Core Infinity board

[Emerald]

Qobuz is a must to match Devialet's french toast, oops, taste.

My french setup is a happy devialet/focal/qobuz marriage.

[Emerald]

One of the strong selling points of the Experts and certainly a factor in my decision to buy a 200 initially was the concept of firmware that would be routinely updated to improve SQ and/or add functionality.    I strongly suspect that future firmware updates will be dependent on the new OS board and that would be the primary incentive to adding the new board for all Pros.   For that reason alone, it's hard to imagine Pro owners not choosing to do so.... unless, of course, there's a downside to it.

...well, one downside will be that SQ with the new streamerboard will be less because it has to be, especially if the Wifi on the new board is more powerful (try the E×-Wifi-Board soundcheck) The new processor on the board will suck more power, has more pulse/sec. and produce tons of EMF induced into sound dependent parts. So it will be important to keep the 'old' Wifi and Duett-Boards in case you notice such a downside and SQ comes first for you.

gui

I think the only interconnect devialet owners only need is an ethernet cable.

All USB science that is going on here will be relevant only in case of owning a superior streamer than the new devialet board.

And i count myself as one of those who as my ears prefer USB over AIR.

[Hifi_swlon]

I can't disagree with you because I know there are plenty of people that have high-end streamers and prefer the sound. But personally I don't want the extra expense of a high-end streamer, or the extra clutter in the lounge. That's why I would prefer a good streamerboard with good Ethernet input, supporting the most desired/common systems we all use.

[GuillaumeB]

why fit something you will never use?  Especially if it has the potential to add noise or any other similar negatives.  

This raises a very interesting question for O d'A owners doesn't it? I mean what with the upgrade to PRO being contingent on the streamer OS board.

Perhaps we will be better off not bothering with the upgrade after all. 

I don't imagine that Devialet will ship anything that makes the unit sound worse but I remain highly sceptical that they will achieve a result equivalent to that offered by a dedicated solution such as a high-end streamer, for a variety of reasons. And of course an external streamer gives us more options to tweak using the likes of the Mutec, better power supplies etc. 

With that said I still think that being able to stream from Qobuz or Spotify using just my iPhone is a must have really. The likes of Linn have been doing it for several years. And whilst you are there you may as well throw in support for Roon and be done with it. Presumably AIR will still exist and possibly be much more reliable given better wifi and gig ethernet and some better buffering at Devialet end. So that keeps the computer audio crowd happy.

However if the result of the integrated streamer is a small drop in SQ performance (whether you effectively use it or not) then I see more people defecting to other brands. 

The question is therefore will there be a price to pay for having everything in one box? It's difficult to see how Devialet can please everyone unless they relook at the product portfolio with this in mind.

Guillaume

[Hifi_swlon]

Even an occasional    Devialet basher like myself can't imagine them going to all the effort to upgrade the hardware with something that sounds worse - they might as well have just told everyone to plug a Dialog into it if they were going to do that.

But who knows, time will tell I suppose. Probably lots of it unfortunately (time that is).

[yabaVR]

why fit something you will never use?  Especially if it has the potential to add noise or any other similar negatives.  

This raises a very interesting question for O d'A owners doesn't it? I mean what with the upgrade to PRO being contingent on the streamer OS board.

Perhaps we will be better off not bothering with the upgrade after all. 

I don't imagine that Devialet will ship anything that makes the unit sound worse but I remain highly sceptical that they will achieve a result equivalent to that offered by a dedicated solution such as a high-end streamer, for a variety of reasons. And of course an external streamer gives us more options to tweak using the likes of the Mutec, better power supplies etc. 

With that said I still think that being able to stream from Qobuz or Spotify using just my iPhone is a must have really. The likes of Linn have been doing it for several years. And whilst you are there you may as well throw in support for Roon and be done with it. Presumably AIR will still exist and possibly be much more reliable given better wifi and gig ethernet and some better buffering at Devialet end. So that keeps the computer audio crowd happy.

