Guildford Audio Devialet Workshop 11th & 12th October

[PhilP]

A very pleasant afternoon spent on Saturday with the folks from Guildford Audio and Absolute Sounds, Thierry from Devialet and thumb5, IanG-UK and brit.

A big thanks to Trevor and Gavin for putting this on.

Some great sounds although I must admit I spent more time chatting in the corridors and in the hotel lobby than sitting in the listening rooms. With that said I loved the sound of the 800 and Wilson Sasha 2s, very similar to my setup except with Transparent XL speaker cables and a lovely looking Metronome transport. Might have to try one of these sometime in my own setup just to compare to streaming. Good to see some Entreq ground boxes in the mix too...

Guillaume

So was there interesting news or rumours/speculation apart from the teasing comment from Thierry about the 'non-computer' front end?

[rik]

My guess is that the non-computer front end will be a UPnP-like(1) interface - probably proprietary (So no third party fun) which you can install on a Linux based NAS. Their existing control point would be extended to allow you to select the NAS as a source (2) which would then allow you to select / browse music on the NAS.

They will probably also produce a service which can run on PC/Mac/Linux to provide the the same functionality as the NAS but hosted on a local machine.

Do I win?

Rik

The service will probably be Java or C# (==Mono) so expect plenty of fun on OS-X based platforms.

(1) Devialet don't like UPnP .
(2) Rather like you can currently select "My Music" to play music on your iPhone.

[GuillaumeB]

In light of a 'test' and a large of number of comments here on the Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server as front ends, it would be extremely enlightening if you could present a few different front end options for everyone to hear. It would be great if this could be done in symbiosis with the Devialet reps explaining the different and best ways to connect to a Devialet.

I was discussing options for "non computer" front ends with Thierry today. He mentioned that it might be worth waiting until next year as Devailet are working on something. Very intriguing!

I am pretty sure that this applies to some kind of UPnP implementation. I also discussed this at length with Thierry. Nothing specific was mentioned other than Devialet would provide a solution in 2015. They still hold that AIR is the superior solution and will sound better than any UPnP box out there. This is because UPnP is largely a "compromised" design when applied to audio.

Had a fascinating conversation with Thierry regarding the ADH architecture and the magic wire DAC and how the two are intrinsically linked. Most of the technical stuff went over my head making me at times wonder if I wasn't in the wrong hobby . Still it is clearly very impressive stuff and the impression I got was that the actual PCM1792 chip is only a tiny part of the story.

Guillaume

[rik]

I still don't understand Thierry's instance that UPnP is flawed for audio. As all it boils down to is the media player (The Devailet) being told to read an audio stream from a HTTP server (The media server - usually a NAS). The media player has full control over buffering of the audio stream so there can be no timing related issues etc.

Odd,

Rik

[GuillaumeB]

I still don't understand Thierry's instance that UPnP is flawed for audio. As all it boils down to is the media player (The Devailet) being told to read an audio stream from a HTTP server (The media server - usually a NAS). The media player has full control over buffering of the audio stream so there can be no timing related issues etc.

Odd,

Rik

Thierry mentioned something about UPnP not being originally designed to manage audio... (although you could I suppose say the same thing about USB!).

Guillaume

[PhilP]

...the impression I got was that the actual PCM1792 chip is only a tiny part of the story.

Guillaume

You can buy PCM 1792 chips for just a few pounds so I hope he's correct

[IanG-UK]

Yes many thanks to Trevor and Gavin and Thierry and Pedro - an enjoyable event. Nice to meet Guillaume and brit too.

Good snippet of information from Confused which suggests something will be launched at Munich.

[Beajuju]

If I can add to the rumor, here is an excerpt from an interview with Pierre-Emmanuel Camel. It seems that Devialet think of a solution for some time :

"...And we also have ideas regarding streaming . We study a system of wireless transmission in which the D-Premier is the master and not the computer ... If we succeed , there will be no jitter at all ... But it's not for all now!"

The interview is in french. Here is the link:http://www.evmag.fr/site.php?page=audio109

[thumb5]

"...And we also have ideas regarding streaming . We study a system of wireless transmission in which the D-Premier is the master and not the computer ... If we succeed , there will be no jitter at all ... But it's not for all now!"

Hmmm...surely there can be no jitter with the current AIR streaming mechanism? I am confused (lower case).

I wonder what is meant by "master" in that context. Perhaps they are considering a system where the Devialet "pulls" music files from a passive file server, rather than receiving a decoded stream pushed to it from a streaming application as it does currently? Not that that should have any bearing at all on jitter (I believe).

[brit]

A very pleasant afternoon spent on Saturday with the folks from Guildford Audio and Absolute Sounds, Thierry from Devialet and thumb5, IanG-UK and brit.

A big thanks to Trevor and Gavin for putting this on.

Some great sounds although I must admit I spent more time chatting in the corridors and in the hotel lobby than sitting in the listening rooms. With that said I loved the sound of the 800 and Wilson Sasha 2s, very similar to my setup except with Transparent XL speaker cables and a lovely looking Metronome transport. Might have to try one of these sometime in my own setup just to compare to streaming. Good to see some Entreq ground boxes in the mix too...

Guillaume

Yet another thank you to Trevor and Gavin for fronting this Devialet event. Also thanks to Thierry and Pedro for the wealth of info, and knowledge they were able to impart. Certainly sorted out a few issues I had.

Thoroughly enjoyed meeting, and chatting, with IanG-UK and Guillaume. Think I also met and chatted with Thumb5 and Confused, but cannot be sure! Anyway this is what these events are all about - you can learn as much in the margins as in the event itself!

David