The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

The Aurender is in a whole different league than the Aries. USB only but they know how to do it. The reviews from the X models sound like they could be reviews for the N series...same signature. Very relaxed but detailed. The Aries to me got a little hard in the midrange and that was running a tube DAC

I did not compare any other players in the 2500 range but I don't think you can beat it. The Lightning app was good but the Conductor just a little bit better. Tidal sounds much better also

It is so hard to quantify sound quality but if gun to my head I would say a 20% jump in sq would be a conservative number over the Aries

If folks are happy with the Aries they would be ecstatic with the Aurender and not have to worry about sq changing with every firmware upgrade.

 

It has to be the Dac but in my case the Aurender X100 jump from Aries was smashing much better than 20% to say the least.

Maybe more revealing or demanding dacs like my fully upgraded dCS Debussy could tell the difference.

 

I also had an experience with Digibit Aria which was disappointing in sq and functioning as well ( before Aries). The only good thing with that was ripping when it actually worked.

Brian I just came from Munich and after visiting Aurender's booth I heard rumors about qobuz streaming, Internet radio and many more ideas.

 

I guess us users we can make requests to Aurender.

 

Sure. The X100L comes with either 6TB or 12TB internal storage and can display cover art, etc. without having to scan external storage (NAS or USB) using Aurender Media Manager (AMM) to do so.

 

A 1TB SSD (Samsung 850 EVO) is $400 from Amazon. A customer who recently came by to pick up the N100 he ordered brought the SSD along which I was happy to install and format for him.

 

DZetye: Aurender currently streams Tidal only. It sounds amazing and is a joy to use. Roon is in the works.

Apart from official Aurender booth other manufacturers used Aurender as well.

 

Surprisingly hiding it from the rack. Asking one of them he replied that they didn't want to attract attention to Aurender but to their new and upcoming products also avoid precious time to explain how Aurender (another's equipment) works.

 

I have to say I'm impressed about the new N10. But no way to afford it since I've got plans for DAC upgrade as a next step in the future.

Just a quick note about the Aurender Media Manager (AMM). It only likes a SMB connection, if you have say a thunderbolt or a usb3 storage connected to your PC/MAC, then you are out of luck. No AFP...PURE SMB connection, luckily I had a extra NAS. It will take a while for conductor app to recognize the NAS SMB connection - has not fail me yet.

 

SQ after a week with N100, timbre is just right for me, a bit on the warmish side, micro details are presented in a polite manner, focus is pin sharp, layering could be better, but at this price point, who am I to complain? Low end still is a bit soft compared to the Aries, the whole presentation of the N100 is very polite and gentle while not being overly done. The Aries presented me with the band on the stage, the Aurender make me feel the band is singing to me....just a analogy.

 

With the N100, my crappy Tiffany All this time sounded pretty decent, with the Aries, the track sounded so noisy and unbearable - and because of this, I am digging up my Joan Jet and the Black Heart out again.

 

I did a simple test for Tidal, songs ripped to flac and playback direct from Tidal. As to whether these 2 files were bit perfect vs each other - I have no idea, could hear just a little bit of difference when the volume is turn up, with the Aries, Tidal playback vs similar local track playback was very different.

 

Music discovery via the Conductor app is very intuitive and responsive unlike the Aries ipad App. Searching via the Conductor app is more FUN vs the Aries.

 

The IEC receptacle at the back came out, it was those spring loaded type which could not bear the weight of my shunyata cobra king power cable - maybe a DIY mod and maybe Aurender should fix this little annoyance.

 

Verdict - N100 is a keeper

It has to be the Dac but in my case the Aurender X100 jump from Aries was smashing much better than 20% to say the least.

Maybe more revealing or demanding dacs like my fully upgraded dCS Debussy could tell the difference.

 

I also had an experience with Digibit Aria which was disappointing in sq and functioning as well ( before Aries). The only good thing with that was ripping when it actually worked.

 

I was trying to be nice. Lot of Aries fans on this board. I thought it actually sounded pretty good 2 firmwares ago. Great folks on their threads always helping out.

Brian,

 

Please tell us about the new N10 (described at AudioStream here Aurender N10 | AudioStream). Is it the replacement for the S10? Is it better than the S10?

 

Bob

Apart from official Aurender booth other manufacturers used Aurender as well.

