The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

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I have a brand new test N200 test unit a at home to compare with my N100H.

Brand new out of the box performance is quite poor I’m afraid as it sounds flat, boring and missing drive. So, I have internet radio on repeat now to burn-in the N200 but it has to improve quite a lot to get me interested. Now after 15 hours of burn-in it is already a bit better but … I have the impression the new Aurender puts more focus on resolution and openness and by doing that some of the charm of the N100H organic sound is a bit lost. The new sound is more clean and pure but looses on the natural organic flow. I was not expecting that and I hope it improves after 50+ hours of burn-in.

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Whilst running in the Aurender N200 I'm also going to check its spdif output to compare. Even after 50 hours of constant burn-in of the N200 I'm not convinced about the sound improvement vs cost difference (N100H). The N200 sound is quite different from the N100H, although it is more precise and cleaner it seems Aurender decided to somewhat change its house sound sort of speak. Is it because other vendors focus so much on increasing resolution they felt they had to follow suit?

Also, on the N200 no info is shown on the display when playing internet radio. No radio info or metadata, no logo or anything. The screen just says 'Select a Song ...'. The only indicator is that it shows 'Radio Stream' in the right bottom corner. So, the whole 6+ inch screen is unused in that case. Weird, since it works fine on N100H. I have raised a support ticket for this. It is also a pity Aurender did not put an Oled screen in the N200. When looking from the side or from above you can clear see it is an LCD.

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Aurender installed a fix on my demo N200 unit to resolve the issue with not showing any internet radio meta data info. That is now resolved. In the mean time I’m trying to break-in the demo N200 unit to 200 hours before testing again.

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23 hours ago, Anonamemouse said:

Now here's an interesting experiment. Are you actually "breaking in" a new piece of electronics, or are you just getting used to the way it sounds? When you reach the 500 hour mark, get another N200, brand new from an unopened box and do an A - B comparison. Hear if it actually does sound different. 

I’m breaking in a completely new N200 unit. I’m at 150 hours now so should be sufficient to start assessing the unit properly but so far the N200 has not really surprised me in such a postitive way to warrant double the price of a N100H.

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The below are just my personal findings in my room and hifi setup (Aurender N100H/ Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ / Norma IPA140 / ATC SCM11 / Tellurium Ultra Black II cabling)

 

N200:

• More neutral sound and most likely more honest than N100H.
• Increased resolution and openness.
• Different sound flavour compared to N100H. 
• Drops the ball a bit with lesser quality internet radio streams compared to N100H.
• N200 is tuned differently. I wonder if Aurender caved to the latest hifi flavour in being much more transparent and honest to the source?
• Considering N200’s price tag they should have used an Oled display and not LCD. It is really obvious when comparing to N100H display the N200 is less quality and harder to read from an angle etc.

 

N100H:

• Sound is more relaxed and smooth. Much nicer to listen to for long period of time.
• Lesser quality streams (internet radio) sounds good.
• Resolution drop and less open compared to N200.
• I know the N100 most likely is less true to the source but I do not mind that when it plays so fluent and smooth.

 

So, the N200 is packed up and will be returned to my dealer. I will audition the N10 this Fri, hoping that keeps the sound signature of the N100H.

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1 hour ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

I love that Norma amp!

Thx! Until a year ago I never heard of the Norma brand but my ATC hifi dealer told me that I should have a listen to it. At the time I compared it to to Moon 340i which I also liked very much but it then end chose the Norma. It replaced a Lyngdorf Tdai 3400 which had a totally different sound signature compared to the Norma and was rather flat sounding with not much depth to the sound although it had power to spare.

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I have been told by my dealer that the Aurender rep informed him last week the Aurender N100 will be leaving the range and is EOL. With no plans for a replacement.

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After upgrading my speakers from ATC SCM11’s to SCM40’s I am now retesting the same Aurender N200 thx to my dealer. And … it seems I have to correct my earlier statement (stating I was keeping my N100H after testing the N200). The N200 has only been playing a few hours but the differences are now more profound. The N200 has a considerable darker background and the sound is much tighter and direct. Increased drive and better timing combined with better bass control. I’m pretty sure this N200 is not going back.

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On 11/3/2021 at 8:08 AM, JS21 said:

Are you finding the same improvements with internet radio streaming?

 

Short answer is Yes.

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Who knows ... maybe all their software developers guys ("persons") are busy working on getting them Roon Ready. Maybe an announcement soon (High End Munich)?

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A few days before in this conversation a rep from Aurender mentioned that for the v4 app they went for a complete redesign over the underlying app architecture allowing them to create the app cross Android and Apple ios. Which will have been quite some development effort and corresponding budget (I’m working in a sort of similar IT related sector so know the time and budget spend on such redesigns). That is all good news and good.

 

However, what I do not understand is the following. When you have decided to start the app architecture almost from scratch why oh why then build the same ui/ux on top? Aurender had a great opportunity there to redesign its ui and make it much more modern looking. I do not grasp why do all the effort of redesigning the app architecture and then mimic the same ui with it. With all due respect but the Conductor ui is just not cutting anymore. Just have a look what Innuos did with their new Sense 2.0 app etc.

 

To be clear. I’m not mentioning Roon here on purpose since they went a bit overboard with their features and UI. I feel Innuos for example found something in the middle that works for the majority of users. The Aurender Conductor ui has grown since it inception but you could clearly see bits and pieces were added on top. For example the place to select your local storage or streaming service to play something from that source is something that could have been tackled in the app redesign by blending it all in whereby the search and library would simple merge and search across services. The Conductor app is merely OK compared to some other brands. I still use it since I prefer the Aurender sound quality and overall look and feel of the unit itself (but not its app ui which seems to be stuck in the previous decade). Just my 2 cents …

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On 9/15/2023 at 10:58 PM, AurenderAmerica said:

@Buzzer The video below shows you all about Repeat mode info on the tablet (video shows V3, but it is the same on V4): 

And here's how it works on the phone:

 

@Powerman @Buzzer and everyone else with a question, bug report, or technical support inquiry: PLEASE, email us at [email protected]. It's actually easier than logging in to this thread and posting a comment. We are here to help, and when you email us at our support desk we have more resources to track and resolve issues.

 

- Ari Margolis, Aurender America
 

 

What is that Roon button doing in that screenshot 😉  It seems Aurender is busy getting Roon ready support in place. I heard similar rumours early this summer about Aurender looking to become Roon ready.

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Instead of all the latest Roon talk I would like to know how the earlier mentioned new AP20 is sounding?

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The solution is so simple.

 

Just use the clone option in Aurender settings and select source and target Aurenders on your network. To speed up the cloning process just make sure both units are on the same network switch. You need to add new storage to your new unit of course but that’s it. I have used this Aurender cloning option when moving from my N100 to N200 and later on to my N20.

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2 hours ago, Anonamemouse said:

 

 

Wellicht moet ik Engels met een Vlaams accent typen?

Typical comment from a Dutch person to a Belgian :(  JC.

 

I do not understand why you need to be this rude. Look, when you have the funds to buy an Aurender then I assume 250€ for an extra SSD in the new Aurender will not be a problem. Furthermore, when you want to sell your previous unit it’s better with some existing storage anyway. The Aurender clone feature exists for a reason and works just fine. But it seems for some reason people want to make their issues more difficult than they actual are.