The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[Noushy]

I love battery backup systems when properly used. At my office we have a generator so the battery never runs out. I wish the Aurender had a power down function that works with a battery backup so when there is a power loss the Aurender would do a proper shut down like the UPS software on a desktop. I can see Aurender adding this in the future. I also recommend a pure sine wave online system for those with flaky electrical service as the units provide a clean 120V or 240V service.  PS Audio could certainly make a companion to the Aurender as could Aurender themselves.  The W20 uses its batteries this way and essentially has a built in battery backup.

 

Noushy

[Mazza]

29 minutes ago, Noushy said:

The W20 uses its batteries this way and essentially has a built in battery backup.

 

I am not sure that it does. See my post on what happens when you lose power.

 

The battery-side feeds the sound-board, but as I understand it, the normal SMPS feeds the HDD's and 'computer' side of the W20

[Noushy]

20 minutes ago, Mazza said:

 

I am not sure that it does. See my post on what happens when you lose power.

 

The battery-side feeds the sound-board, but as I understand it, the normal SMPS feeds the HDD's and 'computer' side of the W20

This is straight from Aurender and one if the reasons I was thinking of getting this.

 

Power Failure Protection
The LiFePO4 battery power supply for the audio circuits also acts as an uninterruptible power supply. In case of any sudden power failures, the Aurender W20 will power down safely.

https://www.aurender.com/page/manual-w20

 

[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. 

[Noushy]

It is also why you experience much less data corruption from improper power downs than the rest of us lowly Aurender users

[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. 

[Ponzi]

Merge03:

 

For those of us not computer savvy, would you mind explaining how the magnetic system you mentioned works and what some options on the market might by.  Sorry to be a pest.  And a dumbass. 

[merge03]

?

[rwwjr44]

The older units didn't seem to like being shut down suddenly. Somewhere along the line a software patch has made things less interesting.

[russellbobby]

Hey A10 owners

Do you guys ever use the upsample feature on the A10?  I go back and forth. Doesn't seem like  much of a difference. Any opinions?

[Noushy]

19 minutes ago, russellbobby said:

Hey A10 owners

Do you guys ever use the upsample feature on the A10?  I go back and forth. Doesn't seem like  much of a difference. Any opinions?

More curious how many use the DAC and how many use it as a preamp as well.

 

Noushy

[russellbobby]

I use the dac in mine and run it thru a Micro Zotl 2.0s  tube pre. The built in pre is not bad if you don't have a good pre amp to compare to.

I am not a fan of the digital volume control so its a non starter for me.

The built in Dac is very good I think. Certainly not reference, but solid. Held its own when my bud brought over his Yggy. I think the lack of a usb/spdif connection with the DAC being integrated  really adds to the SQ.

I will probably go back to separates one day but satisfied for now.  I ran it with a battery for a bit and sounded pretty good , but the trade off was removing from the Audience conditioner so it wasn't worth the effort of maintaining  the battery.

I wonder how the A100 will stack up...

Russ

[Mazza]

7 hours ago, Noushy said:

This is straight from Aurender and one if the reasons I was thinking of getting this.

 

Power Failure Protection
The LiFePO4 battery power supply for the audio circuits also acts as an uninterruptible power supply. In case of any sudden power failures, the Aurender W20 will power down safely.

https://www.aurender.com/page/manual-w20

 

 

That’s what the manual says (and that is all that it has to say on the subject) but it doesn’t appear to act like a true UPS. Probably because the batteries’ principle function is not about UPS. Ok, maybe it does power down safely like the manual claims BUT if that is true, then it doesn’t always restart as if a controlled shutdown has occurred, which rather undermines its claim. 

 

I’d say don’t buy the W20 for the UPS feature! It is not reliable ..... buy the W20 for the sound and YMWV depending on your other components of course and provide UPS, if you want it, by another means.

[Ponzi]

I apologize if this subject has been cover already, but I have a question about converting DSD to PCM, with either the N10 or W20.  The articles I have read suggest that conversions of this type do more harm than good.  There is there agreement about that?

