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    The Computer Audiophile

    AURALiC ARIES G2 Review

    Not long ago most manufacturers couldn't comprehend why a digital to digital converter would be necessary. Auralic had its finger on the pulse of consumers and jumped in the D to D market very early. The original Aries was one of the most popular products on Computer Audiophile upon its release. Its unique shape, unique internal design, and unique feature set were among the added benefits to its great sound. Realizing the Aries concept was still very valid and that the original design could be improved quite a bit, Auralic set out to make the Aries G2 worthy of flagship status. Based on my experience with the Aries G2, I believe it checks all the boxes of a flagship component and its sound quality contends with reference level components. 

     


    Nuthin' but a 'G' Thang Baby

     

    The Aries G2 is one of four products designed together that make up this top of the line series for Auralic. The Vega G2 DAC, Sirius G2 Upsampling Processor, and Leo GX Reference Master Clock are the Aries' siblings. This stack of components looks fabulous and offers a level of performance and features that only the top brands in the industry have previously offered. What's more, Auralic has  done it at a fraction of the price.


    The Aries G2 fits into the digital to digital converter category because it receives and transmits only digital audio, but this component is much more than most D to D converters. If I was to place the Aries G2 on a Gartner Magic Quadrant with performance going up the left side and features running from left to right on the bottom, it would no doubt be in the upper right quadrant as a leader. Add to that the beautiful design and build quality, and it's easy to see the Aries G2 is something special. 

     

     

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    Visually the Aries G2 is in a class with the best in the business. Its thick all aluminum chassis with the name Auralic, drilled into the top with a CNC machine, oozes luxury. The feel of the metal is incredibly smooth and sturdy. The front panel is full of delightful design touches as well. The slight curve to the face of the Aries G2 not only separates the men from the boys with respect to product design and fabrication, but it also means Auralic had to step up its game for the front panel buttons. A curved front panel with flat buttons just wouldn't do for customers at this level or for the detail oriented team at Auralic. The team invested serious engineering resources to create buttons with matching curves. Each button has a slightly different profile based on where it is on the face of the component. Looking at the Aries G2 from the top down, it's easy to see the skilled craftsmanship that enabled the buttons to sit flush with the curved front panel.

     

    The front display is also a major step up from the original Aries text only display. The full color display is vibrant with crisp letters for easy viewing even at a distance. I can see the track title, number, volume, with a quick glance. The numbers displaying the track time are a bit small, though still crisp, but the circle that goes from left to right indicating the current position within the track is easy to see and understand. Album art also looks very good on the Aries G2 display. I used to believe that component displays were unnecessary because everyone has the album art and numbers on their iPads and phones but I've really come around to the other side on this one. I love to see the artwork in full vibrant colors while looking straight ahead between my speakers. After all, it's nice to put the iOS device down once in a while.

     

    On the rear of the Aries G2 Auralic made connecting and disconnecting cables much easier than the previous generation of Aries. I remember wishing for the fingers of a little person when trying to remove an Ethernet cable from the original Aries. Now with the G2 all of my cable issues are gone. There is plenty of room in the back for even the most audiophile of cables, in other words thick and sometimes ridiculous. My only complaint with the look and feel of the Aries G2 is the traditional late nineties wireless antennas. I've talked to the Auralic team about this a few times and they say it isn't trivial to embed an antenna into the chassis. They've looked at it and know how to do it, but it would increase the cost of the final product higher than they were willing go. 

     

    Note: Made in China. What!? Think about it, the company was founded in China and the products are designed in China. It makes zero sense to outsource the assembly to the United Stated or European Union, when the company can build the products itself and have its hands on all aspects of the design and build. 

     

     

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    So Sit Back, Relax, and Strap on Your Seatbelt

     

    I'm no stranger to Auralic. I've used or reviewed almost every product the company has ever produced. I've used Auralic products with DLNA / UPnP servers, JRiver Media Center, Aurender, Roon, and even iTunes back in the day. Lately I've been really into using products in what I call their native environments. When using the Aries G2 I mainly used Auralic's Lightning DS application for iOS. Sure I used Roon a bit to verify functionality and sound quality, but I spent the large majority of my time using Auralic's own creations. I also went the extra step of placing an SSD drive into the Aries G2's 2.5" internal hard drive slot. I wanted to see what the user experience was like if I stored my music on the internal drive and used the built-in LightningServer. I've done this in the past, but like to follow up due to the continuous improvements made by Auralic's software team. One additional benefit of Auralic's Lightning DS platform is its support for Qobuz streaming of not only 16 bit / 44.1 kHz music but high resolution up to the Qobuz maximum of 24 bit / 192 kHz. 

