AIR 3 Beta for Mac

[Hifi_swlon]

Interesting to see a few issues surfacing.... Things should be clear by the end of the month I reckon but I started feeling less upset about the timing with my rendu....

Looking at some settings people are trying - 2s is quite a delay assuming they they still buffer real-time in AIR3?

[thumb5]

So far, so good for me. It's too early to say whether it's improved reliability, though, as I only had very infrequent drop-outs with AIR 2 anyway.

[baddog]

I cannot believe I am back to trying this again....

I am focusing on DSD playback as that is where it always went south for me, and this time with Mac Mini since exclusive mode now works with Roon.

I did first try running RoonBridge on the Mini but had issues with AIR hanging on the Mac and other what nots. So skipped over to Mac Mini running RoonServer. Devialet, Mac Mini and my NAS are all wired to ethernet.

Will see how long the good times last.

[Allman77]

With the earlier mentioned Roon settings it's working (knock on wood) and I will - for the time being- put sale on hold of the 200. I really like the sound, sounds like a new device for me.

Anybody willing to share Air 3.0 vs streamer sound quality? (Arender, Melco a.o.)

[Jwg1749]

Well, having not used my Mac Mini for two years, there was a certain amount of updating of software and re-familiarization to do. So I've only just got AIR up and running over wi-fi.

But you know what? It worked first time, and no drop-outs or white noise or general flakiness at all.

I have the Mac Mini upstairs, controlled headlessly from an iPad where I sit downstairs with the Dev, which is picking up the wi-fi signal without a suggestion of a drop-out.

As for SQ, I'm very much in Ian's camp: bits is bits is bits. It sounds perfect.

Oh happy day!

[baddog]

Ok well the DSD64 test is not going so great. I got it working with Mac Mini 2012 model with Quad Core i7, SSD, and 16GB of memory with music on my NAS. Good news is DSD64 is playing back but within a track while I still get music I also get a nicer steady hiss in the background of the music. Very audible. however the good news is it is not white noise.

So I will try testing only with PCM files and converting DSD64 to PCM and see how I fair. However it looks like the microRendu won't be going away for me at this moment in time.

[DJ 04]

Ok well the DSD64 test is not going so great. I got it working with Mac Mini 2012 model with Quad Core i7, SSD, and 16GB of memory with music on my NAS. Good news is DSD64 is playing back but within a track while I still get music I also get a nicer steady hiss in the background of the music. Very audible. however the good news is it is not white noise.

So I will try testing only with PCM files and converting DSD64 to PCM and see how I fair. However it looks like the microRendu won't be going away for me at this moment in time.

I have the same issue. With DSD the music plays, but there is a very noticeable hiss along with it. I wonder if a firmware update for the Devialet is needed, because it certainly appears that Air is passing along the DSD stream.

Let us know what settings you use if you get it to work.

[hk6230]

I believe Devialet has always said DSD64 will only be supported on USB and all digital inputs. AIR has never been claimed to support DSD64. But then, I had been streaming DSD64 via AIR 2.1.3 from my Win system to my Le200. I hope when the new firmware (if any) and AIR 3.0 for Windows will support DSD64.

[baddog]

Gary - Good point, this is from the firmware 8.1 Release Notes. I didn't realize that it is not supported via AIR ( certainly not in these notes )

"Thus, from a bandwidth point of view, it is technically feasible to carry an audio DSD stream over a High Definition capable PCM digital input. The entire Expert range is now compatible with the DoP protocol (DSD over PCM). This new feature is available through the USB input but also on the digital XLR input (AES/EBU), the TOSLINK optical input and all coaxial digital inputs (S/PDIF). A completely unique feature."

Well off to see how DSD->PCM conversion does....

[baddog]

Ok, I want to give credit where credit is due. Great job Devialet on getting exclusive mode working for the Mac and Roon.

Playback has been flawless once I configured Roon to convert DSD64 to PCM.

No dropouts.

Now back to the microRendu for a spell.