The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[justubes]

@Chris,

Any idea when Aurender is going to release the MQA update? I have been hearing "very soon" for a while now. Other than MQA can you share any other upgrades in the new update?

Also, when is your A10 review going to publish?. I am certain that you like to spend some time on a product for break-in, using it with different equipment, music files and software etc. Any quick early impressions? . Just wondering...

Thanks

 

Aurenders reply was that they are aiming for end feb for the A10.

 

No plans for having software decoding for the rest of the models, guess since Aurenders pass bit perfect anyway. So i guess they will just let tidal do the work.

[justubes]

I was looking to a N10, but just for Tidal and MQA.

 

But if they don't do anything such as a firmware upgrade to allow MQA decoding, i cannot warm up to searching via tidal and saving to Favourites.

 

Do you see the duplicate albums from the aurender streamer and randomly selecting both till you find the MQA coded version and just let it play?

 

I just got a Node 2 to try MQA and liking it. The difference is that i can select search, select and play instantly from the BluOS as the Node is a certified player.

 

I wonder if this will be so for the A10 which will then be of interest. But without any update to the aurender app, i can not see how this will enable the A10 to play Tidal MQA from their APP.

 

I am guessing if they dont update the N devices, there won't be so for the A10 as well, sadly.

[justubes]

I was looking to a N10, but just for Tidal and MQA.

 

But if they don't do anything such as a firmware upgrade to allow MQA decoding, i cannot warm up to searching via tidal and saving to Favourites.

 

Do you see the duplicate albums from the aurender streamer and randomly selecting both till you find the MQA coded version and just let it play?

 

I just got a Node 2 to try MQA and liking it. The difference is that i can select search, select and play instantly from the BluOS as the Node is a certified player.

 

I wonder if this will be so for the A10 which will then be of interest. But without any update to the aurender app, i can not see how this will enable the A10 to play Tidal MQA from their APP.

 

I am guessing if they dont update the N devices, there won't be so for the A10 as well, sadly.

 

 

Do you mind elaborating on adding favourites part.

 

If you see 2 same titles (One will most likely be MQA), Can you just tap on the album to start playing if it happens to be the MQA version.

 

Am i correct that you will need to first do you identify the MQA version, how so? Secondly you then have to save this version as favourites all from the ipad Aurender app?

 

I may have understood wrongly, but it seems adding favourites has to be done on the PC/Mac then saved as Tidal favourites before refreshing the Aurender app (from the IPAD) then it plays as MQA.

 

This seems to be another 2 steps, switching from PC/Mac to Aurender again.

[justubes]

Thank you.

 

So this is an issue with Tidal and nothing to do with software decoding by the App.

 

Software decoding can be done once setup in Tidal.

[justubes]

Yes but currently software decoding only works if you're running and playing from the Desktop tidal app

 

 

Sorry, so how do the Aurenders currently perform software decoding to play MQA up to 24/96?

[justubes]

Is saving favourites from desktop app limited to only 24/48 currently on the Aurenders?

[justubes]

Dang, it plays MQA and not software decoded even after saving from the desktop app to favourites and played thru the Aurender.

 

With no plans to fix this, it means all Aurenders before A10 will not even even half of the true MQA files though many reports there is some improvement playing the bit perfect MQA files undecoded.

 

Quoted reply from Aurender

 

(We may never offer software decoding of MQA in the digital only Aurender products, so currently at best the only thing you could compare would be high resolution PCM or DSD versions of the same content)

[justubes]

I wish I would have given the Aurender more break in time before upgrading my pre. After 30 days or so the gap really lessened.

Chris, what percentage is the Aurender compared to your mega-dacs? Also did you try the Aurender as a player using one of your other dacs?

 

This would be interesting comparison, especially with full hardware decoding of MQA. Could it possibly exceed the performance of dacs ranging from $6 o $10k wih full MQA material at say, 24/96 as many MQA material will probably not be at higher sampling rate.

 

Sources have advised that the A10 dac i equivalent to $2 to 3k stand alone dacs which say alot already.

In my ears, no, it does not sounding to better than higher end dacs.

 

Unless, of course the hardware decode of MQA takes the A10 another few level up sonically. Especially if Aurender higher models will not be at least playing MQA at 88 or 96khz. The A10 could be a deal maker for many.

