Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[miguelito]

I tried Roon about month or so ago and really liked the layout and functionality but ended up canceling because I thought the sound quality on LDS was a bit better.

 

Wonder with roon 1.2 if it's improved...

I run Roon on a maxed out 2012 mini. I play three possible ways:

1- Roon->USB->DAC

2- Roon->HQPlayer->USB->DAC (upsampling to DSD64 in HQP)

3- Roon->Aries->AES->DAC

 

2 is better than 1 (not by a massive amount but better). 3 I haven't A/B'd with 2, but is magical. I was sort of stunned by the quality, really incredible. I have not compared this with LDS+minimserver (which I could) because I will not ever play without Roon again - unless I am forced to (like portables).

 

My point: Aries as a Roon endpoint is fantastic.

[hornytoad]

I run Roon on a maxed out 2012 mini. I play three possible ways:

1- Roon->USB->DAC

2- Roon->HQPlayer->USB->DAC (upsampling to DSD64 in HQP)

3- Roon->Aries->AES->DAC

 

2 is better than 1 (not by a massive amount but better). 3 I haven't A/B'd with 2, but is magical. I was sort of stunned by the quality, really incredible. I have not compared this with LDS+minimserver (which I could) because I will not ever play without Roon again - unless I am forced to (like portables).

 

My point: Aries as a Roon endpoint is fantastic.

 

Are you using HQ Player with the Aries &Roon ?is this even possible ?

[wanta911]

I run Roon on a maxed out 2012 mini. I play three possible ways:

1- Roon->USB->DAC

2- Roon->HQPlayer->USB->DAC (upsampling to DSD64 in HQP)

3- Roon->Aries->AES->DAC

 

2 is better than 1 (not by a massive amount but better). 3 I haven't A/B'd with 2, but is magical. I was sort of stunned by the quality, really incredible. I have not compared this with LDS+minimserver (which I could) because I will not ever play without Roon again - unless I am forced to (like portables).

 

My point: Aries as a Roon endpoint is fantastic.

 

Hey Miggy,

 

I'm genuinely curious.....some time back I remember you saying that the Aries wasn't quite there for you as far as SQ was concerned. What do you put the improvement down to?

 

Cheers

[miguelito]

Are you using HQ Player with the Aries &Roon ?is this even possible ?

Roon -> Aries does not use HQPlayer. I would very much like for Aries to implement NAA in which case this would be possible.

 

But Aries over AES to my DAC - no upsampling anywhere - really sounds great.

[miguelito]

Hey Miggy,

 

I'm genuinely curious.....some time back I remember you saying that the Aries wasn't quite there for you as far as SQ was concerned. What do you put the improvement down to?

 

Cheers

When I compared Aries+LDS over USB vs mini+LPS+Audirvana over USB, I preferred the latter. At the time I noted that Aries over AES was better (to my ears, in my system) than Aries over USB.

 

I haven't done much back and forth comparisons honestly, I am very satisfied with the combo Roon+Aries over AES to my DAC, it's musical. Granted I could do some comparisons and I probably will, it's just my job is so consuming right now that I have no desire to tinker.

[hornytoad]

When I compared Aries+LDS over USB vs mini+LPS+Audirvana over USB, I preferred the latter. At the time I noted that Aries over AES was better (to my ears, in my system) than Aries over USB.

 

I haven't done much back and forth comparisons honestly, I am very satisfied with the combo Roon+Aries over AES to my DAC, it's musical. Granted I could do some comparisons and I probably will, it's just my job is so consuming right now that I have no desire to tinker.

 

Yeah Roon is the best music software by far I have ever used , particularly if you have a large library and use Tidal .

[atletico]

I tried Roon about month or so ago and really liked the layout and functionality but ended up canceling because I thought the sound quality on LDS was a bit better.

 

Wonder with roon 1.2 if it's improved...

 

I have now tested Roon for some days and the functionality is very impressive and my music on NAS library looks amazing and also a superb integration with Tidal.

But after doing some serious listening on my well known reference music samples this is my conclusion:

 

Using my iPad Air 2 with LDS with music from the NAS to the Aries sound better than using ROON ➜ Aries from my new MacBook Pro from the same NAS. This was a disappointment for me and I will never accept a degrading in sound quality in my system

The sound from ROON present a bit smaller soundstage both in depth and wide. The mid ( voices) and the bass is also presented better with LDS. Actually the first thing I noticed when I started playing from ROON ➜ Aries from my NAS was the bass sounded less weighty and I lost some information in the deepest frequencies.

