Ok the turning on auto worked and I have listening for a bit. I really having a hard time finding a flaw in the Eversolo. The usb Input Ted built is so good I cannot say the Airlens is better in much any way that I want to spend the extra $500. Honestly I would end up keeping the A6 for theater rack multi ch streaming so it’s 1399 more. In fact it has me thinking I want the master edition.
I will keep trying but I am not getting any feeling of improvement, sorry PSA I wanted to.
I now have 200 hours on the AL. Things have improved a great deal to the point where I’m more uncertain about returning my unit. I can hear incremental changes, but the superlatives you all are describing are not quite there yet. I am thinking I will give it another 100 hours break in. I would be fine with eating some humble pie.
I received my AL this afternoon and I have it all set up. Everything went smoothly connecting to Roon and the MKII. I will have to admit is sounded pretty good right out of the box. Too early to pass final judgement, but it sounds positive so far. I will let it burn-in for the next couple of weeks.
FWIW, almost all improvements I have wrought with new kit and tweaks have been incremental. Adding my current speakers and the DS Sr. DAC are two exceptions.
I, for one, did not expect a lot more from the AirLens. So far, I like the improvements I am hearing and will probably complete my trade-in (or see if I can sell my trade in for more than the credit value).
I admit perhaps my expectations were wrong. However, I heard such a “massive” improvement when I installed the new firmware on the DAC MKII before the AL arrived. That I expected the design of the AL in combination with the MKII to really move me. I’m still hoping that happens.
I just realized I had my Silver sonic ethernet in the A6 and generic Amazon Cat 8 in the Airlens. Just swapped and going to let another day of burn in go and try tomorrow. If not tomorrow it will probably be Thursday before I get another listen as Fantasy football will be getting in the way.
Honestly they both come from a Melco S100 with optical feeding it. Entire system goes through Melco including Core. So signal is clean not matter what cable. But have to be honest in the test.
Run them both off of WiFi and then none of the parts in the middle will matter. I ran the A6 both ways and found no difference so I got rid of the cable.
Thanks for making the playing field as level as possible in your comparisons. I’m not not mistaken, you use the RAL cable for the I2S connection. It’s a great cable and I used to own one, but the AQ Dragon would take it to another level. Albeit, that would near double your AL investment and cause a recalculation of price vs. performance. Not trying to mess with your head but all of us nut jobs are in the “what if” business.
As someone with this patch panel in their basement, plus a 10G network and two ethernet jacks in every bathroom, I can write with experience that Cat 7 and Cat 8 cables often cause ground loops because of the extra shielding they have to make their high bit ratings. Often a lowly Cat 6 is better to use. Or WiFi if not in my concrete bunker house!
2 posts were merged into an existing topic: PS Audio AirLens
Do you find base Eversolo and AirLens to be equal or is base Eversolo slightly better in your opinion (SQ only, obviously Eversolo has much better features)?
So far not much difference between the two. Everytime I think I hear something I go back to the other and nope, sounds just about the same. I do think the highs are a bit edgier on Eversolo… but its hard to put words on it. Is it big? no, but I think something is there. Might be a preference more than being better (for either of the units). But that is about all I can tell right now. Makes me think if the clocks etc in the master ed. make a difference, would it be better than Airlens in my system?
Only differences is USB vs I2S and RAL on I2S and WWSS8 on USB and the better ethernet cable on Eversolo (Standard edition in case people wondering). I just swapped those cable. Also Someone had a good idea and put both on Wifi. Even though that is not how I would use them I could do that to level playing field.
Alas a dragon is not in my future. Too much for me. I would love to get a loaner to see what all the fuss is about, but I am not sure I (that is me on my system) would notice. I have tried many other things/tweeks people swear by and I dont notice a thing. Again is that me, my system, both? Not sure. Isnt there a company that loans for 10% cost?
5 posts were merged into an existing topic: PS Audio AirLens
I did many many tweaks the past year, there are times I can swear I hear obvious improvements, but removing the said tweak/tweaks that’s fully settled, I generally don’t miss it.
Thanks for posting that. I thought it was just me.
3 posts were merged into an existing topic: PS Audio AirLens
I had a similar impression right out of the box with the AL being more 3D/holographic than the bridge 2 with my DS Mk I, but days 3 and 4 were a little rougher, losing some coherence with the AL and the bass got a little woolly. I started leaving it powered up along with my DAC 24/7 just 2 days ago, but don’t necessarily stream music from Tidal 24/7 even with the rest of the system shut down. There definitely seems to be some changes in burn in here and I am hoping that things improve again soon.
This really is turning out just like I predicted. Most who get AirLens are PSA customers with only thing to compare it to the Bridge2, and those people all or mostly think AL is better and think it is very good. (analogous to comparing mk2 only to mk1, which was 99% of the comparisons there).
The few who’ve compared AL to other competing products have been mixed results. One thought AL was better than the $800 Holo Red. One thought AL and $900 Eversolo base model were about equal on sound quality with Eversolo stomping the AL on features, and thus the winner in their opinion.
I haven’t seen anyone yet compare AL to a streamer with msrp above $1000. Oh wait, maybe someone compared with Aries 1.1 and maybe it was fairly even in their opinion? I don’t remember - maybe they’ll chime in.
Would have to assume that people comparing AL to other products and preferring AL would post about it on these forums, as they typically don’t hesitate to do with other PSA products. If they’re comparing and liking the competitor better than AL, perhaps not surprising that it is crickets (most folks probably won’t want to post negative reviews of AL on PSA’s forum, but that’s just a guess - it could be that those comparisons just are not being done).
Much prefer the AL to Simaudio Mind 2, which I quite liked, but sold because of the app…also prefer AL to Oppo Sonica with extreme mods by Ric Schultz, which I also quite liked…
I try not to rush to knee jerk conclusions, so I typically let a new product play for a week or two before casting my opinion in stone. But I prefer the AL to my old Sonore Signature Rendu - with superclock upgrade. and I was running the SSR with fibre from my switch for galvanic isolation. The AL bests it at soundstage width, black background, and it makes the instruments so much better defined. After that I didn’t need more differences - the AL won. For me I’m moving on to another shootout - going to finally sit down this weekend and compare JRiver vs ROON now that the AL is very settled into my system. and I’ll use exclusivley DSD256