 

For many of us, we already have dacs, the big question that i am interested in would be playing full MQA. Can it replace a higher end dac without MQA?

 

As it is the 1st fully integrated unit to incorporate MQA decoding, this i feel is the most relevant question that many will want to know.

 

With Unviersal now also on the MQA bandwagon, is the A10 a worthy addition. It probably is a no brainer for those who are looking for a network streamer and moving up the ladder, dac wise from a more basic setup.

[justubes]

I like the update, as not only are you receiving full MQA there are non MQA albums streaming Hi-Rez.

Blue Tofu, Nils Lofgren's Keith don't go, and Annie Lennox's Nostalgia all show 176 Khz and sound great. The Stones Tattoo You shows 88.2 . Maybe I was not paying attention to this before. Can someone else confirm.

To me the App looks exactly the same. The A10 now has analog filter settings so if someone from Aurender can come on and enlighten us that would be great.

 

 

Hi, are these also MQA titles.

 

I don't see any double albums for these titles.

 

Thanks

[justubes]

Thanks for the clarification , got exicted for a bit.

 

Was considering the A10 for MQA. Can you share your impression of half MQA before this update and full hardware decidung.

 

Was it a huge leap in SQ?

 

Thank you

[justubes]

Thanks for the information.

 

I have read Achimagos blog which suggest that with the brooklyn da with full MQA, he was not really able to hear much difference with software and hard decoding.

 

Just wanted a users 1st hand impression from the A10 with 24bit 44/48 listening notes prior to the release of the full MQA decoding software and update.

 

Not reviews but just the personal feelings from the same tracks on MQA now fully decoded.

 

Thanks again

[justubes]

Before the update, Aurenders play MQA up to24 bit  44.1/88.2 sampling rates.

 

So with the purchased MQA update, it will stream  up to 24bit 48/96khz to any dac.

 

So there is a a slight increase in sampling rates and may not be easy to hear the extra 3.9/7.8 khz increase in sampling rates.

 

 

[justubes]

Thanks for clarifying,  that was what i wanted to mean.  

 

The additional sampling rates will double for MQA playback. 

[justubes]

Hi, 

 

Was there much sonic benefits changing out the cache drives. 

 

How about changing the to ECC Rams ? Beneficial when used only for streaming cache? 

 

Thanks

[justubes]

Thanks Noushy, 

 

Great info! 

 

I understand the ssd needs to be formatted in Linux and an auto recocovery or reset made to get OS from the thumbdrive. 

 

As for the large drives, mine are 6tb each and maybe only 30% full. 

 

I have been wanting to remove them to clone as the transfer backup is painfully slow and the Aurender gets extremely hot after a few hours. It looks like my network is very slow and it would take a couple of days to transfer 3 tb worth on music over the network. 

 

Do you have suggestions how I can best do this as my duplicator hdd dock only supports 3 tb drives so I have not been able to make a backup so far, preferable save the contents of both drives into a smaller one for backup purpose. 

 

The nice thing about the Aurender is that the drives stop spinning when not in use, so this could help to keep the drives alive for many years hopefully. 

 

Regards

J

[justubes]

Regarding the slow trasfer, even from internal hdd to hdd, i managed 20%  and took like 2 days.

 

The unit became shockingly hot. With the hdds encased kn the w20, i can only imagime the temperatures of the hdd.

 

It was uncomfortly hot to the hand for a few seconds on the outer casing.

 

How do we solve this, Aurender?

[justubes]

Well, i,dont have a Nas and copied off thumbdrives, so now a small collection of 2 to 3 tb of music files, i want to back it up on 1 drive.

 

Unforunately, i saved music on both drives, one drive for dsd and the other for non dsd files.

 

So not i have 1 to 2 tb on each drive and want to back this up.

 

I rip from a NAD AIO previously and dont want to use the computer which isnt used much.

 

I dont use the computers hdd for music collection storage.

 

I dont regularly rip cd or even buy much cds now adays and use mostly streaming from Tidal.

 

Is a a solution for a Aurender user ike myself?

 

Unless i have a big collection, i do not plan to set up a NAS.

 

Different strokes for different folks.

 

Is there a limitation in transfer speeds ofthe Aurender?

