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

[f1eng]

Very interesting Thierry, and thanks for sharing this with us.

My understanding from last year when I had discussions with a couple of Devialet retailers (one of whom had a long conversation with a senior exec at Devialet) was that the Devialet "opened" the music files inside the unit, and that it was the Devialet unit doing the decoding.

Since then there have been new versions of AIR... including a complete rewrite allowing other programmes such as J River and A+ to be used... so I'm guessing this has all changed. The question is why did Devialet change their approach with AIR? Was the previous version unworkable?

Guillaume

Hi Guillaume,
my understanding was that at the very beginning Air was conceived as an ideal engineering solution where the Devialet was the master. I was told by one of their engineers that Air made Amarra, Audirvans, Pure Music etc. redundant. My guess is that many customers wanted to use existing software they had chosen with other systems and did not like to be "told what to do".
So v1 Air was an engineering optimised solution, still having some teething troubles admittedly, and Air v2 is a complete rewrite, probably instigated by marketing feedback, to act like a sound card so -any- audio software will send a wireless signal to the Devialet.
It would not surprise me to find that the only thing Air v1 and Air v2 have in common is the word "Air".
As Thierry alludes, the original way was probably the best way for SQ, but did not match the wishes of too many of the customers.

One other earlier comment of Thierry caught my eye. He mentioned using D1 server/totaldac and Devialet and mentioned cascading DACs (or something, can't re-read just now). I presume this means the analogue output from the totaldac into a Devialet analogue input.
My experience with my other DACs into the analogue input of the Devialet was that the sound signature of each DAC came through the Devialet clearly, which is one of my reasons for believing the Devialet is audibly transparent. My conclusion is that no other DAC is neededfor transparent sound, but if the colour of a particular DAC "floats your boat" the Devialet will reveal it.