Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[George Hincapie]

Curious

 

Do you have personal experience with that cable?

[George Hincapie]

I have very positive experience with "iFi Mercury" USB cable. Connected from my Aries directly to Lyngdorf TDAI 2170 digital amp. Very clean, detailed sound. Nothing to complain about so far. Definitely better than my previous "Furutech Formula 2", which itself is very good cable...

Thank you, I'll look into it.

[George Hincapie]

Has anyone experience with the Sablon Reserva or Elite USB cables?

[2string1]

Do you have personal experience with that cable?

Yup that's what I use. I have the Aries and Vega. All I can say is it sounds great. I've read nothing but good things about it.

[George Hincapie]

I know this is a very personal question, but does the performance justify the cost for you?

 

I know I have to try one and make up my own mind, but I would like some comfort it will perform better than the PYST USB given the massive difference in cost.

[2string1]

Never compared it to anything else. Just went by the reviews. I don't think the price is that bad. There are higher priced cables out there. If I'm going to spend the kind of money I did on the Aries and Vega why buy a 20 dollar cable to connect them. I feel the performance justifies the cost and gives me piece of mind.

[austinpop]

Hi Mike,

I am using SBooster linear power supply for my Aries, highly recommended!

Anyway, i can send you my original Aries LE supply (EU 230V version), as i dont need it anymore. For free to you, just postage. If interested, send me PM.

Not sure if he took you up on it, but I just wanted to say thanks for making this offer.

 

This is yet another example of the amazing, generous people one encounters on CA.

[austinpop]

Curious

I currently use Curious. Length matters too. The shorter the better. Unlike in other areas of life.

 

I haven't done extensive comparisons, but I preferred the short Curious 0.2m to my previous Cardas Clear 2m. More recently, as part of a component comparison at another CA'er, he preferred my Curious cables to his Oyaide Neo d+.

 

FWIW.

[mizu42]

@Koso thank you for the great offer! You have a PM.

@pl_svn thanks for the Polarity info! So I can test with my lab PSU until I have a standard one.

Thank you all for the great support here!!

 

Best,

Mike

[MNG]

just to be sure: are you talking about an Aries, Aries LE or Aries Mini?

 

I use Aries in the same context as you have above, so the big Aries. Sbooster was a decent improvement over the Aries power supply.

[George Hincapie]

Has anyone used a Uptone Regen between DAC and Aries? If so, what has been your experience of the sonic improvement?

[hornytoad]

Has anyone used a Uptone Regen between DAC and Aries? If so, what has been your experience of the sonic improvement?

 

I'll give you my take . The Regen made considerable improvement to audio quality with Delta Sigma dacs but only marginal improvement to R2R dacs like the Schiit Yggdrasil .

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[George Hincapie]

Thanks.

 

I am going to buy either the Curious or the Sablon Elite USB cables, but wasn't sure if the Regen would offer an improvement. My DAC is the Metrum Musette which uses the HiFace USB implementation.

[hornytoad]

Thanks.

 

I am going to buy either the Curious or the Sablon Elite USB cables, but wasn't sure if the Regen would offer an improvement. My DAC is the Metrum Musette which uses the HiFace USB implementation.

 

I have not used a Nos dac with the Regen so I'm not sure what improvement you would get with it .

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[jcn3]

I'll give you my take . The Regen made considerable improvement to audio quality with Delta Sigma dacs but only marginal improvement to R2R dacs like the Schiit Yggdrasil .

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

 

for me, i did get benefit by adding the regen in front of my gumby. i think the reason that there wasn't much improvement with the yggy is the usb gen 3 module (gumby only has usb gen 2 module).

[mizu42]

for me, i did get benefit by adding the regen in front of my gumby. i think the reason that there wasn't much improvement with the yggy is the usb gen 3 module (gumby only has usb gen 2 module).

 

What is the difference between gen2 and gen3 technically?

[jcn3]

What is the difference between gen2 and gen3 technically?

 

the usb gen 3 module is more advanced (the cmedia chip is different) -- not sure of the details . . . .

 

it's the first usb implementation that schiit seems to be excited about.

[hornytoad]

the usb gen 3 module is more advanced (the cmedia chip is different) -- not sure of the details . . . .

 

it's the first usb implementation that schiit seems to be excited about.

 

Yeah Schiit is not too fond of USB .

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[Jay Tee]

just to be sure: are you talking about an Aries, Aries LE or Aries Mini?

 

no idea about the SBooster but tried and found, with my Aries, that:

- HDPlex 100w was better than stock LPS

- UpTone's JS-2 was wow!

- Vinnie Rossi's Mini-Pure-4evr blows even the UpTone away

PL-svn

Just saw this post and found it very instructive. I too found the JS-2 took my Aries to another level above the stock Auralic LPS. Now you say the new Rossi Mini-Pure blows away the JS-2. Could you elaborate on the sonic differences?

[pl_svn]

Could you elaborate on the sonic differences?

same as when you replaced Aries' stock LPS with the JS-2: darker background, more air, better focus/soundstage etc

you get some more of that all when moving from the JS-2 to the Mini-PureDC

 

now... $1000 more? no, but if you have something else that would benefit from being powered by the JS-2 (I'm now using it for both a Mac mini and a 2Qute, the latter was previously powered by the HD-Plex)... imho worth it

and I believe Vinnie has a 30 days return policy (check about this)

[realsoftmonkey]

Some help would be appreciated. I’m running a Macbook Pro with Audirvana + into my Antelope Zodiac DAC, and the Macbook’s hard drive is on its last legs. So I need to upgrade this. It seems I have some options:

 

A) upgrade the Pro with a SSD (not able to do this myself), keep everything else (cheapest option)

B) buy a new Macmini, upgrade with SSD

C) buy Auralic Aries

 

I am currently having some trouble with the Lightning app, as it confuses some album and tracks titles, and the album art seems hit or miss. I am no fan of iTunes, but at least I am able to edit album art and edit metadata, which I am not able to do if I use Minimserver.

 

My immediate questions are these:

Does the Aries sound noticeably better than the Macbook Pro or mini?

Is there a way to edit metadata in a upnp system like Minimserver?

Thanks for your help. Learning a lot.

 

Go properly set up networked audio every time, it's a different class to computer USB. You can't compare the two when done right.

[George Hincapie]

So i bought the Sablon Panatela Reserva USB. I can't tell the difference between it and the Schiit PYST USB, which is shocking considering the PYST is £20 and the Sablon over £400. Plugged directly from Aries to DAC. I just can't hear any significant difference. I feel as thought I ought to be able to.

[GTX]

The appreciation of cables upgrade is in my experience system dependent. I have 2 set-ups at home: one with Aries+Devialet 250, one with Aurender N10+COS D1. I have tried 4 different USB cables from £30 to 900 and have found significant differences. The sablon is my persona favorite particularly with the higher end system (Aurender / cos): superior soundstage, more transparent, just more synergistic with the rest of my system!

[George Hincapie]

My system is incredibly resolving. I have 30 days with it, so I am going to do more listening, but I was expecting an immediate and significant improvement. I will revisit this initial view in a few weeks.

[Kelly]

Hi, I am considering getting an Aries for use with a Genelec system as a Roon endpoint. The Genelec needs AES input so the list of streamers that will work is limited. Does anyone use it this way and have any comments on the AES/SPDIF quality relative to other sources? I am also considering the Bryston BDP-2 but I like the form factor of the Aries better (also the price.) Anyone with any other recommendations? The higher end Aurenders are out of my budget.