 

Ari, i dont wish to leave the unit copying files fo days and risk the hdds burnjng out, the unit does get very hot from the hdd spinning all day long.

[justubes]

Same here, on occasions. 

It last for more than just a few minutes and once even shut the Machine down when returned after leaving it for a while. 

 

The other nagging issue is the sometimes very slow refreshing of database. Wile the conductor app cannot connect, streaming tidal using the physical buttons has no connectivity issues and plays fine and has an ip connection. 

 

 

[justubes]

5 hours ago, Mazza said:

I have lost power to my W20 a few of times [the ones that I know of!] and I have to say that the reboot/start-up makes me get out my worry-beads. It seems to take an eternity and on a couple of times I have had to intervene and power-down and re-power because it seems to get caught in a loop [like 30+ minutes to re-start!]. So I can see how the Aurender's  have a 'reputation' for being somewhat flakey when powered-off incorrectly.

 

What is interesting [?] is that when power is lost, the W20 battery symbol appears on its display but the unit won't operate which shows that the battery doesn't offer any UPS function, which is what Aurender say in their literature. So fine. When misbehaving as above, the battery symbol is still lit-up suggesting it is recharging, which is unlikely since the power interruption is usually for just a few seconds. There is nothing in any of the literature which explains how it is meant to operate/behave/what the re-boot process is.

 

Any insights, anyone?

So I am not alone,. 

 

My unit had issues for a year which could not get into recovery. 

 

Mine could be down for more than a week trying each day to get the recovery menu. 

 

This could be trying literally hundreds of tries. 

 

And it managed to recover just by powering on and not initiating the recovery process. 

 

Sadly, it happened again a week ago and numerous attempts seems to have blown the main board. 

 

Maybe this stresses the circuits, but don't quite understand the sequence and what happens when there is an interruption to power and the loops it goes into. 

 

It reminds me of my pc in the early 80's.

 

Working with aurender to see how to get this fixed. 

[justubes]

Could it be the main boards batteries are weak, so certain parameters or processes in the bios settings stored get reset and cause havoc. 

[justubes]

On 3/10/2019 at 4:15 AM, agladstone said:

Hi ARI, 

For the BluOS, Quobuz allow samples for tracks for 15 seconds or so and cuts to the next track if there is no subscription. 

 

Is this a sample listening issue. 

 

In any case, can this be enabled in BluOS? 

[justubes]

On 3/10/2019 at 4:15 AM, agladstone said:

Hi Ari

For the BluOS, Quobuz allow samples for tracks for 15 seconds or so and cuts to the next track if there is no subscription. 

 

Is this a sample listening issue. 

 

In any case, can this be enabled in BluOS? 

[justubes]

No more batteries as well? 

[justubes]

I believe it is not possible for Aurender to run roon. They have chosen the hardware to support their OS is perfectly reasonable in respect to SQ and functions.

 

I am not savvy  enough to use ot setup roon and prefer a plug and play os like Aurender or Bluos. 

 

I honestly find Aurender OS usable for my purposes but there are many dead ends that need to be dealt with and thus find even the Bluos superior, not to mention roon.

 

What i hope is that Aurender can and will incorporate and implement some of these mire critical functionality concerns that everyday users find or may deem more usable.

 

Not just colour of the skins or more info notes on tracks, artiste or albums that of course in almost non existent with the Aurender OS.

 

I wonder how Roon handles Korean music, maybe Aurender has its strenghts there?

 

There are some glaring issues such as simple things as deleting individual tracks stored on a playlist and rearranging the order of a playlist at any time seems not possible for what i have tried i havent even asked.

 

Simply, certain issues need to be immediately taken to task and implemented quickly, otherwise very soon, all users will really need to fall to roon and abandon the use if Aurender OS due to these blindingly inadequacies.

 

Or Aurender should really look to enable the use of roon if their own OS can not be developed enough to keep up with what is offered by competitors.

 

They would also save a lot on any further OS development costs.

 

 

[justubes]

Oh my bad. i will look if i can find it, it just does not come easily or  intuitively in any case, that was my point.

 

I dont recall ever reading the Bluos manual, if there was one. But i figure out and can do many more functions be just the popup selections.

 

I dont usually read through documentations, maybe that is why i would not dare to try room.