Has anyone heard the Devialet D-Premier Integrated Amp/DAC

[Petter]

testing,testing,had a lot of bad breaks yesterday

Today i have changed the cable on the router as Devialet said,cable from iMac to time capsule,and cable from time capsule to original ethernet router,then wireless and extending the network with a airport express,do get 52-53 dBm (the airport express is next to the Devialet)

Then disable bit perfect,disable EQ,play 16/44from ITunes

Kacy Musgraves cd plays with wonderful sound and weight so far,did have one stop in iTunes,maybe that is a iTunes problem ???

Is it any tricks when setting up the time capsule i should be aware of ?

have to mention its extremely sensitive where you place the airport express,only some cm closer to the Devialet will give better signals

ahhh there the air dropped out restart the Devialet and its back but irritating

 

[Ekmanc]

This new update is just awful, way more frequent and worse breakups than before. And it also disconnects me completely every not and then. And just a few minutes ago it stopped playing in the middle of a song even though AIR said that I was connected.

 

[Petter]

Yesterday was like that for me also,now since last shutdown it must be an hour im letting the wi fi be on

Think its important to read https://help.devialet.com/entries/24093291-The-new-Devialet-AIR-help

 

[Togil]

I'm confused now, changing the volume on the Devialet moves the Mac volume control, has that always been like that ? I don't like that at all.

 

[IanG-UK]

I'm confused now, changing the volume on the Devialet moves the Mac volume control, has that always been like that ? I don't like that at all.

It was not like that under the old system. It is under the new for reasons explained in post 813. Set the iTunes volume to maximum and adjust using the Devialet remote or the Apple app or the Mac volume - one and the same thing.

 

[IanG-UK]

testing,testing,had a lot of bad breaks yesterday

Today i have changed the cable on the router as Devialet said,cable from iMac to time capsule,and cable from time capsule to original ethernet router,then wireless and extending the network with a airport express,do get 52-53 dBm (the airport express is next to the Devialet)

Then disable bit perfect,disable EQ,play 16/44from ITunes

Kacy Musgraves cd plays with wonderful sound and weight so far,did have one stop in iTunes,maybe that is a iTunes problem ???

Is it any tricks when setting up the time capsule i should be aware of ?

have to mention its extremely sensitive where you place the airport express,only some cm closer to the Devialet will give better signals

ahhh there the air dropped out restart the Devialet and its back but irritating

Apart from what you have done there is a suggestion that you use iStumbler to look at all the wifi networks in your area and try to find a channel between 1 and 12 that no one else uses. Most networks in my area use channels 1, 6 or 11, with one 10. i use 4. Set it via the Airport Utility, Wireless, Wireless Options facility. I get signal -42 to -47dbm, noise -82 to -90dbm.

As you say, positioning is important too.

 

[Petter]

After disabled bit perfect,and disabled EQ, and then play 16/44from iTunes i haven't have a drop or shut dows for 4 hours ++
Optimized the placement of the airport express and are now down to 47 dBm steady





A question……,with the old air Devialet pointed out that Amara and programs like that didn't help or do anything ,but with the new structure that new air have ?,any point using programs like Amara when connect via Air ?

 

[IanG-UK]

A question……,with the old air Devialet pointed out that Amara and programs like that didn't help or do anything ,but with the new structure that new air have ?,any point using programs like Amara when connect via Air ?

Good question ... not sure about the theory but my preference is to keep it as simple as possible ... and I think iTunes 11.0.4(4)/OSX 10.8.4/Air 2.1/Firmware 6.0.7 is Devialet's best shot at great sound quality and to me it sounds astounding.

Just enjoy your music and, if you want to spend time on non-music issues, do what you can optimise your network, particularly if you use high bit and/or high sample rates; and/or do what you can to optimise your listening room layout.

 

[Bernie]

A question……,with the old air Devialet pointed out that Amara and programs like that didn't help or do anything ,but with the new structure that new air have ?,any point using programs like Amara when connect via Air ?

Hi Petter,
I have asked the guys from Devialet the same question but noone wants to answer...

