The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[Cycleman]

(1) If I were to get an N100 and wanted to have my music on an external drive plugged into one of the USB ports, what kind of operating-system formatting would that external drive need?

 

(2) Also, the music files on that external drive...could they be arranged like this:

ALBUM-ARTIST-NAME FOLDER > ALBUM-NAME FOLDER > MUSIC FILES FOR THAT ALBUM

 

(3) What about compilation albums? Currently, they have "Various" as the Album Artist, and arranged as:

COMPILATIONS FOLDER > ALBUM-NAME FOLDER > MUSIC FILES FOR THAT ALBUM

 

(4) Related question: If I were to get an N100H and I was going to be transferring music files from my Macintosh to that unit's internal drive, that's by using the Aurender Media Manager application, right?

 

(5) Last question for now: How much of a sound quality difference might there be between the music files on an SSD external drive vs. on the N100H's internal hard-disc drive?

 

Dave, who needs to hear and find out and know whether or not the Aurender unit would best the sound quality of his current main system which pleases him greatly and whose USB-SPDIF converter and DAC and amplifier and speakers he would still use

[Cycleman]

Tom, thanks so much for your detailed response.

 

I realize, though, that I could have been more clear with questions #2 and #3.

 

That is, the file structures I described in each question are the current file structures.

ALBUM-ARTIST-NAME FOLDER > ALBUM-NAME FOLDER > MUSIC FILES FOR THAT ALBUM

and

COMPILATIONS FOLDER > ALBUM-NAME FOLDER > MUSIC FILES FOR THAT ALBUM

 

And with about 2100 albums, I have no desire to redo the folder structures.

 

So, am I understanding correctly that since all the albums have been tagged by genre, I would not need to redo the folder structures?

Would that be true for compilation albums too?

 

One new question: Is it correct that the N100H can be customized by Aurender or the dealer with an internal SSD for storage rather than a HDD?

 

Dave, who loves this forum for this kind of sharing of knowledge and information

 

 

1) any HDD formated by an Mac should work, at least all of mine are visible to my Aurender X100

2) as long as all files are properly tagged you could simply just drop them without any folder structure as the aurender will use the metadata to sort songs according to the information embedded in the music files. But for convenience reason I create a folder structure GENRE-ARTIST-ALBUM. Advantage is that the second row browser buttons will show the contents of the folders on the Aurender HDD. By default the folder names of an internal Aurender HDD are All, Classic, Pop, Jazz, Local and Misc. If you delete the default folders, your GENRE folders will be displayed in the second row of the Browser Buttons. Applies to Aurender models with internal HDD.

3) I assign Compilations albums to a genre and sort them in the appropriate folder GENRE-VARIOUS-ALBUM

4) No need for AMM when transferring files from your Mac to the internal Aurender HDD, simple copy job. You need to connect the Aurender HDD via Mac menu Go .. Connect to server .... as described in the manual. AMM is needed when using NAS as source.

5) Theoretically none or irrelavent as all audio files will be copied to the internal caching SSD of the Aurender before playback

 

I'd defintely go for the N100H with an internal HDD.

 

Enjoy. You won't regret.

Cheers

Tom

[Cycleman]

Hi all, I have a huge library, and often add new albums, almost on a daily basis. How does this work for the aurender in terms of time taken for the new additions to be visible on the device? Both via external NAS library and internal HD library?

 

Copying the music to NAS or aurender HD I guess is a quick and simple process, however how long does for the unit take to re-scan the entire library to see what changes are made?

 

A) I have the same question.

 

B) I would imagine that amount of time might differ depending which model of Aurender one is using.

[Cycleman]

The Aurender Composer app has what seems to me like a hidden feature: lyrics.

I say "hidden," because when I search the app's PDF guide for the term "lyric" nothing comes up.

 

Here's how it works:

• When a track is playing, tap the track's cover (small, on the upper left side) to make it full-screen on your iPad.
  
• Then tap the full-screen cover.
  
• If there are lyrics in the track's metadata, they will then appear over the full-screen cover image.
  

Pretty simple, yes?

 

And to get the lyrics into any track's metadata is a question of using your tagging-and-editing application to insert them.

For me, that's iTunes (which works well all the time for me for PCM music tagging and editing, but that's another post).

 

And I simply have searched for lyrics online, and then I do a copy-and-paste into the track's Lyrics field.

 

If you have more questions about this, just post them and I'll be glad to, will try to, help.

