Devialet, Roon and Tidal

[Womaz]

Well a day of experimenting
When using Air the troublesome album plays no bother at all.
When using the Melco it does not. When the track is played as a single track it plays to the end no problem at all. When played as part of an album it cuts off approximately 2 seconds before the end of the track.

The lack of Ipad control makes Air a non starter for me, but I may do a little music listening to see if I can hear a difference between this and the Melco in the chain.

So for me now its back to the Melco or go for Roon.
Once again thanks to all of you who have contributed.

[BoyScout]

Pushed by this thread, i did a small test trying to simplify the chain in my system:

  — Listening Tidal content just from the iPad using Airplay, no computer, no Roon, nothing more.

And the impression wasn´t so bad... until to come back to AIR/Roon like i normaly use.
The difference is big. From where comes the difference in quality, I do not know, AIR? Roon? Maybe both.
I´m not a computer audio expert too, i need to search and find really audible improvements.
Waiting for the next step/test.

[petrik]

Pushed by this thread, i did a small test trying to simplify the chain in my system:

  — Listening Tidal content just from the iPad using Airplay, no computer, no Roon, nothing more.

And the impression wasn´t so bad... until to come back to AIR/Roon like i normaly use.
The difference is big. From where comes the difference in quality, I do not know, AIR? Roon? Maybe both.
I´m not a computer audio expert too, i need to search and find really audible improvements.
Waiting for the next step/test.

I have noticed the same, AIR just sounds better.

Airplay has not been designed to deliver perfect SQ. One significant problem is that there are two clocks involved when using Airplay. Brian from Roonlabs explains this nicely:

With AirPlay and systems like it, there are two clocks. One running on the computer, which decides how quickly to send buffers out over the network, and another running near the DAC, which actually drives the digital-analog-conversion process.

So lets say, the DAC's clock is running at a perfect 44100.000. The computer's clock might be at 44100.005. This seems like a small difference, but over even relatively short periods of time, they will drift relative to each other. In this case, since the computer is faster, data will tend to "pile up" in the AirPlay device.

Obviously, AirPlay devices don't have unlimited RAM to let the data pile up (nor do they have time-travel chips to address the case where the computer is sending buffers too slowly). So they have to somehow resolve this mismatch in the rate of data flowing in and out.

• Measure the clock discrepancy and use that information to instruct the clock next to the DAC to speed up or slow down to match the rate that data is arriving--best approach, but expensive to implement. This degrades the signal because there is distortion when the clock speeds up/slows down, and because the clock is no longer running at exactly its intended rate.
  
• "Stuff" or "Drop" samples from the audio stream in the digital domain. This can be done well or poorly, but clearly degrades the signal during corrections since sample data is being dropped or synthesized.
  
• Perform an asynchronous sample rate conversion from, in our example, 44100.005hz to 44100hz. This degrades the signal the whole time that the conversion is running to a degree that depends on the quality of the sample rate conversion algorithm.
  

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/raat-an...hip/6915/2

[Womaz]

I am pleased the subject of SQ was brought up as I was not going to dwell on this. It is important to me obviously or i would not have spent the cash on my system

Yesterday when trying Air for the first time in over 2 year I immediately noticed it was missing something. I thought I would test it later that night when i had more time. I did and my initial impressions were confirmed using the Melco improved the sound performance for me. I know its subjective but for me to notice I think it has to be quite a big improvement too.

Bass much tighter on the Melco , on Air sounds a tad bloated in comparison .
I am not good at describing what I hear but also Melco seems less congested. Like much better separation Also quieter periods in tracks seem much quieter if that makes sense.
I have used Melco for two years and the main difference was definitely an improved bass.

[Confused]

I am pleased the subject of SQ was brought up as I was not going to dwell on this. It is important to me obviously or i would not have spent the cash on my system

Yesterday when trying Air for the first time in over 2 year I immediately noticed it was missing something. I thought I would test it later that night when i had more time. I did and my initial impressions were confirmed using the Melco improved the sound performance for me. I know its subjective but for me to notice I think it has to be quite a big improvement too.

