Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[wanta911]

Auralic Aries and Auralic Vega owners:

 

Please test and tell us if the Vega plays on EXACT mode without dropouts via the Aries...that is my one question remaining at this point!

 

Thanks a bundle...

 

John

 

Mine gets dropouts when switching between bitrates. Sometimes it's just one initial skip but other times I give up and switch to auto. I'm starting to think that it depends on how long the 2 units have been on?

[wanta911]

Thanks, guys. I know it is "experimental" (and I like Auto very much, too). I was hoping the femto clock in the Aries would give a low enough jitter to work well with Exact mode. To me, that was a reason to have two femto clocks in the Aries (especially when paired with the Vega, the second femto seemed a bit excessive but for this particular reason). I figured someone would have mentioned it by now but figured I would just ask directly.

 

My understanding from these two responses is that it does work, perhaps not perfectly, but for a single album listen (that doesn't change bit rates) or if the rest of the system is pretty solid (perhaps this means a very competent NAS and clean power throughout?), then it might be a nice way of getting that little bit more out of the Vega.

 

Thanks again...

John

 

Just to clarify my statement about dropouts with differing bitrates, it is only when switching between redbook and hi res recordings. If I play 44/16 all day then the switch between albums isn't a problem at all. Interestingly, if my Aries and Vega have been playing for some hours it seems more forgiving.

 

Yesterday when switching between 44//16 & 96/24 in the first few hours I got dropouts. I tried it again later in the day and the switch was seamless. Now I don't know if this is a function of the Vega or the Aries or something else? I should also point out that I use sleep mode when switching off.

[wanta911]

This is an interesting part of the thread.

 

I have been using an Oyaide Continental 5S usb cable for approx. 500 hours between the Aries and the Vega and I would call the result anything but rolled off in my setup, quite the opposite actually. Great for critical listening and ultra impressive with amazing clarity & HF extension but very unforgiving on a lot of my pop/rock recordings. I have now switched to a Cardas Clear USB that gives up a touch of that extra mid and top end sparkle but is more of an all round performer and focusses my attention on the music rather than the recording.

 

The amazing thing is not that the cheaper cable won out - it's that there is a difference between cables carrying 1s & 0s

[wanta911]

This is great to hear these positive reviews.. I am going to work on cabling as well of lengths. The two USB cables I have are .75 meter. I have read this is not always a good length. I have ordered a 1.5 meter and see if that does the trick.

I will ask a buddy to bring over his Synergistic Research USB cable to see how that works out.

 

Both cables are an improvement over the one that Auralic supplied. The Oyaide (solid silver) was a big difference.

[wanta911]

From AURALiC

 

ARIES firmware V1.10 is now finally coming! The new firmware enables USB playback function as well as fixed a compatibility by with JRIVER (repeat not working).

 

We have prepared a FAQ which includes all information that you should know about this stunning function: http://www.auralic.com/download/LightningServerFAQ.pdf

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]15573[/ATTACH]

 

This is going to be interesting. I have all my music on my Synology NAS as well as a USB drive, so a comparison will definitely be on the cards....

[wanta911]

My update is downloading now. It's taking quite a while so it must be a big one.

[wanta911]

What cable does Auralic supply? I don't recall a USB cable or a power cable for that matter - all fine with me btw.

 

It came with the Vega if I recall correctly. It has ferrite collars on each end.

 

I bought the Vega & Aries together.

[wanta911]

What cable does Auralic supply? I don't recall a USB cable or a power cable for that matter - all fine with me btw.

 

OK, so if you didn't get the power supply that means you got the Aries LE which is the base version (strange calling the base model the LE). Here is the difference between them as described by Auralic:

 

ARIES LE is focused on customers who already own Sonos connect, Logitech Sqeezebox or similar product, ARIES LE offers much better sound quality and enriched functionality than these devices. The ARIES is more for the premium audiophile market with non-compromised power supply design, dual Femto Clocks and external linear PSU. The software functions are exactly same for both models, but ARIES will sound better in a High End system.

[wanta911]

No - I have the $1,600 ARIES with the linear PS. Maybe there was a USB cable included, dunno.

 

OK, my confusion with the power cord comment.

[wanta911]

Well I'm all done. It sounds fine to me so far (it's morning here). I'm working from home today so I will have all day to listen.

 

The USB option is appealing as I can now turn off my NAS.

[wanta911]

OK, I just noticed a minor issue with the library when using USB. Some of my double albums are now separated but not all of them? I will have to look at the way these particular ones are tagged. I also liked how I made the mod in Minimserver to get rid of "the" when sorting albums but it's not a big deal.

[wanta911]

Hi guys,

Bought my Aires on the 1st day it became available here in Australia. Been following this thread since day 1. Sorry for taking so long to register and post.

Loving the Aires and very thankful for the USB hard drive function as my current NAS (that doesn't support minimserver) was a horrible mistake. New Lightning Server working great for me :-)

 

Welcome - you are forgiven

 

Unlike some, I am loving the fact that the Aries is not 100% developed. It works great for me in the meantime and I know the guys at Auralic are looking at changes based on customer feedback including mine. It makes you feel like you are part of the evolution and I've never had that with a consumer product before.

 

Just you an' me JDOz - everyone else is asleep!