But anyway, 6.07 is really the best sounding version they have ever released. I just listened for 2 or 3 hours and everything sounds really perfect.
6.06 was a little bit dry and I was sometimes missing some energy in the higher frequencies, this is now fixed. It was never so easy for my ears to listen to loud and complex music. Very impressive, I hope this continues tomorrow and was not only due to my daily condition...

regards,
Bernie

 

[umetaro]

A question……,with the old air Devialet pointed out that Amara and programs like that didn't help or do anything ,but with the new structure that new air have ?,any point using programs like Amara when connect via Air ?

Based on my initial trial of Air 2.1 for half an hour, I found iTunes + Aurdirvana sounds better than iTunes only.

 

[gatomusik]

Based on my initial trial of Air 2.1 for half an hour, I found iTunes + Aurdirvana sounds better than iTunes only.

I can make Audirvana play through Air2 only by turning off all the best features of Audirvana: exclusive access, direct mode, and integer mode. With these elements turned off, I can play 16/44 files reliably. Higher resolution files cause freeze up or provoke eratic behavior, as does switching between resolutions. (Air2 shows a very good -30dBm signal strength on my setup.) Also, I lose the ability to keep the iTunes volume control at the recommended maximum setting, which I think is necessary for bit perfect playback, because the Devialet volume control moves the iTunes volume.

Do you know something I don't, or are you using settings I haven't figured out? (Before Air2 I always used Audirvana with wired connections because of its superior, nuanced sound.)

 

[gatomusik]

Missing Configurator function

When I created a new file for my D-Premier using the new Configurator, I noticed that the dimming function was no longer available. With the file created by the old Configurator, the display dimmed completely once play was started, and lighted up and dimmed again if the volume on the remote or remote app was readjusted. I miss that dimming function. Have I overlooked something in the new Configurator? There is a tab above the new D-Premier Configurator to adjust brightness, but it only seems to adjust the brightness of the standby mode display.

 

[umetaro]

gatomusik - this is the first time I tried Air function of Devialet as I had some problems with the previous version of Air and I have limited experiences with Air. From your post, I found you know much better than me and I guess there is nothing I can tell you. My comment above is based on the brief listening and my conclusion may be reversed with serious listening. Further I only tested 16/44.1 files. Maybe I like the sound of Aurdirvana.

 

[philoouu]

There are technical reasons for this.
Keep in mind, that Devialet AIR starting with version 2.0 is now operating in a way that it makes your Devialet amplifier to a remote sound card of your computer. This is true for both Mac OS X and Windows.
But a sound card has to be able to play sounds from different sources simultainously. So you can play a sound from youtube and then a new mail comes in and makes a signal sound or you even can have a voice chat at the same time.
All of this sounds that have to be handled by the sound card come from different sources and could have different number of channels, different bit width (8 Bit, 16 Bit, 24 Bit) and different samle rates.
So the sound driver in the operating system has to convert them to a common bit depth and sampling rate and mix all that different sounds. This common bit depth and sampling rate ist the one that is set as your prefered sampling rate in the AIR settings.
This is nothing Devialet specific by the way, for every sound card in your computer (as long as it supports more than one sample rate) this setting has to be done. In Mac OS X for example this is done with the program "Audio and MIDI settings". And indeed changing the preferred format in the AIR settings does nothing other than changing this setting in the "Audio and MIDI settings".

So now what about bit perfect.
From computer point of view, this is the special thing, and here the differences between Windows and Mac OS begin.
Windows offers the WASAPI exclusive mode for programs that want exclusive control over the sound card. In this mode only one program at the same time can output sound and it will be played in the format the program requests. So in this mode bit perfect (no conversion of bit depth, sample rate and no mixing with other sounds) can be realized.
But not all sound-players on windows support this exclusive mode of WASAPI, some only support the shared mode of WASAPI and that mode works like described above. Unfortunatelly iTunes on Windows does not support the exclusive mode so that bit perfect output is not possible with iTunes unter Windows (if you have songs with different sampling rates for example in your playlist, it will not switch to the native fomat of the song but always using the fixed "preferred format").