 

Surprisingly hiding it from the rack. Asking one of them he replied that they didn't want to attract attention to Aurender but to their new and upcoming products also avoid precious time to explain how Aurender (another's equipment) works.

 

I have to say I'm impressed about the new N10. But no way to afford it since I've got plans for DAC upgrade as a next step in the future.

 

I talked to one of them, they used aurender last year. It frequently failed .... so now he's just using his ps audio cd transport again. This guy produces open dipole speakers and was also present this year in Munich in hall 4 not far from Aurender. Also talked to Eric Shim, and asked for Tidal support and MQA. To see his reaction, I mentioned the words "open source" during the MQA topic and he completely changed and closed and the talk was soon over.

 

They clearly want to hide that Aurender is using open source software like MPD and change the subject. I know some MPD devs are not happy with the open source GPL violation by Aurender. I used to be on of the MPD development mailing list and also submitted some patch to improve MPD. I used MPD in my previous products, nowadays i use another open source player.

 

I must admit the Aurender build quality is impressive, and being able to sell open source software for these amounts ...... furthermore they really hide the motherboards by using large heat sinks, and also not showing the ATX panel but patching ethernet & USB through to the backpanel is very clever to fool audiophiles into thinking it is not a PC, but it still is. I had the chance to make photo's of the internals of all Aurender products.

 

I must admit it is very clever marketing and aesthetics. Also learned from a distributor that dealer margin on the little Aurenders is not impressive and not market conform. Also spoke to another Dutch manufacturer who also was an Aurender dealer was kicked because his 2.000 € music server with a standard SOtM card outperformed the Aurender S10, and told me the little Aurenders are nowhere near. The Dutch distributor doesn't want Aurender products to be compared to the competition at a fraction of the price.

I talked to one of them, they used aurender last year. It frequently failed .... so now he's just using his ps audio cd transport again. This guy produces open dipole speakers and was also present this year in Munich in hall 4 not far from Aurender. Also talked to Eric Shim, and asked for Tidal support and MQA. To see his reaction, I mentioned the words "open source" during the MQA topic and he completely changed and closed and the talk was soon over.

 

They clearly want to hide that Aurender is using open source software like MPD and change the subject. I know some MPD devs are not happy with the open source GPL violation by Aurender. I used to be on of the MPD development mailing list and also submitted some patch to improve MPD. I used MPD in my previous products, nowadays i use another open source player.

 

I must admit the Aurender build quality is impressive, and being able to sell open source software for these amounts ...... furthermore they really hide the motherboards by using large heat sinks, and also not showing the ATX panel but patching ethernet & USB through to the backpanel is very clever to fool audiophiles into thinking it is not a PC, but it still is. I had the chance to make photo's of the internals of all Aurender products.

 

I must admit it is very clever marketing and aesthetics. Also learned from a distributor that dealer margin on the little Aurenders is not impressive and not market conform. Also spoke to another Dutch manufacturer who also was an Aurender dealer was kicked because his 2.000 € music server with a standard SOtM card outperformed the Aurender S10, and told me the little Aurenders are nowhere near. The Dutch distributor doesn't want Aurender products to be compared to the competition at a fraction of the price.

 

There is always a fly in the ointment.

Sure. The X100L comes with either 6TB or 12TB internal storage and can display cover art, etc. without having to scan external storage (NAS or USB) using Aurender Media Manager (AMM) to do so.

 

A 1TB SSD (Samsung 850 EVO) is $400 from Amazon. A customer who recently came by to pick up the N100 he ordered brought the SSD along which I was happy to install and format for him.

 

DZetye: Aurender currently streams Tidal only. It sounds amazing and is a joy to use. Roon is in the works.

 

So it seems the X100 has at least one clear advantage over the N100: you don't need to "scan external storage (NAS or USB) using Aurender Media Manager (AMM)." According to crittertoo, AMM will only work with an SMB connection, which I assume means that it will only scan cover art and other metadata from a NAS. But your statement above, bpw, suggests that AMM will scan BOTH a NAS and an external USB drive connected to the Aurender.

 

Here's my question: I assume that if I were to buy an Aurender N100H, which includes 2TB of internal hard drive storage, then Aurender would have no problem scanning the contents of those internal drives to retrieve cover art and metadata. But since my collection is larger than 2TB, then I would need to rely on some sort of external storage. If that external storage is on a USB drive directly connected to the Aurender, will I have a problem retrieving cover art and metadata using AMM? Will I also need to purchase a separate NAS, thus making the N100 a less attractive proposition price-wise?

