Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[sebassie]

You can roll back by un-ticking the square where you joined the beta testers program. They willl push the last stable firmware version then.

[Doak]

can you, please, check which beta fw version is installed on your Aries?

Running firmware Version 4.0.beta4

[miguelito]

The recent firmware update for the Aries IMO pulled it about side by side with the mRendu/Roon in my system.

Yeah, except Aries still does not do NAA so no HQP upsampling. mR does NAA so it's perfect...

 

HOWEVER, what I would love to see is Aries doing NAA and using the AES out on Aries, avoiding USB altogether...

[miguelito]

Yeah, except Aries still does not do NAA so no HQP upsampling. mR does NAA so it's perfect...

 

HOWEVER, what I would love to see is Aries doing NAA and using the AES out on Aries, avoiding USB altogether...

Or get a dcs Rossini with Roon inside and tell y'all to go play with your toys while I listen to music...

[mikey8811]

Or get a dcs Rossini with Roon inside and tell y'all to go play with your toys while I listen to music...

 

Haha you may well have to. The fabled upsampling by the Aries probably ain't coming...

 

Did you try firmware Beta 4.04 and if so what did you think?

[MNG]

Did you try 4.05???

 

I sincerely hope not.

 

I always preferred the sound of my Melco N1A to my Aries, which I used for Qobuz mainly. With 4.04, I hadn't had time to conclude anything, but it did seem to bring the Aries up to a similar level as the Melco. Interestingly, with my Aries now defunct due to 4.05, I have put my Aries LE into my main system and am using it with the full Aries power supply and the sound seems not quite as good. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two units, but it seems to be audible.

[deuch]

Did you try 4.05???

 

I sincerely hope not.

 

I always preferred the sound of my Melco N1A to my Aries, which I used for Qobuz mainly. With 4.04, I hadn't had time to conclude anything, but it did seem to bring the Aries up to a similar level as the Melco. Interestingly, with my Aries now defunct due to 4.05, I have put my Aries LE into my main system and am using it with the full Aries power supply and the sound seems not quite as good. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two units, but it seems to be audible.

 

Do you have issue with the Aries and the 4.0 beta 05 ?

what Kinder of issue ? Like the Aries can't reach the network (wifi or ethernet) ?

 

my Aries stop working yesterday and i suspect the 4.0 beta 05 brick it. I've to send it back for a RMA ...

[MNG]

Yes, if you are connected by Ethernet, then 4.05 will likely have bricked your unit and you can no longer connect to your network. Auralic are aware of the issue and 4.05 was quickly withdrawn.

[sebassie]

Do you have issue with the Aries and the 4.0 beta 05 ?

what Kinder of issue ? Like the Aries can't reach the network (wifi or ethernet) ?

 

my Aries stop working yesterday and i suspect the 4.0 beta 05 brick it. I've to send it back for a RMA ...

 

Beta 5 did it. You can send an email to Auralic support. They will send you a shipping label with an invoice for customs. UPS will pick your Aries up. No costs.

 

Mine was a brick too and I am waiting now for the fixed Aries to return:-)

[Duke40]

<Snip>

Interestingly, with my Aries now defunct due to 4.05, I have put my Aries LE into my main system and am using it with the full Aries power supply and the sound seems not quite as good. I'm not sure what the difference is between the two units, but it seems to be audible.

 

Aries ... has 2 Femto clocks, one for USB, one for S/PDIF, as well as coming with a LPS

Aries LE ... no Femto clock, no LPS

 

Believe the difference you are hearing between Aries & Aries LE, is that the Aries LE has a very good clock , while Aries has a better Femto clock.

[deuch]

Beta 5 did it. You can send an email to Auralic support. They will send you a shipping label with an invoice for customs. UPS will pick your Aries up. No costs.

 

Mine was a brick too and I am waiting now for the fixed Aries to return:-)

 

They did the same thing, a UPS Label and resent the unit to China ... Now i know, no more beta ! It's too bad because the beta sounds better to my system ... I will wait the 4.0 final version. Maybe the firmware will arrive before the unit

[MNG]

Aries ... has 2 Femto clocks,

 

Believe the difference you are hearing between Aries & Aries LE, is that the Aries LE has a very good clock , while Aries has a better Femto clock.

 

Must be. When I bought them, I got one of each to test whether the full version was better than the LE, enough to justify the extra price. I ended up keeping them both - I thought the difference was primarily due to the power supply, but there's apparently more to it than that.

 

I've had a dispatch note to return my defunct unit to China for repair. Has anybody been given any idea as to how long the whole turnaround process is going to take? I've raised the question twice but had no response. I'm not impressed given the circumstances.

[sebassie]

I've had a dispatch note to return my defunct unit to China for repair. Has anybody been given any idea as to how long the whole turnaround process is going to take? I've raised the question twice but had no response. I'm not impressed given the circumstances.

 

UPS collected my Aries today. I just got a message from UPS that the estimated delivery is on august 1th. This means 2 weeks to get it from Europe to Bejing. Assuming the same in reverse and a speedy factory reset the whole process will take about 1 month!

[MNG]

Don't forget that they have to repair them as well. No knowing how long that may take but will depend upon how many units are bricked and how long the queue is. It doesn't sound very promising.

[pl_svn]

UPS collected my Aries today. I just got a message from UPS that the estimated delivery is on august 1th.

 

same here. hope it's not true but just a temporary glitch in their system =:-/

[dmormerod]

I had a UPS notification that I'll get my replacement Aries on the 25th.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Jay Tee]

same here. hope it's not true but just a temporary glitch in their system =:-/

 

I received an email from Mr Wang that walked me through hoe to avoid this issue.

