Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[Jimmypowder]

So I have to buy a power cord for a 1,599 dollar audio device ??

 

By the way I'm not a big believer in the ability of different power cords to deliver better audio quality

[Jimmypowder]

I gotta say the more I read about the software deficiencies , the audio quality better sound damn good .

[Jimmypowder]

Fortunately, it does: SQ is very good! Agree on the software, although things are working quite well with Lumin app now.

 

Yeah I have downloaded the Lumin app and it appears very stable,shows all artwork and most important categorizes all artists and albums properly so I can locate what I want to hear quickly.

[Jimmypowder]

Same here!

 

 

mine too and for the whole batch. (+) and (-) are revised when i got the component.

 

So the manufacturer got the polarity markings wrong and your ok with that ?

[Jimmypowder]

So the manufacturer got the polarity markings wrong and your ok with that ?

 

I am not OK at all. But what can we do when been kidnapped by the supplier after paid $$$$$ for plastic injection mold already? Delay shipping for another 60 days waiting for replacement?

 

Yeah wait another 60 days .I would be worried that other more significant errors were made to the unit internally after seeing that .

[Jimmypowder]

Would anyone other then Marky like to make some comments on audio quality?

[Jimmypowder]

I'll share my information on this matter. I live in the States.

 

When I received my Aries sans a power cord, I emailed Auralic and Wang replied promptly explaining that most of Auralic's customers use audiophile power cords, so they felt it was unnecessary to include one. He said it wasn't about price because the ones usually provided are insanely cheap, like less than a dollar a piece. He said that the box the Aries comes in wasn't big enough for a full sized power cord, and he did some looking into providing a smaller power cord that would be satisfactory but didn't feel like he could find one. He immediately offered to ship me one right away no charge.

 

In the short time that I hadn't heard back from Auralic yet, I found a phone number and got the voice mail of the North American sales rep in Vancouver. He responded to my voice mail with a message saying that they ARE supposed to come with a power cord and that it was a MiSTAKE that I didn't get one, and that if I called him back he would be happy to ship me one!!

 

Pretty funny....or maybe not so funny.

 

 

What's not so funny is the inattention to detail .

 

Magic marker blocking out an error on the Aries case and now this comment.

 

I hope more attention to detail was put into the hardware within the encasement!

[Jimmypowder]

The Linn app Kinsky might work

[Jimmypowder]

So is the Aries better then the Squeezebox Touch feeding the same dac ?

[Jimmypowder]

Any comment from the manufacturer if/when they will provide a firmware update to support the US incarnation of WiMP known as "Tidal Hifi"?

 

I had an email dialogue with Xuanqian a few days ago to confirm the backend of TIDAL and WiMP is the very same so the work on their end is basically setting up a new login window and signup url. You can meet us both at Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and hopefully we will be able to show something together there that you will like.

 

Honestly I would rather have Spotify support. Qobuz is in bankruptcy (European version) and at 20 bucks a month sub for Tidal I think I'll pass.

 

I listen to my cd and a few hi-res files along with Spotify. I know you can use airplay but I would like an integrated solution along with tunein radio.

 

Airplay drains your ios devices fast as well

[Jimmypowder]

Spotify would be schweeeet!

 

You know if Logitech could get Spotify on their Squeezebox devices, Auralic certainly could.

[Jimmypowder]

Why is Spotify special? Has it gone lossless? Not trying to be a smartass, just wondering why spotify?

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Well it hasn't gone lossless but at 320kbps it still sounds pretty decent. They have a huge catalog to listen to.

I use it to determine what Cd's and hi -res files I want to buy.

 

Here's guessing that you can't hear some of the differences between a 320 and lossless file, particularly if you have been to a lot of loud concerts like the Who, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, etc.

