Singxer

[f1eng]

Anyone can/should choose to spend their past time the way they like. Period.

Very true! The student in the next room to mine when I was at Uni (46 years ago now ) was a wealthy enthusiast. He had all the latest best reviewed stuff and more test records than ones to listen to.
It was a brilliant system and I went round with my LPs all the time to hear them in a quality I couldn't afford myself back then.

I am sure you are right about the Mutec but it is a pita to check out and debug. I hadn't used the USB input on the Devialet at all before. When I went to compare the two first I connected my laptop to the Devialet by USB cable and temporarily replaced my CD transport by the Mutec, using its AES cable and mains cable. I played some music from the computer and listened. Then I changed the USB cable from the Devialet to the Mutec, selected the AES input, changed the computer output from Devialet to Mutec and listened again.
After a short time the music stopped and the lock light on the Mutec had gone out. I looked on the laptop and the Mutec was no longer on the list of USB devices. I unplugged USB and reconnected and it came up again on the list of USB devices but didn't stay long. I messed about trying to find the fault but lost the will to live and went back to listening to music. That was several months ago.

I can't think of a simpler system, no network involved. I tried the USB cable which came with the Mutec which may have been OK for longer, but still wasn't reliable.
The original USB cable works fine with the Devialet without ever losing contact, but I prefer AIR.

Edit: I did have the impression that the Mutec/AES sounded nicer than USB during its sporadic functioning.