Quote: Audio Latency: This setting tells MAME how accurately it must play sound in accordance to what's taking place on the screen. By raising the number, you are telling MAME to take it's time generating the sound and that it doesn't necessarily have to sync up with the picture if syncing would slow the game down. This is another setting you can play with if you would prefer not to sacrifice the quality of the sound to achieve a full frame rate. But raising this setting increases the likelihood of you seeing an action occur on the screen and hearing it a split moment later.
So I was curious as to why MAME's default setting for Audio Latency is set to "2"?
Maybe I'm confused by the description. But my understanding is the following:
High Audio Latency vs. Low Audio Latency
High Audio Latency:
Higher quality sound
Increases chance of audio being out of synch with picture
Decreases chance of achieving full frame rate
Low Audio Latency:
Lower quality sound
Increases chance audio and picture being synchronized
Index 
Flat 
Audio Latency
Reply
Higher quality sound
Increases chance of audio being out of synch with picture
