Auralic Aires: Optimizing sound quality

[McMaly]

My personal improvements to better the SQ of the Aries:

 

The Aries sits, together with its psu and the dac, on a stand with sorbathene feet made of Nero Assoluto Granite by Vertex AQ (UK).

 

On top of the Aries there is a tailor-made plate (2 KG weight) of Nero Assoluto Granite with sorbathene feet to suck the vibrations out of the housing.

 

A Pico grounding block by Vertex AQ is connected to the PSU of the Aries and my Resonessence Concero HD dac.

 

The PSU of the Aries is connected to power via an Event power cable by Zuaudio and standing o a set of Tripods by Vertex AQ.

 

I replaced the wall wart 2 amps smps for the HD with a 5 amps non switching mode power supply, put a Zuaudio Birth power cable in front of it and set the phase right.

 

Also did I place my 4 TB WD-HD on a special support stand made of Nero Assoluto granite with sobathene feet under it.

 

The connection between the Aries and the dac is made with an Audioquest Diamond USB cable.

 

An Aubisque USB Filter by Ultrafi is situated between the USB cable and the dac.

 

The connection between the WD HD and the Aries is made with an Audioquest Diamond USB3 cable.

 

The original psu of my airport extreme is replaced by a 5 amps non switching mode power supply with a Zuaudio Bok power cable in front of it.

 

My Netgar NAS its situated on on a special support stand made of Nero Assoluto granite with sobathene feet under it. The original power Cable of the nas has been replaced by a Bok power cable by Zuaudiio.

 

The connections between the Nas and the Airport express as well as the Aries and the Airport express is established with Audioquest Diamond RJ 45 ethernet cables.

 

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

To kick things off, my basic system comprises Auralic Aires-Vega-Taurus into ATC amps and speakers.

 

I started with my SSD library plugged directly into a Netgear R7000 router via USB and compared wifi vs LAN (std CAT5) to Aires. I didn't detect any difference in SQ so stuck with wifi for some time. I figured that with no physical/electrical connection between router and Aires, I didn't have to worry about using a LPSU on the router, LAN isolators, better CAT cable etc. I'm now questioning whether that is true.

 

Adding in a Netgear NAS (with HDD) did not improve SQ.

Using the Aires USB input rather than wifi improved SQ a bit.

Battery powering a SSD attached to Aires USB input improved SQ a bit more.

Going back to wifi was definitely worse. Then I tried battery powering both the router and the SSD attached to the router...that improved SQ. When I changed that set-up from wifi to LAN, I could notice an improvement.

Still working on it.

 

Exactly my findings.... I do prefer the wired connection over the WIFI, even though the cables used up quite some money to establish this.

 

Mr. Wang says: WIFI is best......

 

Right now, the USB HD input sounds best to my ears.

 

I am using it even though the Lightning Server does not seem to like some of my files. So I am very carefully adding albums.

 

I did try various SSDs, USB-Sticks, bus powered 2,5" HDs and external powered HDs.

 

I settled with the external powered 3,5" WD HD in a fanless enclosure with upgraded PSU.

 

It seems that any kind of vibration is altering SQ to the worse.

[McMaly]

Thanks Matthias, you certainly have put a lot of effort into optimising your set-up so are well placed to comment on SQ. I believe that after your HDD tweaks, the SQ via that to Aires over USB was better than via NAS. Could you tell me:

Does your NAS have a std SMPS?

Did you ever test wifi?

 

After the non smps did work better, I changed all PSUs in my setup and am using normal PSUs without switching mode solely now.

 

Quite a lot of mains cleanig is done in my setup with various devices as well.

 

I did try wireless and it sounded brighter and harder as well as not so natural (relaxed) compared to the wired connection.

 

Have in mind that the information transferred via WIFI will have to be converted twice to reach the mainboard of the aries. The wired connection is direct.

 

The wired connection has the disadvantage of travelling fragments of the smps beeing transfered to the Aries.

[McMaly]

All great tips and tweaks.

Start with the isolation and clamping. Along with solid cabling you should have a good start on this craziness:)

I play everything off thumb and 1 tb hdd plugged into the USB. Have used USB cables from Furutech, Cardas Clear, Shunyata, and currently checking out a split cable from YFS.

Matthias could you post a pick of your Aries, I would love to see your clamping set up.

 

Happy New Year

Russ

 

Here are a few pics of the setup.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I got the sorbathene feet from Great Britain. They are 25 Pounds plus shipment for a set of four.

 

The Nero Assoluto base plates are between 80 and 300 Euros depending on their size plus the feet and a special glue to attach the feet to them.

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

McMaly,

 

Is that a Mudrak Audio power strip I see in your photo?

 

If You are talking about the power cord in the PSU for the RSA Headphone amp (the one that is reflecting): this is a Mother power cord by Zuaudio.

[McMaly]

The Power line underneath the table is the Orion model by Isotek.

[McMaly]

After your question I did some „looking out“ what You have been asking for and found the strip You have mentioned.

