Which streaming input on the Devialet sounds best to you?

[Eddye]

Had to ask since i did a test of Audirvana earlier,and did communicate with Thierry at that time ,who said that the way air was built and set up to control itunes and the sound card it had no effect using other controls ,when using Devialet air?

They even point that out in the guide,but via usb another story

How do you set up Audirvana against air then ?

In the Audirvana preferences under "Audio Systems" I selected Devialet AIR as Audio Device and checked the boxes "Exclusive access mode" and "Use Max I/O buffer size" and unchecked "Direct mode" and "Integer Mode". Checking either of the last two resulted in no playback.

In the "Audio Filters" tab under "Forced upsampling" I selected "None" because the Devialet AIR app will do the upsampling.

Those are my settings for Audirvana

In the AIR app I selected a rather large buffer of 2000ms. I'm still experimenting with this setting. A low buffer resulted in faster playback (as in Alvin and the Chipmunks). I Also selected a Default format of 24/192. I have some 24/192 files and I don't want them to be downsampled.

The AIR app seems to be made for iTunes only, but I believe that is because the early D-Premier could only use iTunes as streaming playback. AIR now supports so much more playback apps, because it behaves as a virtual soundcard.

Thanks! So far I had not been able to run without gaps from time to time, with a Mac mini, with the itunes library in a time capsule (bad idea!). I could with USB, but it did not sound as good as with AIR. Now, with Audirvana driving AIR, I get even better sound (deeper soundstage, more clarity). I think the best feature of it is Memory Play - loading the whole song in memory and not depending on the hard disk

The Time Capsule is as bad an external drive as it can be. It really pollutes the line and causes the Mac to stutter from time to time. You really hear it starting and stopping on each new song.

Your welcome. Does your Mac do hourly Time Machine backups? Maybe that's causing the hickups.

[Divasson]

Had to ask since i did a test of Audirvana earlier,and did communicate with Thierry at that time ,who said that the way air was built and set up to control itunes and the sound card it had no effect using other controls ,when using Devialet air?

They even point that out in the guide,but via usb another story

How do you set up Audirvana against air then ?

In the Audirvana preferences under "Audio Systems" I selected Devialet AIR as Audio Device and checked the boxes "Exclusive access mode" and "Use Max I/O buffer size" and unchecked "Direct mode" and "Integer Mode". Checking either of the last two resulted in no playback.

In the "Audio Filters" tab under "Forced upsampling" I selected "None" because the Devialet AIR app will do the upsampling.

Those are my settings for Audirvana

In the AIR app I selected a rather large buffer of 2000ms. I'm still experimenting with this setting. A low buffer resulted in faster playback (as in Alvin and the Chipmunks). I Also selected a Default format of 24/192. I have some 24/192 files and I don't want them to be downsampled.

The AIR app seems to be made for iTunes only, but I believe that is because the early D-Premier could only use iTunes as streaming playback. AIR now supports so much more playback apps, because it behaves as a virtual soundcard.

Thanks! So far I had not been able to run without gaps from time to time, with a Mac mini, with the itunes library in a time capsule (bad idea!). I could with USB, but it did not sound as good as with AIR. Now, with Audirvana driving AIR, I get even better sound (deeper soundstage, more clarity). I think the best feature of it is Memory Play - loading the whole song in memory and not depending on the hard disk

The Time Capsule is as bad an external drive as it can be. It really pollutes the line and causes the Mac to stutter from time to time. You really hear it starting and stopping on each new song.

Your welcome. Does your Mac do hourly Time Machine backups? Maybe that's causing the hickups.

No, the hiccups are much more frequent than at, and there are some that are like noise too - like electrical noise each time the drive is connected or something like that. The direct Ethernet connection solves that too.

[f1eng]

I haven't tried USB or Ethernet yet since I am struggling to get my updated to 800 units working as they should but can say that Air is working fine with default settings, in terms of dropouts.
I don't find Time Machine backups to be a problem (apart from the noise of the backup disc). Another computer on the network -may- use enough bandwidth to cause dropouts and Android is pretty well guaranteed to cause reasonably frequent dropouts IME.

[GTX]

I am trying Audinirvana for the first time tonight. First impressions are very positive (using MacAir/Nas + halide usb/spdif bridge into Devialet 250).
What type of setup gives the best results with our Devialet? [in one blog there was a recommendation to try upsampling x2, filter max 1,800,000 , cutoff1.05 , antialiasing 200, pre ringing 0.6].

