Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[Duke40]

I am currently reading the following CA threads ;

Optical Network Configurations

Network Isolation

 

Currently using WiFi for the Aries ... interested if anyone has tried connecting there Aries via Ethernet using fibre Optical networking. Look forward to anyones experience with this, mainly from a sound quality and reliability perspective, with the Aries. Currently have no issues with the WiFi configuration, more just being curious. Thanks.

 

John

[Duke40]

The JS-2 will not power your Aries. The Aries needs 16V and the JS-2 put out no more than 12V.

 

From the Auralic Support Centre website FAQ ....

 

 

[h=1]What is the specificaion of ARIES power input[/h]It is 16V in 1A as standard.

The lowest acceptable input voltage is 12V(1.5A) and the maximum is 18V(1A)

[Duke40]

""ARIES STARTING..." message." Initially I thought it was related to the latest Aries firmware, though I noticed a pattern. My ISP in OZ (Telstra) was doing maintenance in the early hours of the morning, so I was losing my internet connection.

 

I find that the Aries prefers to be the last device turned on (after powering up the ISP modem and router). Normally I leave Aries, ISP modem, router, powered on all the time. With my ISP modem going offline due to maintenance, it upset the order.

 

Add to that, is Tidal seems to be broken in Australia (stuttering, pauses) did not help.

[Duke40]

I had the same issue. What I tried was going into my wireless setting on my full Aries ... Then I changed my DNS server setting from Google DNS server to my ISP's DNS server. The Aries then displayed it was applying setting... Moments after coming back online, the Aries started downloading the new firmware.

 

John

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[Duke40]

My Aries (full version) just downloaded firmware version 3.1

 

Checked the Auralic support website but can not see the release notes for what is new or fixed with the latest firmware. Sent an email to Auralic to let them know.

[Duke40]

See below:

Current Firmware Version 3.1 Build 20160201 – AURALIC LIMITED

 

Thanks for that.

[Duke40]

Installed Firmware 4.0 Beta 4.

 

Initial listening impressions is that it sounds better than the previous Beta (or maybe my ears are burning in for Firmware 4.0).

 

LDS has also evolved into a mature player, impressive how good it has become.

[Duke40]

Anyone concur with these opinions using planar headphone like Audeze LCD 2/3 or Hifiman HE-1000?

 

Dave,

 

I'm using Audeze LCD-X with an Auralic Aries, and I concur with Doak thoughts (it was an exceptionally well crafted post) as far as Firmware 3 to Firmware 4 improvements. Clean, Clear, proverbial lifting of veil, Bass improvements, were the specific items from Doak's post that resonated with my thoughts.

 

This is only when using LDS playing music over wifi from my NAS ... & Firmware 4 beta.

 

Sometimes I Airplay Tidal (from my iPhone) to the Aries ... in this case I can hear no difference between Firmware 3 & 4.

 

Hope this helps.

 

John

[Duke40]

<Snip>

Anybody else wants to share how they mount their Aries or mRendu?

 

 

I made a DIY rack for my my Auralic Aries & Auralic Gemini 2000 (DAC/Headphone Amp). Made from slabs of 10mm Aluminium and sets of Townshend Audio Seismic Pods.

 

The above made the most "significant" improvement ... then ... below made a "subtle" improvement (that is, to a lesser extent).

 

Directly under the Auralic Aries I place 3 ETI Research "Fractal Resonance Topper". They are supposed to be placed on the top of audio gear ... I found a very slight subtle improvement on top of speakers (better imaging) ... no difference on top/under of CD players and other gear ... yet, under the Auralic Aries they made a noticeable improvement. They have been sitting in the "unloved box of tweaks" for many years, great that I am finally now getting a nice improvement with them. Pleasantly surprised with the results (more detail).

 

A couple of photo's, though I am very technically challenged when it comes to photography.

 

 

 

John

[Duke40]

All that stuff to hold a plastic box?

