Devialet Chat

My system consists of a Devialet 250; the loudspeakers are B&W 803D and the loudspeaker cable is from LFD.

The sources are:
- Thorens TD160 MkII
- Restek MTUN+ tuner
- PS Audio Perfect Wave Transport, connected to the XLR/EBU input via van den Hul cable.

I prefer handling physical disks (vinyl and CD) over streaming. Vinyl and CD always work without problems. Computers often do something else than streaming, which causes drop-outs.

A headless MacMini is used for the streaming and the music is stored on a 1TB USB disk. I play the music with iTunes. The MacMini is directly connected via Ethernet of 1m length with the Devialet; no switches or anything else. I've configured the Devialet and the Ethernet interface on the MacMini on a 192.168.0.x segment. The LAN in my home is on the 192.168.1.x segment.
Therefore the WiFi interface on the MacMini is on that segment and I can only use the WiFi interface to upload music to the USB disk which contains the music and I manage that via VNC from my laptop.

I'm using a dedicated USB Disk, because iTunes will not find music on a NAS after the MacMini has started up.

I manage the playlists via the app Remote on the iPad or via my Android phone.

The MacMini used to be elsewhere and was connected via Ethernet to my LAN. This way, I had the occasional drop out, but with the direct Ethernet link between MacMini and Devialet as I have now works flawlessly.

Since I had an Ethernet cable into my audio rack (to connect the Devialet to my LAN), I've now connected that cable to an Airport Express. I'm not using WiFi AIR, but this allows my laptop to be connected via WiFi to the Airport Express and via USB to the Devialet and be close the the Airport Express. A distance of a few meters between Airport Express and laptop causes drop outs. This setup is my alternative source. The music is (also) stored on a NAS, hence I need a good WiFi connection to stream the music from the NAS to the laptop. Good means 'close distance' in this case.

On the laptop I use iTunes and also SnowTape for internet radio. My wife doesn't like to mange a PC to listen to radio; the Restek tuner is much simpler to operate.

Great system, Peter.

I like the idea of the PS PerfectWave: a clever mix of old tech and new. Presumably you find the sound from the PerfectWave at least as good as streaming from the Mac Mini: is that right?

Matt

I assume you are right.
However, since I've had many drop-out problems in the past for a long time, it could be that I'm now waiting for drop-outs too much and forgetting about enjoying the music. With CDs on the PW Transport it is always perfect, so I enjoy that very much.

It is as with listening to old vinyl albums, they often have ticks and plops, and when you starts listening to that, you forget to listen to the music. It takes some adjusting to not mind those ticks and plops and simply enjoy the music.

i know what you mean.

I had a reasonable tolerance for drop-outs on my streaming system, but only because I believed they could be eradicated. In other words, I was able to live with them, because I was confident I'd be able to fix them. Now that I have fixed them (no drop-outs at all with my new JRiver/Windows set-up), I'm more relaxed.

I do still like the idea of a CD transport: it would be a form of insurance against any future collapses of my streaming system. I don't think I could justify the cost of a PerfectWave though: I really love the idea of it, but it's a lot of cash for (in my case) a Plan B system.

Matt

I think an Aurender would be a perfect match for Devialet but it's pretty expensive.

(20-Jun-2014, 11:58)Ekmanc Wrote: [ -> ]I think an Aurender would be a perfect match for Devialet but it's pretty expensive.

I compared the Aurender W20 against my fanless i5 haswell nuc in combination with an Synology 1813 plus NAS and Jremote. Both were connected via USB.
In blind test we did not found any audible difference between both system, however the properly configured (takes some time to customize the appearance....) jriver/Jremote combination was much better handling my extensive library .

I've upgraded my system; got rid of the MacMini and now have the first Aurender N100 in my country (says the dealer).

The sound is a vast improvement over the MacMini, like desribed in the thread under Streaming -> "Aurender X100 with Devialet": a much fuller sound that draws you into the music.
Reading the music from the NAS and storing it on its internal SSD works flawlessy.

No more hiccups, no MacMini asking me to enter my password for iCloud which I don't use and don't know how to get rid of. Closing down the app while music is playing and re-opening it later does not result in a hiccup in the music which happened with the MacMini.

The N100 is still a new product: there is no manual. The X100 manual helps though.
Scanning the NAS for the metadata and the cover art requires an external program which I run on my MacMini. The scanning takes about 6 hours for 1 TB of music. It needs to be run everytime I upload new music or delete music from the NAS (none of the scanner options in the app seem to be able to do this).

Some of the functions in the app seem to be designed for a system that has internal disks. The N100 has no internal disk and these functions have no effect. Examples: update database for newly added or deleted files and the buttons "Pop", "Classical" etc at the top of the app. These buttons take the name of folders on the internal HDs, but there is no internal HD.

I hope Aurender fixes this in a software update soon.

Having said all this, once the music plays it is beautiful

(18-Jun-2014, 20:37)PeterS Wrote: [ -> ]My system consists of a Devialet 250; the loudspeakers are B&W 803D and the loudspeaker cable is from LFD.

Hi Peter

That is the first time on Devialetchat I have seen LFD mentioned, a really small innovative outfit spawned out of the University of Essex run my Professor Malcolm Hawksford and Dr Richard Bews.

I got very close to trying their DAC (now discontinued), amplifiers and cables - but their dealership is small - in fact I think only one dealer in their home country, the UK.

They appear to be very very clever guys.

That problem of having to rescan every time you add an album is a nightmare! N100 one of my possible options if i go for a 200. Now crossed off the last as I add a couple of Cds to my NAS every week. So pleased I read this. Thank you

(01-Mar-2015, 14:25)PeterS Wrote: [ -> ]I've upgraded my system; got rid of the MacMini and now have the first Aurender N100 in my country (says the dealer).

The sound is a vast improvement over the MacMini, like desribed in the thread under Streaming -> "Aurender X100 with Devialet": a much fuller sound that draws you into the music.
Reading the music from the NAS and storing it on its internal SSD works flawlessy.

No more hiccups, no MacMini asking me to enter my password for iCloud which I don't use and don't know how to get rid of. Closing down the app while music is playing and re-opening it later does not result in a hiccup in the music which happened with the MacMini.

The N100 is still a new product: there is no manual. The X100 manual helps though.
Scanning the NAS for the metadata and the cover art requires an external program which I run on my MacMini. The scanning takes about 6 hours for 1 TB of music. It needs to be run everytime I upload new music or delete music from the NAS (none of the scanner options in the app seem to be able to do this).

Some of the functions in the app seem to be designed for a system that has internal disks. The N100 has no internal disk and these functions have no effect. Examples: update database for newly added or deleted files and the buttons "Pop", "Classical" etc at the top of the app. These buttons take the name of folders on the internal HDs, but there is no internal HD.

I hope Aurender fixes this in a software update soon.

Having said all this, once the music plays it is beautiful

I've been looking at the N100 as a possible upgrade to my Mac mini too. Thanks for sharing your first impressions. Does a rescan also take 6 hours?