I understand that the PS Audio PST can feed I2S to the Holo DAC. Should be ALT2 on the Holo. So should work with AirLens that way too I suppose.
Good news…thanks
Paul is leaving money on the table given that many would pay an extra $750-$1000 for an Airlens/LPS option. So, I’m guessing that the switching supply is of high quality.
I’d rather have an interchangeable SFP so we could choose fiber or ethernet.
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Vincent
So kind of u to nominate me
Is it important in a I2s system to have a very high quality clock in the output device and if so, what do we know about the Airlens clock? I’m assuming that the output device provides the master clock.
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Not yet but maybe soon on the MK2
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Do you have Plex Server running on your NAS at home and publishing to the Internet for Plexamp? I am wondering how I could retire my SiriusXM and bring my music library mobile?
I have a QNAP TS-228 I use to back up my Aurender each night but it does not meet the minimum requirements for Plex Server.
Thanks for a great idea!
Paul, has the pricing on MK2 been announced ?
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Yes, I have a 4TB SSD in a NAS running Plex for taking my music library on the road. Video is in a 40TB RAID0. I have been able to stream in 4K across the pond to America via Plex. But such high res video travels unreliably. Gladly I get my music in CD quality over my phone on Plexamp quite reliably worldwide. Can also download to the phone if I am going into areas with poor coverage. Roon 2.0 has just come out with this too. But I have had this on Plex for years. Various in the house music servers / streamers access the same files on the NAS for home listening.
I2S is a well established standard meant to be used within a chassis. It was never meant to be used outside of a chassis to connect different devices together. It’s meant to connect components on a circuit board and that’s as far as the spec goes.
Without a specification to connect chassis together, every vendor had to choose their own adventure on how that would work. The nice thing is, just about everyone is using an HDMI connector and cable to do it. The ugly state of the industry though is that not every vendor is using the same pins for the clock / data signals. But the super nice thing is a lot of manufactures are allowing for configurable pinouts to match the source / receiver. And, of those that don’t allow configuration, realize that PS Audio is really leading the charge for I2S and then will just use their pin configuration for compatibility.
All PS Audio I2S interfaces use the same pin configuration to make them compatible with other PS Audio components. If your DTE supports a PS Audio pin out then that should be compatible with the AirLens.
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Ted Smith clarifies I2s and USB implementation here:
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I just bought an HDMI cable for I2S in anticipation of the release of the AirLens!
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I’m thinking about doing the same (and I did read the thread about HDMI cables). Which one did you decide on?
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I have been breaking in AQ Dragon for about a month from a streamer into DS Jr and sounds more amazing all the time.
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Should be fun connecting up I2S for the first time!
I’m looking forward, first to what the AirLens and DS2 bring, but also being able to compare I2S v SPDIF in a straight match up (in the Cardas Clear range).
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I took Paul’s suggestion for PS Audio high-end listening room and got the AudioQuest Firebird 48 HDMI. The inputs on the DS Sr. are not isolated so the extra shielding may help reduce the emi/rfi noise going into the DAC.
-Alan
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I’m sure you will enjoy the Firebird. I had it and it was very good. It easily bested the Audioquest Diamond it replaced.
Alan, thanks for sharing your thinking. This morning I decided to go in the opposite direction. I own some interconnects and speaker cables from Morrow Audio. I have been very happy with these; transparent and detailed, yet musical. I found out that Morrow offers their HDMI / I2S cable for $149 (1 m.). At first the audiophile knee-jerk reaction went through my mind: “How good can it be for that price?“ But given the very positive experience I’ve had with Morrow’s other cables, I decided to order one. They also offer a 60-day trial. So I have nothing to lose; I can move up the food chain if needed, although something like the Firebird 48 is probably more than I can spend. I’ll hook it up between my PST & DS DAC while waiting for the AirLens to become available. We’ll see what it sounds like.
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What do you think is the advantage of I2s over USB?
I thought it was the shared clock, but Directstream doesn’t use the clock signal. It samples USB and I2s the same per the thread I cited above. USB might be more prone to ground loops and I’m not sure if induced noise in the data lines could be an issue in some implementations.
So, the AirLens must have the better electronics prior to output to beat the $2K competition. Of course, to compare you will need the expensive USB and HDMI cables.