Is AIR getting better in the Pro era? Thoughts of little steps.....

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Very few units have USB and AES outs from the same internal source. A USB to AES DDC can be used, but then you're not comparing equal sizes. Still, this is an interesting comparison to make.
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Some food for thought there and in Confused's post above.  Although the Mutec is usually talked of as a re-clocker and its benefits are presumed to derive from that, I wonder how much of the improved sound quality is "simply" due to use of AES rather than direct USB.  Maybe interesting in principle, but impossible to disentangle in practice I suppose.

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I wish Devialet would provide us with a block-diagram showing where inputs are terminated. AIR and USB may have less processing of the data flow than AES and SPDIF.
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I agree, it would be really helpful to have a complete block diagram of the amplifier showing the data and control flows.

What exactly do you have in mind by "less processing of the data flow"?  Do you mean there might be some DSP done on what comes in via AES/SPDIF but not on the AIR/USB data?  Given that it's all digital anyway, why would you be concerned about that?  (I am genuinely interested in your thinking, not being argumentative.)