USB connection and Roon volume control.

[Confused]

I agree that USB and ethernet sound different. My preference is for ethernet but that's just my preference and others prefer USB.

There's a poll thread you may want to look at (https://devialetchat.com/Thread-What-is-...tal-source ). It tries to cover all of the sources/inputs you can use with a Devialet but it isn't particularly clear in places. For example, it offers a choice of computer with ethernet  or USB but not music server with ethernet, and choices for music server via Usb or AES/EBU and not by ethernet so it's a little hard reading things into it but given what's there it has 56 people using ethernet from a computer, the only ethernet option, and a total of 41 people using USB from a computer and/or a server (the only 2 USB options) so it seems there is a slight preference for ethernet over USB. The combined total of ethernet and USB users in the poll is just slightly over 50% of the total.

As far as I know, that survey is the closest thing here to providing any sort of info about what the preferred streaming connection is amongst forum members but it has a lot of problems and I don't know what I would take away from it apart from the fact that it seems more people use ethernet than USB. Since there was no "server with ethernet" option, I wonder whether  some of the people who voted for "other" were using a server and ethernet. I also wonder how many people using USB from, say, a network streamer also voted "other" because there are no specific options mentioning network streamer devices. There's also the problem that USB and ethernet aren't the only options for streaming from a network connected device (there's Airplay and other wifi options) and people are also streaming from devices other than computers or servers such as tablets, phones, and even from TVs and disc players with network connections and apps for connecting to streaming services plus the choice of method for connection to the Devialet is often made due to factors related to physical convenience rather than purely on sound quality concerns.

It is worth noting that the above linked poll is now over five years old.  This goes a long way to explaining why the poll does not cover music servers outputting via Ethernet, they were an extremely rare beast five years ago.

In addition, things have changed with the Pro series.  USB implementation is reckoned by some to much better in the Pro, and in the same way streaming via AIR Ethernet has certainly improved.  Collectively we also have a lot more experience now, as an example I voted AIR / Ethernet in the poll, but this would not be my choice now.

So maybe it would be fun and informative to start a new poll?  We just need to agree on the options, maybe the same as the poll linked above but add the "server via Ethernet" option?  Can anyone think of any other options that should be added?  You can have 12 options in a poll, and the 2104 poll had 10 options, so we have a spare slot if anyone can think of something?  I also think the poll should be Pro only, or maybe a separate poll for the Pro and Expert respectively, as the hierarchy between inputs may vary between the two series.

To be honest, I would say that polls like this are always going to be a little flawed, for example, I have found a microRendu + Mutec MC3+USB via AES/EBU to be more or less equal to Roon AIR, whereas sMS-200Ultra+tXUSBultra+Mutec MC3+USB+REF10 via AES/EBU is a little better for SQ, albeit a little worse for complexity and cost. However, flawed or not, polls can be interesting and can provide guidance, so why not have a new poll?

@David A - Based on your post above, obviously have a few ideas having reviewed the 2014 poll, could you suggest 12 options for a new poll?