Devialet AIR 3.0.5 will not open with M1 Mac Mini

[f1eng]

I believe that including AirPlay as an input to the Devialet effectively replaces "Air" itself.

[Umetaro]

I got a reply from Devialet support to my follow-up question. Very sad...

Q: Any plan to update Devialet Air to be compatible with M-silicon based models?

A:As the engineer advised me that not in a near future.

[markush]

Wow! That’s essentially like saying we are no longer updating expert line

[David A]

I believe that including AirPlay as an input to the Devialet effectively replaces "Air" itself.

If Airplay was meant as a replacement to AIR then why do we still have the option of AIR in Roon, and why is AIR still one of the streaming inputs for the Expert Pros? Devialet stopped updating the AIR app for Macs years ago (I don't know about Windows) and there's been several FW updates for the Expert Pros since then. If they really intended Airplay to replace ?AIR then surely one of the FW updates in recent years would have removed the AIR option in the streaming inputs and they would have had Roon remove the AIR option in Roon's software since Airplay is available as an option in Roon. They haven't done that.

While AIR remains an input option on the amplifiers it's hard to see that Devialet have decided to replace AIR with Airplay. If they had made that decision surely the appropriate strategy would have been to remove AIR as both an input option on the amps and as an output option in Roon. People who had been using AIR would then simply migrate to one of the other streaming input options Devialet offers and Airplay is one of those options.

Wow! That’s essentially like saying we are no longer updating expert line

Except that what the statement says is actually nothing more than that they aren't currently supporting AIR for the Mac OS. The statement doesn't say anything at all about the Expert line, you're jumping to the conclusion that a lack of support for the AIR protocol on the Mac OS means they've stopped updating the Expert line when, if you take a look at the history of Devialet's Expert line firmware updates you'd see that there have been several updates for the Experts since the last update for AIR on the Mac.

If I had to draw a conclusion, the conclusion I would draw is that Devialet have decided that there is no need for them to continue with the AIR protocol and having to continue updating it whenever a computer OS is updated when they can simply provide support for several of the other streaming protocols now available including Airplay and RAAT and let the developers of those protocols provide updates to Devialet which can then be included in Devialet firmware. That not only means Devialet has one less of its own software assets to support, it also means that the developers of the protocols Devialet decide to support are responsible for providing Devialet with software updates to enable Devialet to continue supporting those protocols.

In other words, I think this is all about Devialet dropping support for AIR which they never really managed to get working properly anyway. Look back to the date when Roon first added AIR support to Roon and see how many posts there were here about how much better Roon AIR worked as a streaming source than Devialet's own AIR app and there really haven't been any updates to AIR since then. Devialet has probably decided to cut its losses and to give up on trying to deliver an AIR app that works. Roon has it working properly in their software. As long as Devialet leaves AIR on its own products untouched people can use the AIR protocol with Roon and Devialet can supply the same code they gave Roon to any other streaming platform which wants to add it to their products. That means AIR remains a streaming option for those people streaming from products/applications which include AIR as an output option and Devialet doesn't need to do any more work on AIR at all. People who want to stream to a Devialet product from a source which doesn't support AIR can simply choose to use one of the other streaming protocols Devialet supports.

There's a lot more streaming options, both hardware and software, available now than there was when Devialet first introduced the AIR app and my guess is that the demand for a stand alone AIR app on the Mac and Windows platforms has long since dropped to the level where the cost of supporting AIR as a stand-alone app is simply too excessive for the demand for the app. Devialet can probably stop all support for AIR development right now. It's got code it can provide to any developer who wants to include the AIR protocol as an option in their own products and it doesn't need to develop that code any further. If AIR isn't available as an output option in the streaming product a Devialet owner is using then there will be other protocols available within that product for their use. My guess is that Devialet has simply shut down further AIR development and devoted all of its software development resources to firmware development for their own hardware products.

[ogs]

I don't think Devialet "AIR" is dead just yet.. there are still quite a few users that didn't upgrade their amp to CI. The only hires network streaming for them would be AIR (and UPnP if their amp supports it). I also believe that Devialet uses AIR from Arch to Phantoms. Devialet Support has confirmed that "...Arch product uses the UDP protocol to transfer the audio information to the Phantom". AIR is UDP so it makes sense that Devialet is (re)using AIR for this. It is quite unlikely that Devialet developed a new UDP streaming protocol for Arch when they already had AIR. AIR used this way is much more reliable than the virtual sound card for various operating systems as Devialet controls both send and receive, hidden from users.
On the thread topic I fully agree with @David A, very well said.

[ufnv]

So, the big question is - HOW I can use my Devialet without CI now, when I upgraded to M1 Mac? Should I just throw it away?

[ogs]

If AIR is not an option (Roon supports AIR directly) there is USB. Or maybe a device with USB -> AES/EBU (like a Mutec) if your Devialet has the XLR AES/EBU input.

[Jean-Marie]

Or optical between the jack plug of the Mac and the Devialet.

[ogs]

Yes that would be good, but I don't think the new M1 models have SPDIF out. Pity..

[Sailor4W]

This doesn't really help for a Mac M1, but ust a few days, out of curiosity, I re-installed Devialet AIR on my Mac Mini 2018 running macOS Monterey 12.2.1 and to my surprise, AIR installed perfectly well on my Mac and works flawlessly in conjunction with Audirvana Studio. I am all the more surprised as AIR couldn't be installed on my Mac about two years ago. So they must have made some updates to AIR.

I do hope Devialet keeps AIR alive. If not, I am not going to upgrade my Expert to Pro, too expensive.

I keep my fingers crossed for your Mac M1!