[Jimmypowder]

Dear all, I'm going to explain you what happened to me this week end with a friend. We decided saturday afternoon to make some tests with the aries especially testing the Aries vs the TotalDac server. Normally the Aries is used on my headphone system in USB (Oppo HA-1 DAC)

To do that, we have the Aries (LPS version), Totaldac server and Totaldac D1 Dual from device point of view and different USB cables (as the TTD server is linked to the DAC in USB) :

mapleshade (USB Cables-Mapleshade)

Synergistic Research Digital Core Active (Core Digital Cables: Overview | Synergistic Research)

Oyaide 5S (Continental 5S ????????????????????????????????oyaide?)

Totaldac USB Filtered (totaldac USB cable).

 

We started by the mapleshade plugin it from the Aries to the Totaldac. It was impossible to establish any connection, it seems that both devices try to handshake but never reach.

Go further on the Oyaide 5S : same result : no connexion

Next step with the active shielded Synergistic research : no connexion

 

Difficult to understand what happened so i decided to take the cable from my printer : it works !!!

The test with the totaldac USB filtered : it works !!!

 

Difficult to understand. So we stopped everything and we decided to test all cables on the Aries/Oppo HA-1 system : everything works fine

We tested all the cables on the Totaldac system : everything works fine !!!

 

We also tested a SOtM SMS100 on the TotalDAC with all the cables : it works fine !!!

 

So what to conclude....perhaps the first one is that you'd better buy a 10€ Printer cable @ supermarket just round the corner :-)

But from an audiophile point of view, and if you want to test the different cables you should better think twice before investing as you have a lot of chance it could not work.

 

These tests clearly indicate that the Aries and the Totaldac are not compatible even if the both devices use same XMOS Chipset.

 

I contacted both companies in order to obtain some orientations and ttry to solve the problem. At this time TotalDac took that serioulsy asking for questions, trying to understand and concluding that there could be an impedance problem with the cables and because of tolerancies, it works fine with USB2 High Speed cable (my printer one and the Totaldac one) but not with the other that should not be design around norms.

 

From Auralic point of view, not real feedback except that they said that it is a totaldac problem (not fitting to norms), even if the totaldac works fine with all cables linked to totaldac server and SOtM SMS100. They asked me if the Totaldac USB filtered was FCC compliant....according to them USB cable should be USB2 High Speed compliant, which is not the cas of most of the USB "audiophile cables" or perhaps it should be better to use a printer cable :-)

 

Perhaps my aries unit is faulty so a friend is sending his unit and I could test on wednesday. if it is not the case, I expect more from Auralic in terms of support because as of now, I think they do not pay any attention to that and it is a pity. I remind that all these cables are working fine with Totaldac server and SOtM SMS100 on a TotalDac D1 Dual (but the Auralic works also fine with all cables on my Oppo HA-1 :-) )

 

So pay attention to that in case of my unit is not faulty : possible non-compatibility between Aries and DAC depending on USB Cables.

 

Your overblowing this out of proportion.

[Jimmypowder]

OK, beyond the cables (and yes I use Vincent's wonderful TotalDAC D1 cable too..it's great)......how was the test? How did the Aries do vs the TotalDac server??

 

Yeah this is what I'm interested in.

[Jimmypowder]

+1

 

I know some dacs will only connect to a windows or mac computer via USB to play music.

 

I have a Peachtree 125 integrated dac/amp that will only connect this way. you cannot attach a USB hard drive,etc

and get music to play.via USB

[Jimmypowder]

hello,

did anyone try to add a reclocker like a Mutec MC-3+ between an Aries & a DAC ?

 

Just to know if a Mutec can do a better job than the Aries femto clock... or the Aries clock does perfectily the job on her own ?

 

I just received a Mutec : extraordinary what a reclocker can do ! Amazing ! When a DAC receives data with the right timing, the music flows very naturally, with details you perceive independantly, perfect 3D imaging, black background, perfect sound definition thru all the audio spectrum : great !