Brian, you state in post #75 that "Roon is in the works." Do you have any more specific information? For example, there has been some discussion on these forums about how Roon will be working with Auralic to allow Roon to send music to the Aries for playback. Would the Roon/Aurender integration be similar? And do you have any information regarding how soon Aurender and Roon might be expected to have a working integration? I am probably not the only person who would LOVE to see this happen.

suggests that AMM will scan BOTH a NAS and an external USB drive connected to the Aurender.

 

my bad, the n100 does read external usb drives which connects to the n100. To get album art and search functionality and metadata, one needs to hook up the usb drives on the computer which AMM resides, scan the usb drives, the AMM will then transfer the db which she has built over to the N100, only then, one can search and see those album art and meta information. You then need to connect the same usb drive which has been scanned by AMM to the physical N100.

 

my apologies for the misinformation for SMB connection only.

my bad, the n100 does read external usb drives which connects to the n100. To get album art and search functionality and metadata, one needs to hook up the usb drives on the computer which AMM resides, scan the usb drives, the AMM will then transfer the db which she has built over to the N100, only then, one can search and see those album art and meta information. You then need to connect the same usb drive which has been scanned by AMM to the physical N100.

 

my apologies for the misinformation for SMB connection only.

 

No apology needed -- your observations in this thread have been very helpful. So it sounds like the process of retrieving metadata for the N100 is a little more complicated if you are using a USB drive, but certainly doable. That makes the N100 a good value proposition in my eyes. Has anyone had a chance to compare the N100 and X100 in terms of sonic quality? I'm wondering if the linear power supply of the N100 confers any advantage?

I talked to one of them, they used aurender last year. It frequently failed .... so now he's just using his ps audio cd transport again. This guy produces open dipole speakers and was also present this year in Munich in hall 4 not far from Aurender. Also talked to Eric Shim, and asked for Tidal support and MQA. To see his reaction, I mentioned the words "open source" during the MQA topic and he completely changed and closed and the talk was soon over.

 

They clearly want to hide that Aurender is using open source software like MPD and change the subject. I know some MPD devs are not happy with the open source GPL violation by Aurender. I used to be on of the MPD development mailing list and also submitted some patch to improve MPD. I used MPD in my previous products, nowadays i use another open source player.

 

I must admit the Aurender build quality is impressive, and being able to sell open source software for these amounts ...... furthermore they really hide the motherboards by using large heat sinks, and also not showing the ATX panel but patching ethernet & USB through to the backpanel is very clever to fool audiophiles into thinking it is not a PC, but it still is. I had the chance to make photo's of the internals of all Aurender products.

 

I must admit it is very clever marketing and aesthetics. Also learned from a distributor that dealer margin on the little Aurenders is not impressive and not market conform. Also spoke to another Dutch manufacturer who also was an Aurender dealer was kicked because his 2.000 € music server with a standard SOtM card outperformed the Aurender S10, and told me the little Aurenders are nowhere near. The Dutch distributor doesn't want Aurender products to be compared to the competition at a fraction of the price.

 

Would the Dutch firm happen to be Audioaanzee by any chance? They appear to offer a a C.A.P.S. 4 like system, though its running Linux base and other code, but use much of the same hardware. And they offer it at a very low price. My guess, apart from their external LPS, is that their internals are somewhat may be inferior. Nice review:

hifi-advice.com/AAZ-ReferenceFlow-review-1.html - Translator

Brian,

 

Please tell us about the new N10 (described at AudioStream here Aurender N10 | AudioStream). Is it the replacement for the S10? Is it better than the S10?

 

Bob

 

Bob, although I haven't yet heard the N10 there is no doubt it will thoroughly outperform the S10, which has been discontinued, and I have it on order. The full linear power supply, the significantly improved USB output section carried over from the W20, X100L, etc., and other characteristics point to a nice improvement. The W20 will continue to star as the top performer in the line, albeit at higher cost.

 

I anticipate having an N10 to demo here at my 2-day open house event with Brian Zolner of Bricasti Design the last weekend of June, when we will demonstrate the M1 DAC and M28 amplifiers.