[Noushy]

Here is a nice summary article for those thinking of going SSDs for the storage drive. As long as you pretty much just add titles and not remove them SSDs should last as long as you need for an Aurender server.

 

https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-reliable-are-ssds/

 

 Noushy

[jfddoc]

New information on the A-30.

 

https://www.audiostream.com/content/aurender-a30-new-top-tier-all-one-road-trip-and-demo?fbclid=IwAR2tdUkqDyWGwCOEzb8POg0DMwElfO8KKNjIuONooZmc4YzUctpKZHCaeDw

[sfseay]

On 2/18/2019 at 10:35 PM, jon2020 said:

 

How would one know if one has not heard Noushy's system? The problem with opinionated critics giving critical opinions without even a listen.....I rest my case.

I never claimed to hear any system nor did I criticize any system.  I just don’t buy the idea that expensive equipment automatically equals good or improved sound.  I don’t care how expensive something is, it doesn’t always adequate to better sound.  Now take a Midol and calm down.

[jon2020]

6 minutes ago, sfseay said:

I never claimed to hear any system nor did I criticize any system.  I just don’t buy the idea that expensive equipment automatically equals good or improved sound.  I don’t care how expensive something is, it doesn’t always adequate to better sound.  Now take a Midol and calm down.

 

No worries. I am as cool as a cucumber can be.

Btw, not buying some idea doesn't mean that idea is not true.

Of course, there is always the law of diminishing returns but that is another can of worms altogether.

It's all relative - price vs performance.

To each his own, as Noushy says. 

 

Enjoy The Music! . 

[Emm]

2 hours ago, jfddoc said:

New information on the A-30.

 

https://www.audiostream.com/content/aurender-a30-new-top-tier-all-one-road-trip-and-demo?fbclid=IwAR2tdUkqDyWGwCOEzb8POg0DMwElfO8KKNjIuONooZmc4YzUctpKZHCaeDw

Is this the expected W20 successor?

[Vincent1234]

8 hours ago, Emm said:

Is this the expected W20 successor?

I wouldn't think so as this is an all-in-one solution including DAC, CD ripper and headphone amp. The W20 is a server only.

[Vincent1234]

10 hours ago, sfseay said:

I don’t care how expensive something is, it doesn’t always adequate to better sound.

The other way around however seems to me pretty often the case. Cheap stuff mostly simply doesn't come close to the higher-end stuff, provided you have the right quality system to hear the differences. I regularly read stories about turning an N100 'into nearly the SQ of a W20' by adding noise filters, suspending feet, changing the PS etc. Besides the fact that most of these upgrades can also be applied to the W20 with similar effect, unfortunately things just don't work that way. A W20 is a totally different beast than all the other Aurenders, including the N10 which I owned myself for 1,5 years. This is just an example and this will not only apply to Aurender. I've been in this hobby for over 40 years and I strongly believe that really excellent sound unfortunately will never be cheap. System synergy however indeed is key - in every price bracket.

[Mazza]

6 minutes ago, Vincent1234 said:

This is just an example and this will not only apply to Aurender. I've been in this hobby for over 40 years and I strongly believe that really excellent sound unfortunately will never be cheap. System synergy however indeed is key - in every price bracket.

 

👍+1, but with the law-of-diminishing-returns

[Emm]

30 minutes ago, Vincent1234 said:

I wouldn't think so as this is an all-in-one solution including DAC, CD ripper and headphone amp. The W20 is a server only.

So we are still waiting for the W30

[Vincent1234]

5 minutes ago, Mazza said:

 

👍+1, but with the law-of-diminishing-returns

Obviously yes. However even the law of diminishing returns is a relative thing. On an ultra high-end system (which I'm very lucky to have after over 40 years of saving and upgrading) the differences between an N10 and a W20 were stunningly clear after literally 5 seconds. I'm convinced those differences would be much less clear on a lesser system. Therefore system synergy is absolutely key to be able to clearly hear such differences and each component should be on a similar level too.

[Vincent1234]

4 minutes ago, Emm said:

So we are still waiting for the W30

We will never know until it's there, I guess. 😉