On Mac OS there is even no such equivalent like the WASAPI exclusive mode. There is no exclusive mode at all. Everything is always shared. So Devialet had to use a trick to make bit perfct possible on Mac OS. But this only works together with iTunes.
AIR 2.0 is not only a sound driver for Mac OS, it also monitors which song iTunes on Mac is currently playing and requests the operating system (Audio and MIDI settings) to switch the sound card to the format used by this song. So everytime a song has a different sample rate or bit depth than the currently selected one it will modify the "sound card settings".
But there is nothing to block other sounds out on Mac OS. The only thing that will not be routed to the devialet are system sounds. So to get bit perfect on Mac you have to use iTunes (in contrast to Windows where you should not use it), have to activate this bit perfect setting in AIR to enable sample rate switching have to keep the volume slider in iTunes always at maximum (very important) and disable all EQs and volume normalisation settings in iTunes (but they are by default off).
But you can use the volume control of OS X because this will effect the volume control in the Devialet. Remember: The volume slider in iTunes affects how loud the sound from iTunes should be mixed to the system sound, so it affects the mixing which destroys bit pefect. So keep this always at 100% and change the volume with the Devialet remote or the system volume of Mac OS X (for example with the keys on the keyboard).

Thanks for the clear and detailed explanation. You said "have to keep the volume slider in iTunes always at maximum (very important)".
I tried to use the Air Output with Audirvana and the volume slider in iTunes is moving when changing sound.... What does it mean in this particular case ? the air output cannot be used properly with Audirvana. When I use UBS output through HiFace2 the iTunes volume slider is not moving with the remote control.
Thanks
philoouu

 

[Bernie]

When I created a new file for my D-Premier using the new Configurator, I noticed that the dimming function was no longer available. With the file created by the old Configurator, the display dimmed completely once play was started, and lighted up and dimmed again if the volume on the remote or remote app was readjusted. I miss that dimming function. Have I overlooked something in the new Configurator? There is a tab above the new D-Premier Configurator to adjust brightness, but it only seems to adjust the brightness of the standby mode display.

I'm missing this function as well. I have already reported this to Devialet, hope they add it back soon.

 

[philoouu]

I did more listening with Itunes Bit Perfect. My signal is -43 all the time, my router sits next to the Mini Mac and the Devialet.
There are many drop out with 24/192 files even with the 5000 options for Target Device Buffer. There are almost no drop out with 24/96 and no drop out at all with 16/44.
I will move back to the cable solution (Audirvana HiFace 2) waiting for the Ethernet solution with the upgrade. Each time it is the same story with the Wireless, lots of expectations but at the end it is not 100% reliable.
Thanks
philoouu

 

[Bernie]

I'm playing 24/192 without any problems. My buffer size is 500ms and the signal is -43 as well. I'm using a win8 pc with jRiver, maybe that makes a difference ? Try switching to another wifi channel, your problem seems not to be related to AIR.

 

[Togil]

It was not like that under the old system. It is under the new for reasons explained in post 813. Set the iTunes volume to maximum and adjust using the Devialet remote or the Apple app or the Mac volume - one and the same thing.

I hope it sticks to default volume on first playing , not accidentally full volume on mac..

 

[IanG-UK]

I hope it sticks to default volume on first playing , not accidentally full volume on mac..

You can set the start-up volume using the configurator - the default setting is, I think, -40db

 

[gorkitek]

best sounding???

Hi Petter,
I have asked the guys from Devialet the same question but noone wants to answer...

But anyway, 6.07 is really the best sounding version they have ever released. I just listened for 2 or 3 hours and everything sounds really perfect.
6.06 was a little bit dry and I was sometimes missing some energy in the higher frequencies, this is now fixed. It was never so easy for my ears to listen to loud and complex music. Very impressive, I hope this continues tomorrow and was not only due to my daily condition...

regards,
Bernie

I trust you guys are joking. There has been no change whatever in sound quality arising from any firmware update since the D-Premier was introduced over two years ago. Every amplifier parameter is and always has been close to optimal.

If you are referring to changes in perceived Air sound quality then these will be caused by external factors - usually WiFi or the computer software.

The only changes introduced by firmware have been additional features, including Air support.

G