In use. Though Métronome say otherwise, Audirvana Studio recognized the UPnP-connected AQWO 2 as 768/512 compatible. Regardless of whether my isolated LAN distributor forwarded local or remote .flac/.aiff files, Métronome's display insisted on getting .wav instead. I don't know what this signifies. Cover art and meta data obviously need a network connection. USB or AES/EBU merely show 176.4 PCM or DSD 64 in very big letters. Should we set 'universal gapless play' in Audirvana's device window—recommended for machines which lack native gapless—even in network mode the AQWO 2 display defaults to saying 'universal gapless' to omit cover art or meta data. With this deck capable of gapless when set in its menu, there's no need to enforce it on the 'send' end. The AQWO 2 display goes dark when it sees no signal. I didn't track how much elapsed time triggers the blackout but it's thoughtful behavior to extend the bright screen's longevity.
Audirvana Studio upsampling a 16/44.1kHz .flac file to 24/1764.kHz which the AQWO 2 displayed as WAVE PCM 176.4/24bits.
With my setup placing the AQWO 2 at ~2.5m from my eyes, I found album art and meta data perfectly legible to make this a genuinely useful feature in the real world. Add your choice of background color and illumination intensity. Our French engineers clearly thought hard on how to best optimize this streaming aspect. Once displays and font sizes need 18-year old retinas to make out, they fail my ageism grade. This one passed with flying colors.
Right-click image to open in new tab at full size.
Of course the AQWO 2 is a disc spinner, too; with custom Delrin puck. In physical media mode the display looks exactly as expected. Extra are the hybrid layer, resampler, tube and menu access icons. For resampling we don't specify multipliers like x 2, x 4 or x 8 but a single target frequency. When set to 384kHz for example, both 44.1kHz and 48kHz family signal upconvert to that. Users who prefer integer upsampling must reset the target rate whenever the source material changes between audio and video rates; or DSD and PCM.
SACD layer selected, tubes disengaged.
And that's pretty much all she said. Oui ma chérie. Why should a DAC/player or streamer be any more complex; particularly when networking over DLNA/UPnP with an iMac's 27" screen as GUI? I won't comment on wireless sources or mConnect. Our household is WiFi allergic. We hardwire everything. And I usually replace a post-iMac network leash with USB into a Singxer SU-6 bridge then AES/EBU to our Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe. To demonstrate and test the AQWO 2's networking chops simply required UPnP integration. And now our opening act on tech & features can already exit stage left. Time for the main gig: musical performance.
