Which streaming input on the Devialet sounds best to you?

[PhilP]

For me it's just perfect over Air Ethernet using a standard iMac, iTunes or Qobuz and a TimeCapsule as router. That's all and it works as intended.

AIR works perfectly for me too. In my system I prefer AIR wifi over AIR Ethernet and I've tried comparing them several times.

However, Aurender N100 USB sounds better than AIR in my system so I'm sure Antoine is correct about the high quality sound available via USB from optimised PCs

[Dr Tone]

I would think that AIR ethernet would be the best option. Ethernet ports have galvanized isolation, compared to a noisy wifi radio being turned on in the amp. We have had multiple reports of noise related to wifi being on.

Using a good CAT 6A cable would work well around other cables used in your system. Just DON'T use any type of shielded ethernet cable that has the metal connectors on both ends as that would break the galvanic isolation and allow ground noise to flow from device to device along with any other crap it picked up along the way.

[Jnan_devi]

@beerman, I can't myself edit the poll but the option you mention (direct ethernet) I think is the option "AIR ethernet" I mentioned in the poll or did I miss an additional way to use the ethernet port without the AIR software installed on a PC or Mac?

Hi Antoine,

Almost the same. Almost.

What I mean with "direct ethernet" is just a (short) ethernet cable between computer and the Devialet.
In my opinion the "purest" or "straightest" connection" between the Dev and the source.
You don't have to go over a router, you have fewer plug-connections, you have a short signal path, wich will be lesser influenced by various factors.
itunes is just used as a file management, the Dev gets the files bit-perfect and does sample-rate changing. No other software needed.
(Maybe wrong in this case, but how I understand it, also jitter don't play a role in an ethernet connection).

But I have to confess, the differences between the ways to connect are very small (but audible), at least in my system, it depends on personal taste. I think there is no best way at all. You have to try for yourself and maybe in every music system is another way the better.

Klaus

Beerman - I was looking for exact same thing about Computer to Dev through direct ETH cable. In this situation do you have to enable AIR-ETH or this is not needed ?.

[Dr Tone]

@beerman, I can't myself edit the poll but the option you mention (direct ethernet) I think is the option "AIR ethernet" I mentioned in the poll or did I miss an additional way to use the ethernet port without the AIR software installed on a PC or Mac?

Hi Antoine,

Almost the same. Almost.

What I mean with "direct ethernet" is just a (short) ethernet cable between computer and the Devialet.
In my opinion the "purest" or "straightest" connection" between the Dev and the source.
You don't have to go over a router, you have fewer plug-connections, you have a short signal path, wich will be lesser influenced by various factors.
itunes is just used as a file management, the Dev gets the files bit-perfect and does sample-rate changing. No other software needed.
(Maybe wrong in this case, but how I understand it, also jitter don't play a role in an ethernet connection).

But I have to confess, the differences between the ways to connect are very small (but audible), at least in my system, it depends on personal taste. I think there is no best way at all. You have to try for yourself and maybe in every music system is another way the better.

Klaus

Beerman - I was looking for exact same thing about Computer to Dev through direct ETH cable. In this situation do you have to enable AIR-ETH or this is not needed ?.

Of course you would. All you are doing different is using a cross-over cable and fixed IP addresses. You would need a second network adapter and routing configuration if the computer directly connected to the devialet was headless.

[Jnan_devi]

Beerman - I was looking for exact same thing about Computer to Dev through direct ETH cable. In this situation do you have to enable AIR-ETH or this is not needed ?.

Of course you would.  All you are doing different is using a cross-over cable and fixed IP addresses.  You would need a second network adapter and routing configuration if the computer directly connected to the devialet was headless.

understood. I assumed stuff which ... forget it .

[baddog]

When I connected my Mac Mini to the Devialet directly via ethernet I used a standard ethernet cable, no cross over cable required.

I did assign a fixed address to both machines.

[Hifi_swlon]

Voted USB.

I've never tried UPnP and as far as I'm concerned AIR isn't a useable input, it's merely a marketing term. Unless you can actually play music through it without dropouts or other weird noises, it's impossible to judge SQ let alone call it 'the best'

[hk6230]

I'm late to this poll. I voted AIR-ETH.

[roestano]

It's an old poll. I started it and even I myself voted Air ethernet back then. I know better today than back then!

AIR sounds great with a standard off the shelf PC (I personally preferred ethernet over WiFI) but can be surpassed using USB if the computer is optimized (through both hard- and software optimizations). Recently I found out all three are surpassed using that same computer when I inserted a Mutec MC-3+ USB in the chain and connected that to the AES/EBU input of the Devialet.

Can you give an estimate on how much improvement there was? Are we talking +5% or +15% per added hardware?

[Antoine]

Haha, so much has again changed here since March 2016.

Nope sorry, it's practically impossible for me to convert this into numbers. I guess my poor beta engineers brain isn't wired that way (able to convert a subjective experience into an exact number )

I tried once though but I wouldn't take the numbers as absolutes. It's probably best to completely ignore the numbers and just take the order of the items in the list into account. See here: http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?t...9#pid41669

Also there's too many variables (especially with DIY music servers) to take into account to consider this as a general "truth". It's just my experience, my ears and my system.