Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[markwb]

Been using 4.0 for a few days and no issues. Biggest change of course is group play and it works great.

[markwb]

OK, I've had some time to really listen to 4.0....

 

-Grouping is really really good. I've heard Sonos and Blusound many times and the Aries timing is amazing. I can stand exactly in the midle of 2 sources are the playback between the two is exactly the same. With the Sonos/Blusound it was always slightly off.

 

-Sound. It does seem there is more 'space' in the music. I agree with anothers comment it might sound a bit 'brighter'.

 

-Only problem I detect is a audible 'click' when manually switching from song to song. This doesnt happen during regular playback.

[markwb]

With FW 4.4 and LDS 3.1 on some albums the file type on LDS shows as 'octet-stream'. In this instance the actual file was FLAC. Anyone know what this means? It plays fine.

 

Also, having trouble with DSD. MQA files work fine.

[markwb]

MQA files to Aries to Brooklyn Dac.

[markwb]

OK. Sure. That was possible before the fw upgrade 4.0

 

.

Yes, but so was DSD and that's not working now.

[markwb]

Has anyone downloaded .6 with a wired connection yet? Scared to!

[markwb]

Anyone here using the 'group' feature? I'm running 2 Aries in a zone and am having problems with drop outs. Never had any real problems before with 3.3.

[markwb]

Although I seem to be the only one here using the grouping feature, Auralic has been able to reproduce the drop outs I'm getting. Working with them on this issue has been first rate. I can't wait to see the new Aries.

[markwb]

Once you get it loaded let us know how the group function works. I've been having tons of problems with it.

[markwb]

Hoping someone here is having similar issues with Aries grouped. I have 2 Aries that play perfectly well at the same time, ungrouped, with a house hold of 5 using my network for a variety of things. TV, internet, wifi, music etc. NEVER a problem with drop outs until the Aries are grouped together. Then with NO other network usage, just the 2 Aries playing 44.1 files I get drop outs. Switch to ungrouped and both play fine. These are the main things happening. All done with SPDIF digital outputs to avoid any USB issues. (Although there are none when ungrouped)

 

 

- 5 seconds into a new track, music stops and Aries display shows time .07, .08, .09, .07, .08 etc.

 

-After leaving and returning about 2 hours later, no music and Master Aries in group not recognized by LDS. Aries remote control wont work. have to do a hard reset.

 

-To eliminate any internet data issues I did a test with a USB drive using Lighting Server, playing only local files. Same drop outs occur.

 

-Same files in LDS, while still playing, show "Octet-Stream" instead of "FLAC" etc.

[markwb]

Re- group play problems. Mr. Wang emailed me a few days ago and they have been able to recreate the stutter/drop out problems I have been having during group play. There is some sort of bandwidth issue when using a wired connection, which I prefer. Switching to wireless only has fixed this problem. The next firmware update will hopefully if this.

[markwb]

Had this happen a few times. You will need to do a hard reset. Button is on the bottom of the Aries.

[markwb]

You guys first! I'm a little afraid to change anything...

 

[markwb]

Using PCM Auto- Detect, with USB, nothing shows as upsamled on my Dac.

[markwb]

If you select PCM Auto Detect and try to change a input sample rate, say 44.1 to 88.2, the PCM Auto Detect automatically turns off.