 

Yes ... Oh, also a couple of W4S Remedy Reclockers and an Auralic Gemini 2000 Dac / Headphone Amp ... So 4 items in total (they are not clear from the photo as I was focusing on the Aries). I could get rid of a couple of layers, specifically the extra layers of Townshend Seismic pods ... But I have just been experimenting if adding extra layers would achieve further improvement (they don't).

[Duke40]

My mini: Photo 6 of 10 from Ongaku

 

That looks really great. Blends in very well with your SolidTech Rack of Silence Rack.

I admire the SolidTech rack, wish I had gone for something like that years ago rather

than buying glass & steel racks (have a couple of Schroers & Schroers racks).

 

John

[Duke40]

I upgraded to Firmware Beta 4.0 version 5 this morning & experienced issues like only playing the first song in a playlist whether in Tidal or from my NAS local library.

 

So I switched back to the latest non-Beta release 3.3

 

Chris from Auralic Support (who is excellent, communicates very quickly) just advised me that Firmware Beta 4.0 version 4 is now available again, so I downloaded.

 

I really like Beta 4.0 version 4. Stable and sound quality is superb.

[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.

[Duke40]

4 hours ago, Doak said:

The "Precise" setting by description is the closest to "no filter" (there's always a filter). 

Smooth IMO sounds "nice" and I find it useful i=on material that is less than stellar in SQ.

However, on many of my "reference" cuts/albums I find Precise a better choice. In comparison smooth limits dynamics and shaves the edges of transients. YMMV

 

My thoughts are very close to yours for the filters, I agree with you.

I thought "Precise" had better transients, also timing & microdynamics ... than "Smooth".

 

My preference is "Precise", sometimes I use "Smooth" ... time will tell of which I will

eventually prefer as I value both timing (Precise) and I have an aversion to brightness, so Smooth may prevail.

Though "Dynamic" and "Balance" have so far made little impression for me, the standouts are "Precise" and "Smooth".  Early days for me, may take another week to decide on a preference.

1. Aries Model -  Aries Femto
2. Operation Mode - Lightning device
3. DAC  - external, connected via Toslink to a Auralic Gemini 2000
4. MQA playback - auto
5. DSP or Upsampling: none, trying to focus on just the filters for the moment.

 

+1 on also hearing the differences in the filters, even though I am using an external DAC/Headamp

(not an Aries Mini).

 

One other thing that I have noticed is that the sound changes when I enable/disable

"PCM Auto Detect".  I find this unusual as I am using S/PDIF (Toslink) not USB ,

I think I prefer it disabled and Auralic says in the help to the right of the setting , 

"PCM Auto-Detect: Your streaming device will detect the maximum sampling rate supported by a USB-connected DAC and adjust accordingly."

 

[Duke40]

2 hours ago, pl_svn said:

 

I'm sure there's still "a lot" to be fine-tuned in 5.0 betas playback: as I said I'm hearing light and intermittent "static noises" that go away as soon as I revert to 4.1.0 and come back when I install a beta again 

 

I also heard intermittent static noises with ver 5.02 beta,  though it was only when I upsampled, say 44.1 to 88.2, my experience so far.

[Duke40]

3 hours ago, austinpop said:

Well, the plot thickens.

 

Here is what Wang responded to me with:

 

The filter mode inside Processor setting only effect resampling process, if the original sampling rate and destination sampling rate are the same, the resampling plug-in is bypassed and the output is bit-perfect (without any change).

 

Like Doak and Mikey, I clearly hear the difference with the filter modes and I am not upsampling.

 

I think I am the only one so far who hears a difference with this setting;

"Processor Setup    -    PCM Auto detect"

My preference is Disabled.