[wanta911]

Yes, but there is a fine line between being an early adopter and a involuntary beta-tester

 

Agreed - LOL

[wanta911]

:-D Well that's a surprise; a reply from just around the corner; I'm also in Perth…the unfashionable time-zone. I agree with you. The pains of being an early adopter are trivial compared to the thrill of improvements to come…free upgrades to our systems.

JD

 

Enjoying the storm?

[wanta911]

Hi i was interested to read a couple of posts earlier regarding sound quality degrading on USB input to Aries,i can't confirm this as use M51 Dac so no Usb but i can say from my point of view listening through digital connection of Aries to M51 the sound is truly amazing,for me it went up a notch with firmware 1.9 which was very nice surprise,for me the music is in a different league from when i was using Oppo 103 as transport,i am interested in up sampling to DSD and for that reason i will be upgrading my Dac at some point to one that accepts DSD but at moment i am enjoying the music,the designers of this box of magic deserve a round of applause.

 

Well said!

 

I use the USB to my Vega DAC and have not noticed any degradation at all versus coax, in fact if anything it is the other way around, especially since I found the right USB cable for my setup. I also came from using an Oppo (105) as both transport & DAC, my Aries & Vega combo is so much smoother & more musical in comparison - just superb!

[wanta911]

hmm, so similar. I started on from Mark Levinson No39 CD/DAC/pre (now broken) to MacBookPro-M51 to MBP-Vega to Aires-Vega to Aires-Vega-Taurus pre. Each step was an upgrade.

External SSD with Lightning server still flawless for me (small library).

Have ordered LightSpeed USB so can comment on that later. Till now, USB (Cardas Clear) has more sibilance than AES (Canare) or coax (various cheap-middle) but still seems preferable to me...better at top and bottom ends. Not a fair comparison but I do recognise sibilance and dropouts with Vega in Exact mode as 2 negatives of Aires USB-out to date; compared to its other outputs. Have changed too many other things in my system to comment on firmware effects on SQ.

 

The cable is obviously dependent on the rest of your system. I love the Cardas Clear in my setup, the midrange has the texture I've been looking for in my B&W speakers and the LF is extended & rich, I certainly don't notice any sibilance. I would imagine the Oyaide cable I was using would be great in the right system but the bass was often TOO tight & dry and was overpowered (if that's the right analogy) by the sparkling treble it produced. It sounded fantastic in a lot of instrumental stuff I have but overall it tended to be on the clinical side. It's the cable you would use to just to impress someone with a few tracks, not listen to music.

 

Let us know how you go with the Lightspeed.

 

I agree as I use the same combo. Also, I think there is a big advantage that the Vega doesn't use 5vdc on the USB Bus.

 

Yes I am assuming the same on the Vega USB Bus.......

[wanta911]

Have ordered LightSpeed USB so can comment on that later.

 

By the way JD.......I think you owe it to yourself to see how that Lightspeed cable goes in another system, as well as in your own.

 

I'm in Burswood

[wanta911]

Mac Journaled has cause problems in the past especially when greater than 2GB. I know (at least in the past) Debian and others have disabled support for greater than 2GB as corruption has been caused by Linux in these cases.

 

Eloise

 

Interesting, my Sony 2TB USB drive is formatted as Mac Extended Journaled and there is no problem with 394 GB of FLAC files

[wanta911]

Hello,

 

i plug a coax digital cable but no sound, ARIES Digital Outputs is checked in the settings.

Must i do something else?

 

And i don't have Qobuz access icon, how to display it? I have DS 1.6.

 

Thanks

 

Which DAC are you using? With my Vega I also have to change the input setting on that as well.....

[wanta911]

I only just noticed that the DAC delay setting now goes up to 5 seconds from the previous maximum of 2 seconds. I am not sure if this was in the original 1.10 update or a revision since then?

 

Can someone explain the exact need for having the delay?

[wanta911]

It's for DACs that take some seconds to switch to a different sampling rate; so you don't miss the start of song that has sampling rate different to previous song.

5 sec max in 1.10. Have you already received 1.10.4? I haven't.

 

I don't know Where do I find the version? On the Lightning app it just shows 1.10?

 

How's that USB cable going?

[wanta911]

My Aries has been working like clockwork since I bought it.......until today. All of a sudden it keeps randomly losing MinimServer on my NAS and then re-connecting after a few minutes. It doesn't affect the current music playback and I only noticed it when I went to change an album and it said there was no server. After testing, it happens both on wifi and wired?

 

I can't figure out what is happening?

[wanta911]

My Aries has been working like clockwork since I bought it.......until today. All of a sudden it keeps randomly losing MinimServer on my NAS and then re-connecting after a few minutes. It doesn't affect the current music playback and I only noticed it when I went to change an album and it said there was no server. After testing, it happens both on wifi and wired?

 

I can't figure out what is happening?

 

Thanks guys, all good now. My router was doing something crazy, all good after a reset.

[wanta911]

I have a problem streaming Qobuz & Tidal.

 

I tried Qobuz today and when I played an album it changed to the next track when the current track was only 1/2 or 2/3 way through. I thought it was an issue with Qobuz, so I signed up for the 7 day trial with Tidal and it is doing exactly the same? So it must be the Aries.

 

Is there anything particular you have to do with the settings?

 

BTW, the streaming on both has been faultless apart from this issue.

[wanta911]

Hmmm.......Qobuz seems fine now but Tidal is still an issue. So the Aries is no longer the prime suspect