     

    This simple system consisted of the Auralic Aries G2, with my music stored on an SSD inside the unit, connected to my network via WiFi. I tried Ethernet as well and found no issues, so I wanted to put the Aries G2 through a harder test by using wireless. The Aries G2 was connected to a dCS Rossini via USB for half the time and via AES for the other half. I disabled the volume control on the Aries G2 because I used the volume control on the Rossini or the Constellation Audio preamp, prior to the music entering the Constellation mono amplifiers. 

     

    I started listening though the Aries G2 using a bunch of newer music I learned about from our incredibly good Minnesota public radio station The Current 89.3. It's all about music all the time, and shouldn't be confused with the Minnesota public radio news station 91.1. I was listening to the new J Mascis (Dinosaur Jr.) album Elastic Days and a great track from Santigold called Run the Road. I was into the music but I just couldn't get into the sound of my system. So, I did what I haven't done many years. I pulled up some classic audiophile standards and let 'em rip. 

     

    I started off with Diana Krall's Live in Paris. I really love the track A Case of You. Written by fellow Canadian Joni Mitchell, Krall really nails this song live.  One can really feel emotion in her voice when she sings, "I drew a map of Canada, Oh Canada." It's hard to hear any emotion in most of the standards she sings because they are meaningless to her. A Case of You is a bit different and it shows. 

     

    Listening through the Auralic Aries G2 I heard the sound of the L'Olympia venue, built in 1888, especially around Diana's voice. This was very different for me, as reverb and sound bouncing off nearby walls or floors is only something I usually hear from traditional albums made in a studio. Perhaps Krall's Steinway is reflecting back some frequencies, but that's just a wild guess.  At any rate, the sound as a whole was nothing short of beautiful and captivating. Shut out the lights, listen for the couple of audience coughs during the intro, and it's possible to be transported to the front row back in December 2001.

     

    Staying with the audiophile soundtrack, I went back to 1997 and listened to Diana Krall's Love Scenes album. There's no denying the first track All Or Nothing At All can sound fantastic and checks many audiophile boxes with a female vocal, deep double bass and a nice clean piano near the end. Listening through the Aries G2 enabled all of this track's golden sound to come through my TAD CR1 loudspeakers. The aggressive string plucks of Christian McBride on the double bass and its deepest notes are impressive and tight, right from the first second of playback. 

     

    I listened to this album several times, switching between the Aries G2's USB output and AES/EBU output. I wanted to find out if I could hear a difference between the outputs. The answer to this question won't please many people who are looking for a straight black and white answer or for me to tell them what's best. Based on my listening the answer is, it depends. Using the dCS Rossini both outputs of the Aries G2 sounded identical. Moving to the EMM Labs flagship DA2 I definitely heard better sound via the Aries G2's AES output. Put another way, I heard the best sound via the DA2's AES input. I'm willing to bet the slight haze I heard via USB had more to do with the DA2's input than the Aries G2's output. Some DACs just perform better via AES rather than USB.

     

    Moving to another artist that has pleased many an audiophile ear over the years, I pulled up some Patricia Barber. On Barber's Modern Cool (MFSL) album the track titled Company is what sold me on trading in a pair of Martin Logan ReQuests for a pair of B&W Nautilus 802 loudspeakers at HiFi Sound & Electronics in Minneapolis in 1999. Listening this time through TADs and the Auralic Aries G2 rather than a Krell CD player, this track was mighty impressive. The deep bass, yet also extremely controlled, that reaches down as low as my speakers can go is something to behold. However, the real star of the show is Mark Walker's drum solo that starts about 2:40 into the track. I can't say I've ever hear this solo sound better or more like a real drum set in my entire audiophile life. There just isn't much more to say than that. Best I've ever heard this track? Probably. 

     

    Shortly after discovering Patricia Barber in my young audiophile life, I discovered the First Impressions Music (FIM) label and its version of her Cafe Blue album. The opening track What A Shame is an old favorite of mine. Playing it through the Aries G2 brought back good memories but also put me in an incredibly relaxed state. Mark Walker again on percussion is masterful in that he hangs in the background but is ever present throughout the track. He completely makes this track for me and it sounds so great through the Aries G2 and dCS Rossini combination. Walker's continuous tapping of what sounds like congas is so realistic one can visualize everything but the color of the wood on the congas. As each hand slapped the skins I heard a full bodied sound with the initial transient and quick yet luscious decay. It's hard to believe I enjoyed this album so much but when everything in a system comes together it's possible to hear true magic that transports one to somewhere other than a listening chair. Great stuff and what this wonderful hobby is all about for me. 

