You can wear shoes without socks, but going round with one shoe might look a bit stupid and soon require a hip replacement.
Seriously, both a DAC and a streamer are each a processor, inputs, outputs and a power upply. Put both in one box and you cut out one load of outputs, one load of inputs, a power supply, a cable and a load of aggravation. Done.
It’s a bit ironic as the vast majority of people who’ve used CD players for the last 40 years never saw the point of separating the transport and the DAC, even though the first external DAC (from Cambridge Audio) came out in 1985. The main problem with streamers is that it’s incredibly difficult and expensive to make good software. If you get over that, there’s no sensible reason not to have the streamer and DAC in the same box. For 10+ years PS Audio made streamer/DACs, now it doesn’t.
Using that logic an all in one piece with DAC, streamer, CD player, pre-amp, and amp in one box is the optimum. But wait, the whole audiophile experience is about breaking all those pieces out for best performance. I liked the Bridge II because it was convenient, but now I can get better performance with a separate box, works or me.
This whole discussion has been pointless. The AirLens is what it is. No point in trying to change it, PS Audio is not redesigning it. If you don’t like it go somewhere else to find what you want, there are lots of other solutions that meet you or anyone else’s needs.
My network player can play the ripped CD’s I bought 40 years ago and every file I’ve bought over the last 20 years. I never spent money on formats that never gained traction and hence, however good, very few titles were made available (think DVD-A, SACD, DSD). My server can rip, store and send any file I can think of.
I was quickly convinced 15 years ago that streaming and streamer/DACs would dramatically reduce the cost of sourcing high quality sound and the software-dependent components would not be super-expensive, but super-cheap, which is why 90% of music revenues in the USA come from streaming. It must be really tough trying to sell expensive stuff when you can get a superb streamer for $1,000 or less.
And that’s kind of my point. CDs are a hard format that hasn’t changed in forever. There were expansions (HDCD/SACD) that didn’t take, but you can play the CD you bought today on a player from 1985. I had an SACD player until it quit reading redbook discs, at which point it became trash. (Notwithstanding the 5.1 amplifiers moving from discrete inputs to HDMI).
Minidisc is one that I bought into and it lasted maybe 10 years and didn’t lend itself well to a world with external DACs because it used a different hardware compression, so it had to do an initial conversion in-player.
Sonos ran into this a couple years back where the early players ran out of memory/computing power and got decremented to a lesser platform. And they’re still wrestling with that, as they moved their newest players off their original “SonosNet” wireless protocol and solely onto standard WiFi (unless you buy an Ethernet dongle).
That’s why I focus on single-purpose devices (excluding my Stellar Gain Cell). When something better happens, I can buy just that one thing and not a full package. I admit to being intrigued by AirLens, but I have no trade-ins to send and my daughter has become “Team Dad Buys a Rolex” now (not even kidding), so I’m not going to be upgrading my HiFi at the present time.
If you’d ripped all your CDs 20 years ago you’d have probably ripped them in lossy mp3 because
It was the dominant standard and
No good alternative for lossless existing except WAV/AIFF and
Storage was prohibitively expensive for uncompressed music and
File tagging was garbage.
I’m comfortable that my lossless choice (ALAC) will suit me for a long while now and if something better comes, lossless to lossless is fine by me.
I don’t have an AirLens, so this is my last comment on this topic. Hope you all are entranced by your new toy!!
Power has been restored after the onslaught of Hurricane Hilary. Yet I sit in rapt silence, gripping my listening chair with white knuckled tenderness, waiting. I’m waiting for the imminent arrival of my AirLens this Wednesday and can hardly contain myself. The $3000 AQ Dragon 48 HDMI, $9000 Shunyata Omega Power Cord, and $3000 Omega Ethernet cable are laid out, ready to insert into the $2000 AirLens. This all makes sense, of course. It is easy to prove that all of the correct bits are arriving at the DAC. As long as they are properly clocked, the only thing that could affect sound quality with the exception of the DAC, is electrical interference. So no expense can be spared in the amelioration of electrical noise. I have been using fiberoptic ethernet into a bridge II, but I have the conversion module from fiber to ether and it’s 9 volt battery power supply to worry about, as well as the bridge itself. Ah, but the AirLens should mitigate all that, thus I wait… Did I mention my dedicated power system? I have the misfortune of not having to worry about the expense of this hobby and can afford a direct line from the Southern California Edison power plant to the transformer installed into my backyard. It was less expensive than you might guess… using only silver for all of the wiring and transformer, now THAT was where the money went. I opted for my own dedicated generator and after extensive listening tests, chose the solar panel to storage battery system as opposed to the over engineered HQ steam generator. So perfect power in essentially unlimited quantity, the best cables, and now the Airlens to complete the masterpiece, thus I wait… I believe I am ready!
