AIR 3 Sound Quality Observations

[mdconnelly]

I had posted this in a different thread but shall add some additional detail here.

My setup is a Synology NAS where all my music files are located ( redbook, high resolution PCM, DSD ). This is connected via ethernet to a switch ( $20 D-Link 8 port switch )

Mac Mini running RoonServer, with AIR 3 installed. Connected via ethernet to switch.

D400 using ethernet input connected to switch.

Playback has been mostly flawless for me for quite a few days now. Maybe once a day over several hours there will be a brief drop out of less than a second.

For my DSD files I am having Roon convert to PCM files. As when I have them sent as DoP there is a slight background hiss present on music playback.

I compared this setup to using a microRendu in place of AIR 3. The microRendu was powered by an Uptone Audio JS-2, so what one would consider a very good power supply.

In my system, to my ears, the sound quality was comparable between the two and I would be hard pressed to identify a preference for one over the other. Thus I have since switched completely to AIR 3 in my setup.

I think Devialet did a bang up job here!

@baddog - can you correlate the infrequent drop-out with anything?  For example, does it seem to only occur on hi-res music?    While I'm excited to hear AIR3 when it makes it to a Windows platform, the occasional dropout would be annoying - even if just once a day.