It’s been said that the streaming sound from the PMG DAC is leaps and bounds better than what is produced from the Air Lens. Why is that? Is it merely due to the PMG DSD signal conversion? Other than cable differences, would feeding the PMG with an I2s from an Airlens sound about the same as running ethernet directly into the PMG? Is there some additional filtering taking place in the PMG? Thanks.
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I have not read that, but would certainly like to hear what folks say in response to your question.
Cheers.
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I do not have the air lens. I had the Rose 130 with MKII APS. The internal streamer / DAC combo is better. By far. Now most of that is probably DAC. I had sold before I was able to A/B…so yeah its from memory.
But I do have the A6 w/ upgraded LPS. That fed by usb good cable (sub $1000) was not even close. I do not have the Airlens, but a few hear do and thought the same.
My guess is internal wiring, updated comm module (someone posted a good tech paragraph on their thoughts and they know a bunch more about that than me).
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I remember Paul said the internal streamer of PMG512 sounds better because it eliminates an extra set of connectors, plus an extra cable connection. He mentioned something else but this is a main one. My MU2 network player sounded so good is probably partially due to this reason too.
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I don’t own an AirLens, but I did audition an Eversolo T8 for almost a month, comparing the sound of that relatively inexpensive but no slouch network transport to the 512 DAC. Having used a few higher-end I2S and USB cables to connect the T8, in the end it was clear to me that, in my system, air had greater bloom, dimensionality was deeper, and transients were snappier when rendered by the streamer in the DAC. I wouldn’t describe the difference as a leaps-and-bounds one, but music undeniably always had a more toe-tapping, head-bobbing, smile-inducing quality via the built-in streamer. It’s a lot like the difference between DSD128 and DSD256 renderings of the same stuff.
I couldn’t say why the built-in streamer sounds better, but it does. The DAC’s streamer is built on an Orange Pi compute module running open source rendering code, so it’s not some sort of skunk works device. Is it because it has, in essence, a zero-length cable with no connectors, like Paul says? Makes more sense to me than any other random hypothesis I might conjure up.
— Chris
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Thanks for the insightful input from all! Paul did mention the PMG being a step up on the Airlens but I couldn’t speculate the why part. I figured galvanic isolation is of utmost importance but still wonder if the dac is what mostly attributes to its sound signature. The short distance internal wiring theory certainly seems to be backed up by the MU2 and other combo units mentioned. I suppose the only downside of an internal streamer would be limited tweaking.
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Just for clarification, do you prefer the A6 over your former setup with the Rose 130? You mentioned “not even close.”
Sorry you misunderstood. When I bought the RS130 it was clearly better than A6 feeding my MKII with APS. I kept the A6 for multich listening (not sure why I dont think I ever used it for that).
When I committed to by the PMG it was not ready, but I sold both the MKII and Rose pretty quickly. All I had was the A6…used that for DAC and Streamer.
Then I received the PMG. One of the First 25. Even though buggy at that time, the sound was clearly better.
Once it broke in I fed the A6 streamer via very nice USB (Omega) to the PMG. That was what I was referring to as not even close. The internal streamer fed by A6. I never had opportunity to compare RS130 via USB/I2S to PMG as I sold it. I would love to know, but at this point I am super happy with PMG as is. And yes I have the A6 just sitting there in HT not being used. Just not worth selling at this point.
Thanks for the clarification. I’m assuming your current PMG connection is via Wi-Fi. I suppose it’s time to personally pick up the PMG and do some comparisons with Wi-Fi and the LHY SW10 pro / cable combination in the chain. Curious minds still want to know if a higher tier streamer attached to the PMG would benefit the investment.
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That’s sounds interesting. My order of Omega-X is nowhere near ready since they underproduced. I want to do the same cable vs. WIFI comparison. Time to do more important things 🏌🏽♂️
In the meantime, maybe focus on the sound of the ball when connecting with various irons. Do you prefer a particular iron due to distance or the sweet sound of contact? Enjoy today’s outing.
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Used to be 7 iron, now is 7 wood
Back 9 now
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