I have my Roon Nucleus+ connected to my DS Mk2 using both USB and the new AirLens (the latter of which just replaced a Holo Audio Red streamer/DDC).
The Nucleus+ is connected to my router through an Innuous PhoenixNET switch.
The USB chain is a Synergistic Research Reference USB to an Sbooster powered Uptone ISO Regen and then to the Mk2 via a Curious Evolved USB link.
The AIrLens is connected to the Nuckeus+ via the PhoenixNET switch with Wireworld Platinum Starlight 8 Ethernet cable and to the Mk2 with a Wireworld Platinum Starlight 8 USB cable.
I consider this to be a pretty fair fight, and indeed, during last night’s listening session (with only about 60 hours on the AirLens) it was very close–so close that I struggle to describe the differences. Both connections deliver music from a dead quiet background with abundant detail and an expansive soundstage.
Based on what I have heard so far, I seriously doubt that I could reliably tell one path from the other in a blind test, so it would seem that you really can’t go far wrong either way…
I’ve been noticing, frankly, how much of the reporting has a vague lukewarm quality, with virtually no enthusiastic comparisons of the AL to anything else. Even the one clear comparison to the Red sounded more or less like they sounded about the same. At least, that was my take on it. Hardly inspiring since PS Audio has always been able to compete favorably with devices at and even above their price points. As my own experience with hearing the AL at AXPONA showed it (at the time) to be not as good as the PST, this lack of comparison now even to that transport leaves me scratching my head. I’ll be getting one soon for myself, but I’m not hearing much right now that would have me believe it can fight with the big boys.
The only meaningful evaluation is the one you perform in your system under your terms, after well broken in. In general I detect a degree of confirmation bias, but glad to know those that purchased an AL are pleased.
How would you do an “equal” comparison anyway as the AirLens is only relevant if you have an I2S pin compatible DAC and the others will work with any DAC. So even if someone was to do the comparisons they would be told by the AirLens “fans” that it’s not relevant as the cable connections are different and I2S makes the AirLens “better.”
I ripped my CD collection in 2010, so 14 years ago, to WAV files stored on an Iomega network drive (not expensive). I used a Linn Akurate DS streamer/DAC that could play 24/192 PCM files, which is still their standard. I don’t recall there were any 24/192 files to buy! The Akurate DS came out in 2007 and can be upgraded to the current model, so a streamer/DAC that is still going strong after 17 years.
Relying on third party software like PS Audio do with Bridge and AirLens is a risk, because it requires continued support by ConversDigital and the modules that are embedded on the CDM4140 processor. It is a risk, not one I would be concerned about. There is potentially more risk with a product like the PS Audio FPGA DACs, not because of the software, but because of them being discontinued like the Mk1 DSD DAC. It’s much cheaper to develop new hardware than new software, so software is likely to be around longer.
Sonos is a bad example as it was not intended for hifi, came out around 2005 way before 16/44 local streaming, but still managed to be one of the most successful audio companies ever. The Auralic Aries Mini came out in 2015, I bought one for £350, it was $400 in the USA, it’s Roon Ready and still works perfectly today.
The single biggest factor is that physical media can only be played in one place at one time. With Roon ARC you can listen to your CD collection lying on the beach on holiday. I don’t but we can play our CDs in 7 rooms and on 3 mobile systems at the touch of a button.
I would hope the AirLens would move some people to realising streaming is as good or better than CD, more because it opens them up to a wider choice of music. Today I read in Jazzwise about a new recording, listened to it on Qobuz and am going to see it played live at Ronnie Scott’s in 3 weeks. That’s also how streaming can work for musicians.
Hey Steven, I’m wondering if your “history” describing the purchase of “one-box” equipment solutions in the DAC and streamer world is actually a bit more complicated than your latest summary suggests. Why didn’t you mention your Innuos Zen (both a streamer and a server, with a great app but no DAC) or your Devialet Expert or the server you ripped all those CDs onto?
There’s certainly no problem in exploring multiple combinations of streamers/servers/DACs/amps/preamps etc., but if you acquire enough one-box combinations, they do tend to overlap and add up over time. I just think it’s important not to promote the view that your solution to combinations of audio gear is going to be the ideal solution for everyone else.