Would the Dutch firm happen to be Audioaanzee by any chance? They appear to offer a a C.A.P.S. 4 like system, though its running Linux base and other code, but use much of the same hardware. And they offer it at a very low price. My guess, apart from their external LPS, is that their internals are somewhat may be inferior. Nice review: hifi-advice.com/AAZ-ReferenceFlow-review-1.html - Translator

No it was streaming4home, they do something similar to Audio Aan Zee, but only ask about 2k. S4H had the chance to compare the little Aurenders and the S10 to their server, and found the little Aurender darker sounding less lifelike and even the S10 was no match for their own server. But the S10 was based on a cheap asrock motherboard, some inhouse SPDIF card that is about 200$, an SSD as linux boot drive and for the cache , and a WD green HDD and SMPS for the motherboard, so except for the aesthetics it is very simple to beat soundwise. S4H was removed as dealer because of their competing product

Brian, you state in post #75 that "Roon is in the works." Do you have any more specific information? For example, there has been some discussion on these forums about how Roon will be working with Auralic to allow Roon to send music to the Aries for playback. Would the Roon/Aurender integration be similar? And do you have any information regarding how soon Aurender and Roon might be expected to have a working integration? I am probably not the only person who would LOVE to see this happen.

 

I don't have any info but know that tentatively it will happen. How it will compare with other integrations is unknown. Perhaps we'll see and hear something by RMAF. Meanwhile as I get more info I'll be happy to share it. I'd enjoy beta testing it as did for Aurender with Tidal streaming.

my bad, the n100 does read external usb drives which connects to the n100. To get album art and search functionality and metadata, one needs to hook up the usb drives on the computer which AMM resides, scan the usb drives, the AMM will then transfer the db which she has built over to the N100, only then, one can search and see those album art and meta information. You then need to connect the same usb drive which has been scanned by AMM to the physical N100.

 

my apologies for the misinformation for SMB connection only.

 

Good comments, which match my understanding. The database is stored in the iPad, a big reason why the Conductor app is so responsive and enjoyable to use.

Robertladrue we still waiting to tell us with which company you are working for.

Still hiding.

 

Can't understand being a competitor to Aurender's and intruding in this thread bashing and slander your competitor.

 

 

Very big and highly respected companies like: msb , Tidal (Germany), Marten, Nagra and others used Aurender in Munich and dCS distributes Aurender in UK.

 

Let us know who used your (secret) streamer/ server company in Munich?

(And supply proofs as well).

 

 

No it was streaming4home, they do something similar to Audio Aan Zee, but only ask about 2k. S4H had the chance to compare the little Aurenders and the S10 to their server, and found the little Aurender darker sounding less lifelike and even the S10 was no match for their own server. But the S10 was based on a cheap asrock motherboard, some inhouse SPDIF card that is about 200$, an SSD as linux boot drive and for the cache , and a WD green HDD and SMPS for the motherboard, so except for the aesthetics it is very simple to beat soundwise. S4H was removed as dealer because of their competing product

I don't have any info but know that tentatively it will happen. How it will compare with other integrations is unknown. Perhaps we'll see and hear something by RMAF. Meanwhile as I get more info I'll be happy to share it. I'd enjoy beta testing it as did for Aurender with Tidal streaming.

 

Ok, thanks for letting us know what you know. And please keep us posted on any developments between Roon and Aurender -- we are waiting with bated breath.

Robertladrue we still waiting to tell us with which company you are working for.

Still hiding.

 

Can't understand being a competitor to Aurender's and intruding in this thread bashing and slander your competitor.

 

 

Very big and highly respected companies like: msb , Tidal (Germany), Marten, Nagra and others used Aurender in Munich and dCS distributes Aurender in UK.

 

Let us know who used your (secret) streamer/ server company in Munich?

(And supply proofs as well).

 

You are incorrect, MSB used the beast and not aurender on their new select dac demo. I know the MSB guy personally. My product sounds fantastic on the MSB analog dac, in my country the main MSB reseller is using my server on MSB. This guy had an olive 6HD and SOtM SMS1000 and a 9.000 euro cd transport in the past and now my reseller has my server, which says enough. This guy has a ribbon line array that beats most of the systems in Munich, I went 2.5 days and visited all rooms.

