The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[mmeeks]

A comment and a question.  First, I have been using the new version of the Conductor app with my N10, and really like the visual upgrade.  Definitely a thumbs up here.  My question is regarding the Qobuz support.  I'm wondering if there are any plans to add the ability to sort favorite albums by artist and by title, similar to what is supported for Tidal? I subscribe to both, and navigating through my favorite albums (there are quite a few) is currently much easier with Tidal than Qobuz.

[mmeeks]

@AriMargolis - thanks for the quick response!  I was not aware of this feature, but I will give a try tonite.  It sounds like what I am looking for.  Plus, I won't have to switch between my library and Tidal and Qobuz favorite anymore.  Can't believe I've had my N10 for over a year (and an N100 before that) and missed this feature.  Thanks!

[mmeeks]

@AriMargolis - I was just looking at the consume on/off function and wandering what it was last night!

[mmeeks]

@rwwjr44 - thanks for the info!

[mmeeks]

Surprised I’m the first one to ask this.  @AriMargolis - any reaction to Amazon’s announcement about HD and Ultra HD streaming?  A little bit of an unfair question as the announcement was about 12 hours ago, but curious minds... 😀

[mmeeks]

Re: Difference between N10 and N100

 

I had an N100, and asked my dealer to try an N10 in my system.  He brought it out, and it only took about one minute of listening to both to hear the difference.  it wasn’t subtle at all.  The N100 is excellent, but the N10 is clearly in a different league in just about every aspect (as it should be given the price difference).  I listened for a few hours more, but I bought it.

I  had previously tried the A10 in my system.  The N100 and my DAC (Levinson 585) vs the A10 was a very close contest, and in this case I decided to try the N10 next.  

Haven't head the ACS-10, so no comment there.  Hope this helps.

[mmeeks]

17 minutes ago, agladstone said:

Thanks for everyone’s thoughts, and prior upgrade experiences so far, it’s helpful! 
In regards to the expense of the Aurrender units, I always try and tell myself that these units are a combination of a very high quality and very well built and configured custom computer combined with a high quality well built stereo component/ source. 
For example a top of the line iMac AND a top of the line CD player, those two items would cost at least $4,000 to $5,000 US each one, then throw in the custom software with free updates for the life of the unit and free support and the cost of time saved by not having to figure out how to do it all yourself like an Allo Digital or HQPLAYER or CAPS, etc with no need to pay for a Roon subscription and separate Linear Power Supplies, etc. 
When you add up all of the costs and all of the time , the Aurrender products start to have more value with a proven and almost guaranteed result of great sound quality and ease of use. 

 

Before I purchased the N100, I went the route of using a MacBook Pro, trying various software (Roon, Jriver, Audirvana) and a reclocker with a good power supply and cables (Ifi micro iUSB3.0 and various cables).  The combination of the software and reclocker was a major improvement over just using the MacBook Pro.  But it was frustrating that each piece of software sounded different than the others, and none were clearly better than the others.  Same with the cables.  The combinations were endless.  I am a software developer by trade, and dealing with the software and hardware issues involved with this was not what I was looking for.  I did enough of that at work.  So I asked my dealer to try the N100 in my system.  I was just looking for something that was in the same league as my current setup, maybe a little better, without all the tweaking.  The real surprise was the the N100 was significantly better than my setup.  No just a little, but a lot.  So I bought it.  About a year later I upgraded to the N10.  No regrets here.  However, for those with more patience than me, a custom PC or Mac rig with the right additional hardware might save you some money - but it definitely won't save you any time.

[mmeeks]

I too own a N20, and I also manage my company’s small data center.  When my data center was using hard drives, I typically saw 1-2 hard drive failures a week.  Since we have switched to SSDs, I have seen two failures in the last five years.  YMMV, as our usage of drives is FAR heavier than in an N20, but it’s one less thing to be concerned about.  
 

I believe hard drives do generate more electrical noise than SSDs, but I would presume that Aurender has taken this into account in a product at the level of the N20.  But again, going with a SSD gives you another thing that you don’t have to worry about.

[mmeeks]

I encountered the 

On 3/16/2024 at 9:09 PM, JS21 said:

Latest version of Conductor 4 doesn’t load on my iPhone 13(latest sw). All I get is a grey screen.

 

 

I encountered this over the weekend on an iPhone Pro Max 14 after taking an update to Conductor.  However, my iPad continued to work with the new update.  I received a response from Aurender support on Sunday (they are really fast to respond!) with a beta version to try.  It fixed the problem.  I am assuming another update will be out very shortly.