AIR 3 Beta for Mac

[AllenB]

So now I have a bit of a quandary

I thought I would give the RC Beta 3 on Mac a go, after all, when I bought my Dev 200 I had wanted to use AiR and keep it all simple. As we know, thus far AiR has been a nightmare for most, but hey ho, I gave it a go.

Firstly, with a straight Ethernet connection, it worked through a few tracks and I thought this pretty good, but not up to the SQ of my recent microRendu setup. What the heck I thought, I will switch the network feed that my MR was receiving, which is a pair of TP Link 110 optic fibre isolators, with the unit nearest the MR receiving power from one of the rails of my JS-2. Wow, this elevated the SQ in AiR3 to a level I had not heard before from AiR.

I thought I would stress this a little, so my iMac, which stores my music, runs Roon server and HQP, with a selection of various format tracks all up sampled by HQP to 192kHz. Set HQP to output to Devialet AIR, and I ran for a good hour or so without a hitch. Wonderful sound, no glitches, nothing.

I will persist with this for a few more sessions after my work day, but already the thoughts in my head, have Devialet finally cracked this!?!

AllenB in your network isolation, are the tp links 100 base or gigabit?  How easy was it to setup? Is there still a noticeable improvement without powering the final tplink with the JS-2?  I've been thinking of trying this for a while.

I'm assuming you're using the js-2 with the rendu as well? So in the optimal config for both - would you say AIR is better or equal or worse than the rendu?

It is the 100 Base-T version, not gigabit, and this is ample for music streaming. They were easy to set up. Almost plug and play, if I recollect I had to flick one of the dip switches, can't recollect which one exactly (something like 'auto-negotiation). The supplied wall warts are cheap bog-standard affairs, almost anything purchased separately should be an upgrade, of course, the JS-2 may well be over-board, but this does have two rails and one was going spare with the microRendu installed. Exactly how much it adds to the overall removal of 'noise' is hard to say, but at less than £50 for 2 x 110's and the cable, I bought as a punt, but also with the thought that this might also give me isolation from storms, which is a big consideration where I am going to live next year.

The JS-2 with MR has been really excellent, but it still bugs me how Dev's stand-by / USB implementation does not play well with these Linux based devices, nor HQP as a software player.

So, as in my OP, my aim was to see first whether AiR 3 was stable, and so far so good, haven't had a chance to listen for hours yet, but the crammed listening sessions lasting at most 90 minutes, and it has behaved, even with 24bit and/or 192khz streams of music. All AiR listening has been via ethernet, not had a chance to try AiR wi-fi yet (mainly because I have to do a new configuration for the Dev if I wanted to). As I said, the optic isolation provided by the TP Links did elevate AiR for me, going from something that did not compete with the Rendu (AiR ethernet on straight cable connection to network switch) to something that made me perk up and at least be on a very close level. I would need to listen for longer and harder to now determine which edges it, AiR certainly did not come across as 'better' (the Rendu with a good PSU and optic isolation is very, very good), but it was not clear cut either. Worthy of further trial and deliberation. And I do yearn for that clear-cut, streamlined route that AiR promised.

Hence my quandary