You're absolutely right. And players like Guthrie Govan, Steve Stevens, Alex Lifeson and more don't seem to mind.
The only problem is when latency adds up.
I've played tube amps for 20 years and often on stages where the speaker was up to 6 metres behind me. That was a strange feeling and so wedges had to help out here. In the All Analogue era, it was just a question of sound. With the first digital consoles, wedges also had phase problems.
But what would have happened if I had used modellers instead of analogue amps back then? These 4 - 8 ms would have been added to the natural delay time and would have worsened the playing feel. So the comparison with the distance to the cabinet is technically correct, but is practically useless.
Nowadays I mostly play in-ear. And that is the right way. The days of 4x12 speakers and the destruction of your own hearing are over.
And I initially had an interesting problem with in-ears. The sound was too direct for me. When you've been used to natural latency all these years, the transmission in "zero time" was strange. In this respect, I don't mind the latency - as long as it doesn't get too high.
Ultimately, it's a question of application. I also have three different guitar transmitters in use. A Sennheiser ew100 G4, a Sennheiser ew-D and two Line6 G70s.
You might be wondering why. It also depends on the backline. When I'm subbing and the band isn't playing in-ear but with FRFR wedges or traditional cabinets, I use the ew100 because it has no latency.
With In Ear or in small clubs where the speaker is very close, I use the LIne 6 G70. This is the transmitter with the lowest latency of 1.5 ms (Line6 says so and I can confirm it with measurements)
But you can't use it in big shows with over 300 guests. As it transmits in the WLAN range, there are dropouts. In this case I use the Sennheiser ew-d. Very stable and only 1.8 ms latency. By the way. For In Ear I use the ew G4 from Sennheiser. IEM transmitter are not digital for a good reason ;-)
Any transmitter that adds more than 4 ms latency is nonsense in my opinion. So many Shure, Sennheiser transmitters that transmit in the WLAN range. Xvive is absolutely terrible in this respect.
The same applies to those that add several digital pedals to the FM9 loop. I have already seen pedalboards with 3 Eventide H9 pedals. And each one adds latency. In addition to the latency of the algorithms, you also have the latency of the DA-AD conversion.
The latency trap is lurking everywhere. Two years ago - I had just rebuilt my studio - I got a visit from my good buddy Thomas Blug from Bluguitar. I had just received the first FM9 and he had his AMP X prototype with him. So we connected both devices via my RME Fireface and Thomas started to play the FM9. He stopped immediately and said that the latency was too high and it didn't feel good. I then played and had to agree with him. Funnily enough, we also felt latency on his Amp X. Eventually we found out that my KS digital speakers (absolutely fantastic speakers by the way) had added 6 ms of latency. Then there was the latency of the conversion via the RME. So we stood 2 metres away from the speakers and in the end it added up to 10 ms.
The next day I sold my KS digital again and bought PSI Audio A21 speakers. Unbelievable linear speakers with an elaborate analogue crossover and phase correction. 0 ms latency.
And that's what I also like about the REDSOUND speakers. Great sound, very high-quality speakers and power amplifiers and an analogue crossover. No DSP. Okay, in my opinion the crossover could be designed even better, but that's a question of money. The design of an analogue crossover is so time-consuming that many users don't want to pay the extra price. Redosunds are the best choice for me at the moment. Apart from Meyer Sound. But unfortunately I'm not a millionaire.
So if this customer has realised that the latency is too high for them, this is important feedback. I'm sure that the non-resting developers at FAS are already working on an optimisation. And if they win one ms, that would be great. Then you can add something elsewhere ;-) And if not, that's good too. Because the sound is important. And it's fantastic. As Guthrie Govan can probably confirm ;-)
