Thanks for this – very interesting, although not what I hoped to hear. But it’s show conditions and all that. It would be nice to get close to the PST sound for $2000 (less some trade-in credits) rather than $4000 or higher. I am grateful that PSA provides home audition privileges.
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Looking at the back of the AL I see Ethernet and HDMI. Since Qobuz doesn’t stream natively, they must be using something such as Roon or Audirvana to play Qobuz from the Mac. There’s other choices of course.
The good news this is what a lot of people would do.
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I predict 6,666 topic posts on this alone.
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I don’t get a negative vibe, but he’s not gushing either. Not sure what make if that and I haven’t read Stereophile in a while (other than show freebies) so I can’t read into any kind of perspective. I liked them, and the ability to place them out of the way is certainly a good thing for some folks. I have seen some for sale on this forum so perhaps the heavy DSP is a novelty that wears on you over time. I liked the Kii speakers too and I got that same sense that folks don’t go for the DSP over time. One of audios mysteries that I won’t solve …
Paul said Chris set up the network, Roon was the source, I think on a Mac, there was a simple NUC, presumably to access the internet, and a 50’ ethernet cable. My first thought was “50’?”. I’m not a network expert, more a lame newbie, so I can’t point the finger at a weak spot but if I had to the cable would be it.
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I went to the “Speaker Design: …” seminar where Chris was. It was pretty meh, five guys get to answer some generic questions from Bill Leebens. Not a slam on Bill, it’s hard to get good information from that format. A single designer one on one would have been better. What sparked some interest though, was Steven Norber from PranaFidelity. I didn’t recognize the name so I found his room and was impressed. Moderately large stand mounts with dynamic sound. His electronics too. An interesting feature is a switch on the back of the speaker to change resistor types. Two different types of resistors with same value can be put in the crossover. It was surprisingly audible!
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A 50’ run is nothing for CAT6 or higher. Even CAT5 would have sufficed.
I’ll give the McGowans credit. Paul heard and acknowledged the differences we heard, and Scott didn’t try to blow smoke upon my patoot when we were talking about the sound of the AL vs the PST. Good for them. 
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Isn’t the point of the Airlens to fix the network noise? Can’t fix network speed and latency which is usually what hinders these things.
Well within spec. For Ethernet copper cabling when used for 10/100/1000BASE-T, the maximum allowed length of a Cat 5e / Cat 6 cable is 100 meters (328 ft).
Is shorter better? Dunno, but I am pretty sure lots of people have 50’ runs in their walls.
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Surprise to me that Wathen was exhibiting at Axpona. Checking the Exhibitor list shows Wathen in Room 612, but no hint as to what was on display, much less hinting at Decware. A shame IMO, as I would have made a conscious effort to visit.
Anyone have a rough idea on source ratios show-wide?
Server
Stream (service)
Hard Drive
Turntable
Reel-to-reel
Optical disc (CD, SACD, etc)
I’ll try to check them out tomorrow… although I was in a room today with Decware. 
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Great seeing everyone today! Always fun putting a face to the name. It’s been a great show already
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Post show dinner
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Where did you all go? Moretti’s?
Which room was this as until lonson mentioned it and then you I was unaware of a Decware presence at Axpona,
I can’t recall offhand but it was during today’s circuit, which for me was Floors 5, 4, and 3. Although I did hop back up to 15 and 12 for a bit. Sorry. 
The organizers did a really poor job this year with the programme directory.
Good to finally meet you… thanks for coming up to the Treehaus room for a listen! This has been a fantastic show… one more day to go…
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Thanks Tony, wish I had known Decware pieces were exhibited. I agree the Exhibitor list seemed incomplete to me as well.
Great demos in the Treehaus Room…