Pain cave audio setup?
 

I am new to Zwift and setting up a pain cave. Will be using Apple TV and a TV for Zwift. I like good sound quality. Is there any reason to setup a sound bar to the TV for Zwift audio or is it best to mute that and just get a speaker setup for music?

Really just wondering if there is any audio worth listening to on Zwift.

Curious how others set up the audio side of things.

I have no idea if there is sound on zwift, I don't have audio on the PC I run it on. Tbh, I never really considered there might be audio.

in my opinion there is nothing worth listening to in swift. i mute and tunes all the way when i zwift or any other indoor training.

The only sounds from Zwift are the environmental and road sounds for immersion purposes, and the annoying ding! sounds when someone gets a kudos. And the various sounds that players can trigger (e.g. "ride on", "nice", "it's hammer time", "I'm toast").

Though if you are in an event or race, you can use the sound cues to tell when a peloton is about to overtake you.

I have a Sonos speaker on my side table playing my workout mix

Never have the sound turned up on any cycling app. Just use the tv sound. I watch YouTube videos and GCN+ while riding.

Would have to agree with all of above that Zwift has numerous sounds built into the game (all the pings from ride on's, the actual speech "rideeee onnnn", the sounds of wheels on tarmac, bridges, cobbles, animal sounds, water running, etc...) but most are annoying. The sound of the fan running at full speed usually drowns out any of these sounds anyway so then I have to turn everything up even louder! Mostly listen to music when I ride, or if I'm just spinning then I like to watch bike videos.

Two Amazon Echo Studios as a stereo pair and an Echo Subwoofer.
I do enjoy my tunes indoors.
Having Spotify connected to Alexa make it easy to control selection and volume.

Barry

If you can hear anything clearly over your fans, you aren't riding hard enough.
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Your favorite rock 'n roll music turned up loud enough that you can't hear your fans works well. I ignore the beat though and just ride my appropriate cadence. Indoors I always have a job to do on the bike and concentrate on that job.

Zwift laptop on mute, so I can listen to a movie or TV show on the big screen.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...cd4edee60e.jpg

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...adc0c5e0a7.jpg
My current setup doesn't really let me enjoy music, and anything I play interferes with what my wife is watching in the other room.

I find Zwift sounds quite annoying, honestly. If I use Discord or Zoom in rides, I have headphones on anyway.

But I will be moving all but the treadmill to the basement soon, and then I will add a soundbar to the TV. I have a 7.1 system for the computer in the basement already. Wife thinks I ought to run a Webcam for rides. Ummmm. No.

I usually have the sounds on, but at a low level. I'm usually on Discord audio chat, especially while racing, and definitely during team time trials.....

I have all the computer sounds running through my bluetooth headphones. The zwift volume is audible but turned down, and my itunes playlist, and dischord (during races for team communication) are much louder. I'm sure my actual home theater would be better for sound quality (I ride in the back of the part of my basement set up as a home theater so I can use my projector to make it look like a 130" diagonal screen), but headphones block the bike/trainer/fan noises that would mask some of the sound quality, prevent my music from going to my mic for discord/twitch, and allow me to pound out some really loud/angry/not-safe-for-the-kids music when I need it in a race or trying to survive a hard climb.

I see several posts referring to dischord and zoom when doing group rides or races? Can someone give more details about that and how it works? I did one meet up with a buddy and we jumped on zoom as well but it reminded me of crank calls when I was a kid, lots of heavy breathing on the other end! :lol:

Is it another application that you need? desktop or mobile?

Discord is an app, I believe both desktop and mobile, that allows free voice chats (even with groups) among other things. If you use push to talk (and keep your music on ear buds), your mic only pics up your voice when you press a button because you have something to say. There is always someone on a team in a race who can't do push to talk. If they keep the microphone (or phone or whatever input they are using) far enough away and just talk loudly, the heavy breathing effect isn't too bad, but sometime it is. Often people will put themselves on mute until they have something they need to say if that's the case. Discord is extremely helpful when doing a team time trial and often only moderately so in points races (though that could just be because I've rarely been in a position in those races to work with a teammate, others might find it more helpful there. The nice thing is, if you have it set up properly, you can leave Zwift running on top and, when someone says something, their profile pic will flash in an overlay on top of Zwift (just below the power readout box), so you can know who is talking. You can also have it set up to decrease other sounds (like music) automatically if somone else on the chat is speaking (so your music is loud normally, but quiet when someone talks so you can hear them, then automatically goes back to normal volume as soon as they're done). You can also set push to talk so that it leaves your mic on for 5 seconds after you press it so you don't need to keep it held down the entire time you're talking.

On team time trials, I am on discord to hear the Captan or others.

If it is just a normal Zwift race and I don't care much, I use ear buds. They drown out the blower and trainer noise.

I really should have had a TV or bigger screen. I used a laptop and never figured out who I was racing with. I would often be in a pack of racers in a higher category and did not know it, suffering unnecessarily. A nice big TV would prevent such mistakes....or young eyes.

Jump on craig's list. sure you can find something suitable for quite cheap. i just had a look locally and the first thing that came up was a 32" for $40. mine was new at target for about $150 becasue CL did not have the size i was wanting. i wanted to stick it into a closet i have in the garage, now it is mounted on teh wall.

HDMI from PC to TV.

No and mute it. I use a ear pod and run Spotify or Discord (at the start and end of group rides, general muted mid ride).

Sonos speakers with Zwift sounds muted and a big TV. For simple training rides I've finally settled on Reggae covers on Sonos/Apple/Pandora feeds. Pretty much every other genre I eventually tune out, but the Reggae beat with vaguely familiar songs seems to work for me. Fan noise isn't a problem. I ride in our He Shed/She Shed with an overhead fan and 8' double doors at either end. At 7,500' in northern NM, the evaporative cooling effect is significant, as is the effect on my power output. :(

I run stereo speakers flanking the TV I use to stream zwift. There's a lot to be said for powered speakers. I run the audioengine A5s; they get plenty loud, run bluetooth, and look and sound great

https://audioengineusa.com/shop/wire...s/a5-wireless/

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...7df7eb272d.jpg

We talking standard crank calls or compact crank calls? :roflmao2:

2000 Watts of QSC sweetness and a selection of good music is far better than listening to anything Z has to add to the ride. Ride on? Of course. ROCK ON! Most certainly.

I just use Airpod Pros when I train indoors. Noise canceling, decent sound quality, doesn't bother anyone else in the house, and much cheaper and simpler than a speaker setup. I used to be a quasi-audiophile, but I've been selling off all of my gear and just using headphones the last few years. Life is simpler now.

Sound quality is OK, but the sounds aren't worth it. I mute Zwift and crank up the tunes. I have a Mac laptop playing through some Klipsch Pro Media speakers, which works really well.