost as DAC.
If you want to keep using your dac, you can get an interface with digital outputs (the Focusrite 8i6 3rd gen for example has an coaxial output), with that you can get your mic with minimal latency into your dac.
2 Likes