I doubted about what a new box could add to the sound. I do not doubt anymore : digital source is all about timing (thus reclocking) ; and linear PSU of course.

rgds

 

It's all in your head .

[Jimmypowder]

I thought I remembered reading Mr.Wang as saying 802.11n is sufficient but also sounded better than 802.11ac.

 

I believe he did state that 802.11n was sufficient and that he preferred wireless to ethernet. I don't recall him ever stating that 802.11n sounded better than 802.11ac.

 

Sounded better ??!?!?? Ok

[Jimmypowder]

A quick post for what it's worth to very briefly6 share experience w the Aries (the version with the LPS). First, love the size of the unit. Was a little surprised at the light plastic casing, but nice little unit... Regards

 

The plastic case is there for a reason. As Mr Wang mentioned in one of his interviews, they went for the plastic case for better wireless reception

 

Its cheaper is the likely biggest reason .

[Jimmypowder]

For those who have not seen it, a review is up at 6 Moons.6moons audio reviews: AURALiC Aries

 

I'm not sure I would call it a stellar review .

[Jimmypowder]

I have not add any of these issues. Operation has been flawless thus far .

I am using the latest Apple Extreme A/C router.

[Jimmypowder]

you are correct jtwrace it is a network issue but everything els works fine on my network,LDS can see my oppo 103 but not Aries i use bt homehub 5 the new one for fiber its connected to ac 5ghz i have no problems with anything els on my network laptop,ps4,oppo 103,ipad Air,HTC one sky box, all connected through wifi and having no problems connecting and using my network and my bt homehub is 8 feet from Aries,im very aware of my internet connection speed having nothing to do with connecting to Aries in fact i would hazard a guess that i know more about networks than most people, i work with networks and pc's for extra cash as well as my full time job,so i think its fare to say that the problem is a network issue but on Aries or LDS side and can,t passably be my home network since everything els works fine but looking back at previous posts and im not only one having problems with LDS finding Aries,are all our networks broken?

 

Have you tried setting up the Aries again ?Doing a complete reset ,reattach the Aries to the back of your router and go through the process of setting up the Aries again wirelessly?

[Jimmypowder]

Hi jimmypower yes i have tried all the steps a number of times with not much luck,bplexico yes as soon as you reported the fix i tried it but no luck,i can play music without to much problems all night but the moment Aries has been sitting doing nothing for a few hours or switched of at night the only way for LDS to find Aries is reboot my router, if i don't reboot my router sometimes LDS finds Aries then looses it again and can go on like this for half an hour,i believe it is a network issue but not sure whats causing it,i have another router which is the Netgear D6300 that i can try when i buy a fiber modem to see if that resolves the issue i have given everything on my network fixed ip addresses,what i have also noticed is LDS will find my music collection on nas but not display radio stations and while that part is missing Aries won't play music from nas the album is there but when selecting an album it flashes quickly but sends no music to Aries or it sends music file which shows up on Aries but will not enter play mode very frustrating i can use audio station to send files to oppo 103 and they play every time when Aries will not.

 

How far are you from the router? I would definitely try to swap the router out temporarily to see if that fixes the issue.

 

I am using an Apple Extreme A/C and have not had any issues like this.

[Jimmypowder]

Will the external hard drive have to be powered or can the Aries power it ?

[Jimmypowder]

Is there a consensus yet that using the Aires wirelessly is a non issue as far as sound quality?

 

I am very pleased with using the Aries wirelessly. Sound quality is superb. Some prefer wired, others wireless. I have tried both and give up nothing via wireless.

 

I agree with this.

Coming from using a squeeze box touch and Transporter wirelessly fed into the same dac , the Aries has a much larger soundstage, music timing is more accurate . It's not even close . I'm using the more expensive Aries

[Jimmypowder]

Yes of course. I meant that it would be great for WiMP/Tidal/Qobuz to come to the US.

 

Tidal will be in the US by the end of the year. Qobuz was supposed to but there are issues.