09-Sep-2014, 08:40
I don't see any conflict between the notion that AIR is bit 100% perfect and Guillaume and Rufus finding sound quality benefits with the Totaldac. I think the key point here is that the Totaldac works best with AES/EBU, when it is replacing the clocking functions as performed by the Devialets asynchronous DAC. Via AIR / USB the Devialet takes over the clocking function. So the logical conclusion would be that the Totaldac's clocking ability is superior to AIR, and hence demonstrates sound quality benefits via AES/EBU or maybe SPDIF. Via USB, this benefit is lost.