[AlexS]

Hi Antoine,
I'm going to sit on the fence!
I use a Mac mini (OS X 10.9.2) with JRiver. I really can't tell the difference between AIR wireless and ethernet.
I was previously streaming direct from my Synology DS213J NAS via USB, using the Synology's native Audiostation media player. This was less good than the current Mac/JRiver set-up.
Cheers,
Matt

Hello, Matt!
I'm entertaining the idea of getting a Mac mini and using JRiver, to stream over Ethernet, to leave the white noise Windows problem behind me for good. Do you happen to know if:
1) JRiver on Mac is bit perfect?
2) Whether it supports FLACs with embedded cue sheets (which Foobar on Windows does)
You also seem to have switched from your Mac mini to a Windows server. What was the reason for that?
And, finally, have you observed worse (compared to Ethernet) sound quality when streaming over USB? Devialet USB input is also described as asynchronous (therefore no jitter?), and includes CRC error checking. So, based on that, one could expect identical SQ from USB and Ethernet.
The reason I ask about USB is that my alternative to MAC mini is to get a small PC, put it next to Devialet, and connect with USB.
Thank you,
-Alex.

[johnsap]

I think I can hear a difference between the Air with JRiver and AES with moon mind along with synology media server.
I did not take lots of time to compare but I iniially thought the SQ should be about the same.
I use a Nordost valhalla aes cable but music sounds somehow dull as it tries to escape throuth a blanket in comparison to the Air (especially the highs). It seems it forces me to make the music louder with aes. It does not sound bad, but I have a feeling that air provides more transparency.
I like the convenience of using my ipad only to run music from my library but I will have to spend more time analyzing the difference to claim the conclusion. But my initial impressions that the valhalla cable is not as transparent as I hoped. Or this effect is due to the Moon mind?
Does any one experience the same?
If you gents can suggest what I experience, that would be great!

[craigyoung]

Intel Celeron NUC running Daphile into USB, controlled by orange squeeze on android or Peng on iPad I have tidal and spotify streaming perfectly, this is the easiest and best sounding so far, i used to run iTunes server on the Synology and control via remote app using ethernet and Air (iMac in the middle), but i mostly use streaming services now and this is the solution i have been looking for, not perfect but close.

[GuillaumeB]

I think I can hear a difference between the Air with JRiver and AES with moon mind along with synology media server.
I did not take lots of time to compare but I iniially thought the SQ should be about the same.
I use a Nordost valhalla aes cable but music sounds somehow dull as it tries to escape throuth a blanket in comparison to the Air (especially the highs). It seems it forces me to make the music louder with aes. It does not sound bad, but I have a feeling that air provides more transparency.
I like the convenience of using my ipad only to run music from my library but I will have to spend more time analyzing the difference to claim the conclusion. But my initial impressions that the valhalla cable is not as transparent as I hoped. Or this effect is due to the Moon mind?
Does any one experience the same?
If you gents can suggest what I experience, that would be great!

I'm not altogether surprised by your findings. I owned a MiND 180 for almost a year. A few months ago when I decided to revisit AIR I was actually surprised at how good AIR sounded, dare I say better than the MiND. Yes AIR seems more transparent and definitely "brighter" than the MiND.

Take a look at this thread where I posted my findings:

http://devialetchat.com/Thread-Mac-AIR-v...-d1-server

Guillaume

[Confused]

There have not been many claims for equipment that can match or even exceed the quality of AIR. It would appear that some cleverly optimised computer / USB solutions can do it. Maybe the Aurender X100 gets close? The Totaldac D1 looks like the best anyone has found so far as an "off the shelf" solution. Apart from that, at least for the folk not inclined to custom build PC solutions, not much!

[GuillaumeB]

There have not been many claims for equipment that can match or even exceed the quality of AIR. It would appear that some cleverly optimised computer / USB solutions can do it. Maybe the Aurender X100 gets close? The Totaldac D1 looks like the best anyone has found so far as an "off the shelf" solution. Apart from that, at least for the folk not inclined to custom build PC solutions, not much!

I'd be inclined to take a look at the 3D Lab Nano Transport. According to ThierryNK it is at least as good as the totaldac d1 server, SQ-wise. And at a fraction of the cost (1,750 euros).

http://devialetchat.com/Thread-New-kid-on-the-block

Of course the beauty of the Aurender is the built-in storage (negating the use of a NAS and accompanying network cables) plus attractive control point.

I must say I wouldn't mind giving one a try.

There is of course the question of Devialet's (alleged) UPnP implementation...

Guillaume