 

As stated in my last answer: the Power line underneath the table (that is the one You meant) is the Orion model by Isotek.

 

The Mudrak Audio Power strip is looking quite a lot different and one is not able to attach a power cable of own choice to it, because the strip is coming with its own lead that is fitted directly and can not be changed.

[McMaly]

Yes, you are correct. My bad it's Mudra, not Mudrak.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]16153[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]16154[/ATTACH]

 

That is looking quite massive. Nice craftmanship!

 

I startet with a Transparent Audio Power bank and changed it for the Isotek solution with a few sub strips made by Isotek as well.

 

Added some mains clearing devices made by Vertex AQ (UK) as well, that bettered the performance.

 

Have tried different brands, but until now did not find anything that changed the sound in a way I did like better with „my“ setup.

 

Did not try the Mudrak Audio Power strip though......

[McMaly]

I am using an Audioquest Diamond USB3 cable (USB A to USB3).

 

There is no need to put anything in between since the WD (HD) housing has a female USB3 output.

[McMaly]

Got it. That's a USB3.0 micro-B plug (rather than a standard USB3.0 B plug). All my "audiophile" USB cables are std B-plugs so I need to use a generic $5 adaptor to fit them. $1,000 cable with $5 adaptor doesn't seem right.

 

As mentioned, generic HD housings (that I assume all convert USB to SATA) are another concern and I'd guess that is the only weak link in your otherwise totally awesome system....not that I've ever heard of an audiophile-grade replacement.

 

Pls drop me a mail if You run across one......I will definitely try...!

[McMaly]

I'm truly impressed by the effort you've gone to in isolating the Aries, Matthias. Is it possible for you to place a general % of improvement to the sound quality that you feel this has added?

 

It's also great to see my friend Ray Samuels Raptor headphone amplifier all the way over there in Europe. I also own one (number four, in production, in fact)

 

JC

 

 

I do not consider it reputable to name a percentage to describe the increase in SQ.

 

All I can say is that when I started with the Aries it was on par with the Linn Akurate DS1 I have been using before.

 

I did operate the Akurate with the Resonessence Concero HD, that bettered the performance compared to the built in dac of the Akurate.

 

Now it clearly outperforms a Linn Klimax DS.

 

Nice to see, that other citizens populating this „digital environment“ are also liking tubes.

 

The SN of my Raptor is 008.

 

I do like Rays products a lot. I started with a Hornet and now do also own a SR71a, a Shadow and a Nighthawk.

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

Matthias, have you tried wifi vs. wired when playing from your WD HD with Lightning server? If not, perhaps you could try one day and report back e.g. listen on wired; switch Aires to wireless; listen, then unplug ethernet cable and listen again.

Cheers

 

Did not try that since the USB-HD support upgrade, but just did as proposed.

 

It really sounds better, when the Aries is operated wireless using the USB-HD input.

 

So, SQ is altered to the bad side, when the LAN cable ist sitting in its slot on the Aries.

 

Since the USB-HD support (Lightning-Server) is not yet working properly with all my files, as mentioned before, I am still dependend on the wire to access my complete library situated on my NAS.

 

Conclusion: I will get rid of the LAN-wire sticking in my Aries for good, as soon as the Lightning-Server is accepting all my files.

 

I do hope the next firmware-upgrade will fix this.

 

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

Hello,

 

your conclusion is 3.5 HDD is better than SSD and better than 2.5 HDD and USB-sticks?

What are your fanless enclosure and upgraded PSU?

 

Thanks

 

Before I got the Aries I have been playing my DSD files with Audirvana on a Macbook Pro i7 SSD using my Resonessence Concero HD dac.

 

I did a lot of SQ comparisons with multiple USB sticks, SSDs and 2,5" bus powered HDs.

 

The best sounding combination in my case was a 64 GB Micro SD card from Sandisk sitting in a Nifty drive.

 

With this solution the space for my music files was very limited because there is just one slot for the nifty drive in the Macbook Pro.

 

So, I did always have to change the content of the drive to be able to listen to my favourite tracks.

 

The second best choice was a 2,5" bus powered 1 TB My Passport slim drive from WD, that sounded even better than the internal original Apple SSD.

 

I did as well try several Samsung SSDs via the adapter that came with the SSDs without using a special housing for them.

 

The 2,5" bus powered My Passport slim drive from WD came out on top again.

 

I tried various USB-Sticks and bus powered 2,5" HDs and SSDs with the Aries, before I settled for the 4 TB MY Book Studio by WD that I am using right now.

 

I do like the comfort of being able to have ALL my music on one drive, as soon as the incompatibility issues with certain files using Lightning Server will have been solved.

 

Any whatsoever storing device using the Aries USB-port for powering altered the SQ to the bad side.

 

I did also try various external powered 3,5" HDs in housings by LaCie, Seagate and WD.

 

My experience was. If there is a fan and a PSU in the housing the performance is poor.

 

I put my fanless 4 TB My Book Studio WD HD on a special base and replaced the 2 Amp Wallwart SMPS with a 5 Amp linear PSU.

