The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[GJo]

15 hours ago, DancingSea said:

 

I'm doing something similar in Yate right now.  I just go through each offending album individually and make the corrections manually. 

I have reached out to Yate support with a question of how to use the application to fix my split album issue. Subject to the response, I may use Yate.

 

 

[GJo]

2 minutes ago, DancingSea said:

There may be automated ways to fix such things, I’m not sure.  I always do it manually.  For AIFF files, it’s easily done in iTunes (Music).   In iTunes Just CMD click both of the split albums, hit CMD-I ( for info), and type in the artist and album names to make sure all match.  Save. That’s it. 

This morning I just opened a Finder window for the Aurender SSD folder and did drag-and-drops to collate the files into one folder for each split album. Deleted the empty folders and performed an Aurender Re-Scan. Seems to have worked.

[GJo]

10 minutes ago, DancingSea said:

Hopefully @SirAtilla can help you rescue the FLAC album art. 

I have 97% album art in the AIFF files, so I’m pretty good. A few missing album art files PerfectTUNES is not able to correct. 
 

I’m not eager to attack FLAC. 

 

 

[GJo]

42 minutes ago, SirAtilla said:

If it's working for you wouldn't worry about going to FLAC.  AIFF is fine.  If you ever become space constrained and want to save some space FLAC is a nice option and dBpoweramp can convert an entire library in batch mode should need arise.

 

Typically if PerfectTUNES can't find something the metadata being used to search needs to be tweaked.  Alternatively can use web search and find a jpg and manually add.  In incredibly rare cases I have had to scan the album cover to get it.

 

You can also manually manipulate the search by overriding the metadata being used from the files themselves - in the Fix window can type in lower left text box to alter search text being used.  See image and red rectangle for reference.

 

I used dbPoweramp to convert my AIFF files to FLAC a couple of years ago.

 

When I try to fix a few album artwork files, I get the following error message whether I try the automatic Fix, or try to replace manually with a .jpg downloaded onto my Mac.

 

Even though PerfectTUNES shows artwork for the album in question, the artwork does not appear in Conductor4.

 

 

[GJo]

12 minutes ago, SirAtilla said:

 

Hmm I have never seen that error.  Before we ask Illustrate to look at log files can you click the ellipsis button to the right of fix button and choose "Reveal Album in Finder" and ensure files are in expected location and you can manipulate files in whatever location is shown via computer?  Computer side of me would read this pretty literal as in PerfectTUNES does not have permission to alter files.

 

 

PerfectTUNES now shows 0 albums when I click Album Art (see below).

 

This despite all the album art now being correct in Conductor4, and PerfectTUNES recognizing the music files if I click ID Tags.

 

Really unimpressed with PerfectTUNES. Using it has been unpleasant, and I honestly don't want to spend another minute using the application. This may be user error, but I don't care to debrief further.

 

Using dbPoweramp, I have re-converted the handful of albums that had suddenly become split apart, and I have deleted the old files.

 

Everything (well 98%) is good.

 

I'm moving on.

 

Thank you all for your help.

 

[GJo]

How does one fix staticky pops between tracks in a Qobuz playlist?

 

Conductor 4 (4.8.7)

N30SA Firmware 1.23.424

 

 

 

 

[GJo]

Here’s another Aurender/Qobuz user observing a pop between tracks. 
 

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/pop-sound-between-tracks

 

I’ve added a 1 second pre-roll delay via Conductor 4 (previously had no delay) and will report back. 
 

I recall a similar issue using Roon which was solved with a pre-roll delay, although Roon has shorter delay options beginning with 50ms. 

 

 

 

[GJo]

Just now, krass said:

do you only get this when switching between different formats ? Then it is indeed the DAC requiring the delay that you mention above.. 

 

You didn’t say, but if it is between ALL tracks, even tracks from the same album, then it is something else.

 

 

All good points. 

 

I will be paying attention to whether or not it occurs only between different sample rates.

 

In fact, I think I will create a short playlist with different sample rate files, then compare to a playlist consisting of files with identical sample rates.

[GJo]

When listening to a playlist with back-to-back tracks with different sample rates there is a tick between tracks.

