Auralic Aries (Hardware) - Impressions and Information

[markwb]

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

[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 :-)

[alice]

When updating the software can you avoid beta updates ? 

[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.

[2string1]

I guess this forum is for smart people only. Nobody wants to help me.

[Morph]

Shame that those of us with the Mini are excluded from the upsampling. Bring on the Mk2.

[Hauser]

25 minutes ago, 2string1 said:

How would one check the Vega to see if it is actually upsampling.I'm extremely green when it comes to this. 

Vega does not upsample/downsample.  Streamer does this.  Vega plays sample rate given and this is enumerated on display.

 

Martin.

[2string1]

OK Thank You so how do you tell the Aries to upsample?

[alice]

Would like to know whether you use the Uptone Regen with your Aries, wanted to know whether I need to get one or it doesn't make any audible improvement with the Aries.

[Morph]

4 minutes ago, alice said:

Would like to know whether you use the Uptone Regen with your Aries, wanted to know whether I need to get one or it doesn't make any audible improvement with the Aries.

Did use the Regen but it was usurped and out performed by the  Wyred4sound Recovery USB reclocker. It's still in my system after a year. 

[pl_svn]

48 minutes ago, Duke40 said:

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 ... 

 

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

[austinpop]

33 minutes ago, 2string1 said:

OK Thank You so how do you tell the Aries to upsample?

 

Go to the web UI, and to the Processor Setup pane.

 

Notice the table of sample rates in 2 columns. This is where you tell the Aries to upsample. You need to know the sample rate of the source - i.e. the track or file you want to play. Say it is 16/44.1 - i.e. normal CD quality.

 

Find the row with 44.1 on the left column. Or the right column, set to 88.2 or 176.4, or 352.8 up to the capability of your DAC. I think with PCM Auto-Detect on, you will only be presented with choices that are valid for your DAC. When upsampling, it is always preferable to upsample by integer multiples of the original, so for a 44.1 source, 88.2 is preferable to 96.

 

This should get you started.

[austinpop]

25 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

 

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.

[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 :-)

[2string1]

21 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Go to the web UI, and to the Processor Setup pane.

 

Notice the table of sample rates in 2 columns. This is where you tell the Aries to upsample. You need to know the sample rate of the source - i.e. the track or file you want to play. Say it is 16/44.1 - i.e. normal CD quality.

 

Find the row with 44.1 on the left column. Or the right column, set to 88.2 or 176.4, or 352.8 up to the capability of your DAC. I think with PCM Auto-Detect on, you will only be presented with choices that are valid for your DAC. When upsampling, it is always preferable to upsample by integer multiples of the original, so for a 44.1 source, 88.2 is preferable to 96.

 

This should get you started.

Well like I said I'm green when it comes to this stuff. How do I get to the web UI? I am still using V 4.1

[pl_svn]

web UI is a new feature only available in fw 5.0

[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.

[2string1]

5 minutes ago, pl_svn said:

web UI is a new feature only available in fw 5.0

Oh OK so I can't choose a sample rate with LDS 4.1 right.

[mikey8811]

8 hours 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.

 

I have PCM Auto Detect enabled but my PCM sample rates are still set to the original rates without upsampling.

 

Could it be that you have to choose the destination upsampled rates to perform upsampling?

 

In my case, I had read PCM Auto Detect to be more useful for downsampling purposes ie. one may have an older R2R DAC with a ceiling sampling rate of 96 kHz - indeed I have one of those too. So when you feed a higher resolution file to it, it will not decode the signal. However, when PCM Auto Detect is selected, it will appropriately downsample to the lower ceiling sampling rate that DAC can handle.

 

Of course, that works with upsampling too.

[wanta911]

I use digital room correction, a miniDSP DDRC-22D follows my Aries femto and re-samples everything to 96kHz anyway and that's followed by my Metrum Pavane DAC. It took me a lot of tweaking with curves to get my setup where I wanted and I haven't touched it for the last 4 to 5 months - just been enjoying glorious sound.

 

My initial thought on 5.0 beta2 in my setup is increased brightness with a loss of warmth/weight? I just have it set on PCM Auto-Detect with the smooth filter. I'll give it a bit more time but I'll roll back to version 4 at some stage to see if the difference I'm hearing is real.

[hemidemisemiquaver]

Is anyone else having problems with getting the radio to work since version 5.0 beta 2. It did work for me with Version 5.0 beta 1 but not now.

Am I the only one that is having this problem ?

[alice]

So the common consensus on audio quality is version 4 sounds better compared to 5 ?

[Leeuwarden]

No. I do not agree to that. I am really very, very happy with 5 beta!

[alice]

1 minute ago, Leeuwarden said:

No. I do not agree to that. I am really very, very happy with 5 beta!

I just got my Aries today but reading through the thread it seems people have said they found a drop in quality.

I was asking because au want to make sure I don't update if it's not refined.

[Cornan]

Just now, alice said:

I just got my Aries today but reading through the thread it seems people have said they found a drop in quality.

I was asking because au want to make sure I don't update if it's not refined.

 

I can tell you that for the first time since I got my Aries Mini several years ago I have left BubbleDS Next on Android tablet for LightningDS on iPad3 thanks to 4.2/5.0 beta 1. MQA sounds marvelous with "Smooth" setting and normal FLAC sounds close enough to BubbleDS Next for me to be comfortable with the switch (ie. not quite there yet with normal FLAC, but I strongly beleive it will catch up when it leaves Beta).