The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[rwwjr44]

A good place to discuss Aurender products.

[rwwjr44]

Not really sure but... Let's see how it goes or suggest a better title and we will see.

[rwwjr44]

A new app update is available. Mostly Tidal and WiMP updates. Also fixes the missing text problem.

[rwwjr44]

Upgraded App Version to 2.0.7 and Firmware to newest release 4.3.78 on Friday, ever since I feel a decline in WIMP/Tidal responsiveness especially when seaching for artists and their album catalogue. Takes quite some time before album tracks are listed. Some searches didn't even show results (no artist found), while searching on iPhone app worked flawless.

 

Anyone with similar observations ?

 

Do you have a number of other apps running? How much memory is available?

[rwwjr44]

I haven't tried Tidal so I can't offer more help. I suggest contacting Aurender.

[rwwjr44]

New update today - System SW 4(5).3.83 / App 2.0.7

 

- Update Scanner

○ Improved flac, wav and ape file detection

○ Fixed sometimes scanner never finished.

○ Compatible with AMM 1.3

 

 

- Fixed recently played song playlist does not work properly.

 

 

- TIDAL improvement

○ Add long press menu for an album/playlist image to add all songs in an album or a playlist

○ Supports links for an album in the artist biography.

○ Supports similar artists in the artist detail view.

○ Now favourites can be sorted by date of added or title. (Current default is the title, but will be changed to the date of added.

Also will be saved the order in the next release).

○ Shows song/album details for the currently playing

○ Fixed TIDAL does not shows nothing in specific condition.ㅆ

○ Fixed other many bugs related to TIDAL

 

 

- Improved scanner status

 

 

- Now "Add all files" will be shown if there is any files on a folder.

 

 

- Fixed other bugs and improved stability

[rwwjr44]

It is the second upgrade from last week (I THINK )

[rwwjr44]

If it is standby, you can also "wake it up" by selecting a music selection on the iPad. I usually put my Aurender in standby mode manually and it "wakes up" when I select some music to play.

[rwwjr44]

Hi all,

I own my Aurender X100 for almost a year now and I still haven't figured out how to organise favourites by using the Aurender app. Unfortunately the user manual isn't really helpful and my orginal plan to ask Aurender reps at Munich High-End was frustrated by female jumping the gun activities for a pinpointing short notice weekend trip to Italy . High-End actually starts on a German public holiday and gives the opportunity for an extended weekend .. too bad.

Once you press the star buttom in the Aurender app, you usually expect to find those favourite albums and songs you have marked with stars

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18177[/ATTACH]

But once I mark an album with stars

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18178[/ATTACH]

It will not be displayed when I filter for favourites, even when I initiate a CleanScan of library or if I rebuild title database ... favourites are still empty

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18179[/ATTACH]

Even the star indication that was previously marked is reset once I reload the album

[ATTACH=CONFIG]18180[/ATTACH]

 

Any ideas ?

Tom

 

Since reading your post I have rated a few albums. They are all displayed when I depress the "Star" button AND none of the other buttons (if the album doesn't fall in these categories) "DSD" or "16/24" buttons are also depressed. In other words, if the album is a 16/41 file it will show as long as the "DSD" and "16/24" buttons aren't depressed. This also applies to the number of days for displaying new albums button.

[rwwjr44]

Contact Aurender or perhaps your dealer. They will probably want screen shots of the app. Usually they are good at getting things fixed.

[rwwjr44]

My X100 is working as advertised and the sound is excellent. How about you?

[rwwjr44]

Seems there were updates yesterday

 

• Lastest Version : System Software Version 4(5).3.107 - Released on May 12 2015
  
• Aurender App Version 2.1.8 - Released on May 12 2015
  

 

Everything installed seamlessly. Since I am not a Tidal user, I have not comments. I have yet to see if there are any execution problems with the other updates and "bug fixes".

[rwwjr44]

HDgeorge:

 

The benefits of Roon + Aurender remain to be seen since Roon has not even released their software to the world (later this week I guess). There will be a 14-day free trial so we can all determine any benefits for ourselves.

 

The reason I'm excited about Roon is because it promises, in theory, to bring you closer to the music you already have in your library (and favorites in Tidal if you subscribe to Tidal) by linking to a ton of interesting information on that music. Personally, I think this would enhance and enrich my appreciation for the music.