Bass much tighter on the Melco , on Air sounds a tad bloated in comparison .
I am not good at describing what I hear but also Melco seems less congested. Like much better separation Also quieter periods in tracks seem much quieter if that makes sense.
I have used Melco for two years and the main difference was definitely an improved bass.

Was that streaming from Tidal in both cases?  I just wondered if this was a fully 'like for like' comparison because you mentioned streaming from YouTube when first testing AIR?

[Womaz]

I am pleased the subject of SQ was brought up as I was not going to dwell on this. It is important to me obviously or i would not have spent the cash on my system

Yesterday when trying Air for the first time in over 2 year I immediately noticed it was missing something. I thought I would test it later that night when i had more time. I did and my initial impressions were confirmed using the Melco improved the sound performance for me. I know its subjective but for me to notice I think it has to be quite a big improvement too.

Bass much tighter on the Melco , on Air sounds a tad bloated in comparison .
I am not good at describing what I hear but also Melco seems less congested. Like much better separation Also quieter periods in tracks seem much quieter if that makes sense.
I have used Melco for two years and the main difference was definitely an improved bass.

Was that streaming from Tidal in both cases?  I just wondered if this was a fully 'like for like' comparison because you mentioned streaming from YouTube when first testing AIR?

Yes streaming from Tidal. I was surprised to be honest.

[Confused]

I am pleased the subject of SQ was brought up as I was not going to dwell on this. It is important to me obviously or i would not have spent the cash on my system

Yesterday when trying Air for the first time in over 2 year I immediately noticed it was missing something. I thought I would test it later that night when i had more time. I did and my initial impressions were confirmed using the Melco improved the sound performance for me. I know its subjective but for me to notice I think it has to be quite a big improvement too.

Bass much tighter on the Melco , on Air sounds a tad bloated in comparison .
I am not good at describing what I hear but also Melco seems less congested. Like much better separation Also quieter periods in tracks seem much quieter if that makes sense.
I have used Melco for two years and the main difference was definitely an improved bass.

Was that streaming from Tidal in both cases?  I just wondered if this was a fully 'like for like' comparison because you mentioned streaming from YouTube when first testing AIR?

Yes streaming from Tidal. I was surprised to be honest.

If it sounds best on your system with your ears, no one can argue with that!

[Womaz]

OK I am now getting my head round this I think . I remember the introduction of the Melco gave me a better SQ than Air from what I recall, and this may have been reaffirmed yesterday.
So now onto Roon. This will again put the lap top back in the music chain, so again I am thinking may effect the sound quality.
it is worth a go though as I think i still have the offer of a 3 month trial.
If I install Roon would you guys recommend I uninstall the Dev Air driver?....as I seem to recall Roon works with the Devialet.
I also have an old Melco firmware on its way to me on a USB stick so another option to test.

[petrik]

If I install Roon would you guys recommend I uninstall the Dev Air driver?....as I seem to recall Roon works with the Devialet.

I would recommend uninstalling it if you are using only Roon. Please read the "tips and tricks" from here:
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Devialet_AIR

[Womaz]

If I install Roon would you guys recommend I uninstall the Dev Air driver?....as I seem to recall Roon works with the Devialet.

I would recommend uninstalling it if you are using only Roon. Please read the "tips and tricks" from here:
https://kb.roonlabs.com/Devialet_AIR

Once again Petrik thank you for your help. I will uninstall Air as it seems the best course of action
I have looked at the link and i guess my only concern now is that they recommend an Ethernet connection to router. My 200 at present is not ethernet connected as the Melco is.
I have no spare ports in my router so I am assuming that I could just not have the Melco hardwired to my router as I am assuming Roon picks up my library too.

I guess for now though i have nothing to lose in trying Roon even if the 200 is not currently connected by ethernet