 

The key part said: "If your machine is connected to Ethernet and you have not yet installed the 4.0.Beta5 firmware, please make sure to switch the device to WiFi connection type then install the 4.0.Beta5 firmware, after the device installed the Beta5, it will start download Beta4 again then proceed a rollback safely."

I followed it to the letter and, even though I downloaded the 4.0.5 wirelessly, I'm up and running OK with the much-improved sound.

 

Thanks Mr Wang.

[MNG]

HOWEVER, what I would love to see is Aries doing NAA and using the AES out on Aries, avoiding USB altogether...

 

Curious as to why you want to avoid USB out from Aries - I presume that you don't like the sound quality? Is that the Aries or your DAC?

 

I have found different inputs on different DACs can sound quite different. I currently use USB, Optical and AES into my Chord Dave and the differences are very subtle and much more similar to each other than previous DACs I have tried. Of course, there are other variables as well, so it's not a straightforward comparison.

[hornytoad]

Curious as to why you want to avoid USB out from Aries - I presume that you don't like the sound quality? Is that the Aries or your DAC?

 

I have found different inputs on different DACs can sound quite different. I currently use USB, Optical and AES into my Chord Dave and the differences are very subtle and much more similar to each other than previous DACs I have tried. Of course, there are other variables as well, so it's not a straightforward comparison.

 

I think his dac sounds better through AES .

[MNG]

I think his dac sounds better through AES .

 

I hadn't found the Aries USB to sound any worse than the other outputs, so that makes sense, thanks.

[Doak]

I hadn't found the Aries USB to sound any worse than the other outputs, so that makes sense, thanks.

 

Once upon a time I was using Aries coax out for PCM (because it sounded better than USB) and USB for DSD (because I had no choice). Addition of Uptone Regen with good PSU and inexpensive Supra cable changed that. USB now sounds at least as good, prob better and MUCH more convenient.

 

ps: more I listen to Aries with 4.04beta firmware, the more I like it - a substantial step up in SQ.

[MNG]

That is very interesting Doak, I thought that these USB devices were aimed at noisy computer feeds, but you are saying that the Aries benefits. By much? You seem to imply that it is a significant difference. I am very interested in this if I can improve the Aries.

 

I have a Chord Dave DAC with 3 connected sources, a Melco NAS connected by USB, an MBL 1521A CD transport connected by AES and the Aries which is connected by optical. Of the 3 sources, the sound quality is MBL just slightly edging the Melco, then Aries. Consequently, I only use the Aries for exploratory listening via Qobuz or convenient, casual listening and it has been pretty good for both. The differences are not down to the Dave inputs as I have tested different inputs across each source and drawn the same conclusions.

 

Ideally, I'd prefer to have the MBL plus just one source for streaming - that could be the Aries or the Melco. When the Melco gets its own app and I can play Qobuz, I may no longer need the Aries. Alternatively, if I can get the sound quality of the Aries up to the Melco, then I only need the Aries and can use the Melco just as a NAS.

 

I did think that the Aries beta firmware was sounding better which is why it is frustrating that my unit has been bricked - UPS collected it today. If I can get the Aries SQ up past the Melco, that will help to simplify my setup as I could use Aries for everything except CD's. I'd like that as the control app is making good progress now and the multi room function seemed to work quite well.

 

Sorry, that has become quite a long post - I could have just said that I'm interested in any solutions that may improve the Aries SQ! I had not considered these USB solutions previously.

[pl_svn]

I only got the Aries to best my dedicated Mac mini after powering it from the same UpTone Audio JS-2 LPS powering the former *and* using both a Regen and Audiophilleo 1 (battery powered) on the USB

 

now that the Aries is going back to the factory and I'm back to my Mac mini (+Regen + Audiophilleo)... I'm not even sure anymore the Aries (plus all the extras that, thankfully, I already had) is worth keeping :-/

[mikey8811]

MNG

 

I use a W4S Recovery and it improved my Aries connected to DAC via USB. But that is with a good USB cable and a separate power supply for the Recovery. The other outputs are simpler - no need for any fixers.

 

I think though that it is DAC dependent. I haven't tried the coaxial or other outputs and it would be interesting to do so.

 

By all means in your case, it will only cost you around $150 or so to try one of these devices and compare the USB output against the coaxial or optical you are using. At the end of the day, only you can tell.

[Doak]

That is very interesting Doak, I thought that these USB devices were aimed at noisy computer feeds, but you are saying that the Aries benefits. By much? You seem to imply that it is a significant difference. I am very interested in this if I can improve the Aries.

 

I have a Chord Dave DAC with 3 connected sources, a Melco NAS connected by USB, an MBL 1521A CD transport connected by AES and the Aries which is connected by optical. Of the 3 sources, the sound quality is MBL just slightly edging the Melco, then Aries. Consequently, I only use the Aries for exploratory listening via Qobuz or convenient, casual listening and it has been pretty good for both. The differences are not down to the Dave inputs as I have tested different inputs across each source and drawn the same conclusions.

 

Ideally, I'd prefer to have the MBL plus just one source for streaming - that could be the Aries or the Melco. When the Melco gets its own app and I can play Qobuz, I may no longer need the Aries. Alternatively, if I can get the sound quality of the Aries up to the Melco, then I only need the Aries and can use the Melco just as a NAS.

 

I did think that the Aries beta firmware was sounding better which is why it is frustrating that my unit has been bricked - UPS collected it today. If I can get the Aries SQ up past the Melco, that will help to simplify my setup as I could use Aries for everything except CD's. I'd like that as the control app is making good progress now and the multi room function seemed to work quite well.

 

Sorry, that has become quite a long post - I could have just said that I'm interested in any solutions that may improve the Aries SQ! I had not considered these USB solutions previously.

 

If you haven't used Regen with Aries IMO you haven't heard it at its best.