 

The problem is that Roon must be run on a standard Mac or PC operating system, so unless Roon and Aurender work out some sort of deal whereby Roon is integrated into the Aurender Conductor app, then an Aurender owner who wants to use Roon would still need a computer.

 

I can actually envision a scenario where I install Roon on my MacBook Pro, hook up my 2.5 TB music collection via USB, and get Roon to index my library. I could then browse through my library using Roon and access all the presumably cool links and information in the Roon database, while still using the Conductor app to actually listen to the music. In other words, the listening experience would be through Aurender and the browsing experience would be through my laptop.

 

This may in fact become the preferred choice for people who want to stick with the software player of their choice (Aurender's Conductor, Auralic's Lightning, Audirvana, HQPlayer, etc.). It does complicate life, though.

 

I actually don't own an Aurender yet but it seems that's the direction I'm headed in. I'm going to try out Roon with my present Mac Mini/Audirvana system and see how that works over the next month.

 

Something similar to Gracenotes (which is not directly available to end users)? Having your computer running is a definite minus for me, otherwise I am all for it.

[rwwjr44]

Brian,

 

Please tell us about the new N10 (described at AudioStream here Aurender N10 | AudioStream). Is it the replacement for the S10? Is it better than the S10?

 

Bob

[rwwjr44]

I talked to one of them, they used aurender last year. It frequently failed .... so now he's just using his ps audio cd transport again. This guy produces open dipole speakers and was also present this year in Munich in hall 4 not far from Aurender. Also talked to Eric Shim, and asked for Tidal support and MQA. To see his reaction, I mentioned the words "open source" during the MQA topic and he completely changed and closed and the talk was soon over.

 

They clearly want to hide that Aurender is using open source software like MPD and change the subject. I know some MPD devs are not happy with the open source GPL violation by Aurender. I used to be on of the MPD development mailing list and also submitted some patch to improve MPD. I used MPD in my previous products, nowadays i use another open source player.

 

I must admit the Aurender build quality is impressive, and being able to sell open source software for these amounts ...... furthermore they really hide the motherboards by using large heat sinks, and also not showing the ATX panel but patching ethernet & USB through to the backpanel is very clever to fool audiophiles into thinking it is not a PC, but it still is. I had the chance to make photo's of the internals of all Aurender products.

 

I must admit it is very clever marketing and aesthetics. Also learned from a distributor that dealer margin on the little Aurenders is not impressive and not market conform. Also spoke to another Dutch manufacturer who also was an Aurender dealer was kicked because his 2.000 € music server with a standard SOtM card outperformed the Aurender S10, and told me the little Aurenders are nowhere near. The Dutch distributor doesn't want Aurender products to be compared to the competition at a fraction of the price.

 

There is always a fly in the ointment.

[rwwjr44]

I've had my X100L for some time now (before Tidal, etc.) and have come to love it. It is smooth yet revealing and mates exceedingly well with my Devialet 200. I like it so much that I am now hesitating to replace my Magnepan 1.7 speakers, most of the things that I didn't like about my sound and attributed to the speakers are now gone. BUT I know that there are better options, I just have more time (less upgradeitis ) to get the best option.

[rwwjr44]

Both the N10 and W20 can convert DSD to PCM on the fly over SPDIF and AES/EBU, for the purpose of being able to play DSD files through DACs that are PCM only, and there are a couple of resolution options, I believe 176.4 and 88.2 kHz.

 

The N10 retails for $7999. The first production run sold out; the second somewhat larger production run should be available around early August.

 

My N10 should arrive in about an hour :-)

 

SOLD OUT? Sold out to who? I didn't think it was on the market yet. It would be nice if there was an option for 3tb HDDs. I'll wait to see how much better it is than the X or N100s and how much I spend on my new speakers. Then I think/hope my upgrade demons will be satisfied for a very long time.

[rwwjr44]

I would prefer a customised build of an Aurender starting with the number of drives ranging from 0 to say 2 to 3 3.5in drives much like a drawer type mechanism. Different outputs like AES3 or S/PDIF can be available on a card(s) that is inserted by the user or dealer. If you don't need USB why pay for it, and if you have an external server or NAS, why bother with drives that will eventually fail.

 

I would have pulled the trigger on the X series, but hesitated about USB and compatibility with DACs and no alternative output. AES3 doesn't suffer the same incompatibility issues.

