Version: Firmware 13.1.3 + DOS 2.2.4 Date: 2019-02-12

[David A]

@David A There is a better way to switch zones. In Roon, click on the loudspeaker icon, bottom right. You’ll see two arrows pointing away from each other. Click this, then it’s simply a matter of clicking on one of the zones that are available to switch to.  I’ve been doing this just now, it takes maybe a second to switch zones and there is a dropout in sound while it happens, but it’s a whole lot quicker than pressing the input button and having to manually restart the music.  I still can find no discernible difference between RAAT and AIR.

That won't do it for me. You can't be streaming the same track at the same point in time by both RAAT and AIR because you can't pair the 2 zones. You can swap the zones quickly but you can't avoid a delay in getting to the same point in the music and you just can't swap from one zone to another and have the music continue playing without a gap.

All I'm saying is that I can't think of a way of conducting a listening test for this which isn't going to be criticised for problems in design and conduct. That means that whatever test I do is going to be considered just as valid to let anyone who's interested conduct their own comparisons whichever way they like, report their results, and seeing how many report hearing a difference and how many don't. If I can't come up with a test design which I think provides greater validity than counting the opinions of people who have done their own comparisons any way they like, I'm not going to  try doing a test with a number of people. I know the sorts of criticisms which will be made of my method and honesty compels me to concede that those problems are present in the method.

I used to work in health and safety. As part of my studies for my tertiary qualification I had to design and conduct my own research project and write it up. I subsequently presented that research at a scientific conference and had it published in a peer reviewed professional journal. I know a bit about the standards you have to meet when conducting research, and also when simply running tests for something in normal professional situations. If you can't do it right when it comes to procedural issues your results aren't accepted. If I'm going to try and conduct a test with a number of listeners I would want to conduct one that meets all of the  design and procedural standards that critics are going to expect. They'll still criticise it if they don't like the result I get but at least they won't be able to say that the test was worthless because it was done wrong. At present I can't think of a way of doing a test that would be accepted as being done right.