 

Now Aurender is not the only company using the free open source MPD daemon, german company BMC also uses MPD internally but doesn't hide it behind their own app and sell it as auplayer. BMC was in the Amphion room. Also auralic is using MPD in their products. And also Bryston is using MPD, but they conform to the GPL. Just to name a few that were in Munich. SOtM no longer uses MPD but has changed to squeezelite which is the default player in vortexbox 2.3.

 

Why do I not like aurender? The only reason is their massive GPL violation. I knew they used MPD just by the choice of typical MPD client commands in their app. If they would have included the written GPL offer which is mandatory if you include the MPD binaries in your product, I would not have started my investigation and exposed them. A GPL written offer is basically a statement included in the product, that you can request any open source code licensed under GPLv2 and GPLv3 from the manufacturer using this code in their products including all their customisations, for the cost of the physical cd + shipping of the cd from them.

 

In the past companies were sued by developers over GPL violations and the devs always won. My past job was 20 years of Linux affiliation and I've committed open source software back into the world, so if a company violates the open source doctrine, that's their fault and they should face the consequences.

 

Even my panasonic 65 inch plasma includes a statement in the menu that it based on GPL software. Aurender lacks all these requirements, which are mandatory if you base your software on GPL. Also Olive includes a written GPL offer in the box. Aurender doesn't.

 

So if Eric Shim is reading this: make sure your company complies to the GPL. Buy an olive, look how they do it, and please comply to the GPL. Or read this manual:

 

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/259225/Olive-4.html?page=39

 

LPGL Library + GPL Package Written Offer

 

This product contains Linux 2.6.12, which is made available under the GNU GPL license ver-

sion 2 (hereafter called "The Program"). Olive Media, Inc. hereby offers to deliver or make

available, upon request, for a charge no more than the cost of physically performing source

distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the corresponding source code of "The

Program" on a medium customarily used for software interchange. This offer is valid for a

period of three years after the date of purchase of this product

Good comments, which match my understanding. The database is stored in the iPad, a big reason why the Conductor app is so responsive and enjoyable to use.

 

I suspect what AMM builds is a index link to ALL the physical files which is uploaded to the aurender n series at the last session of the process. The AMM also builds the metadata information which is uploaded into the Conductor app. I suspect the Conductor data has only metadata information and not physical attributes to where the files are store.

 

On another note, if i were to add an optional HD into the n100, would i need to AMM to index those files too? Or it's auto?

 

Forth coming reply this much appreciated.

 

Meanwhile enjoy the music

I suspect what AMM builds is a index link to ALL the physical files which is uploaded to the aurender n series at the last session of the process. The AMM also builds the metadata information which is uploaded into the Conductor app. I suspect the Conductor data has only metadata information and not physical attributes to where the files are store.

I may be mistaken but believe it does have the location info, too.

 

On another note, if i were to add an optional HD into the n100, would i need to AMM to index those files too? Or it's auto?

You can install an SSD in the N100 but not a hard drive due to power supply limitations. Aurender tweaked things for the N100H to handle its 2TB HDD. The N100 or N100H works right away with the Conductor app for cover art and metadata stored on an internal drive, in the same way as for other Aurender models such as the X100L.

 

Forth coming reply this much appreciated.

 

Meanwhile enjoy the music

I may be mistaken but believe it does have the location info, too.

 

You can install an SSD in the N100

 

Thanks Brian for the information, can i self install a 2GB SSD drive into the N100 or the N100 is limited to only 1GB SSD drives?

 

With internal ssd drives in the n series and traditional internal drives in the x series - has anyone done any comparison on SQ between them playing files from the internal drives? (leaving aside the bang for buck value)

Thanks Brian for the information, can i self install a 2GB SSD drive into the N100 or the N100 is limited to only 1GB SSD drives?

 

With internal ssd drives in the n series and traditional internal drives in the x series - has anyone done any comparison on SQ between them playing files from the internal drives? (leaving aside the bang for buck value)

 

The N100 should accommodate a 2TB SSD no problem, but they are expensive at this time.

 

As for sound quality I doubt there will be any difference between SSD and HDD since the music is all going through the caching SSD anyway.

The N100 should accommodate a 2TB SSD no problem, but they are expensive at this time.

 

As for sound quality I doubt there will be any difference between SSD and HDD since the music is all going through the caching SSD anyway.

 

Don't forget about the impact of vibration, heat, the extra power needed and physical noise.

 

Does Aurender use any SATA filtering?