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#21
Hello, received today a new mail over the stand of the PSAudio server!
Very interesting!!

Paul McGowan <paul@psaudio.com>

Paul's Post: Air gaps

The long-awaited PS Audio music server, Octave, is inching closer to making its debut in late 2019. Since I’ve not written much about it recently, I thought you’d enjoy an update about one of its innovations, a new invention called the Air Gap Audio Interface or AGAI.

The AGAI solves a big problem in digital audio servers, contamination by noise and electrical detritus.

Inside a server, you have a noisy computer. As it chugs away at its tasks it jitters and pollutes the output signal feeding the DAC. This is why, we believe, FLAC sounds differently than WAV even though the bits are identical. A FLAC file (for example) requires far more bit crunching to extract the original bits than does a WAV file. Those crunched bits contaminate the final output signal through mutually shared power, ground and physical signal traces.

How can we fix that?

Imagine that the noisy computer inside the server was not in the server box and was instead far away (as we are doing in the upcoming Ted Smith Signature DAC). Its noise and ground contamination would not be a problem as long as we took its distant output and regenerated it in a Digital Lens.

Since our goal is to build a one-box server, the next best thing is to physically isolate the two systems within a single chassis. To do that we need separate power supplies, ground planes, physical boards, and at the end of the proverbial day, a physically isolated connection between the internal computer and the output Digital Lens. That’s where the AGAI comes into play. By bridging the gap between the internal noisy computer and Digital Lens by nothing more than light traveling through air, we get excellent isolation.

(In the upcoming TSS DAC the problem is solved with two chassis: a digital and analog separated too by light using a fiber optic cable between the two.)

We’re all familiar with digital data transmitted through lightwaves using a TOSLINK cable but that won’t work for either of our applications because of TOSLINK’s bandwidth limitations. But that isn’t a show stopper. It just means we have to step up our use of technology. Some of the highest speed data in the world travel on beams of light.

Whichever method is used, AGAI or high-speed fiber, transmission of digital data over lightwaves offers the possibility of getting noise and jitter out of the signal and gets us that much closer to musical perfection.
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#22
(22-Jan-2019, 14:30)Petter Wrote:
(15-Oct-2018, 19:24)mdconnelly Wrote:
(15-Oct-2018, 15:57)Paperman Wrote: yes I understand, the question is: if I use the iMac, I have to install the software Devialet AIR or is integrated in the Roon Server software?
Again, if both options are correct, there are differences in term of SQ?
Thank you.

If you're using Roon to stream to Devialet via AIR, definitely use Roon AIR instead of Devialet AIR.   At least, in my opionion, it is far more of a solid solution (although Devialet did improve Devialet AIR in the last iteration).   

I've used both (via a Win 10 PC) and I don't hear a difference (other than, of course, Devialet AIR occasionally glitching).

If you do use Roon AIR, you definitely want to turn off Devialet AIR or, better yet, just uninstall it.
Sorry have to ask ......im back home after a long period and start to play with my roon set up again Sad
In Roon you can choose  either Roon ETH or Roon AIR....whats the different since both need a Ethernet cable to communicate with the Devialet ? (if dev air module is shuttet down)

 do i miss something here,i have shuttet down devialet air module

In my Roon setup (Settings -> Audio), Roon sees my Devialet under "Networked" as 'My Devialet - ETH'.     That is the networked connection using Roon AIR.  If you have other connections to your Devialet, you may have other "Networked" choices (e.g. USB), but I'm not sure where in Roon that you're seeing a 'Roon AIR' choice.
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