jjss49 said
"despite uncle paul's good intentions, the product seems 'me too' at this stage of the game in the marketplace
rather late to the party"
It remains to be seen how well this product sounds and operates, but there is a reason for it being "me too" and late, read on ...
Paul has a philosophy of being able to sell a complete system, an ecosystem as he has referred to it. As an aside, the introduction of the Aspen FR30 speakers was a move in that direction, albeit a very expensive one. The AirLens is intended to be a partner to the upcoming DirectStream DAC Mk II, i.e., a piece of the ecosystem. The previous DirectStream DAC, which I have, has the internal Bridge, I & II, to serve the same purpose as the AirLens. The Bridge is a computer card design, so space constrained, is a bit fussy, and is made by a third party so problems were difficult to address. Additionally, many found the Bridge noisy since it was inside the same case as the DAC, so a separate component was necessary. Another aside, the Bridge III, either internal or external, has been talked about for at least five years, probably more. Personally I have enjoyed the Bridge for nine years (both versions) but haven't tried another streamer so can't comment on the noise.
As for "rather late to the party", yes they are, but it is partially due to COVID and the screwed up supply chain. The AirLens (in its current form) has been promised "soon" for over a year and just keeps getting pushed back. There was an issue with Apple AirPlay certification that delayed things and then resulted in a redesign when Apple said not too long ago after PS Audio received AirPlay certification "oh by the way, there is a one year delivery delay for the AirPlay chip". Accordingly, the AirLens will not have AirPlay. A more long-term contribution to the delay was Paul's quest to produce a server and software that sounded better than Roon and was as good in other aspects. This proved to be a bridge waaay too far and was dropped a few months back. The AirLens was always planned (think Bridge III) but was the secondary priority for several years while working on the server.
As a PS Audio supporter, it has been very frustrating to see the AirLens and DirectStream DAC Mk II delayed so many times, but it seems to be the way of the world lately. It doesn't help that Paul likes to tell folks too soon about what is in development and then be overly optimistic on when it will hit the market. Paul is a great guy, and he runs a great company that makes a lot of product in the USA. Despite the issues I can support that!
