Streamer Upgrade

[Tomstruck]

Thinking  of upgrade my streamer Now have a Bluesound Vault 2i looking at Aurender N10 dose anyone own one and how do you like or what streamer are you using 

[jkmcc]

Good morning Tomstruck, I also have a Bluesound Vault 2i, purchased a little more than a year ago, which provided me with a relatively low cost entry into the streaming world and has given me a chance to figure out how it would work in my system. I also assembled an Intel Nuc to use as a Roon core to use as a controller, which has worked out quite nicely. I like having a dedicated Roon box instead of running the core from my MacBook Pro. After having the vault in my system for several months I demoed a Chord Qutest dac, running the vault into the dac with an AQ Cinnamon optical  cable. It was instantly apparent to both me and my wife that adding the Qutest was a significant sonic upgrade and I had no remorse about writing that check.

So, that is where I am at the moment and feeling pretty satisfied with the setup. I do entertain the idea of upgrading my digital front end at some point, I’m sure there are places to go, but at the moment I’m happy to stay put for the foreseeable future and see how the technology continues to shake out. 

best, John
 

[GdnrBob]

I tried the Aurender, unfortunately it doesn't allow you to connect two systems together-like I did with the Bluesound Nodes. And, though I heard a difference when I was at Audioconnection, it didn't translate to my experience at home.

Once again, Johnny came to the rescue and recommended Innuos. Though I replaced the Codex with an an Ayre QB-9 Twenty. I am very happy with the Innuos Mini. The sound is much, much more alive and engaging.

I also like the fact that I can connect the Innuos to either Squeezebox or Roon. The Aurender has nice software, but that is all you can use.

I never thought I would want to pay for Roon, but after a few days, I think it is quite superior to the Squeezebox app.

Bob

[ctsooner]

I used a bespoke server/DAC with analog volume control, but in the future will stay with a main company.  Innuos, as Bob said is a leader in its price categories right now. There are better players, however they cost much more. I too am using Roon as of today. I’ll share thoughts bs JRiver. 

[BKDad]

I normally am keeping to the sideline with regard to online discussions.   But, I'd just like to point out some technical information that might help you guys.  

Yeah, it's primarily related to motor controllers, but the underlying physics is the same.  

Yeah, it might require reading some other background material to grasp what it says.  But, if you want to gain understanding, that's often what it takes.  

The author is a *very* highly regarded expert in the area of emissions and noise. Like that old stock brokerage commercial with John Houseman, "When Henry Ott speaks, people listen."

http://www.hottconsultants.com/pdf_files/APEC-2002.pdf

[ctsooner]

21 minutes ago, BKDad said:

I normally am keeping to the sideline with regard to online discussions.   But, I'd just like to point out some technical information that might help you guys.  

Yeah, it's primarily related to motor controllers, but the underlying physics is the same.  

Yeah, it might require reading some other background material to grasp what it says.  But, if you want to gain understanding, that's often what it takes.  

The author is a *very* highly regarded expert in the area of emissions and noise. Like that old stock brokerage commercial with John Houseman, "When Henry Ott speaks, people listen."

http://www.hottconsultants.com/pdf_files/APEC-2002.pdf

Thanks as always BK. I do miss your posts. Please try to post more often. Just off the phone with my digital designer as we finish set up of my player. He built in more power conditioning in all the power supplied and has kept them all isolated from each other along with other measures to keep the noise floor as low as they can. They also are able to reduce the various types of jitter and that’s what makes theirs so special. There are plenty of good streaming options as all price levels. 

[Tomstruck]

Dose anyone have a Auralic Aries G2.1 or experience with one 

Thanks

[GdnrBob]

Hmm, I just Googled Auralic and looked at the website. In short, I really like their ethos.

The products are well presented, as well- And, seem to work with Roon- Which seems to have become my controller of preference.

@Tomstruck,

If you do ever get an Auralic, I'd bring my Zen Mini to compare.

B

[joffre]

I’m using Auralic Altair G2. Absolutely love the build quality and performance is top notch in its price point. 

[ctsooner]

They make great devices in their price ranges. An audio friend of mine is their head of sales/marketing and loves their gear (I can promise you that many in the industry don't necessarily LOVE the products they sell, lol).  I've head them for years as Take 5 Audio in CT has sold their gear from day one (they have since sold and changes their product line) and it was really impressive. 

[MNSki]

On 2/9/2021 at 4:40 PM, Tomstruck said:

Thinking  of upgrade my streamer Now have a Bluesound Vault 2i looking at Aurender N10 dose anyone own one and how do you like or what streamer are you using 

Hi Tom,

I'm running a Aesthetix set up like you and did a similar search for a streamer a few years ago researching the Aurender units. After reading a lot of reviews, I ended up going with a Sotm SMS-200 (similar to the Sonore Rendu), with a LPS-1 battery supply. This was based mostly on a lot of reading on head-fi.org where some of the members did extensive tests with multiple units and this came out ahead of the competition (other sites as well). I use the base model, not the Ultra model. 

The new Aurender looks great and I'm sure sounds wonderful. It seems to have some bells and whistles that you pay for like a well respected software interface, internal storage, front screen, etc. I'm using Roon and have the files on a separate hard drive, so didn't have a need to pay for these features in a streamer. I also decided to put more of my digital money allocation toward the DAC  (Schiit Yggy)- thinking with a solid streamer, that more money in the DAC would make the most difference in sound quality. 

The streaming technology seems to evolve very quickly, so things may have changed quite a bit since I did my research.