Air 3.0.4 Officially Released

[Rama]

I would like to clarify my point. I did not mean to imply that the USB cards are different. However, I feel the implementation of the USB input is different with the 220 pro. I bought the Audioquest diamond USB cable but never used the USB input that much with my D200 as i always found the sound to be lackluster. But when I plugged the same cable into the 220pro it was an instant realization that something was different. I used the same source my Melco. I cant elaborate with audiophile terms because my vocabulary is limited when it comes to that. But we all know the moment when the magic happens during changing of equipment or accessories, you instantly realize wow this change is for the better. I agree with Confused that its because the Expert Pro is a better amplifier, with better power filtration. But Devialet must have put some thought into improving the USB chain inside the Expert Pro, I dont believe it is just by chance. As for the exact technical details only Devialet can elaborate.

[octaviars]

If you ask Devialet I think they will say that the USB input and the card that holds the USB, ethernet and one toslink are indentical to the old Expert and the improvment in sound is only because of the improvments in the rest of the amplifier.

[Rama]

If you ask Devialet I think they will say that the USB input and the card that holds the USB, ethernet and one toslink are indentical to the old Expert and the improvment in sound is only because of the improvments in the rest of the amplifier.

And I would agree with them. But you can only hope that this improvement was not just coincidental. If and its a big if, Devialet is planning to offer 128DSD or 256DSD in the future then USB input chain inside the new Pro would need to be reevaluated.

[octaviars]

The new streamerboard will replace this card I asume were USB, ethernet and that sits so it will be a whole new design. I think Devialet is focusing on the ethernet input and not so much on the USB.

All incoming audio is resampled at 40bit/384kHz so all DSD is converted with Devialet MAT to this and this will never change as all dsp stuff is made in PCM.

In my world only Roon Ready with RAAT or even less likely a NAA endpoint to HQ Player would make me jump up and down over getting the new streamerboard

[Confused]

Here's a radical thought! At the Oxford Audio 1000 Pro launch event, recall Devialet's Mathieu Pernod advising that the streamer board would be ARM processor based. So it's a computer of sorts. Could it be hacked, reprogrammed or whatever to make it NAA or RAAT compliant? For me I'd be quite happy if I could get Sonore's Sonicorbiter software on the thing, and for the record I would be happy to pay Sonore for the privilege. Possible? To be honest I haven't a clue.

[Hifi_swlon]

I would like to clarify my point. I did not mean to imply that the USB cards are different. However, I feel the implementation of the USB input is different with the 220 pro. I bought the Audioquest diamond USB cable but never used the USB input that much with my D200 as i always found the sound to be lackluster. But when I plugged the same cable into the 220pro it was an instant realization that something was different. I used the same source my Melco. I cant elaborate with audiophile terms because my vocabulary is limited when it comes to that. But we all know the moment when the magic happens during changing of equipment or accessories, you instantly realize wow this change is for the better. I agree with Confused that its because the Expert Pro is a better amplifier, with better power filtration. But Devialet must have put some thought into improving the USB chain inside the Expert Pro, I dont believe it is just by chance. As for the exact technical details only Devialet can elaborate.

Since we're using the card from the non-pro series, my guess is it performs more or less the same, but just sounds better because it's a different amp. I guess if they've improved the power supply in the pro, the card may be getting cleaner power, so could technically sound better. How would we know though?

Would be very tricky to compare the two. I guess someone would have to take the power lines from a pro motherboard over to a non-pro streamerboard, and see if the non-pro's sound improved.

As for hacking the board, I guess it depends how many generic systems they add. If it's all proprietary it would be a lot of work even to just get an OS on it, let alone reverse engineer all the Devialet specific stuff. That said I'm sure it could be done, but who would have the resources? It's such a small user base it would probably have to be a group of very technical and motivated owners. Since the Phantoms have yet to be cracked/hacked, I'm guessing it's pretty unlikely.

But of course we won't need to. Because who would design a streamerboard that none of their customers actually wanted?

Oh.......yeah... a name just came to mind.....

[Dr Tone]

I guess I'm opposite of everyone after listening more last night I felt the USB bass was more precise. Air was a little unruly and not as controlled which I guess could be perceived as more depending on how each persons speaker is designed and handled it.

My speakers are rather small but have mind boggling amounts of bass that if not controlled by high dampening can get get out of contol. Just to put my observations in context.

[Cylob]

I can't make that declaration, everything could be in my head because hifi_swlon thought Air might be slightly harsher.     I'm also pumping everything through HQPlayer now.

Out of curiosity I checked my emails earlier. I bought the 200 around April 2015. So two years to the week almost that AIR was broken for me. I can still hardly believe it. Two years!!! WTF!! What were they doing? They designed the Pros in under six months. It's a tiny effing piece of code to take an audio stream from A to B, B being their own proprietary hardware.

Conclusion: they just didn't care...

[Rama]

The new streamerboard will replace this card I asume were USB, ethernet and that sits so it will be a whole new design. I think Devialet is focusing on the ethernet input and not so much on the USB.

All incoming audio is resampled at 40bit/384kHz so all DSD is converted with Devialet MAT to this and this will never change as all dsp stuff is made in PCM.

In my world only Roon Ready with RAAT or even less likely a NAA endpoint to HQ Player would make me jump up and down over getting the new streamerboard

Just read the white paper yes currently DSD is being converted to 40bit/384khz. So I guess we can say for certain that Devialet Expert pro will stay in the PCM domain. As for the streamerboard if it has an ARM chip and an OS it is not far fetched to think that it might be Roon ready. Actually it might even make my SOTM-SMS200 redundant.

[Rama]

I would like to clarify my point. I did not mean to imply that the USB cards are different. However, I feel the implementation of the USB input is different with the 220 pro. I bought the Audioquest diamond USB cable but never used the USB input that much with my D200 as i always found the sound to be lackluster. But when I plugged the same cable into the 220pro it was an instant realization that something was different. I used the same source my Melco. I cant elaborate with audiophile terms because my vocabulary is limited when it comes to that. But we all know the moment when the magic happens during changing of equipment or accessories, you instantly realize wow this change is for the better. I agree with Confused that its because the Expert Pro is a better amplifier, with better power filtration. But Devialet must have put some thought into improving the USB chain inside the Expert Pro, I dont believe it is just by chance. As for the exact technical details only Devialet can elaborate.

Since we're using the card from the non-pro series, my guess is it performs more or less the same, but just sounds better because it's a different amp. I guess if they've improved the power supply in the pro, the card may be getting cleaner power, so could technically sound better. How would we know though?

Would be very tricky to compare the two. I guess someone would have to take the power lines from a pro motherboard over to a non-pro streamerboard, and see if the non-pro's sound improved.

As for hacking the board, I guess it depends how many generic systems they add. If it's all proprietary it would be a lot of work even to just get an OS on it, let alone reverse engineer all the Devialet specific stuff. That said I'm sure it could be done, but who would have the resources?  It's such a small user base it would probably have to be a group of very technical and motivated owners. Since the Phantoms have yet to be cracked/hacked, I'm guessing it's pretty unlikely.

But of course we won't need to. Because who would design a streamerboard that none of their customers actually wanted?

Oh.......yeah... a name just came to mind.....

Well the Expert pro does have a whole new power supply. And I think it is safe to say that that might be the cause of the improvement in the USB input. But I wont be hacking anything to find out for sure...