Someone else who have tested the difference between ROON and LDS to Aries?

atletico

[hornytoad]

I have now tested Roon for some days and the functionality is very impressive and my music on NAS library looks amazing and also a superb integration with Tidal.

But after doing some serious listening on my well known reference music samples my conclusion is clear:

Using my iPad Air 2 with LDS with music from the NAS to the Aries sound better than using ROON ➜ Aries from my new MacBook Pro from the same NAS. This was a disappointment for me and I will never accept a degrading in sound quality in my system

The sound from ROON present a little smaler soundstage both in depth and wide. The mid ( voices) and the bass ( have more weight) is also presented better with LDS. Someone else who have tested the difference between ROON and LDS to Aries?

atletico

 

Did you test it using HQ Player with Roon ?You can download the demo and works for 30 minutes at a time .

[hornytoad]

I run Roon on a maxed out 2012 mini. I play three possible ways:

1- Roon->USB->DAC

2- Roon->HQPlayer->USB->DAC (upsampling to DSD64 in HQP)

3- Roon->Aries->AES->DAC

 

2 is better than 1 (not by a massive amount but better). 3 I haven't A/B'd with 2, but is magical. I was sort of stunned by the quality, really incredible. I have not compared this with LDS+minimserver (which I could) because I will not ever play without Roon again - unless I am forced to (like portables).

 

My point: Aries as a Roon endpoint is fantastic.

I dont see anyway to play HQ player and Roon together using the Aries as an endpoint. Is this possible?

[mordante]

I recently bought an Aries LE that feeds my Wadia 12 over AES/ebu. Next I'm lookin to replace the Wadia with something that can handle up to 24/192.

 

Right now I do not have any hires files but maybe in the future I do. However I'm a bit put of by USB right now. I do not have much experience with usb audio. But when I read the forum and see what is need to get usb to sound good. I think fuck it. I'll just keep using BNC or AES/ebu.

 

Or is the USB output of the Aries LE that much better?

 

The DACs I'm considering are Schiit Gumby, Metrum Musette or Moon 280DSD in that order.

[rhmmmm]

Extract out the stereo DSF tracks, using something like ISO2DSD

Sonore APPS - ISO2DSD

 

Hey Ted, all... I have a ton of SACS ISO rips and JRiver works great at organizing these for me. I can use JRemote to play these through my phone or even a remote instance of JRiver on a PC hooked up to my DAC via USB to play the files natively with DSD though my Meitner DAC.

 

When I direct LDS to access the JRiver library, all my FLAC and hi Rez PCM tracks play fine, but the DSD tracks do not play. I would think that since it is coming from JRiver as a DLNA library, that it would work anyways. All of the albums and tracks are enumerated properly. What am I missing or is for some reason this scenario not supported? If hate to have to extract all the DSD/DSF files from all the ISO tracks since JRiver has support to enumerate the files within the ISOs just fine. It would take me days to reorganize everything and consume a few more terabytes on my array to do this and I'm trying to avoid that.

[pl_svn]

... 120pages already?

 

 

sorry: not reading back the whole thread (also 'cause looks things have changed recently and still keep changing)

 

very tempted by the Aries "full" but still wondering if it will sound better than my dedicated Mac mini powered by blah blah blah (all details in my signature)

Roon integration makes it even more tempting, though when I tried Roon (in a Server/Bridge configuration, Bridge only on my dedicated mini, Server on another Mini in the network) I found it not quite on par with A+ for SQ

 

not really interested in the "it's easier" side: just on SQ. advices?

 

thanks

[Leeuwarden]

Why not ask your local Auralic dealer to try an Aries at home. It's probably the only way to find out...

[pl_svn]

yup, called this morning but they don't do that

[Leeuwarden]

Try another dealer... I bought mine online... I had the possibility to send it back in case I didn't like it.

[baddog]

Are you using any filters or up sampling in A+?

[mjb]

not really interested in the "it's easier" side: just on SQ. advices?

 

thanks

I'm a long time A+ user, headless 2012 MacMini i7, 16Gb RAM, etc, optical S/PDIF to an SSP-800 - in my case, an Aries LE is very noticeably nicer to listen to, much cleaner and more precise. I'm very happy with it.

[pl_svn]

Try another dealer... I bought mine online... I had the possibility to send it back in case I didn't like it.

 

found a good deal online (official price, here, is inflated to 1750€ ) but it will come from Germany, returns accepted though... kind of an headache one wants to go through only as a very last resort :-/

 

 

Are you using any filters or up sampling in A+?

