Auralic Aires: Optimizing sound quality

[russellbobby]

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 The original power Cable of the nas has been replaced by a Bok power cable by Zuaudiio.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

 

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

[russellbobby]

Kinda speechless here. May I ask how much did you pay for those Nero Assoluto plates and the sorbathene feet?

Vibrapods ( I believe are made from sorbathene) Last time I bought them were about 24 bucks for 4 ( Model 1)

 

Nero Assoluto I believe that is a type of granite. I would go with 3/4 inch thickness. Try a book for the heck of it. I even heard of a guy using a hockey puck Go Sharks!! I had a few brass footers laying around. Big improvement

[russellbobby]

Impressive!

 

Would like to hear exactly how you guys connect your SSD or HDD to the Aires USB input. At some point there needs to be a SATA-USB adaptor; either in a disk caddy or dock or adaptor plug. I'm concerned that the only ones I can find are very very cheap and may affect SQ.

 

Matthias, I figure you are using a linear PSU to supply the 12V to your HDD. SSDs don't need the 12V but both need the 5V. I think your 5V is coming from the Aires through the USB cable. It also seems to me that my SATA-USB adaptor itself requires 5V.

 

I made a DIY cable (of terrible quality no doubt) to separate the data and 5V power connections to my SSD. Battery power now feeds the SSD through a SOtM SATA filter. A cheap SATA data cable connects the SSD to the SATA-USB adaptor and a generic USB cable connects that to the Aires. In this way, the SSD is powered by filtered battery power while the Aires 5V USB-out powers only the SATA-USB adaptor. The SQ is improved this way.

 

Prior to adding the SATA filter, I thought battery powering the SSD directly was better than using a split USB cable to provide battery power through the SATA-USB adaptor. This made me think that these cheap SATA-USB adaptor circuits add noise to the power flowing through them and into the SSD/HDD.

 

Russelbobby, I'm keen to hear how you go with USB cables. I tried a Cardas USB cable, an Elijah split cable and a LH LightSpeed split cable. The latter seems to only work if both the data and power ends are plugged into the same device.

 

The YFS power leg goes to an unused usb in the back of the Modwright Oppo 105. Works like a champ . Just got a couple of Odyssey Kismets monoblocks yesterday. The Aries is sounding better than ever. Still say junk the case and build a more rigid and damped one. By the time you have it isolated and clamped it is not looking all that good anyways.

[russellbobby]

Anyone else notice the 'damper' that Auuralic have under their Aries at CES. Checkout the pics on their FB page. The comments don't describe what it is other than being a 'damper' that apparently improves sound.

 

Very similar to what folks are using under their Mac Mini's. Sure that is what it was designed for.

[russellbobby]

Lots of interesting ideas in this thread. I just received my Aries yesterday and will just allow it to settle in a few days before attempting anything. That's more to allow my ears to get used to what I'm hearing. I need to get acclimated to all the improvements over my Mac Mini that was running A+.

 

A Nordost Magus power cord is supplying power to the Aries' LPS. I think I saw a fuse holder in the back of the LPS, so I may at some point try to swap in an audiophile fuse. That's lower priority though than addressing vibration.

 

I have a spare set of Stillpoints cones that I will try under the Aries. I also have a Herbie's SuperSonic Stabilizer that I can try to place on the top of the Aries.

 

 

Hey Kenny,

Wondered how the Stillpoints and the Stabilizer worked out with the Aries. Huge I bet

[russellbobby]

Very interesting thread... I have 4 absorbers below the Aries (and 4 under its power supply) and now tried adding a record weight (350g) on top of the Aries. I have been listening for an hour now doing a/b comparison (albeit not blind), and in my system the impact on SQ is significant... Bass are firmer, soundstage is deeper, things just got into a better place. Keen to hear if others have similar experiences.

 

If of interest here is the link to the weight (I use their absorbers as well, great quality brand at the right price)

 

Analog Accessories

 

My findings exactly.. although my stuff sits on a console.. not an audiophile rack. So I am sure my vibrations are quite a bit higher that with folks who have dedicated stands.