Next Software Updates for Expert Amplifiers

[jjo]

I think most of us with Devialet have a pc or Mac somewhere in the network as we intended to use AIR.

The beauty of RAAT or AIR is the computer doesn't need to be located anywhere near the amplifier, wired Ethernet or home plugs are both pretty reliable so the box count is the same as upnp (nas) or your Streamer but can be located anywhere.

I was one of the people originally requesting UPNP but having now used JRiver/ Jremote and then moved on to ROON I now find the UPNP solutions basic by comparison.

I happen to be a Linux user and while I do own a Mac, I never intended to use AIR.

OpenHome(DLNA/UPnP) don't need a separate computer to be located near the amplifier either, because in this case the amplifier happens to be a computer.

Also I have no idea why selecting which files to play and playing them, needs to be anything but basic. The user interface is a completely separate thing from the streaming protocol.

Speaking as someone who used to write UPnP control software I use Roon. You, we can talk about who controls the master clock & the path the audio travel but put simply, the Roon user experience it head and shoulders better than what can be offered by UPnP and the like

I'm really confused about this message. This is because I have no idea what "the master clock" has to do with anything related to this and because "the path the audio travels" is all about network infrastructure and nothing to do with streaming protocol.

So first Devialet tell us that UPNP is not fit for purpose, yet Linn (and no doubt plenty of others) have implemented this with no dropouts or white noise and with reasonable sound quality. And now we find out that Devialet have based AIR on UDP, "an unreliable protocol"?! Hmm... 

Linn has actually implemented OpenHome on top of UPnP to give it a few more (desired) features, and they've actually made it open source. UPnP is not streaming audio as such, but transferring files. If you have the file and you're doing the playing yourself, I don't see what is supposed to make the end result worse. But then again, I mostly deal with software.

While the UDP is in theory unreliable (compared to TCP), it will not lose any packets in an isolated home network. If it does it is a problem with the network, not UDP.

But the case I was trying to make for the OpenHome(DLNA/UPnP) was that they are open and widely supported. Imagine Devialet going bankrupt. Because AIR needs drivers and active maintenance, it would no longer work after the next OS update. The open solutions would continue working as long as the amp does.

Lets imagine a Linux/BSD/WindowsPhone user wanted to stream. That would require a big development effort from Devialet. With open solutions a basic support would already be there.

Same goes actually for the configurator. If Devialet would happen to vanish off the face of the earth, none of us would configure our Devialets anymore. Lets hope that doesn't happen or that we've got a kick ass configuration we never want to change. If we had a web interface for configuring in the amp itself, well that would works as long as we had browsers.

I am not against the flavour of the month in streaming protocols, but I do feel that the basic shit needs to be there first.

I have no idea how much better RAAT is at transferring bits across the networks. It should really be a simple task for any protocol, but lets assume it is better. I still doubt that the PC operating system support, mobile plarform support or application support is nowhere near the level of OpenHome.

I'm sure RAAT would be awesome for you in this exact time, but it wouldn't be useable for the majority of people and no one really knows what the situation is in the future. So based on this, I would not say it should be the first priority although I wouldn't be against it if the shit that works for everyone would be there already.