Diretta looks to be a Layer 2 protocol. Interesting development. Itās not clear to me if itās free to use (as in beer) or you need to pay license fee.
If beerās free where you live, Iām relocating 
If you want to use it with GentooPlayer or AudioLinux, you have to buy a license.
Well, thatās nice but it will hinder adoption. If it was free and readily available for Linux it might have gained momentum to supersede UPnP at least for Audio playback purposes.
They could still make money out of devices and the certification program.
Itās like for any software. Paying subscription for Studio also hinders adoption.
But if a player maker (or a streamer maker) adds it to its package, the customer will buy it with the remaining of the product.
Sure, but weāre talking about a new protocol here. It needs to be present both at the source and the target device. Time will tell. I hope it gains some traction. The market is a bit stale, there is room for innovation.
Actually, it needs only to be present on the target device. For the computer that streams, it comes as a free component.
If itās a PC, it comes in the form of an ASIO driver. It behaves like any other ASIO driver, but it streams by Ethernet to the target instead of outputting by the USB port to the DAC. With it, all the players on the PC can stream to the target. Even players that were not designed to stream.
Thatās my favorite brand
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I never realized there was a newsletter. I have yet to receive one, that is unless it, or they also ended up in spam.
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Well, if it takes this long to get a Diretta Mac OS version out than Rome was built ā¦
Do you know for a fact if a Mac version is in the works?
I donāt have any information about that. But in addition to the Linux Distributions, Diretta is already implemented in a few Japanese streamers. So, I think that if they want that Diretta will be adopted by more streamer makers, theyāll have to release something for macOS.
Thanks for the info!
Diretta is indeed an interesting development. I like that fact that it is potentially applicable to any player software!
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Iām basically a Mac user, but I also have a few PC under Windows.
In my tests on Windows, even cheap or free players produce a better sound if they stream with Diretta than good audiophile players if they stream without Diretta.
I also find it interesting. Especially since UPnP doesnāt seem suitable for this application. There is too much room for interpretation and the way Audirvana applies it seems even more critical.
A closed protocol that can only be used by one brand of software is not a good development in my opinion. If , in this case, Roon becomes dominant then hardware developers have no choice and must support RAAT. Further development of other protocols will then come to a halt because of the demand. In other words, only Roon works well and the rest will never get better and will not become a competition for Roon.
If there is a robust protocol that can be used by everyone, for a fee, then everyone has equal opportunities. Whether it sounds 1% better or worse in practice, I think, is secondary to the fact that it simply has to work reliably. Now and after an update to hardware, firmware, network components.
IMO too, reliability is the most important. I have time to listen to an album or two each day. I donāt have time nor will to straggle with a player instead of listening to music.
But sound quality is also very important. Once we get a better sound, we, audiophiles, are unwilling to regress.
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It would be nice to have Diretta implemented directly in Audirvana for Mac. You would then just need to select network endpoint device when playing.
I donāt know if it is feasible without any software component on the endpoint.
Endpoint is fine, but it would be cool if Diretta functionality on the Mac could be integrated directly in Audirvana. Not virtual audio devices or custom drivers.
Sure, I donāt see why it canāt be implemented as an output option in Audirvana itself. Thatās what I suggested to Antoine a few days ago: to keep upnp for its compatibility with all the streamers, and to add this option for Diretta compatible streamers.