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+--- Thread: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released (/Thread-Air-3-0-4-Officially-Released)
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - Confused - 20-Mar-2017
(19-Mar-2017, 21:56)maxijazz Wrote: Well executed digital coax in home applications, over a meter or three, won't be worse than AES/EBU (XLR). It can be even better. Reason for existence of differential signaling is resistance to noise over long distance. There should be no difference between the 2 interfaces until very long cables are involved.
Analog signalling is different animal, differential transmission makes sense even over short distances.
That's theory. In practice, quite often, coax outputs are implemented horribly. That is why so often we hear, that AES/EBU is better. If you hear AES better than coax, then it means coax is poorly implemented in your source.
I suspect most people would agree that any difference between AES/EBU & coax S/PDIF is at most very small. However, my experience with a Devialet is that the USB input does sound different. I suspect this may be due to galvanic isolation issues or 'leakage loops' with the USB implementation. Although I note that there is a letter and response in this month's (April) issue of 'Hifi News and record review', here HFN's Paul Miller speculates the difference is due to the USB input using XMOS firmware and asynchronous driver, whereas the both the S/PIDF and AES/EBU use Wolfson WM8805 digital interface transceiver. Irrespective of the technical stuff, my experience is that I get more accurate bass via AIR, S/PDIF & AES/EBU in comparison with anything via USB. The differences are fairly minor, but they are discernible.
This also appears to concur with Hifi_swlon's bass observations now he's switched from the microRendu back to AIR
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - Riddo - 20-Mar-2017
I've now had AIR 3.0.4 going for almost 48 hours via ethernet, and for the first time in my experience there have been no nasties - except briefly at the beginning when avp.exe (Kaspersky) started. I lowered its priority via Process Lasso, and it has been solid ever since.
The sound is noticeably superior to both USB via Audiophilleo, and native USB. The most obvious thing is that the top end is more open and the soundstage is deeper. I'm drawn into listening much more than usual.
I agree with Hifi_swlon about the bass being "better" as a general observation, but I haven't deliberately listened to any particular bass test tracks yet.
So far this is the best sound by far from my Devialet.
Cheers,
Graeme
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - zdenes - 20-Mar-2017
I've been using AIR for years, first with wifi only (with D-Premier, no ethernet) and 44.1kHz worked most of the time, and since I got ethernet streaming has been working fine with hi-res files too, on a non-dedicated computer and network. So this latest AIR is working just as fine.
I've been using JRiver for years and just recently discovered that Kernel Streaming sounds much better than other options, so with a bit of help (on other settings) I think I got JRiver 22 to its max. After reading a lot about it here and also following the advice of my local audio guru I've tried HQPlayer (still on the trial version) and it is clearly better than. Had a few people around to check my 'claims', there was no contest. Then I tried a borrowed Hummingboard in NAA mode and that improved the sound clearly again. I had both my teenage sons independently (on different days even) test the two ways of streaming. One did an ABAB test, the other a BABA test. They are least interested in my hobby but poor kids sat through the few minutes focusing. This test was as 'blind' as possible. Both of them said that to Hummingboard/NAA was obviously better which is my opinion, too. I gave AIR a 'fair advantage' as it had a 600 euro LAN cable connected as the Hummingboard a 6 euro generic LAN cable. USB cable was from iFi (also borrowed).
So as some people here are moving away from this set-up, I'm just getting into it :-)
![[Image: 800px-Hummingboard-i2eX-Top.png]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7c/Hummingboard-i2eX-Top.png/800px-Hummingboard-i2eX-Top.png)
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - petrik - 21-Mar-2017
(20-Mar-2017, 13:39)Tremayne Wrote: I've never used Air, and confess that I'm not clear what it is, how it could marry in with my system and how it's controlled.
However, intrigued by previous posts, I thought I'd download Air to my dedicated Windows 7 silent PC, and see where that took me.
Unfortunate it won't download. I'm getting an error message saying the Air Virtual Soundcard Driver could not be loaded because Windows requires a signed driver, and this one isn't signed.
Any help in getting past this first hurdle would be gratefully received.
I hope this helps:
http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?tid=3801
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - sven911 - 21-Mar-2017
I think DSD is working with AIR, the D1000 is now showing DSD64 in the display.
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - mdconnelly - 21-Mar-2017
I've been using AIR 3.0.4 for about a week with no problems at all. Good to see Devialet finally coming through with that. Comparing AIR to the uRendu/iFi PS just doesn't yield a clear winner to these ears. Just when I think I prefer one over the other, I try a different album and change my mind again. So for me, I'd say they do sound slightly different but I could happily leave with either. Now perhaps the uRendu with the Uptone LPS-1 would make me feel different.
I have one more reason to prefer the uRendu... I came to Roon from a Squeezebox environment and still use a number of Squeezeboxen elsewhere throughout the house. They all work great with Roon. But, on the occasion where I want to sync my Devialet system with others in the house (e.g. party time), I can't do so using AIR with the Devialet. Having the uRendu capable of emulating a Squeezebox is a perfect solution for that. So I'll be keeping the uRendu but probably using AIR most of the time.... unless I get the itch to pick up an LPS-1 and then all bets are off.
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - Tremayne - 21-Mar-2017
(21-Mar-2017, 11:14)petrik Wrote:Thank you Petrik, If I can work out how to do that, I'll give it a go.(20-Mar-2017, 13:39)Tremayne Wrote: I've never used Air, and confess that I'm not clear what it is, how it could marry in with my system and how it's controlled.
However, intrigued by previous posts, I thought I'd download Air to my dedicated Windows 7 silent PC, and see where that took me.
Unfortunate it won't download. I'm getting an error message saying the Air Virtual Soundcard Driver could not be loaded because Windows requires a signed driver, and this one isn't signed.
Any help in getting past this first hurdle would be gratefully received.
I hope this helps:
http://devialetchat.com/showthread.php?tid=3801
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - Dr Tone - 21-Mar-2017
(21-Mar-2017, 23:14)mdconnelly Wrote: But, on the occasion where I want to sync my Devialet system with others in the house (e.g. party time), I can't do so using AIR with the Devialet. Having the uRendu capable of emulating a Squeezebox is a perfect solution for that. So I'll be keeping the uRendu but probably using AIR most of the time.... unless I get the itch to pick up an LPS-1 and then all bets are off.
Hifi_swlon mentioned syncing a group that included air and using the exact air buffer delay.
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - Dr Tone - 21-Mar-2017
(21-Mar-2017, 22:29)sven911 Wrote: I think DSD is working with AIR, the D1000 is now showing DSD64 in the display.
DSD has worked with Air on windows since back in the white noise days. It's macOS that has issues.
RE: Air 3.0.4 Officially Released - AaronG - 22-Mar-2017
I have a Mac and have always gotten white noise with AIR through every iteration. I downloaded 3.0.4 today and used it to stream the new Spotify High Rez. Sounded great. While it was streaming I opened Safari and got a huge burst of white noise. When I closed Safari it went back to normal. I wonder if this was the problem all along with my Mac OS X/ AIR experience.