However if the result of the integrated streamer is a small drop in SQ performance (whether you effectively use it or not) then I see more people defecting to other brands. 

The question is therefore will there be a price to pay for having everything in one box? It's difficult to see how Devialet can please everyone unless they relook at the product portfolio with this in mind.

Guillaume

Hi Guillaume,
as an 0 d'A owner I'd be very careful in case of SQ and take out the Wifi and Duett-boards before sending the O d'A to Devialet for updating. Hold the two boards as spare parts so you can switch back in case of the new streamer board is lacking in SQ.
As Antoine once mentioned Devialet is good at their core invention that is ADH but they are only average at the rest which I can confirm as my D200 improved that much in SQ by modifying it.

Devialet is designing the sound of the Dxxx at a whole different (lower!) level than we, the users who massively tune/mod our complete audio chain, are listening to.
We can hear the improvement in SQ with the PROs but again that comes from their core invention they are good at. But they didn't improve anything of the rest with the PROs which was and still is of poor quality as the high level signal path through the riserboard and the cheapest binding post they could get in China (...oh, but they look so worthy shiny gold ) .

So I'd not expect that much when it comes to SQ with the new streamer board but also it depends on your expectations and level of SQ you could establish in your audio chain so far.
To be fair to everybody, we are all on different levels when it comes to SQ. I for myself can only dream of the SQlevel I could achieve if I could spend 50k or even more having all the experience I have now.
If you're on that level connecting your MacBook and Dxxx with your USB-Printer cable you'll be mostly fine with the streamer board.
If you're on a highly tuned level as Antoine and others it would be most likely that the new streamer board is not for you.
Please no offend and it's all assumptions. Peace

gui

[Confused]

It would appear that with respect to streamer board the 'hot topic' at the moment is 'will it be 'Roon Ready'?

One thought I have is that Devialet Experts are already 'Roon Ready'. OK, not quite I know. You cannot stream to a Devialet using RAAT protocol, but you can have a PC or Mac acting a Roon server and stream Roon to your Devialet via AIR. Also, I think it is fair to say that AIR is stable now for a majority users. So in every practical sense (if not officially) a Devialet Expert can be a Roon end point.

So why is it so important to some that the streamer board is Roon Ready? Indeed, there is some indication that the wifi will be improved in the new streamer board, and with AIR remaining as a feature then from what we know now the streamer board will offer Roon, wirelessly via AIR, with equal or improved performance than is available now.

Thinking this through I can come up with two answers myself, that is sound quality, and maybe increased stability. (assuming AIR is not 100% stable for a given user)

I assume the assumption is that streaming via RAAT would offer better sound quality than AIR? Or is there something else I have missed? Maybe what folk are after is for Roon core to run on the streamer board, so just add a NAS and away you go? (although most of what I have seen is simply a desire for the streamer board to be a Roon RAAT 'end point')

Another thought I have whilst mulling this all over is SPARK. OK, SPARK is much maligned as an example of music server software and to be honest I have no great desire to use it. But how good is it from a pure sound quality perspective? As SPARK can only be used with Phantoms currently, the answer to this one is not clear. Maybe SPARK beats RAAT for sound quality? OK, I guess many will speculate, perhaps with good reason, that RAAT is best, but until this is put to the test (which would require RAAT on the streamer board), who knows?

[octaviars]

I assume the assumption is that streaming via RAAT would offer better sound quality than AIR? Or is there something else I have missed? Maybe what folk are after is for Roon core to run on the streamer board, so just add a NAS and away you go? (although most of what I have seen is simply a desire for the streamer board to be a Roon RAAT 'end point')

You need to run AIR on either MAC or PC if you dont have AIR in the mix you can run Roon server on a Linux computer for example or the upcoming Roon ROCK solution perhaps that is one thing.

[petrik]

So why is it so important to some that the streamer board is Roon Ready?  Indeed, there is some indication that the wifi will be improved in the new streamer board, and with AIR remaining as a feature then from what we know now the streamer board will offer Roon, wirelessly via AIR, with equal or improved performance than is available now.

