Obviously the DSAS supports WiFi. Hence the antenna terminal on the rear. The vast majority will access it with Audirvana's free remote app from Google Play or the AppStore tailored to smartphone or tablet sizing as shown. Like Lumin's app, Audirvana is a very mature constantly refined and sophisticated piece of codewriter's craft that prioritizes sonic performance.
This next composite panel of various windows shows some of the adjustments we can make. There are many more including for appearance, playlist creation, metadata editing, file resolution check, account management and other customizable behaviours. Many an expensive audiophile streamer I've met used MConnect which felt positively crude by comparison. I've been faithful to Audirvana because it seamlessly continued my old nav habits from iTunes then added far more optimization logic to sound demonstrably better. Its creators have also been ace with continuous updates to insure full compatibility with ongoing MacOS and Windows updates.
As to DSAS, it's not a French version of Adidas but abbreviates Digital Sharing Audio Server. The first two words designate the product family within Métronome's portfolio. By now you've also grokked its colour scheme. Be it silver or black, the lilac detail on the half-width fascia nods at Audirvana. No need for an "Intel inside" type sticker though on the back it clearly says 'powered by Audirvana'. Running on Linux promises a lean install that strips away all multi-tasking redundancies a full Windows or Mac OS packs to operate as normal computers. Fewer background threads lower the CPU load and heat. That lowers noise which can influence sensitive electronics. Though this customized software pack from our French collaborators is invisible to the eye as it roams the metal skins, it's arguably what sets the DSAS apart. It'll simply be lost on armchair theoreticians who know that none of it can possibly influence the sound to be only and exclusively about interface convenience. Obviously Audirvana, JRiver and Roon all sound the same. Okay, be that way.
From experience, exploiting either of Audirvana's two upsampler algorithms not only sounds different between them but also different between each and letting our DAC handle that function in full or part. For example, resampling PCM to DSD256 in software before it hits Cen.Grand's DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe in non-rising mode sounds better than sending it native PCM which the SRC inside the DAC resamples to DSD1'024. And of Audirvana's many different DSD modulators, A-7th-order is my favourite though I understand none of the involved math. Feeding the R2R Sonnet Pasithea pre-upsampled 176.4kHz sounds better than 44.1kHz. For those of sharp ear and attention, many software tweaks await to cater to personal taste. It reframes ideas of streamers aka digital transports being sonically immaterial even if the pure digital domain renders potential performance gaps far narrower than DACs, amplifiers, speakers and rooms in their ascending sequence. By September 1st, "the first batch is completely sold out. I booked you a unit from the second production batch in October". When a product sells out without a single review, its concept, execution and brand standing clearly spoke to the buying public. The DSAS (cough) certainly knew how to make this reviewer feel needed.
By November 20th, a review unit came available. A tiny voice in my head said to reconfirm that my intended usage would work: namely to access the DSAS as a UPnP device through Audirvana installed on my iMac. Alas, from Antoine Douaillat at Audirvana, "it’s not possible today. The function could be implemented in the future but would require a lot of work on our end and some requirement we need to deal with before." As explained already, I don't do WiFi due to migraines resulting from its radiation. Now I had no means to talk to the headless streamer on my local area network. This sadly had to cancel the assignment. The introductory info already published of course remains valid so can stand on its own as a more in-depth news post.
