The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

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Aurender website is down for the moment, some DNS issue.

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Aurender website is down for the moment, some DNS issue.

 

Working again.

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The W20 and the S10 I think it was had the AES/S/PDIF outputs and the X100x series only had the USB output.

 

From Astrotoy mentioning of the N20, here's an Aurender link for the N10. The N10 has 2 x 2TB drives + the 128GB SSD for playback. Also a on the fly conversion for DSD to PCM (why... anyway). Interesting. Welcome to see the inclusion of AES3, could be to appease the BADA owners, but a worthwhile output as well as USB.

 

This model would be priced above the X series I'd say, but by how much?

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The N10 uses 2.5 inch hard drives. When capacities larger than 2TB are available, perhaps this will be possible. Meanwhile a NAS is the solution for those whose music libraries are larger.

 

Thanks for the pricing information while attainable still some clouds.... for those of us with large libraries >4TB external to the N10. If the internal drive on the N10 caches tracks that are currently playable, at some point the cache must fill and be discarded for newer information. Is it on FIFO basis, or is there some kind of search indexer which keeps a track of where files are located. Sorry if this has been covered before.

 

In that case, all one needs is the 128GB drive and let the Aurender fetch from various locations including network shares. In the past I found a NAS useless for moving large files around, wholesale, for library management, especially DSD and use a workstation type computer, hence the network share.

 

With the frequency of newer models appearing more often from Aurender, when are the offerings going to stable enough to avoid upgradeitis?

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Sounds like a rhetorical question I don't change my computer or car every year, but some people do. That said, the N10 has pretty much all the features one could want.

 

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.

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For me, the A10 is too expensive! I do not want to be provocative, but I do not know how the A10's internal DAC compares to some top-notch external DACs. <snip>

 

I would agree entirely to compare an 'unknown' internal DAC with standalone DACs that have a reputation (good or bad ) is something to consider, quite carefully.

 

If an examination is made of a typical example though of Computer/NAS --> USB fixer/Ethernet Fixer --> USB fixer power supplies --> DAC & DAC Power supply in some cases, the chain is so spread out which can be measured by the yard, the propagation of uncontrolled leakage currents increases with every device connected. No more is a simple cable from a computer going to work as it did in the past.

 

For the A10 and others like it (Lumin D1, T1... series), the signal paths from the source to the analog out are measured in inches, or less! This right away eliminates leakage currents from everything in the chain compared with computer playback. This will have a profound impact on SQ even before the listening tests begin.

 

Just digressing a little here, in evaluating the A10 and what I consider its rival in the Lumin T1 and a ~ 30% price premium difference, there's a few topics still unclear, perhaps owners can mention?

 

- I'm lost as to what hdd1 and hdd2 are in relation to the storing files on the internal Drive, do external files need to be copied on both drives? what happened to hdd0, and is an external drive hdd3?

 

- One day the HDD will fail it's a sad statisitic, what does one do to make an image of the internal drive, physically remove and use a cloning device?

 

- The power down sequence applies ? To my mind, and from the warnings, the A10 needs a UPS otherwise data corruption could occur...(just quoting).

 

- Only one USB external drive

 

- NAS access is not very well explained, and it appears that all music needs to reside on the internal hard drive for I assume quicker access.

 

- I don't see the word gapless on the A10 product page, does the A10 play, especially DSD128 gapless

 

- Can PCM files be internally upsampled to DSD

 

The Lumin doesn't have an internal drive, it's a true Ethernet renderer. Oh well, Ethernet fixers for that one.

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12 hours ago, Blakcloud said:

Thanks for your help in this. The first problems were certainly user error on my part but it has only gotten worse. I was able to find the password, thanks for those tips.

 

I have sent in a request to Aurender so hopefully they can diagnose the problems and fix it. Otherwise it is going back to the store. None of the buttons work. I can't move to the next track or pause it on the unit itself. The screen will just go blank and show random lines and dots. Every time I want to play something new, I open the Conductor App and it has to search for the Aurender in Settings, I then choose it and it builds my music up. I do this five times a day, go into settings and find the player, select it and then it builds my music. Why it disappears is beyond me. The software is up to date and I have the latest Conductor App.