     

     

    G2 Wrap Up

     

    Here's my honest take on the Auralic Aries G2. The Aries G2 is a great reference level digital to digital converter plus so much more. The G2 is beautifully designed and crafted to match a whole series of G2 level components and to equal the quality one should expect from something at the top of the line. In most reviews I listen to music that many people consider un-audiophile. When listening through the Aries G2 I went back to my roots and tapped Diana Krall and Patricia Barber for my music supply. Tracks from these two made judging components somewhat easier than my standard Rage Against The Machine type music. No matter what album or track I played, I heard magic through the Aries G2 and my selection of reference DACs from dCS, EMM Labs, and Berkeley Audio Design. Granted my alternative music recorded in a garage on a shoestring budget wasn't improved by the Aries G2, but that's exactly how it's supposed to work. No adding a little sweetener to something dull or memorializing a transient event. The Auralic Aries G2 is definitely C.A.S.H. List worthy. I can't wait to connect it to the rest of the G2 series. 


     

     

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    Additional photography can be found here -> Link
     
     
     


    Product Informtion:

     

    Associated Music:

     

     

     

    Superphonica Note:

     

    To learn a bit more about AURALiC, purchase components directly from the company, or sell your existing components to upgrade to the ARIES G2 etc..., visit the AURALiC brand boutique on Superphonica1.

     

     

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    Associated Equipment:

     

    1 Neither Superphonica nor Computer Audiophile receive a commission on the sale of goods through the AURALiC brand boutique.




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    3 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

    Of all things in this world to have fear of, this isn’t the worst. 

    I am just in the market of such devices :-)

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    Now I am just waiting for the G2 to get a bit older so that I can afford it and buy a used unit somewhere. 

    In the meantime I am very happy with my Aries Femto.

     

    Thanks Chris @The Computer Audiophile, you are doing a great job with the reviews and the forum, much appreciated.

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    22 hours ago, barrows said:

    With what?

     

    Do you really make purchasing decisions based on what some reviewer says, in an entirely different system context to yours?  I can assure you that this is not the way to get the best sound in your system.

    I read opinions of sound quality all over the Internet, from many different sources which are often in direct opposition to my own experience.  Even components which I know for fact from my own experience which really suck, are often praised by a reviewer or online prognosticator.  

    Beware the opinions of others on sound quality.

     

    My recommendation stands, listen in your system, sure, use specs, and features to reduce the number of the components to audition, but one must listen in their own system to have any valuable idea of the differences between components of similar price.

    Yes, I do base my purchasing decisions on the internet (reviews, etz.), ie at least by a quite a margin.

     

    Why do I choose this approach? Just because I am money constrained and I do want to get the most out of my budget. If I took several units at home for a trial I could not ask for a good discount or buy instead on the used market (that would not be fair). Also think about losses from upgrades/changes.

     

    Furthermore, it would be very very difficult for me to get all main competing devices in my home. Some brands are just not available in my home town. 

     

    In my opinion, each device does play in a certain league, and can be graded accordingly. Maybe, my hifi system is not optimized based on RRP values (there might a better dac/cable suitable for my amp, etz.). However, I guess I did quite a good deal based on my investment. This is just a different approach...

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    I ordered the Vega G2 and should see it in the morning and I like it I will order the  Leo 

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    On 10/22/2018 at 4:23 PM, barrows said:

    With what?

     

    Do you really make purchasing decisions based on what some reviewer says, in an entirely different system context to yours?  I can assure you that this is not the way to get the best sound in your system.

    I read opinions of sound quality all over the Internet, from many different sources which are often in direct opposition to my own experience.  Even components which I know for fact from my own experience which really suck, are often praised by a reviewer or online prognosticator.  

    Beware the opinions of others on sound quality.

     

    My recommendation stands, listen in your system, sure, use specs, and features to reduce the number of the components to audition, but one must listen in their own system to have any valuable idea of the differences between components of similar price.

    That is right on !

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    It was either Stereophile or TAS. One of the reviewers said that the guy who engineered the piece must be deaf. That was back in 1984, when I picked up MY first issue of such magazine. It was the most refreshing moment. I could not stop laughing (at Stereo Review or SteroSound or any other major publications). If I trust a reviewer enough, I can turn any subjective reviews into objective ones (at least to me). My two cents.

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    On 1/22/2019 at 10:02 PM, LowMidHigh said:

    When it comes to digital output, the only factor that affects sound quality is timing, or lack thereof. As the “bits-are-bits” crowd asserts, a $30 Chromecast Audio and a $7,000 Lunim U1 do a perfectly good job in that regard. But, as we know, the clock accuracy and electronic “pollution,” that comes along for the ride, make a difference that cannot be overstated. To rephrase Chris, only when that jitter is aggressively suprassed can the "magic" be conjured up. 

    • Switch from RCA to 75ohm BNC, and for a good reason: It's nearly impossible to source out a true 75ohm RCA connector. Thus, the mismatch in impedance could introduce jitter. If anyone is adamant on using an RCA terminated cable, they can mount a $2 adapter onto the BNC and be done with it. In that respect, I don't know why any serious audio companies would even bother with RCA. 