 

Smiles,

 

Dave, who has now given himself more music library editing work and will likely next add lyrics to his pretty much complete collection of Natalie Merchant songs since her website has the full lyrics and so that means they're easy to get

[Cycleman]

No Ethernet connection?

 

Then how will you link any Aurender to a network so that you can control it? There is no wifi with Aurender units of course.

 

O'wise, I believe you can play music off any USB drive including a flash drive.

[Cycleman]

Is it possible to use the previous version of AMM instead?

 

Dave

 

Has anyone face any problems with the new 3.2.0 AMM on a Mac 10.9.5 ? I have just updated the AMM today and boy, did i regret it!!

 

1. Can't detect my NAS (I have made sure the NAS is up and is accessible and made sure it was a SMB and not AFP connection- I am a IT geek so I KNOW it's all good with my NAS)

2. The AMM 3.2.0 will and cannot do a graceful exit. I get a dump when the application exits

3. The USB drives works.

 

And the worst part? I can't get anymore album and songs uploaded through my NAS A real bummer

 

Let's see what Aurender says.

 

Other than that...the n100 and the amm has been really good to me.

[Cycleman]

Question about transferring music from my Macintosh computer to an Aurender's internal drive...which of these two choices might be faster?

 

(1) Mounting the Aurender's internal drive on my Mac computer's desktop, and simply dragging and dropping album artist folders in the Finder.

Note that the Aurender is connected to my home network using a 25-foot BJC Ethernet cord, at gigabit speed through my Apple Extreme router.

 

(2) Connecting a fast Samsung SSD with the music files, sorted out in the folder structure that's I will put on the Aurender, using the latter's USB input.

Note that the SSD is installed in an OWC enclosure.

 

Opinions welcomed.

True-life experiences even more welcomed.

 

Dave, who leans to choice number one but...

[Cycleman]

Does the new app update seem slow when selected. It seems to take a few extra seconds for album art to display.

 

Yes, It may only be a few seconds but its one of those things I found so great about the Aurender, was its instant access. To be honest it seems slightly slower full stop, selecting "most recently added" seems slower also. Im using a 3rd gen iPad if this is significant.

 

Yes, the Conductor app also seemed slower to me. That was most noticeable when coming back to the app after viewing another app.

 

But I found a solution...YES.

 

Simple: I deleted the app -- version 2.5 -- from both my iPad and from iTunes on my computer, where I update and backup the iPad.

Then I re-installed previous version 2.2.13 on the computer, then on to the iPad.

 

And the earlier version is definitely faster, both when using and when returning to it after viewing another app on the iPad.

Also, the earlier version seems fully compatible with the latest iteration of the Aurender OS -- version 4.4.58.

I write "seems" because I do not use Tidal, so have nothing to report there.

 

So, are upgrades always "upgrades"?

 

Dave, who always saves multiple versions of various music apps both for iOS and OS X separately in folders before making changes just in case he needs to go back as in this instance

[Cycleman]

A new update for the Conductor app is available. It is supposed to allow multitasking. It is not listed on the Aurender site yet.

 

Version 5.5.76

 

What might "multitasking" mean in this context?

 

Hmmm.

[Cycleman]

A question about Aurender's Conductor app.

 

When you choose "Genre" from the top row of tabs, and say "All" is the choice from the second row, your categories of genre are shown, each with an album cover.

 

So my question is this: Why is the particular album cover shown for each genre?

 

It's not the first album alphabetically -- either by artist or album title -- in each genre.

 

And it's not either the latest or the first album added in that genre.

 

So what's the choice method, the algorithm, behind each genre's displayed album cover?

 

Dave, who would be happy to change certain displayed genre album covers

[Cycleman]

I really like this latest upgrade. It seems to be much faster than the last upgrade and the "multitasking" erases my last real gripe.

 

I agree about the faster, I agree about liking the multitasking...BUT...

 

Compared with the previous versions of the system software and app, I've found that I need to restart the app if I haven't played music for a while, since the app loses connection with the Aurender.

 

Minor annoyance, but an annoyance nonetheless.

 

Dave

[Cycleman]

I am very confused about the consume on and consume off and cannot really figure out what they do??

 

With the "Consume Off" setting, once a track is done playing it's deleted from the current queue.

 

The "Consume On" setting doesn't delete.

 

And didn't someone earlier in this thread write that, by name, those settings should be reversed?

 

Dave, who prefers no track deletion from his queues since it's so simple to edit them

[Cycleman]

It might be that something else has got the same IP as the Aurender on the network, by specifying your own fixed IP you can solve the issue, but obviously you need to make sure you don't give it an IP that something else is using, or you won't solve the problem.