 

I don't know why I am having such problems. It gets such rave reviews and very few problems. I hope this gets fixed remotely. I wanted something simple to listen to music but this has been nothing of that sort. I have been taking videos of the problems as it might be useful to see what I see.

 

When it does play music, it sounds great. I just need it to be consistent and work every time I open the app which is not happening.

 

Aurender N10--Audioquest Cinnamon USB--Metrum Octave Mk II DAC--TEO Audio Game Changer IC's--Herron Pre-amp--Audio Sensibility Statement IC's--Herron Mono Blocks--Audio Sensibility Statement speaker cable--Tetra 606 speakers. Audio Sensibility Statement power cord.

 

 

 

When screens go blank, and there's odd characters on screen, the processor or its power supply is not working. Nothing you can do to have this remotely re-tuned, it's a defect and needs a new unit to replace. Best to consult the dealer it was purchased from. Painful that it stuffed about during the holidays.

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Did Aurender fix the issue that when a power failure occurred, the risk of totally losing the library database (and raw data) when stored on the internal drives? 

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3 hours ago, Foxman50 said:

Thats what backups are for. Can't cover for HDD failure

Right. The problem's not fixed then. If a PC has a power failure, it restarts, complains sometimes, but 'mostly' everything is back in its place. When, not if, someone trips over the Aurender cord, or the Utility company has a problem, you can spend hours rebuilding the Aurender. This surely can't be right and would mean the Aurender needs a UPS.

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7 minutes ago, mrbooboy said:

 

I live in an area with frequent power outages. Most of the time, my A10 is powered on (but not playing) when the outage occurs. However, last week I had an outage occur while the unit was playing. In each case, the A10 spends a few extra minutes going through a recovery process when booting up. After the recovery process is complete, the unit is back to normal. I haven't seen any adverse effects to the A10 following an outage.

OK, the issue seems to be resolved, because this is expected behaviour.

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29 minutes ago, Foxman50 said:

 

Sorry i wasn't saying an issue was fixed or not, as ive never had the issue on my N100H. Ive had many power cuts and as mrboo mentioned it takes a couple of minutes longer to boot following a power cut.

 

my point was never rely on equipment to work perfectly whether it says so or not, HDD fail, so backups are needed.

No problem, if you have less than triplicate of the music files, that’s not enough.

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18 minutes ago, agladstone said:

I believe so, it was actually the first and only time I’ve ever used Roon before, so I’m not intimately familiar with it. (I signed up for a free Roon 60 day trial). 

Also, I was just using straight Roon, from what I’ve been told by many is that you really need to use HQPlayer with Roon to get it to sound it’s best. 

There are just as many using Roon neat without HQ player and enjoying the sound. 

 

I find the upsampling in HQ player unnatural and use Roon to play the natural file sampling rate, the exception to convert DSD to pcm due to limitations of the DDC.

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1 hour ago, lubos64 said:

Hello ladies and gentlemen,

I have the Accuphase kit (PS1230, DP750, A47 and C2420) I would like to add Aurender.
I have the option to buy an older S10 with 6TB or a new X100L 12TB.
What plays better.
I have the Cardas - USB and Coax cables.

Thank you very much for any advice.

Accuphase gear can reveal anything that can go wrong in the signal and power chain quite well particularly with digital audio. The DP750 can accept a coaxial in with no major issues other than correct conversion of DSD to PCM, be sure to enquire with Aurender & Accuphase whether their Linux driver can work with the USB input of the DP-750, this would apply to the S10 and the X100L. Perhaps the N10 maybe more suited. Was it at Axpona last year where every 2nd source was an Aurender, this time at RMAF, turntables, and less computing gear was evident. Does that say something, or the room acoustics were that bad, a poor source material made the sound worse? A lot of variables to apply no doubt.

 

BTW, I have yet to find a digital-analog source that equals my now superseded DP-720. So have given up that quest and playback computer audio from modest components.