 

I can hear this clearly using my Audeze LCD-X headphones, and they are certainly not detail monsters, more on the warm side of neutral.  My headphone rig (Auralic Aries Femto > Auralic Gemini 2000) is now completely isolated from AC with both components using VR MINI's, supplying the Gemini DAC/Headamp with supercapacitors made the bigger improvement, it is now easier/clearer to hear changes. Headphone Rig (Aries,Gemini,VR MINI's) is also isolated from vibration/resonance using Townshend Audio seismic pods.

Aries & Gemini are isolated from each other using Lifatec Glass Toslink cable (though I will very likely get a ISO Regen in a couple of months).

TLDR; My headphone rig is completely isolated from AC, Vibration, and the electronics from each other, think this is why it is now easier for me to hear changes.

[Duke40]

Sent the following to Auralic ...

 

My Aries Femto appears to be resetting some of it’s settings on Beta Firmware 5.02.

It appears this happens if I switch to using Airplay (from my Apple TV 4) to connect to the Aries, then go back to using Lightning DS on my iPad Pro.
I am trying to find the pattern for the settings resetting, this is appears to me to be the likely cause, could be something else, this is just my best guess so far.

The settings I notice that reset, that is I have them “Disabled", then after using Airplay, it goes back to “Enabled" ;
        Streamer Setup     -    Enable Volume Control
        Processor Setup    -    PCM Auto detect
        Processor Setup    -    Convert DSD to PCM

Also, I set the following setting to “Precise” as I prefer it, though it gets reset to “Smooth" 
        Processor Setup    -    Filter Mode

The above are the only 4 settings that I have changed, and they all seem to get reset after using Airplay.

[Duke40]

7 minutes ago, Doak said:

When PCM Auto Detect is enabled everything is upsampled to upper limit of the DAC being used.

I would expect this to make a difference in the sound.

 

Thanks Doak,  though I use Toslink S/PDIF , not USB, on my headphone rig.

 

Thought this only applied to USB, as Auralic says the following

"PCM Auto-Detect: Your streaming device will detect the maximum sampling rate supported by a USB-connected DAC and adjust accordingly."

 

I will check my DAC to see if it is actually upsampling even though I am using Toslink ... 

[Duke40]

4 minutes ago, Doak said:

NOT a "good thing" IMO.

These are things I would probably never want enabled and now they are being enabled when switching streaming modes. Would be a PIA to have to manually reset to off continually if one uses these other modes.

 

Yes,  I am just about to manually reset them once again, as I use both Lightning DS & Airplay daily, PIA, very true.

 

On a positive note, I do understand this is a Beta, so this is the best time to be vocal about bugs, prior to production release.   I am actually really enjoying the Precise filter from a sound quality perspective ... V4 to V5 firmware not as big a jump in SQ improvement as the one  from firmware 3 to 4, though still a nice improvement.  

 

Good on Auralic for continually improving there products, this is great ... and software updates do not cost us money :-)

[Duke40]

3 minutes ago, alice said:

When updating the software can you avoid beta updates ? 

 

Yes ...  to actually get Beta updates you have to opt in, request.

[Duke40]

39 minutes ago, pl_svn said:

 

PCM Auto-Detect is enabled here, I'm using USB out to an Audiophilleo SE then to a Chord 2Qute and... both are reporting track's original sample rate -> nothing gets upsampled

 

Yes, me too (for Toslink), double checked my DAC & nothing gets upsampled. 

 

10 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Same here - PCM Auto-detect does not alter the sample rate of the source.

 

But a caveat - I'm on a Mini, which does not upsample. so the behavior may be different on an Aries - although I doubt it. I think the autodetect helps to pre-populate the defaults on the sample rate table, but the actual upsampling has to be opted-in by adjusting the pull-downs on the right column.

 

Behaviour is same for me with the Aries (femto),  your correct,  looks like it does indeed just pre-populate the defaults on the sample rate table.   I was wondering why the sample rate table values appeared to be changing :-)

[Duke40]

1 hour ago, George Hincapie said:

I may try going back to stock Aries PSU actually. Using MCRU LPSU at the moment...wonder if my problems are power related?