 

What might help here is an iOS app called Fing.

 

This free app shows all the active IPs on your network and the name of each device connected through that IP.

 

Fing - fun and useful even if, sorry you do, no problems on your network.

 

Dave, who first read about Fing the other day here on CA

[Cycleman]

I'm really needing to find out the true difference between the 10 and the 100h. Also wondering how good their DAC will be in the A10

 

I bought the N100H, and loved it so much that I sold it after only two months...to buy a N10.

In both cases, all my music -- all PCM, both Redbook and high-rez -- was and is stored on the units' internal drives...no NAS.

 

With the same DAC, amp, speakers, I'd say the N10's sound quality is a definite step above the N100H, with greater depth, richness of sound with both voices and instruments, and a somewhat wider soundstage.

 

For me, another benefit of the N10 over the N100H is how the N10 has five different outputs vs. the single output on the N100H. That way, I can experiment with different outputs, run the Aurender into different DACs -- or different inputs in the same DAC -- to test them out.

 

If you can afford the N10, might be a better choice over the still-excellent N100H.

 

Dave, who does not like music servers like the A10 or amplifiers with built-in DACs since that creates limits in the ever-evolving area of digital-analog-converters

[Cycleman]

Ah just did the update on my N10 -- and I see that I read too quickly.

 

Internet radio only for some European markets, not for the US. Darn!

 

I have to send an email to Eric and see if they're looking to add the same radio functions in the US. Or could there be some kind of licensing problem...

[Cycleman]

Changes from 2.7 /5.5.91 June 6, 2016

 

* Bug fixes and improvement

•Fixed tracks were not displayed when selected for an album or artist in the cover view mode.

•Fixed Search Clearing function in streaming mode. Previously, Search window would not clear when new content was selected by typing it into the search window.

•Fixed "Turn off" and "Restart” which did not work as expected in "Settings" - “Aurender”.

•Fixed when tracks of an album selected for streaming service didn't display in the large cover view.

•Fixed "favorite status" for internet radio which didn't work.

•Fixed several small bugs and improved stability.

 

This 2.7.27 latest version did not work for me on my iPad Air 2.

 

Pretty much each time I went back to the app, it crashed. Then, if I went to it right away, yes, it worked, but those regular unbidden quits were very irritating.

 

So I reinstalled the previous version (2.7.17), and all is right again.

 

Dave, who says one man's story is not necessarily applicable to all but he is curious what others' experiences have been with this lates 2.7.27 version of the iOS app

[Cycleman]

Well, with any important app or application -- whether for mobile devices or on my Mac computers -- I never "upgrade" without first saving a copy of the older version.

 

So, in this case, I have folder where I put each version of the Aurender app, and make sure all are there before making any changes. Like below...

 

But the horse is already out of your barn, Steve, so send me a PM and we can connect again by phone so I can describe in more detail the fix. I don't feel like writing a bunch now.

 

Dave, who has in his 32 years of using personal computers typically been proactive protective since he doesn't fully trust promises of "upgrades" and has seen those problems plus dying hard drives and other glitches

 

 

 

 

Having similar issues with crashing and the app also not "remembering" the Aurender, doing a search, and not "finding" the Aurender.

 

Where and how did you find and install the prior version of Conductor?

[Cycleman]

No, luckily have not (yet) had that problem.

 

By the way, have you ever had instances where while playing music it suddent stops, only to resume about 5-10 seconds later. I have and find that when it happens, and I pause the song, use the slider to move back in time, and then resume there's no repeat of the issue. So, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with a bad rip or the internal disk but possibly the SSD or the OS properly accessing the SSD. Saw similar stuff with Apple OS X about a year ago on a Mac Mini.

[Cycleman]

Does anyone here use the AES/EBU output on their N10 and find it better than the USB output?

 

I have the N10, and I've connected it to my (current) DAC through three outputs: AES/EBU, USB, and BNC coax.

 

Why all three? Simple curiosity about the differences.

 

And you know, lately I've been preferring the AES/EBU connection over the USB, but only barely preferring and more often hearing no discernible difference.

 

That's how great the Aurender N10 is, it seems, with rich and enveloping sound from all of its outputs.

[Cycleman]

Are you downsampling any DSD to PCM to play it via the AES/EBU connection?

 

Nope. All my music on the N10's internal drives is PCM, mainly Red Book but about 10% higher resolutions.

And it's a mix of ALAC and AIFF, again about a 90% (ALAC) / 10% (AIFF) split.

