I will be pleasantly surprised if the AL sounds better than the Rendu. Over the course of several months I have tried switching between USB out of the Rendu directly to the DS and with a KTE SU-2 between the two feeding the DS with I2S. I could hear no difference.
But, that’s in my system with my ears. YMMV.
If I could preorder the AL today I would. I am going to have a cage match between the two…
That’s a cool comparison. The SU-2 and the DS internal USB module are doing the exact same job: taking the output of the Rendu and transforming it into I2S signalling for the FPGA to process. They’re just riding on opposite sides of the compromise buggy: trading the proximity of noisy USB processing circuitry to the DAC’s analog board versus the length and exposure of the I2S wiring. Each has an independent variable of power supply quality and clock stability as well, and it sounds like they come out very evenly in your experience.
PSA is doing a couple of interesting things in upcoming products to keep this race interesting. On the USB side the DS MkII is upping the ante on internal isolation and slaving the USB system to the DAC’s own master clock to actually eliminate any jitter introduction. And the AirLens should offer one of the cleanest I2S feeds for streaming audio that money can buy.
For myself, I’m starting to worry that AirLens won’t be what I need. I need a screen to show me what’s playing, and I need a way to do instant remote control that I could use blindfolded. I might end up sticking with the SqueezeBox Touch (192kHz Toslink works great for me with the current DS) and pull the old Curious USB cable out of the drawer to see what the Mk II’s USB input can do to polish the proverbial.
Have you looked into the HiFi Rose streamer? It has a full color screen and a remote.
I have. It’s the sort of thing I might end up with if my SBT dies and nobody has yet released something that more closely matches my needs. I’d rather not pay for all that analog section though.
I was going to say use roon, but what is the blindfolded requirement for?
Excellent, Dvorak. I think this is well stated.
It’s easy to forget that anytime we have digital processing going on there is noise. Lots, and lots of noise (it’s why it’s so hard at times to get digital equipment past the CE inspectors). It doesn’t take much. A high speed clock, a few gates bouncing back and forth, and suddenly the grounds and power supply are spewing unwanted hash that gets passed on into our DACs as soon as we connect them together.
The AirLens solves that problem. It represents a truly perfect noise free signal regardless of what came before it, and without concern for all the number crunching and clock spewing going on inside the Lens that enables it to make ready the music you wish to hear.
I can’t wait for you to hear the difference it makes.
Those that have moved from our DMP transport to the PST transport have already gotten a taste of what it can do. Read some of the comments of just how much of an improvement one transport is over another. The difference is pretty much all in the PST’s internal AirLens.
Thanks and I hope to share more as we near launch.
Thanks @Paul. I think it’s pretty obvious that the PSA community is looking for exactly this to be released. Can’t wait to place the order.
I just purchased the 150b on Saturday from my local dealer. Intent is to use it as a placeholder streamer for my DS until the AirLens arrives. Whichever one I like better will go into my main system as the streamer, and the other will go into my secondary system (in either case as the streamer).
I had the same reservations about paying for a DAC and analog section I don’t really need, but thought it was a super neat piece of kit and that functionality is a “nice have” just in case I want/need it to be more flexible. Still running it in, so haven’t done any critical listening yet (DAC section or as a straight transport).
I sort of thought the whole video/you tube module was going to be more of a gimmicky-thing, but it is super cool and actually my favorite aspect of the piece so far.
Their software/app is pretty good (as compared some of the other ones I’ve used). It’s got a lot of functionality that I am still discovering, but I don’t think it is a Roon alternative (at least for me).
Oh the wait… “you’re killing me smalls”
Looked at the RS150b. Build quality was nice, but sound quality and software was dog poop. Returned that thing before 30 days. I think the screen was the biggest draw…but that quickly faded after experiencing so many bugs, and not so great sound quality. Stay far away, imo.
I’m happy with Auralic so of no interest to me. Met his requirements though.
The blindfold is just a convenient way to highlight some of the disadvantages of touch screens over something you can operate by feel. App-based controls also always introduce some seconds of lag as the device wakes up, unlocks, connects to the network, decides what to show you on screen, then eventually is ready for you to find and tap the right pixels. I hate it. Give me buttons on a stick with instant response for volume, play/pause and skip. Simple as.