 

x2 to a NOS DAC

 

 

I'm a long time A+ user, headless 2012 MacMini i7, 16Gb RAM, etc, optical S/PDIF to an SSP-800 - in my case, an Aries LE is very noticeably nicer to listen to, much cleaner and more precise. I'm very happy with it.

 

your Mini is running on stock internal SMPS? oh... wait... Aries LE so SMPS too

 

thanks, this helps

[pl_svn]

ok... looks my (price) proposal has been accepted by the seller and... I'll soon be able to answer my own question

 

LOL

 

[mjb]

Cool, congrats!

[mikey8811]

Is anyone using the Auralic Aries with Femto clocks and LPS with a Wyred 4 Sound Recovery?

 

Was wondering if there are any merits to the USB reclocking as the Aries already has built in Femto clocks. My DAC is the Cary DAC 200ts which also has onboard non chip reclocking.

 

Any experience appreciated.

[Ralph Richter Jr]

I have been having a problem streaming AIFF and DSD files. I am using a the Auralic Aries to stream music from my Bryston BDP-2 internal drive into a second system. I use the Lightning DS app for control. Everything works and sounds great except all of the files encoded in AIFF and DSD do not show up. The Artist and Album are listed but the individual tracks are missing. The Aries plays them just fine if I put them on a hard drive and play them directly from the hard drive. I converted some of the AIFF files into FLAC and they show up. When I convert them back to AIFF they are gone again. Not sure where the problem is. Any ideas? Thanks!

[pl_svn]

so... got a "femto" Aries a couple of days ago

 

setup was a breeze

only struggled a bit, no idea why, to add my Qobuz account (login/pw was rejected a couple of times then, finally, accepted) and to figure where/how to add my music library on a NAS

 

then, first, I compared it "out of the box, just the way it comes" to my Mac mini setup (see my signature) and found... the Mac mini does sound hands down considerably better!

 

I was doing the Aries no favour at all: stock LPS and a Wireworld Starlight 7 USB cable straight to the DAC

AES-EBU, also with a cheap Wireworld cable, was better but... still far away from the Mini

tried using it as Roon ready device (Roon core only running on the Mac mini) but it didn't help either

 

things changed drastically the instant I added both the Regen and the Audiophilleo to the Aries' USB out: at this point SQ was totally on par with the Mac

I'm quite sure (... or is it just whishful thinking? :nervous: ) it will get even better the instant I'll power the Aries from my JS-2 LPS

 

I'm, though, still finding Aries' sound signature overall "a little" warm-ish and dark-ish (maybe even a tad more using it with Roon)

but the more I listen the more I find it "acceptable". which I'm not sure it is what I want

 

 

so... sound signature (which is only a matter of personal preferences) apart:

a "femto" Aries + Regen + Audiophilleo sounds as good as a Mac mini with all the tweaks in my signature

 

not sure, at this point, if I'm or

 

[hornytoad]

so... got a "femto" Aries a couple of days ago

 

setup was a breeze

only struggled a bit, no idea why, to add my Qobuz account (login/pw was rejected a couple of times then, finally, accepted) and to figure where/how to add my music library on a NAS

 

then, first, I compared it "out of the box, just the way it comes" to my Mac mini setup (see my signature) and found... the Mac mini does sound hands down considerably better!

 

I was doing the Aries no favour at all: stock LPS and a Wireworld Starlight 7 USB cable straight to the DAC

AES-EBU, also with a cheap Wireworld cable, was better but... still far away from the Mini

tried using it as Roon ready device (Roon core only running on the Mac mini) but it didn't help either

 

things changed drastically the instant I added both the Regen and the Audiophilleo to the Aries' USB out: at this point SQ was totally on par with the Mac

I'm quite sure (... or is it just whishful thinking? :nervous: ) it will get even better the instant I'll power the Aries from my JS-2 LPS

 

I'm, though, still finding Aries' sound signature overall "a little" warm-ish and dark-ish (maybe even a tad more using it with Roon)

but the more I listen the more I find it "acceptable". which I'm not sure it is what I want

 

 

so... sound signature (which is only a matter of personal preferences) apart:

a "femto" Aries + Regen + Audiophilleo sounds as good as a Mac mini with all the tweaks in my signature

 

not sure, at this point, if I'm or

 

So what dac are you using ?

[pl_svn]

So what dac are you using ?

 

Metrum Hex, as per my signature