Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server

[ThierryNK]

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Another way of thinking of it is that instead of running the codec you could simply have a file full of already-decoded audio samples. The bits would be the same irrespective of how and when they were generated.

I know some might argue that's not the case, but I hold the point of view that if the computer runs correctly it will always decode a given audio file to the same bits (assuming the codec is deterministic). Maybe that's where we should agree to differ?

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Hi Ian

Yes, that is the key point (IMHO).

I assume, as you do, that transfer is "perfect".

As we all get differences (from tiny to huge) according to Operating System, Player Software, both on audio gear as Devialet, but also with USB DAC, we have to accept the fact that the data and the bits are NOT the same in the receiver buffer depending on software and operating system.

As I mentioned before and as you do, there is a unique way to decode the tracks.

If you put all together:

- a unique way of decoding tracks
- perfect transfer
- important differences depending on OS and software (everything being the same for everything else), leading to the fact that data are not the same at the arrival

I think that a simple logic leads to the fact that something is "scr**ed" during the track decoding on the computer.

Some of the probable causes of these difficulties are mentioned in Damien Plisson paper (link given above). I did not want to write this word, because it is so used… Software induced Jitter (see Damien Plisson paper, and it only speaks about few elements, there are many others).

If we admit this, this explains improvements with d1-server on Devialet, and it explains that "network players" with no audio flux transfers are always better than a Computer-DAC with the same DAC as the network player.

Cheers
Thierry