Edit: oh and I already use Roon. I’m happy to select music with an app. But the SBT has IR remote support and it relays signals back to Roon for play/pause/skip.
Yeah I hear that. I keep the ipad on but you have to hit the < and > or play/pause on the screen. I have implemented RooDial in my office. But it takes time to connect the first time, and you need another RPi A roon remote would be interesting thing for them to create. Wifi connected to core. Assign it to a zone or device and bam remove with play pause. Vol could be IR learning or Roon of course.
I would love a WiFi remote designed and implemented by Roon. The Roon extension remotes are fine, but they’re a bit glitchy, and at least the one I use is held back by Bluetooth.
We don’t need Roon to build hardware. We need Roon-ready DACs and streamers to have IR receivers and relay those inputs back up the existing RAAT protocol chain. (Looking at you, Mr McGowan 
)
Don’t forget that the Bridge II performs these functions. A DAC without Ethernet will not be able to communicate to Roon. The AL seems to be on the path to Roon Ready but without a physical remote.
I have not forgotten (though I don’t have a Bridge – was looking forward to Bridge 3!), yes obviously a device without networking cannot be a Roon client, and yes that’s the exact concern which I have been expressing.
Yeah, but if the product does not come out until all the IR remote users from the last millennia have passed, then there will need to be an app. Besides some of the same remote control folks mention having spouses and children in their houses. I bet they only understand smartphone controls.
One PS Audio app to rule them all, PLEASE!
Back on the AirLens subject… there was no PS Audio response to my query about being able to use the Tidal Connect app. But if I assume that will work, what should I do to get DSD or even FLAC from my NAS to the AirLens if I do not want to run Roon or JRiver cores?
In the house, I have Plex on the NAS for listening in the car when on the road. And I run LMS on a Pi-4 for multi-room sound in the house, accessing the same music files on the NAS, and with the DSDPlayer plugin installed. Fiddling around just now with DSD128 files, the USB DAC attached to my PC says it is only getting 16-44 PCM via LMS. Ditto with DSD64. But I hope that somehow I can get at least some form of DSD or DoP to the AirLens. Note: the PC DAC gets DSD via Foobar.
If only just for pushing non-esoteric FLAC files from the NAS to the AirLens, I am thinking iPeng or MConnect. If I recall correctly, there were more recommendations for iPeng in the thread above. For the multi-room sound units, I would still like to have volume control on the phone. But, in the PS Audio listening room… egads… I would want to use the PS Audio IR remote for blindfolded volume control.
I fat-fingered maximum volume before using the classic LMS UI on a cellphone. Luckily only on the kitchen set up, not on the PS Audio room. Dinner guests got quite a fright.
Instead of thinking about apps, it’s far more helpful to think about protocols. As I understand it, AirLens is being equipped with support for a collection of audio-specific protocols: Roon’s RAAT, Apple’s AirPlay 2, the generic UPNP and perhaps others. Knowing that, you can build a list of music library and streaming control systems which will work with AirLens: Roon obviously, Apple Music, a gazillion things that do UPNP, and maybe more. I imagine the list might grow over time via software updates.
What we’re not getting, if I understand correctly, is a PS Audio custom solution for connecting to a NAS (which is a generic filesystem protocol, not an audio-specific one), browsing and indexing a set of files which may or may not contain audio, then creating an interface for you to search, queue and play. You’ll want something like JRiver on your PC or NAS to do the indexing, a JRiver remote on a phone or tablet to give you UI and control, and UPNP to stream the audio data from JRiver to the AirLens. Or some equivalent of that using other software and protocols.
Aside: LMS doesn’t support DSD natively as far as I know. You can do DSD64 via DoP inside the LMS network protocol as 176.4kHz PCM (that’s how I play DSD from Roon via my SqueezeBox Touch to the DS DAC) but I’m unsure whether LMS scales to the necessary 352.8kHz for DSD128 in DoP. RPi tends to have a 192kHz max though, so you might be stuck there.