il "NAA audiophile" secondo Auralic...
E ci si buttano anche loro... sono svegli, questi cinesi.
quad-core ARM Coretex-A9 processor running at 1GHz, 2GB DDR3 onboard Memory, and dual-band 802.11ac Gigabit Wi-Fi infrastructure.
(è un prototipo momentaneamente inserito nello chassis di un dac Auralic Vega)
AURALiC Introduces Industry?s First Wireless Streaming Solution That Supports DSD, Double-Rate DSD, DXD & USB Output to DACs - Yahoo Finance
http://www.digitalaudioreview.net/20...udio-streamer/
riporto per estratto quanto dichiarato dal progettista e fondatore di Auralic, Wang Xuanquian, in questo thread:
Auralic Aries DAC: Double DSD Over Wi-Fi
AURALiC is going to launch the Lightning streaming technology on CES. There will be lightning demonstration using a prototype ARIES on different system during the CES show at Venetian Suite 30-212.
ARIES is the first product in Lightning family. This is not a DAC but a DAC bridge. It can stream DSD, double rate DSD and DXD though WiFi or Ethernet and output though USB host to a DoP capable DAC to achieve bit-perfect DSD streaming for your existing Hi-End DSD DAC.
This is a bridge between your NAS and your DAC via 802.11ac Gigabit WiFi or Gigabit Ethernet depend on your preference.
If you have a DoP capable DAC, you can use the USB host output on ARIES and stream DSD, DSD128 and DXD though ARIES from your NAS. If this is a legacy DAC, you can use AES/EBU, S/PDIF or TOSLINK from ARIES but DSD, DSD128 and DXD will not be available, we can do down sampling to other sampling rate to make sure the DAC can play it.
Lightning is a very strong platform we have been developing for a while. This is not just about file streaming but with a lot of other important features such as Songcast, built-in radio such as Spotify. AURALiC will maintain the platform software and keep adding new function for free, the new functions such as Airplay, DSD upsampling, room acoustic correction and more you can image.
And we will bring the best control software with industry's best user experience
(...)
Streamer is a playback endpoint that will read music file in different formats from a storage and decode into pain PCM or DSD raw signal than send out to a internal (Linn, Naim, Aurender and etc.) or external (ARIES) DAC so the DAC can convert into analog signal. A streamer is more like a micro computer but it is highly optimized for and only for music playback. From this point, a streamer will have an 'operation system' no matter what it is based and no matter its size. The Lightning is using a special built Linux kernel and the entire system is about 30MB and it is realtime(software) so it will over better performance and sound quality compare to a computer running typical Windows, OS X or Linux system.
The Lightning App is a control software that will be available on all major platform like OS X, Windows, iOS and Android. The control software's only job are to help user browse the music stored on NAS and control the playback of streamer (only control, not music data involved) and also control the hardware settings (such as WiFi). The 1st priority of control software is to offer best user experience such as smooth animation effect, friendly software interface layout and etc.
(...)
802.11ac is the latest WiFi standard that offering 1300Mbps speed, ARIES is also compatible with 802.11a/b/g/n.
However, only 802.11ac has been proved that be able to offer smooth playback of super high resolution audio such as DSD128 and DXD without glitch at home environment.
notate le funzioni annunciate che ho evidenziato in grassetto rosso... (sono curioso di vedere se riusciranno a fare DRC anche sui segnali DSD, come fa - attualmente - solo HQPlayer).
a questo proposito così risponde mr. Wang nel thread di cui sopra (nel quale è intervenuto a un certo punto anche Jussi Laako alias Miska, il progettista di HQPlayer):
PCM>DSD is still under development and will not appear in our first version of firmware that is going to launch on May. Actually it is not just up sampling but with down sampling too. Since the digital output(AES, COAX and TOSLINK) can only output up to 24/192. We have to find a way to let people choose how to output DSD and DXD though these ports. The UI can be pretty simple and easy to understand with just some options inside hardware setting section of the software.
I personally think room acoustics correction is a big deal but we are still in research stage.
The firmware and control software will upgrade monthly at least for bug fix and performance improvement. New functions will be introduced each quarto, we have some in plan such as AirPlay, build-in uPnP server(read attached USB disk), more radio services. The DSD up sampling is in the plan but not first priority. Maybe end of 2014 is a reality timeline.
Maggiori dettagli tecnici sul loro sito (alla voce Press Room) http://www.auralic.com/en/
In particolare, descrivono questa Lightning App come un'evoluzione più potente e completa dei tradizionali standard UPnP e DLNA, specificano che consentirà di sfogliare la libreria musicale allocata su NAS o music server, e di regolare le impostazioni dell'hardware; la cosa interessante è che funzionerà non soltanto sugli apparecchi mobili come tablet e smartphone, ma anche sui computer fissi, sia Mac che PC o Linux.
qui un'anteprima dell'interfaccia:
Mr. Wang nel thread dice che "This is our internal beta test Lightning App. The final version will have a even better UI/UED", cioè la versione definitiva avrà un'interfaccia grafica ancora migliore.
Il pdf di presentazione:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/...esentation.pdf
quanto all'alimentazione, sempre secondo il progettista, "It will use external DC adapter which accept 90-260V. An additional linear PSU maybe an upgrade options in the future". (come vedete, anche qui si parla di alimentazione lineare...)
Piccolo dettaglio: il prezzo.
Secondo il sito Auralic, $ 999 (uscita prevista maggio 2014).
Non commento, mi sembrava solo utile riportare quanto sopra, come esempio delle nuove tendenze del mercato.
a naso però, oltre al fatto che si tratta di una soluzione estremamente più costosa, mi pare che sia un approccio completamente diverso rispetto a quello di HQplayer, che consente di fare DSD upsampling e DRC sul computer "grande" (diciamo così) e quindi di poter poi utilizzare come Network Audio Adapter un semplice scatolotto che consuma poco, dall'hardware minimo (quindi poco costoso).
Loro invece puntano a realizzare una macchina standalone che fa di tutto e di più.
Certo, mi rimane qualche dubbio su come si possa fare DSD upsampling e DRC con quel tipo di hardware (quad-core ARM Coretex-A9 processor running at 1GHz, 2GB DDR3 onboard Memory), ma forse Wang si riferiva all'app Lightning in quanto tale, magari per implementare queste funzioni rilasceranno una macchina più potente rispetto all'Aries.
Vedremo...
saluti
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