I can't see a "design approach weakness". Yes, with AIR decoding is done by the computer. The Devialet is a virtual soundcard to the computer; in Windows it is recognized as 'Loudspeakers'. However the process is an asynchronous one (just as it is for many USB->SPDIF converters). The Devialet buffers the stream in a local 32MB memory chip on the AIR ('Asynchronous Intelligent Route') interface card (see: http://devialetchat.com/Thread-how-long-...80#pid1180) and from there assembles a stream, reclocks and upsamples it for output. It can also recall missing or damaged packets. So there is NO dependance on the computer clock, the computer just has to act on the follow the "send me more data to fill my buffer" commands the Devialet sends. The Devialet master clock takes care of both the streaming process and the D->A process.
The switch Devialet made from "AIR 1" to the current AIR that emulates a soundcard is that we can use all and any programs that run on a PC and use those to output sound/music through our Devialets. Instead of relying on the playback software AIR let's the OS take care of that now.
It's too bad it is a proprietary protocol so I can't really prove it with hard documented facts but as someone here has already tested/confirmed (see the same topic mentioned above) the Devialet keeps playing when the connection to the PC is disconnected until the buffer runs empty. This is proof enough for me.
Oh, and the USB output of the Devialet doesn't use AIR. It's an asynchonous XMOS USB interface.
Whether we agree with it being better or not, the reason there is no uPnP is because Devialet chose not to use uPnP at the moment they made and released AIR.
No one (except Devialet and maybe some non-Devialet engineers that know what hardware is being used inside the Devialet and knows what that hardware can do) knows for sure if the hardware present in the Devialet is suited to run a UPnP media renderer 'stack'. They believed that their AIR approach is/was better, this has been confirmed many times by Devialet (although there could of course be some marketing going on as well..
)
The switch Devialet made from "AIR 1" to the current AIR that emulates a soundcard is that we can use all and any programs that run on a PC and use those to output sound/music through our Devialets. Instead of relying on the playback software AIR let's the OS take care of that now.
It's too bad it is a proprietary protocol so I can't really prove it with hard documented facts but as someone here has already tested/confirmed (see the same topic mentioned above) the Devialet keeps playing when the connection to the PC is disconnected until the buffer runs empty. This is proof enough for me.
Oh, and the USB output of the Devialet doesn't use AIR. It's an asynchonous XMOS USB interface.
(31-Aug-2014, 18:12)Rufus McDufus Wrote: Regarding where the decoding is done. G & I were talking about this a few weeks ago and wondered whether this was the reason Devialet were taking so long to implement UPnP on the Devialet. If there's no onboard decoding then this would make it rather difficult to adhere to UPnP standards wouldn't it? I realise some UPnP servers (Asset I think for sure) will output a PCM stream though.
That's interesting ThierryNK - if onboard decoding was previously present and has now been dropped (or unused), I wonder why? Also it would make for quite a versatile device if onboard decoding was optional... My own guess without all the available facts is that perhaps there's been some misunderstanding along the way and onboard decoding has never been available, but then I'm usually wrong
Whether we agree with it being better or not, the reason there is no uPnP is because Devialet chose not to use uPnP at the moment they made and released AIR.
No one (except Devialet and maybe some non-Devialet engineers that know what hardware is being used inside the Devialet and knows what that hardware can do) knows for sure if the hardware present in the Devialet is suited to run a UPnP media renderer 'stack'. They believed that their AIR approach is/was better, this has been confirmed many times by Devialet (although there could of course be some marketing going on as well..
)
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