Thinking this through I can come up with two answers myself, that is sound quality, and maybe increased stability.  (assuming AIR is not 100% stable for a given user)  

I assume the assumption is that streaming via RAAT would offer better sound quality than AIR?  Or is there something else I have missed?  Maybe what folk are after is for Roon core to run on the streamer board, so just add a NAS and away you go?  (although most of what I have seen is simply a desire for the streamer board to be a Roon RAAT 'end point')

Another thought I have whilst mulling this all over is SPARK.  OK, SPARK is much maligned as an example of music server software and to be honest I have no great desire to use it.  But how good is it from a pure sound quality perspective?  As SPARK can only be used with Phantoms currently, the answer to this one is not clear.  Maybe SPARK beats RAAT for sound quality?  OK, I guess many will speculate, perhaps with good reason, that RAAT is best, but until this is put to the test (which would require RAAT on the streamer board), who knows?

AIR doesn't work reliably yet. I still have those bluescreen crashes when using AIR. Devialet support has confirmed that other Windows customers are also having the same issue.

I just want to move on from AIR because it just doesn't work reliably. Although we might get a fully working version of AIR during this year, I just keep thinking what happens if there comes a Windows/MAC version update which just breaks the AIR again? Do we need to wait for another 2 years to get a new version of AIR?

As said, I just want a more reliable way to use Roon with Devialet Expert. I think RAAT or HQPlayer NAA is the way to go.

[thumb5]

It would appear that with respect to streamer board the 'hot topic' at the moment is 'will it be 'Roon Ready'?

One thought I have is that Devialet Experts are already 'Roon Ready'.  OK, not quite I know.  You cannot stream to a Devialet using RAAT protocol, but you can have a PC or Mac acting a Roon server and stream Roon to your Devialet via AIR.  Also, I think it is fair to say that AIR is stable now for a majority users.  So in every practical sense (if not officially) a Devialet Expert can be a Roon end point.

So why is it so important to some that the streamer board is Roon Ready?  Indeed, there is some indication that the wifi will be improved in the new streamer board, and with AIR remaining as a feature then from what we know now the streamer board will offer Roon, wirelessly via AIR, with equal or improved performance than is available now.

Thinking this through I can come up with two answers myself, that is sound quality, and maybe increased stability.  (assuming AIR is not 100% stable for a given user)  

I assume the assumption is that streaming via RAAT would offer better sound quality than AIR?  Or is there something else I have missed?  Maybe what folk are after is for Roon core to run on the streamer board, so just add a NAS and away you go?  (although most of what I have seen is simply a desire for the streamer board to be a Roon RAAT 'end point')

Another thought I have whilst mulling this all over is SPARK.  OK, SPARK is much maligned as an example of music server software and to be honest I have no great desire to use it.  But how good is it from a pure sound quality perspective?  As SPARK can only be used with Phantoms currently, the answer to this one is not clear.  Maybe SPARK beats RAAT for sound quality?  OK, I guess many will speculate, perhaps with good reason, that RAAT is best, but until this is put to the test (which would require RAAT on the streamer board), who knows?

As I understand it, the rationale for wanting the streamer board to support RAAT is based on:

1. RAAT is supposed to be a better-designed audio streaming protocol than AIR, which should translate into more robust/reliable operation (though whether better sound quality as well is, as always, subjective and debatable)
   
2. supporting RAAT to the point where the streamer board was declared "Roon Ready" would require Roon Labs to certify that the implementation was correct and robust (with the perception that they would apply a higher standard than Devialet apparently do)
   
3. and, as octaviars pointed out, RAAT would support streaming direct from Linux which AIR does not
   

The thing about point (2) is that it might simultaneously be both the reason why having a Roon Ready streamer board would be such a good thing and the reason why it's not likely to happen.  From what we see, Devialet seem to have a strong "not invented here" syndrome coupled with a rather undisciplined approach to software development and release, so the last thing they would want is to be beholden to a third party putting a stamp of approval on something they develop.