AIR

[Antoine]

When you guys use AIR does your internal volume control become disabled? Mine seems to stay enabled when I have a feeling it should disable?

I only know the behaviour of Windows (I don't own any Mac's) and at least in Windows the volume control indeed remains available. I asked Devialet about this last year and Thierry explained:

Q: Another question: since I can adjust the volume in Windows I don’t think the output is fully bitperfect as the Windows mixer is not bypassed. Am I correct?
A: when you use WASAPI bit perfect mode, the mixer is completely bypassed. Setting the volume changes the Devialet's volume because the virtual/software controls are mapped to the hardware controls of the Devialet. So when you set the volume in Windows, it is as if it would be done using the remote. This is really as "Bit Perfect" as "Bit Perfect" can be!

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It is said that linear power supply is very effective for improving sound quality of PC/Mac based transport. I am wondering whether linear power supply is effective for AIR. Does sound quality improve if PC/Mac is supplied with linear power supply? Has anyone tried this?

I *think* it matters more for USB than for AIR (wireless or ethernet) but as a ethernet AIR user I'm going to experiment as well with a LPSU now that I am building a new PC that'll become a fully dedicated music server.

Teddy Pardo, TeraDak, Red Wine Audio and Keces are some of the well known brands that produce external audiophile power supplies. You can read a lot on this subject on computeraudiophile.com

I myself will probably order a Keces dc-116 supply or a Teddy Pardo one. It'll depend on how much power my new system is going to use.