Air Lens available

[AnotherJohnson]

Get ‘em while they’re hot

https://www.psaudio.com/products/airlens

[Wildcat]

Must still be hot. The UPS man was generous today.

PXL_20230909_211944773-01.jpeg (2.45 MiB) Viewed 2690 times

I'm only listening at low volume given the time of day, but even at this volume it does sound different from my previous setup (essentially a computer via USB). I need to wait a couple of days before I can really give it a workout.

This had to be the easiest streaming component I've ever set up. Plug in the power cord, connect I2S cable (HDMI) to the DAC, plug in Ethernet cable, flip the switch, aaaand...done. Go over to the computer and Roon is already showing it in the list to be enabled. Click "Enable" and everything's done.

I still need to hear this louder and with some well-recorded classical music. But so far, the improvements are reduced brightness, yet it sounds more precise and clean (less "grunge" maybe?). This is anything from CD-resolution to 24/192 and DSD (ripped from SACD).

I still have my previous setup ready and I could easily play both sources and do an easy comparison with the remote for the DAC, switching between inputs (USB and I2S).

[admin]

Very nice. PS Audio is really a big believer in galvanic isolation. Perhaps that is a potential area of improvement using the air lens vs the direct connection via the previous method.

Definitely let us know what you think once you have some more time with it. Are you using only local ripped content or also using streaming services?

[Wildcat]

So far I've only listened to files from my NAS, but Qobuz is in the mix as well. I may have a few minutes this afternoon to give it a listen but otherwise, I'll be able to give it a true workout during the coming week.

I almost went a slightly different route by purchasing a Denafrips Hermes, as it performs a similar galvanic isolation/precision reclocking as well as offering a handful of digital inputs. I may still get one in the future for any other digital sources but I don't have an additional I2S input to work with now. (I could use the coaxial input on the DAC, but that's not ideal.) The Hermes is a DDC (digital-to-digital converter). The AirLens does provide the streaming function, though, and is shielded well enough that it can live in the audio rack, so it solves a couple of issues for me.

Now I'm really torn as to whether I play vinyl or the AirLens. Been enjoying the heck out of the current turntable setup! First world problem, I know.

My next hurdle is that I'd like to try to get Roon Server running on Ubuntu. My last two attempts failed due to a network issue (Roon Server ran fine, but due to some Ubuntu issue, it's not discoverable on the network and therefore the streamer and the tablets/phones can't find it.) It does run well on Windows 11 but since I've been having a few issues lately with system interrupts taking over the CPU and causing Roon Server to freeze up until the interrupts are released, I wanted to see if another OS might get around that.

[admin]

Certainly first world problems. Good to have them.

Denafrips/PS Audio,.. you really can't go wrong. Odd to have those issues with the computer. You can always try a complete reinstall of Windows. Sometimes that will fix those kinds of issues up. Or sometimes you can just buy a new computer for very low cost. I'm traveling currently and I am typing this on a laptop that cost me $100 new (and shipping). It gets the job done.

[Wildcat]

The system interrupts issue came up on this computer only over the past few months. But my main/work computer had long ongoing issues with it which I temporarily solved by disabling the virtual Ethernet switches (for Hyper-V).

I don't have Hyper-V on the Intel NUC that is running Roon Server, but the system interrupts tend to point to a hardware issue or some sort of incompatibilty with device drivers. But even on this little computer, it seems that when network traffic is heavier, it goes on the blink.

Roon does offer an installable OS (Roon ROCK = Roon Optimized Core Kit) which is a headless, lightweight version of Linux that is optimized for their software. But I prefer having Windows available for a couple of other minor tasks, or at the very least, the equivalent in Ubuntu. And from the looks of it, I doubt I could use ROCK in a multi-boot configuration, as I do now with Win 11 and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. I'm at the point where I might "blow out" Win11 and reinstall but on the other hand, could it have been an update along the way that caused this? At least if I can get Ubuntu working properly, I can simply reboot and put the problem behind me.

Aside from that, it's sounding really good at the moment. I'm streaming that new album from Kevin Gray's Cohearant label, the Kirsten Edkins Shapes & Sound. Very nice! Qobuz has it at 24/176.4.

[admin]

Dual boot may be a good option as you suggest.

If you can narrow it down to the specific hardware, you may be able to turn it off in the device manager of windows. My wife's computer's internal wifi card on her laptop was causing problems. We got a usb wifi adapter instead and I disabled the internal one and it worked well. Just some other things to consider.

[Wildcat]

The NUC has WiFi and Bluetooth if I'm not mistaken, but I use neither one. On my main computer, I actually deactivated the on-board Ethernet and video in the BIOS, so they are completely out of the loop. I don't even think I've been into the BIOS on the NUC--it has worked fine up until a few months ago. And even then the problem doesn't occur all the time.

My laptop has never had this issue. The only thing going for it now is age--it's ten years old and the keyboard is getting flaky. But otherwise it's been working without a hitch.

[admin]

Maybe the drivers for the older hardware are getting to the point that they are not 100% compatible with Windows 11. When that computer was made, there was no windows 10, much less 11! Again, maybe a cheap but modern computer may be the best option.

[Wildcat]

This NUC isn't that old, and they have current generations available as well. I built it later in the Win10 era. And it worked great on Win11 up until recently. I'm almost wondering if some OS or driver upgrade or bug fix caused this--highly possible. I think the 23H2 upgrade is coming a month from now, so I may wait for that to see if anything changes. Either way, I don't store anything of value on it so I may end up doing what you mentioned and doing a clean install of Win11. The Ubuntu is no loss, as I want to wipe and reinstall that as well.

Poor me. I'd have to spin vinyl all day while I work on the computer...

[admin]

Yes, you have a very hard life!

[Wildcat]

First world problems, and all that...