 

I've regularly tested favorite albums -- music I love that's also well-recorded -- by having both ALAC and AIFF versions, to see if the file type makes a difference.

 

And I've not really heard a difference.

 

That's likely because the N10 -- the the robust Mac Mini I used before -- has enough computing power to unpack the ALAC fully and quickly before playing.

[Cycleman]

There is no obligation to store music on the internal drive, although it is there for convenience. Sales of the N100 without hard drive have been low ever since the N100H was introduced with 2TB for only $200 more.

 

I also get the impression about Aurender servers with internal drives that people think -- very much in the abstract -- that music played from those internal drives does not sound as good as music played from an Ethernet connected NAS.

 

But, as I noted, it seems that perspective -- NAS better than internal drive -- is abstract, in that it's not informed by actual experience.

 

The Aurender -- both the N10 and N100H in my experience -- does a spectacularly great job of isolating the electrical noise of the internal drives from each unit's output. Oh, and as Axiom05 surmises, but not correctly (and not it appears from actually owning an Aurender), the Aurender units totally isolate any mechanical noise of the hard drives and over much time I've not heard a beep or peep or boop.

 

Dave, the fellow who sold his N100H after owning it for only a month solely because he loved it so much and got the N10 instead which is a clear and beautiful improvement over the lesser cost model

[Cycleman]

Has anyone updated their iPad to iOS 10 yet .

 

Updated my mini 4 this evening. So far so good. Seems "snappy" and I like the look of the notifications on the pull down menu. I haven't yet read the "what's in iOS 10" blogs yet, so I don't know what I'm missing.

 

To my ear, the implicit ideas behind Rick U's question are:

 

• How well does Aurender's Conductor app work with iOS 10?
  
• Just as well as before?
  
• Some glitches?
  
• All okay?
  

Dave, who is wondering if anyone here has an N100H that he or she would like to sell

[Cycleman]

blah ios...will wait for thread that says aurender supports windows...

 

You're conflating mobile operating systems with computer systems.

 

Aurender does support Windows the same way it supports Mac OS. That is, either type of computer can be used to transfer music files to an Aurender's internal drives.

 

But you need some kind of mobile device, tablet only, as your control point. Now, the Aurender Conductor app is that control point. While the "better" version of that app is for Apple's iOS, there is also a version for Android too, I believe.

 

Or does Android push your buttons as much as iOS?

 

But, bottom line: no computer acts as control point for any Aurender.

[Cycleman]

Okay Mr. Suds & Songs,

 

Details are your friend. In this case, Aurender Media Manager is NOT a control app. Not. It's an app for indexing libraries (as @Vincent1234 wrote) and loading music into the Aurender if you're NOT using the unit's internal drives. Like if you're using a NAS.

 

I did a search for you, see here: AURENDER - Reference Music System

 

It seems if you want computer control of a music server, then using an actual computer as your server is probably best for you.

 

Dave, who because he uses his Aurender's internal drives has never needed to use Media Manager which is for managing music media

 

that would mean i would have to put glasses on too (wink)...too many moving parts to change the volume or song selection.

 

 

Relatively certain i read it somewhere, or they woudn't remain on my radaar for my next purchase...you can double-check me, but I am 99% sure they advertised it somewhere! And if not, i will be p.o'd

And i don't know what you mean by full blown... i don't need or want pretty gui..just something to allow me to control song selection and volume...although if they incorporate pretty pictures, then that is fine too.

 

^^^ [ATTACH=CONFIG]29549[/ATTACH]

[Cycleman]

Do guys know if the Aurender (N100 or whatever model) can be used without having to be connected to the network with a cable?

Meaning; will it play the content stored in the internal disc (or attached USB disk) without the CAT cable connected?

 

It will play the music, BUT (big gigantic "but"):

* How will you control playback (very very very very limited with front panel buttons).

* How will you get content into the internal disk (need the Aurender Conductor app to do that, and that means the Aurender unit must be on your network, and that means connected with an ethernet cable).

* How will you let the Aurender unit know about the attached USB disk (again, need the Conductor app).

 

Bottom line, if you can't attach an Aurender to your network using an Ethernet cable, or if you don't want to attach it, don't get an Aurender. It really is only designed to be attached to the network directly, and it really needs the Conductor app on an iPad to control not just playback but most (if not all) of setup.

 

No viable exceptions to those factors. None.

But...if attached via cable and using Conductor app, extremely easy to setup and use -- and great sound-quality.

 

Dave