Hi, would someone be so kind to confirm whether the AL may be fully and efficiently controlled by the Android “Bubble DS” app for “Open Home Renderers” as it is the case with LINN (or even simple correctly configured Raspberry Pi) streamers ? I asked the question to the technical PS Audio team a couple of days ago but no answer 
Thank you !
The AirLens does not have Open Home renderer capability built-in. What I do is run Bubble UPNP Server on my Synology NAS and have it create an OpenHome renderer. I then use the Linn Kazoo control point, which works fine. (I use an iPad so I cannot test the Bubble controller, which is Android only.)
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Thank you Perry, unfortunately this is a kind of blocking point for me, as long as the OH feature is not implemented (shouldn’t be a big deal as even 50 $ streamers have it), I will stay with my current high end streamer - btw also with galvanic insulated (and even battery supplied) digital output
Thanks, Stéphane
Thank you for making this comparison as these are the exact 2 streamers that are being considered for my system. I have a modified MK1, the reason I have been hesitant on making a decision was both get great reviews. Having a mk1 I know the usb implementation is not as solid as it is in the MK2, and didn’t know if it would be worth the additional cost of the n150 for my dac. Being that you decided that the airlens was close enough on a mk2 to something quite a bit more expensive saves me both the headache and and time of messing with the usb to i2s products on the aurender to get it to sounds its best on my MK1. Because if I went with the aurender I would definitely try to squeeze out its maximum potential eventually. Even if it did sound better, I’m sure it wouldn’t be worth the time and addition cost to get it there. Once funds allow I will be making either a phone call or take the 30 min drive over to them to get it purchased and get it plugged into my system.
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Hey friend. Appreciate the feedback.
I liked the AL price. Sonicly it absolutely improved with hours.
. I can always move up. And I mostly spin on my psaudio transport. Listening to octave recent DSD of live of Ana vidocic recording. If you like that sorta thing. Pretty impressive both recording and performance.
CB
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FYI latest fw appears to be 4.3.71
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It’s been a week since the long-awaited streamer AL arrived.
It was gorgeous right out of the box, physical, dynamic, large-scale!
Connecting the LAN cable went without problems. Reflashing it with the mconnect HD application was just as easy.
There is no point in comparing AL with BridgeII, this is a different league. After a couple of days of warming up, parity with PerfectWave Transport became obvious. Even with BridgeII, I preferred network listening to my files. In another room there is a server with an optimized Linux kernel and MinimServer on board. Of course, I listen to PWT from time to time, but it serves more as a guideline for building a quality network. If you’re interested, I’ll go into more detail on this later. On my network, Qobuz and Tidal sound noticeably weaker than the server, by the way, on the server I store all the music content in vaw/aiff format, because the flac container has a noticeable loss of quality. It’s not big, but enough for me not to save disk space while getting maximum quality. In our business, every little thing is important))
For listening I use a DS MKI with a deep upgrade. A separate high-quality stabilized power supply unit was installed for the analog part with a separate transformer, and a separate power supply was also installed for the output stages with the AD8132 microcircuits replaced by AD8139 and Vocm mod. Previously, an LL 1948 output transformer was installed, and now APS Audio is installed.
Trying to get the most out of DS/BridgeII, I managed to prepare a good basis for AirLens)
I describe all this in detail so that my subsequent conclusion can be more reasoned.
So, in my system AirLens + HDMI Dragon 48 provide sound quality unattainable for PWT.
My four-year asceticism ended with a holiday, it was worth it!
Thanks Paul McGowan! Wonderful product!
Let it warm up for another month, I’ll describe my impressions in more detail.
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MConnect said there was new firmware and appeared to install but never restarted. Don’t want to risk bricking and have to return so did not try power cycling myself, and is now no longer available in MConnect or Roon.
Has anyone tried using MConnect for firmware updates ?
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One or two people have reported that they had to restart the AirLens after doing the firmware upgrade through M control. If you do the upgrade using the dip switches, apparently the unit does restart on its own as the manual says. See here: https://forum.psaudio.com/t/how-important-is-it-to-update-the-firmware-on-the-airlens/35117
When I updated the firmware the AirLens seemed to be locked up. All was well after the power cycle.
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Thanks that did it,
BTW where is the current FW posted, I didn’t see it in Downloads/ Latest Firmware.
I’m still not really clear on updates for this unit. The manual lists both AirLens firmware updates and streamer firmware updates. According to the manual, the AirLens IS a streamer, so why are two different procedures listed for AL updates?
There are two main components in the Airlens. There’s the Converse Digital streamer board, and then there is additional hardware that PSAudio put into the unit. The two components work together to make the Airlens, but each has firmware that needs to be updated occasionally.
I believe that the streamer firmware is the Converse Digital firmware, and the Airlens firmware is the PSAudio firmware.
I hope that helps.
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If there are updates for the AirLens why are they not shown on the PS Audio website?
I suspect that updating via the MConnect app only provides only the conversdigital firmware and that the PS firmware would still require updating via the DIP switches.
It would be nice to have some idea from the PS website when new firmwares of either kind are available, preferably together with some kind of changelog. Otherwise the only option for people (assuming they want to have the latest fw) is to periodically pull out the box, fiddle with DIP switches, buttons and count the coloured lights.
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Conspiracy!
Thanks for letting us know and thanks for kind and supportive words about the AirLens!
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First time I read about named and correct preconditions for the comparison and promptly with a new result, thanks!
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Thanks for that clarification of why the AL requires two separate firmware updates.
Will these procedures take the place of performing an update using the Mconnect app. or must that also be done?
Over the last few days noticed that AL has become unavailable from Spotify, although at the very beginning I checked everything was ok. BridgeII is still available. I went to the Spotify Listen Everywhere section, PSA is not in the list of devices available for streaming. Can someone explain the situation?