Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server

[Antoine]

I'm done reading and continue on the road I was already on; further tweaking and tuning of my own home brewn music server, just for the fun of it!

Too right Antoine! Some great links there too, thanks!

We will get there one day...

Guillaume

The more I read about possible reasons for differences between bit perfect audio playback the more confused I get. No one really seems to know the anwer (or is not willing to give it) I'm giving up for now/I'm done reading and continue on the road I was already on; further tweaking and tuning of my own home brewn music server, just for the fun of it!

I think I've just about reached the same conclusion re. the futility of trying to understand... though I may try to wade through the impressive list of articles that you've compiled

Re. The home brew music server - why don't you collaborate with Kunter on a Cubox-based solution ?

Haha, I didn't mean reading this forum BTW, I really only meant the 'researching on the wider Internet' part.

Thank you for the suggestion Phil but I currently have my "hands full" on the Windows part. I didn't believe how much is really possible there until I saw it and this also takes a lot of time to "research" and read into. If and when you believe everything can make a difference then just the multitude of parameters/settings you find, for example, in a network interface card driver can and will easily keep you occupied for at least one to two hours.

[PhilP]

The d1 server on the other hand is a perfectly optimised "single purpose" computer/unit where all the elements (software and hardware) are controlled and optimised by totaldac. Only sound quality is important.

Guillaume

Exactly right. The only disappointing thing is that the price of doing this optimally is so high .

The prices of the MiND and Aries on the face of it seemed to be about 'right' for the functionality provided which is pretty simple in relative terms - but your tests have shown that it may be necessary to spend 3 or 4 times as much to get ultimate performance...

[Confused]

What is the actual cost of the D1 as tested here?

[GuillaumeB]

What is the actual cost of the D1 as tested here?

4990 euros + 360 euros for the USB filter/cable.

Guillaume

[Confused]

So about £4200 in "real money". (My apologies to non UK forum members)
Ummm, still sound quite a lot! Hearing is believing though, and I haven't heard one, so no comment from me as to if it's worth it or not.

[IanG-UK]

I think it is very expensive when it (the D1) is not a source, not a display, not a ripper. So, avoiding audio terms, it is just a roadway or a switch?

[ThierryNK]

It is a kind of "missing link" between a track and a DAC in digital audio.
It takes the place of the opto-mechanical-digital CD drive.

Cheers
Thierry

[Antoine]

But it is a source imo. It contains the music data files, decodes these and transports the decoded 'DAC native' data to the DAC.

edit: oops, i'm confusing the D1 with the Aurenders that have local storage...the D1 doesn't.

[GuillaumeB]

But it is a source imo. It contains the music data files, decodes these and transports the decoded 'DAC native' data to the DAC.

edit: oops, i'm confusing the D1 with the Aurenders that have local storage...the D1 doesn't.

Correct! The d1 server pulls music data from your NAS. In exactly the same way as the Aries.

However... it is also a reclocker meaning you can connect any digital input: S/PDIF, AES/EBU, USB and optical. So for example a CD transport.

It can also convert DSD files to 176.4KHz/24 pcm (this can can be activated or disactivated via the remote control).

You can also insert a USB stick with music files on it and these albums will then appear in the MPaD iPad app, quite handy actually.

Guillaume

[IanG-UK]

Hi Guillaume

I should admit that I am an anti-multi-box buyer so, for example, I would never buy Naim knowing that I would be told it would be better with six power supplies and I would never buy the DCS stuff where you need to buy four boxes to get their best product!

So, sorry to be a pain in the a***, but if one has a source, be it a laptop (with screen and cd ripper and data) or a CD player/transport (with discs), both of which will plug straight into the Devialet, what does the D1 do (aside from any sound quality considerations) that the straight connections cannot achieve? Because here you surely need four units - source, cd ripper, tablet and D1?