    And excuse me while I drown in music…

     

     

    +1 for BNC. I've been testing Transparent Cables lately and the only demo cables are RCA. Those are dang good FWIW, but I'll be buying BNC when I finally pony up. The converters are total rubbish–they strip away the magic you're talking about above. As Barrows says, use your ears. If you can't tell or don't care, you don't. No harm no foul.

     

    Aries G2 without BNC unfortunately forces you down the AES path. Fortunately Transparent has a trade-in policy if one goes this "big box" streamer route.

     

    But there's magic in them thar boxes. And cables. Crazy (magic) hobby! Back to music now that I've determined I have a "good" copy of Aja...

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    sgr did you compare it to any other dedicated streamers?

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    I’ve owned the Ultra and Micro Rendus.  The Aries G2 is superior to both, but not a fair comparison as the Airies is much more expensive. 

    Those are the only streamers I’ve compared it to not built by Auralic. 
     

    The Airies G2 is superior to the Airies Femto which comes as no surprise.  
     

    I’d guess the a comparable Inuos model and Aurender would give it some competition. Probably others as well. After hearing the Airies I just didn’t need to look further. 

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    Does anyone know how the clock works on the USB given that USB dacs generally control the timing, rather than the source?

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    11 minutes ago, honeymustardsteve said:

    Does anyone know how the clock works on the USB given that USB dacs generally control the timing, rather than the source?

    If the DAC is asynchronous, then the DAC controls clocking. 

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    12 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

    If the DAC is asynchronous, then the DAC controls clocking. 

    agreed, but i was wondering what was the point of auralic creating a clock for the usb output if it isn't used given most, if not all high end usb dacs would have an asychronous connection

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    Got an official response stating that the dac ignores the clock on the USB, which generally means it is a useless feature unless you had a really old USB dac that wasn’t asynchronous...

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    8 minutes ago, barrows said:

    OK, there is some mis-information here.  For USB audio, the audio clocks (that is the clock(s) which are used to clock the data stream out of the USB receiver in the DAC, and the used as the clocks to clock that same data into the DAC conversions stage) are in the DAC.  But, the USB controller chips, which refers to the USB hub chip inside the G2, and the USB receiver chip (often XMOS) inside the DAC requires their own separate clock to control their operations.  This USB clock is unrelated to the audio clock(s) and this clock only controls the operations of the USB chips.  

    While the audio clock(s) inside the DAC are the most important clocks for sound quality in terms of the actual D to A conversion (typical audio jitter), in turns out that the performance of the USB clock also does matter (also so does the separate clock which controls the Ethernet processors and data streams).  To summarize: the USB clock does matter, as does the Ethernet clock, so a Renderer which uses higher performance clocks for these parts will have an advantage.

    Just remember that all digital processor chips (computer processors, USB hub chips, Ethernet processor chips and switch chips, any DSP chip, any microprocessor of any type) has its own clock which it references, and these clocks may matter for audio performance of the entire chain of the digital data delivery system.

     

    interesting

     

    for clarity, i asked: "how does the usb femto clock work on the usb output of the aries" and they said the dac ignores the timing on the aries through usb so i may find better success with AES, but should try both

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    18 minutes ago, honeymustardsteve said:

     

    interesting

     

    for clarity, i asked: "how does the usb femto clock work on the usb output of the aries" and they said the dac ignores the timing on the aries through usb so i may find better success with AES, but should try both

    Sure, always good advice to try both.  Some DACs, although becoming more rare these days, have better performance through their AES input than through USB.  Although in general, if each input is implemented "perfectly" USB does have technical advantages.  This is more about what input on the DAC is best, and not what output on the G2 is best.  At the price level of the G2 I would hope (and expect) that both its USB output and its AES output are equally superb. 

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    On 10/20/2018 at 8:07 AM, Superdad said:

    It is clear that Auralic put some focus on improving the USB output of this piece--since that how many (most) people will be attaching it to a DAC.  In one of the photos you took, it is clear that they derive their DAC-intented USB output by going XMOS > SMSC hub chip > Silanna galvanic isolator chip > further unknown (under white strips) USB processor (most likely another hub chip), with reasonably low-jitter clock.

    It's like a built-in ISO REGEN or iGalvanic.  Nice. :D

     

    2131219127_AriesG2USBstage.thumb.jpg.4b7a6be01c8d0ae95c26122a17d721f7.jpg

    Someday someone is going to do this with the ethernet RJ45, like EtherRegen built in.  Auralic have done a very good job indeed with wifi tokeep network noise out.

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    For Posterity

    A no brainer is to upgrade the LPS in the Auralic to one from Hoer-Wege.

    The upgrades kicks in slowly, but drives the level to few notch higher!

    Wonder cost-performance ratio!

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