 

Is anyone having similar issues to those I describe above?

I had same issues like your Aries, occurred for a few days when i was on Alpha firmware (before I recently went with beta firmware). It is cerainly frustrating.

 

Also not using a stock power supply, use a VR MINI.

 

ended up a being a setting  in LDS, Network settings, specifically the DNS setting.

was using OpenDNS value, changed to my ISPs DNS value, ... and it was all sorted, no more issues.

previously had been using the opendns value for quite a while, issue only occured recently

 

hope this helps

 

Another suggestion is it maybe worthwhile doing a reset by using a paperclip applied to the reset button underneath the Aries, though that is kind of a last resort type of thing to do, as you need to go thru the whole setup again (including the library setup stuff).

[Duke40]

I just got a reply 30 minutes ago from Auralic regarding my beta bug report, so more replying to beta bug reports should happen,

unless it was just me being lucky.    

 

For some reason my issue only occurred 3 times in the first 24 hours or so (settings being reset) after installing the Beta firmware,

then the issue never occurred again (in the last week).

[Duke40]

On 01/05/2017 at 7:20 PM, pl_svn said:

still having the static noise issue on 5.0 betas 

(goes away as soon as I revert to 4.1.0)

 

all I have been told is it may be due to using an "unqualified power supply" so I tried pulling Vinnie Rossi's Mini Pure-DC-4EVR and using Aries' stock LPS: static noise still there. reported and never heard back

<snip>

 

No upsampling enabled 

I also have VR Mini Pure DC 4EVR powering my Auralic Aries (plus another VR Mini powering my Auralic Gemini 2000).
Best they have ever sounded, superb and ...  no static.
Just providing another data point as far as "unqualified power supply" goes, no problem.

This is for the 5.0.4 and 5.0.2 beta.

 

Upsampling enabled    

When the 5 Beta was initially released, I thought I heard some static when trying upsampling 44.1k to 88.2 khz,

via the Lightning DS webpage.  

 

I have just now re-enabled upsampling again to see if I can also re-create static ... and I can,

even on 5.0.4 Beta.   So now I have same problem as you, I think.

 

tldr;  are you getting static if you do not tell the Aries to upsample ?

[Duke40]

Been doing more listening , I'm getting static, but only in certain situation (when upsampling), also for some reason it takes about 10 minutes before the static occurs, and it get progressively worse. Also hear more in the left channel on my headphone rig.  The sound of the static is like scratched vinyl record static, I fear that I am not articulating myself very well here, but the link below is similar to what I hear.  

youtube vinyl static

 

Not a biggie for me, I actually find the option to choose different filters to have more of a positive effect on SQ, than the upsampling is providing,

so I just turn off the upsampling (which gets rid of the static).

 

So the static that I am hearing is different to pl_svn , and not as critical (at least I can get rid of it by turning upsampling off).

Also, I am using my Aries with WiFi, not ethernet connection. Also using Toslink, not USB.

 

My setup is completely isolated, end to end.

1) D-Link DSL-4320L Cable Modem / WiFi Router which has 3 wifi bands; 1 band 2.4ghz (for most devices), 2nd band 5 ghz for iphone or ipad as a control point (stream Tidal iOS app via Airplay or access Tidal in Lightning DS), 3rd band 5 ghz dedicated to the Aries only. No NAS or local storage, I only use Tidal exclusively.

Power is ; 300W Isolated Power Supply > HD-Plex 100W LPS > iFi Audio DC iPuriifier > D-Link 4320L

2 ) Auralic Aries > Lifatec Glass Toslink optical cable > Auralic Gemini 2000 > Audeze LCD-X

Power is ; Both Auralic devices have their own VR Mini power supply.

 

Just posting in detail, so their is another data point regarding the static.  

While mine is a minor nuisance which I can get rid off,   what pl_svn is experiencing is much more concerning.

Good on Cornan and Scan80269 for making suggestions.