New streamerboard, what functions do we want?

[octaviars]

As there is not much information what this new streamerboard will bring to us or if Devialet even started to develop the board it self. I think there is some reports of it having an ARM processor but not much else.

So how about we start to list functions we want so Devialet can perhaps se this and try to fix what the users want.

I was looking at other products and Mark Levinson No.519 player/streamer features a ARM based streamer and has the following functions.

Built-in Spotify Connect, Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, Rhapsody/Napster, QQ, plus thousands of internet radio stations and podcasts deliver hundreds of millions of tracks in standard and even high-resolution formats, on demand*. And because the № 519’s Precision Stream is a powerful internet-connected computer built on a 1GHz ARM Cortex multicore 32‑bit processor with 4GB each of RAM and flash, its feature and content portfolios will continue to grow over time.

http://www.marklevinson.com/productdetai...no519.html

Devialet runs at 40bit/384kHz PCM internaly so this would to me suggest that a new streamerboard would make it possible to run more than todays 24bit/192kHz or DSD64.

So my list is something like this.

Roon Ready, Spotify Connect, Tidal, Qobuz, Deezer, Rhapsody/Napster, internet radio, up to DSD128 and DXD 24/384kHz if it is possible with the DAC. Perhaps a bit over the top but if others can do it why can not Devialet do this, lots of functions that will perhaps please us all.

[Antoine]

Functionally I can't think of anything else you already mentioned.

I'm assuming this new board will replace the current 'DUET' board so I hope that Devialet (not sure if I myself will ever buy this/do the upgrade though or stay with external high(er) quality devices or even move away from Devialet completely) will add (full) galvanic isolation to the USB input, not use an ASRC but I2S into the DAC (or FPGA), take extreme care in isolating the different power domains, use very high quality clocks like the higher end Crysteks and take care in shielding the rest from the amp from EMI/RFI radiation. Their 'bits are bits'/'digital is without faults' reasoning they seem to implicitly express up to now will not cut it, not for me anyway and not in 2016/2017.

Something that's probably not interesting for the bigger community but would be for me would be an I2S input over a HDMI or RJ45 connector. Another thing I'm interested in is a wordclock input to connect a HQ external clock.

An upgrade of the WiFi board to support 5GHz and AC would probably be nice too for many people. Not me personally, I'll probably disable it soon as I can. What customers should be able to disable as well would be the PLC functionality they've said they will integrate into it.

[ogs]

+1 to octaviars

and also the UPnP/DLNA they have been talking about. Not that I would use it much, but I know that many would be happy to have this as an option.

++1 to Antoine

I2S and word clock would be fabulous

[Music or sound]

Something that's probably not interesting for the bigger community but would be for me would be an I2S input over a HDMI or RJ45 connector. Another thing I'm interested in is a wordclock input to connect a HQ external clock.

I have 2 digital sources who's best output is I2S (via HDMI).

[octaviars]

+1 to octaviars

and also the UPnP/DLNA they have been talking about. Not that I would use it much, but I know that many would be happy to have this as an option.

++1 to Antoine

I2S and word clock would be fabulous

I would use UPnP for internetradio if it is not built in the machine via Bubble UPnP app on Android or TuneIn perhaps.

[Antoine]

I'm thinking that if it will be an upgrade that any user or dealer can do themselves we're probably and unfortunately limited to the current in-/outputs as the board holding the loudspeaker and connectors will not have the holes to support new in-/outputs and is not at all easily replaced. Too bad!!

Some other things I just though of, this new architecture 'Devialet OS' board should open up the possibility to make changes to the Devialet's configuration on the fly, without the online configurator, or it should have some kind of connection to it over the Internet to make these on the fly changes. This of course supported through either an app or a webbrowser.

[ogs]

Also a proper bus-link between units for those that use mono blocks. SPDIF is not good enough in my view.

[Antoine]

It could perhaps also support some (3rd party or not) room correction software.

[SwissBear]

It could perhaps also support some (3rd party or not) room correction software.

A convolution functionality would be great. You could then use other parties software like Acourate or RePhase to design your own convolution functions and apply them directly. But if this is not planned, the fact that the Devialet is recognized as a UPnP/DLNA renderer allows you to apply those convolution functions via JRiver or some other software.

[Confused]

I am fairly aligned with octaviars original post, it covers the key features I would want plus a lot more. Perhaps one thing I would add is some kind of support for iTunes, but that's just me, I do have a strange love for iTunes, which is problematic as it will never be the best sounding solution to anything.

Picking up on Antoine's comments regarding a wordclock input. To be honest, I would be absolutely staggered if this happens, but I do know what he means. Hearing a dCS rig feeding a D800, both with and without the master clock, I can confirm that these things do improve sound quality. However, I would make a more general point. I would sacrifice many of the 'features' listed here for one thing, the best possible sound quality. Quite how that is achieved I do not know. Consider this, if the new streamer board sounds a bit 'average', and can easily be beaten for SQ by the lower range Melco's and Aurender's, then it is a waste of time basically. If it sounded absolutely epic, better than the Aurender W20, dCS upsampler or whatever, than I could forgive it missing a feature or two.