Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[digitalzed]

Current Firmware Version 3.0 Build 20160111

 

Does this update apply to the Mini? My LE auto-updated itself to Version 3.0 overnight with no intervention on my part. My Mini is still at Version 2.10 and when I tap firmware refresh is says "Your firmware is up to date."

3.0 is supposed to be for the Mini also, just without Roon support at this time.

[digitalzed]

Mini won't update to Version 3.0

 

 

 

Tried powering off for several hours then reconnected and waited for an hour. Still no update. Then decided to start over and take the Mini through the Setup Lightning Device routine. Still no update.

 

My Mini is still at Version 2.10 and when I tap firmware refresh is says "Your firmware is up to date." I must be missing something simple.

 

Browsed through the online docs to see if there was any way to do a hardware reset, but didn't find any info. Any help or suggestions would be most appreciated.

At this point I'd contact Auralic support. When I went to the app and looked for the update, it already said Firmware 3.0 ready for download.

[digitalzed]

I was very impressed by how easy it was to get things going with RoonReady on my Aries last night.

 

I took advantage of the card that was included in my AudioQuest JitterBug that offered free 60-day trial of Roon. After redeeming the number on the card and creating an account, I downloaded and installed the Roon application onto my Mac Pro. I set it to only watch my iTunes library as a first step.

 

I next installed the Roon app on my iPad, set the Aries as a RoonReady endpoint, selected a song, and then music started playing (yay!). I didn't play with it much after that as I was wiped out from a long day of work. Before going to bed, I went back to the Roon app on my Mac Pro and configured it to watch my entire music library on my NAS.

 

I'm tempted to say that Roon will be worth the money to me simply because the iOS app returns me to exactly where I left it after it is restored to the foreground. (I wish Auralic could figure out how to get LDS to do that.) I know that Roon is so much more than that though after using it at a friend's. I'm very much looking forward to playing with it tonight.

 

This screen shot was captured from the Roon iOS app.

 

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Roon and Aries are a fantastic match. I am using both and a Roon subscriber. I looked at it more as a hardware purchase than just a library management tool in that I believe Roon will continue to evolve and be compatible in a variety of ways and with equipment that individual manufacturers software may not be. However I understand that the update to Lightning DS that is coming soon is a big step forward. And Auralic has constantly improved their product but just don't have the experience the Roon crew does at this point. Once the update (2.4) to the DS app comes out it will be interesting to see how much closer Auralic is.