Audirvana Plus settings with AIR

[Divasson]

I have problems with Audirvana 2 with Devialet Air. I had them with the previous Audirvana 1.5.12 but I thought it was related to the Itunes integration with Air. The beauty of Audirvana 2 is that I can leave iTunes - a software that I have started to hate and actively searched for an audiophile Mac substitution.

System:

Mac mini 2011 with 16 GB RAM and 1tb drive, used at 50%. All energy saving options have been disabled and the background picture set to no change. Huge reduction of sound stops when I did that.

Linked with direct Ethernet to Devialet 200 through Air 2.0.1

Ethernet Cable is a standard Cat7 cable, shielded (as all cat7 are)

Itunes works well with Air for all sampling frequencies and bit depths.

Devialet Air is set with Enable iTunes bit perfect on. (But I have same problems with it off)

Preferred resolution has been tried with 16/44, 24/176.4, 24/192

Audirvana is set with all system optimization features on.

Exclusive access on

Maximum I/o buffer on

Direct off -> integer mode off

Forced upsampling: never

(I have not managed to make it work with Direct - integer mode, no matter with the settings in Devialet Air)

If the preferred resolution is 16/44, then everything I send to it is downsampled to 16/44, regardless of original material’s sample rate and regardless of Air “bit perfect” toggle status. To play higher resolutions I need to set Air to these resolutions. But I can’t get it to play higher resolutions most of the times. Basically, to change sample rate resolution I need to stop audirvana and air and restart again. I have to say that the sound with 16/44 material is miles better than with itunes to Air connection. If the preferred resolution in Air is set to other frequencies (176,4 or 192), then everything is up sampled by Audirvana to that resolution (since the Devialet shows, for example, 192/24 in its screen)- regardless of the Forced upsampling setting in Audirvana.

So, I have the best sound that I have ever heard, but I cannot change resolutions easily, without stopping and starting everything.

I don’t want to go through the USB route since in the future the computer will be farther than 5 meters from the amp, and also because I don’t want to spend money in specialist USB cables. But with USB, everything works fine - except that the sound is not as good as with Air (in the cases I have managed it to work) and the difference is not subtle.