 

Those two changes bettered the SQ a lot.

 

ALL things said before are of course just my personal findings with my gear.

 

Experiences may vary with other persons ears and other gear, as always.

 

 

Things I did not try so far: externally powered SSDs and battery power for my 4TB WD HD.

 

 

Maybe someone on the forum can write about his experiences with this………

 

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

Thanks Matthias for your feedback.

 

Is your last solution (My book powered externally by 5A PSU) has a superior SQ to your first solution 2,5" bus powered My Passport slim drive?

i own already a WD My Passport USB 3.0 2 To bus powered. Space is enough for my need.

I wonder if i could change to another storage solution to improve SQ, so your feedback is very useful.

 

Yes, to my findings the externaly powered 4 TB My BOOK is far superior to the 2,5" bus powered My Passport slim......but only after the 2 mods I did.

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

And what is your special base and model of your 5A LPSU?

 

 

As told earlier, I am using taylormade base plates made of Nero Assoluto Granite with special sorbathene feet glued underneath with a special glue.

 

Try searching for Vertex AQ (UK). Super Kinabalu equipment platform

Right now I am trying a 2nd set of the feet just put on top of the granite without glueing them.

 

So, there is a second set of the feet between the plate and the HD-housing.

 

It always takes a few days for the feet to settle. I will listen to the setup in the end of the week.

 

The PSU is just a standard one originally made for TFT monitors. The filtering has to be very good, because otherwise you will find fragments of the PSU operating on the screen in the picture.

 

I picked it up at a local dealer. So nothing special high end HIFIish. I am using the same one for my Airport Extreme.

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

This may become an annoying mantra, but may I ask how exactly did you test all those things? Any abx or blind testing?

PC storageX vs. storageY would be easy to do with the foobar abx plugin. But linn vs. auralic may get pretty ugly ... so, how exactly did you test that?

 

After using my LP 12 and a few different CD-Players I started up with the Akurate DS, than the DS1, installed the Resonessence dac, tried a few different cables.

 

Next thing I played DSD files through my Macbook Pro. After SQ being so much better than FLAC, I looked for an all in one solution and bought the Aries.

 

All this including installing the base plates, power conditioning etc. took several years.

 

Comparison was done blind testing with a few friends on weekends. The person that did the switch did not tell the others, to what equipment of 2 pieces of gear tested (whatever it was) he did change. We did this a-b-ing several times, when trying to figure out what works (sounds) best.

 

I never went back to older installed gear, when something proofed to be better. The blind tests have always been quite clear. More than just the majority of the persons listening came to identical findings.

 

After all this is just a hobby and one is supposed to have fun with this. I like listening to good music in good quality, like everybody else here...........I suppose.

 

I am not doing this for a special purpose of its own.

 

 

Cheers,

Matthias

[McMaly]

Hello Matthias,

 

i cannot find linear PSU for TFT monitor on the web, do you have a link?

 

 

Sorry JDOz, my post #70 is wrong, i mixed answers from you and Matthias but it would be interesting to compare your solution and Matthias one:)

 

As told before, I did pick up the PSU (2 units he had in stock) at a small local dealer here in town. It is nothing special. Rating says 12 V DC, 5 amp.

 

The dealer has no internet presence.

[McMaly]

I always have had the idea that switching from the stock PSU of the Aries to a more refined solution could better the sound.

 

Coming from the Linn corner originally I know what difference to the LK1 preamp the Dirak PS made in those days. Naim Audio still offers a wide range of PSU upgrades for their current products.

 

I came across the HiFiWERKSTATT hoer-wege PSU for Aries.

 

Stephan Horwege offered me to try his PSU for two weeks on a money back basis if I wouldn’t like what I hear.

 

Already after the first three hours of initial listening, it was clear to me that the PSU would not find its way back to Mr. Horwege….

 

Here are my final impressions after 2 weeks of 24/7 burn in time.

 

The slight artifacts in the high frequencies that I have been able to hear before (but did not know, they were there, before the switch), now all have gone. The whole presentation is a lot more musical (natural) than before, not losing any details on the other side.

 

The bass is tighter and shorter and goes deeper down. The soundstage is more stable and more fine details are recovered from the source material. The background is darker and more quiet.

 

Last, but not least comes the most obvious difference: The musical presentation is a lot faster and more lively than before.

 

One tends to think the power amp has a lot more watts on hand to control the loudspeakers now.

 

With ongoing burn in time the whole presentation smoothes out and becomes more fluid.

 

I did attach a few pics.

 

3 comparisons

 

 

 

 

2 pics from the inside

 

 

 

 

More infos to the PSU can be found here: hoer-wege AURALIC Aries Medien-Player

[McMaly]

Thanks for the writeup - what DAC are you feeding from the Aries?

 

 

I am using a Resonessence Concero HD. Did feed the dac with an AQVOX PS before. Now it sounds better using the Aries to feed the Concero with power.

[McMaly]

Cool - I looked up the German site, but there wasn't a price for the power supply.

How much is it?

 

 

its 550 Euros.