I think we have to get away from this notion that measuring well is somehow the opposite of sounding good. I can’t think of a reason that I would want my gear to measure poorly. The gear that we all love that doesn’t measure very well (think tube amps, and in particular the DS DAC, at least according to the standard SNR measurement suite) sounds good for reasons that are outside the useful / available range of measurements. So measuring is precise (assuming you’re doing it right, another kettle of fish) but limited. But that doesn’t mean I want an amp with the highest distortion / lowest damping factor available.
I also can’t think of a reason that I would buy gear purely based on measurements, without listening to it in the real world. Others will differ of course, you can go read read ASR’s scathing review (which is to say just measurements) of the DS for a classic case of prioritizing measured performance over musical satisfaction and palpable believability.
Anyway sorry for soapboxing: How did this DAC sound? Very clean, very detailed, and very nice, particularly at the price point. For my biases and system it was not a match for my (transformer modded) DS, but I’m pretty sure it would have been a match for the DSJ (for different reasons) with the same inputs. And close enough that if my speakers / backend were on the warm side (instead of my pro monitor very revealing / cool side) I could imagine making a nice system with it. So i guess part of this is simple system matching (trying to balance cool/fast vs warm/slow components in your system in your room with your music) and part of it is what I would say is a very high value prop which can be achieved when both design and manufacturing are happening in china, and obviously the availability of better DAC chipsets and whatever over time, combined with less ambitious casework, no marketing budget, etc.
Sounds exciting!! Are you talking about the beloved unit that Al had in his closet? I seem to remember he saying he was willing to sell this Signature Rendu to some lucky buyer. Anything from Al is going to be phenomenal. Please keep us posted.
My first post here. I’m in the market for a streamer and am pleased to learn of the upcoming Air Lens. I look forward to it’s release and will delay a purchase until it’s available. I have the feeling it will be worth the wait. I hope it has a BNC output. Thats the best input on my DAC, which sadly doesn’t have I2S.
@gazjam Have you tried the Sonore ISO2DSD software to make DSF files from the SACD ISOs? One can then tag edit the DSF files… and separate out the surround from the stereo files. This is how I have files from my SACDs on my NAS drive now. My PSA DAC gets fed DSD via USB from a Surface tablet while I wait on the AirLens. The surround DSD goes via a Twonky server thru a Sony Bluray player to a Marantz via HDMI. Maybe there will be a multichannel AirLens one of these days!
Up above, there’s a post that says there isn’t going to be a remote for the AirLens. Control of the AirLens is going to be via an application, I am assuming iOS or Android. Since it’s going to be Roon ready, I was hoping that we can use IP to send commands through the AirLens to a Roon host. No different then we can now with a DS. If you use the Bridge II you can pause and skip back/forward Roon with the DS remote.
I’ve taken those IR commands from the DS remote and mapped them to C4 so I can control my BHK Volume, a few Roon Controls, and I can choose which DS input I want to use, either USB or I2S. Other components like the Oppo 205, Anthem 1120, Sony TV, and the ShieldTV Pro are all controlled via IP in the C4.
I’m a month into using BlueOS so I’m in the Hollywood stage but I do like many things about it, primarily the sound in my setup.
Roon is still the summit in terms of music management and search ability. Like some others, I’ve not been satisfied with Roon’s sound which is likely my gear.
To my ears, Audirvana still beats them all for sound. If I could find the synergy to achieve Audirvana’s sound with Roon, I would be beyond giddy.
Anyway, BlueOS isn’t going anywhere in my listening. Really nice.
I’ve heard people say Audirvana sounds better than Roon, and I would love to hear a comparison of them on the same system.
But maybe it’s apples and oranges in terms of the gear that’s used to play from each platform. (Never used Audirvana, so I have no idea what I’m missing or not missing.)