 

This is every company's dilemma. Obviously a company can't cater to all requests, even ones as rational as yours. Aurender seems to offer products that cover a good number of needs but not all. I would seriously considered the new X10 but 1) disk capacity is a bit too small and 2) I have never been satisfied with streaming from my NAS (and yes I have compared this alternative on my X100L. It just doesn't sound as good as playing from the HDDs installed on the unit.)

 

Aurender has a good number of options for us and great sound. If what the products it offers don't fit our needs, then we need to move on. I looked at and used many streamers/renderers and found that for my wallet the Aurender offered the best sound and features for me. Of all the of units I tested (remotely within my price range) the Aurender S10 sounded best but I learned that it was soon to be released and it was a bit beyond what I wanted to pay so I bought the X100L (which sounds better than other non-Aurender products in that price range) and have been satisfied with it (Despite the bane of audiophiles -> upgradeitis.

[rwwjr44]

Mate, it is physically impossible for a file to be copied onto the SSD and sound different based on where it was copied from. If this was the case our word documents would encounter spelling errors based on where they were copied from. A file is a file... that's why Aurender are so clever by ALWAYS streaming the file from the SSD, regardless if it is copied from a NAS or the local drive.

 

The science of secure, lossless file copying is undisputable. You way well have noise on the LAN that goes away if you remove the LAN cable, but with Aurender you are never listening to the source file, you are listening to the perfectly copied file.

 

Try optical LAN isolation, you will be pleasantly surprised.

 

;-)

 

Whatever. I trust my ears. Could it be something in my system? Perhaps, but I have been around audio long enough to believe that nothing is impossible. Let us just agree to disagree and let the thread move on.

[rwwjr44]

Here is something a few of us have been experimenting with and with good results (towards the end as the thread has had multiple lives). http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f22-networking-networked-audio-and-streaming/network-isolation-4265/. Not that expensive to give it a whirl.

 

Speculation is that it has to do with the receiving chips having to work less hard re-asking for packets (wifi being the worst) and thus less electrical activity within the box

 

Not sure what the timing is within the Aurender, but perhaps it starts playback when it is still buffering and copying files to not let the user wait as long?

 

Yes, I have done something along those lines and plan to complete it. Hmmm... Garbage in garbage out. I'll work on it.

[rwwjr44]

Ask and ye shall receive. IMHO Aurender got it right the first time. Install HDDs in the unit and keep things relatively simple. Of course, you have to populate the drives but 99% of us can do that. For those of us that wanted to connect to a NAS and had some experience, using the NAS Share and Server "features" were mostly painless. But that presumed some knowledge as to how networks and NAS' worked. It took me less than 5 minutes to connect to my NAS. Do I have artwork? No, but I don't care.

 

But some people wanted to connect to their NAS (even though, for many, they didn't know how properly set up a NAS) and wanted something less expensive. Aurender gave it to them. BUT first they had to write the software for the PC/MAC/NAS that could coexist with the Aurender database. Well...

 

For those of you with the N100 and depend upon your NAS SCREAM AND HOLLER AT YOUR DEALER if you have problems. I also suggest going slowly (I know), doing one thing at a time (I know) and read the directions CAREFULLY (I know). If you get confused STOP and ask for help.

 

As an aside: I can't help thinking that Roon may just be the solution for all of these different media server/renderer manufacturers.

[rwwjr44]

New upgrades is available for both the app and Aurender. I don't have the list handy but it seems as though they cleaned a good number of minor quibbles AND say they made the use of a NAS easier.

 

I hope they didn't degrade the sound.

[rwwjr44]

So far everything works well on the X100. I guess I won't be getting an N10 for a long time.

[rwwjr44]

I did lose one album. I had 3570 and now have 3569. I'll try a sync with my backup and see which one is missing.

[rwwjr44]

You can power off the unit by 1) Issuing a "Turn Off" from the Settings->Aurender->System Command menu (scroll all the way down) and 2) Turning the power switch on the rear of the unit (does the N100 have one) to off. If you are having power problems it is probably not a good idea to have all of those surges and spikes affecting any device. It will take about 5 minutes for the unit to time in and initially it won't sound as good as if left in standby.

 

There are many "audiophile" grade power conditioning units which should research.