Help connecting Airlens and Jriver

Do you get DSD north of 128 to play properly?

I could not get DSD to play well. I didn’t spend much time on DSD because I don’t have that many files compared to my PCM collection.

Did you notice this in the specifications of the Airlens?

Therein lies the confusion. I have some higher resolution DSD files and I have the Air Lens connected to one of the I2S inputs of the DS Sr.

@jazznut 's post has me second guessing the DoP setting in the JRMC software.

I just got DSD256 passed through the airlens to the MK2 from my Jriver server.

I just told it to play to the airlens and it came through just fine.

…with the aforementioned Bitstream setting toggled off, correct…?

Correct. I did not change (check) that advanced setting.

Thanks. I’ll give it a go.

I’m also running Jriver on a Windows Server 2019 system.

It looks like you may be on a Mac. I’m unsure if that may cause some difference in Jriver playback capability.

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Yes, if you don’t deactivate it, it will only play up to DSD128.

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I could control the volume with JRiver on the DSD MkI with Bridge II but not with the Airlens now.

I could do it with the Airlens, too at the beginning, but then suddenly not anymore. Maybe it’s the Bitstreaming toggle? Does it need the volume related dip switch then and will this be lossless?

My other problem is that Jriver (other than with the Bridge) often reacts very slowly to clicks on tracks to play…does anyone else experience this?

After listening I recognized that sound quality with Bitstreaming unchecked is much worse, so we need to have it checked to let the DAC do the decoding instead of Jriver. Unfortunately this means we’re just able to play up to DSD128.

@Paul , does it make sense for you that PSA adds some information how you configure Jriver and dip switches to play DSD256 in best quality or do we have to clarify with support personally?

O.K.; this does not make sense to me overall.

I need to do some more research. Between JRMC, the Air Lens and the DS Sr. DAC, I don’t believe DSD should be limited to 128.

Something is amiss.

Any JRMC/Air Lens/DS Sr. mavens out there willing to chime in…?

might want to post below. Granted, it’s not likely to get a response but worth a shot. The board has helped me several times.

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I found one statement with the Jriver forum, that Bitstreaming over DopE is limited to DSD128 and another statement that unchecking Bitstreaming means Jriver does decoding instead of the HW. As PSA is the only party who hopefully tried to configure Jriver with the Airlens and the DS DAC properly so far, it would be great if they tell us how.

The strange thing is DSD256 with Bitstreaming checked does play (but barely audible under strong hiss)

Do you others also have much slower JRemote or other frontend’s click response since Airlens compared to Bridge?

And even after checking Bitstreaming again, I still lost the ability to control the DAC’s volume with Jriver…but I had it at the beginning…no idea what I did meanwhile…

Just again for everyone using it with Bitstreaming unchecked (as I wrongly recommended before just to get DSD256). After listening I now say don’t do it, it completely ruins your sound from magic to Hifi.

FWIW, the change (loss of) in volume control is the only control issue I noted.

I’ll try to be more mindful but, so far, I have not noted any issues with JRemote.

Cheers.

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So if any of you guys has a chance to reach support, please ask for Jriver and DSD256 with Bitstreaming…I can’t rech them and it doesn’t seem support or documentation is given in this thread.

As a short interim status (not finally clarified), my impression from my support request is, PSA hasn’t tested the Airlens with Jriver deep enough yet to clarify compatibility with DSD256 playback and simultaneously proper sound quality of PCM files.

The situation is, with DLNA Bitstreaming/DOPE checked, PCM sounds great, but DSD is only available up to DSD128. Reason is, that the Airlens doesn’t support the high PCM sampling rate needed to send DSD256 as DOP.

With DLNA Bitstreaming/DOPE unchecked, DSD256 is available, but PCM sounds much worse and in my perception all playable DSD also a bit worse. Why so, is a mystery.

This means, we have to check Bitstreaming to play PCM and DSD up to 128 and uncheck it to play DSD256 at all… Annoying. I will verify the DSD SQ differences mentioned later again, but the PCM difference is clear.

A bit later in time I will check again how Roon sounds in comparison…I guess it will be clearly worse, as it was already when I had a less revealing setup.

Agree with you. Lots of dropped connections with both Jriver and TIdal Connect, plus either laggy or non-existent responses when I try to change tracks. I have seen that it is easier to stop a track from playing before trying to switch tracks. This seems to work better

Have a problem I would love some feedback on. I followed Mycrowave’s very detailed instructions to connect JRiver to my new Airlens, and it worked. But I went and updated the Serverware on the Airlens, and now JRiver isn’t even seeing the Airlens, much less connecting to it. Has anybody else experienced it? Does anybody feel that upgrading to the current version of JRiver will solve this?