 

After re-ordering tracks in the playlist so they are grouped together according to sample rate, there is no tick between back-to-back tracks with identical sample rates.

 

 

[GJo]

2 hours ago, Mazza said:

It’s a DAC issue then?

Yes. The tick occurs when the new sample rate is detected by the DAC. I’ve heard this on a few DACs.

 

I believe one solution is to convert all sample rates to the sample rate. For example, convert all sample rates to 88.2. Or, upsample all sample rates to 192.

 

This requires software other than Conductor 4 (I believe). Roon has this capability.

[GJo]

Looking forward to the opportunity, freedom, and choice  of using Roon on my N30SA. 
 

Hallelujah!

 

Thank you, Aurender

[GJo]

7 minutes ago, DancingSea said:

 

Based on this page on Aurender's website, it seems Roon is already working on Aurender.  They provide full instructions of how to get going.  Have you tried it?

 

https://aurender.com/home/roon_ready/

Despite what Aurender’s website says, it’s not working. Roon is not yet an option in Conductor, and the N30SA firmware has not been updated.  
 

[GJo]

I reached out to Aurender last night via the support link in Conductor 4 and asked what’s required to use Roon. 

 

I received an email today that my N30SA was updated over night to enable Roon Beta testing.
 

Roon is now enabled and playing. 

[GJo]

16 minutes ago, SirAtilla said:

 

Sounds like latest version of Conductor 4.11 has the support to turn this on/off just needed the device firmware?

Yes. However Roon did not appear in Conductor 4.11.5 until firmware was updated. 
 

Firmware 1.24.29

[GJo]

25 minutes ago, DancingSea said:

 

Cool.  How does Roon sound vs Conductor?

Too often, those comparisons devolve into contentious (and unproductive) debate, and I'm not interested in contributing to that.

 

I recommend listeners interested in Roon vs Conductor make their own determinations.

[GJo]

4 hours ago, DancingSea said:

 

It certainly need not be that way.  It's more than possible to have a level headed discussion about the sound quality differences, or similarities.  Pros and cons.

 

I suggest that before last night, it was not possible to discuss the sonic attributes of Roon/Conductor with both being presented by an Aurender.  Therefore, there has likely, in the history of the world, never been such a discussion under those conditions in a public forum.  Ours will be the first, and it's up to us how to handle it.  We can be trailblazers of civility and decorum if we so choose.

 

I have an AMD Aurender which is not able to be a Roon endpoint.  I'm curious about how people view the sonic characteristics - of the new incarnation as a legit Roon Ready endpoint - vs Conductor as valuable feedback to help me determine whether or not I will seek to upgrade to an Intel Aurender.

 

All harmless stuff 🤗

 

Hopefully our host will be able to offer some insight as it has to be the #1 question afoot.  For years and years Aurender had taken the position that adding Roon would compromise sound quality vs Conductor.  Now that they've adopted Roon, it's natural to explore the results.

 

We are audiophiles.  It's what we do.  Evaluate and compare.  The tone is at our discretion.

If anything stands out after listening for a month or so then I might report back. 

[GJo]

2 hours ago, krass said:

 

I don’t know how familiar you are with Roon, or whether you followed the Roon discussions on the Grimm Mu-1 / 2 thread…. just to point out that Roon has many more user configurable options (compared to Conductor) that impact audio, and that there’s a school of thought that you need to basically disable everything to avoid audio degradation…. (btw I am not in that school of thought..)

I just mention it in case you’re new to Roon,  there’s a lot of opinion / advice in some of the other threads you might find useful…..

Thank you for your insight.
 

I’m not new to Roon, and I am aware of the concept of disabling all Muse dsp processing, upsampling, etc.

[GJo]

I listen to my N30SA in Critical Listening mode.
 

I have found that pressing play in Roon (or adding tracks to a playlist) turns off Critical Listening. I reported this to Beta Support. The reply did not clarify whether Critical Listening is a known feature that does not work with Roon, or if it’s a bug. 
 

I had forgotten how much I like the Roon user experience, and particularly how much I like the Roon Radio algorithm, which seems to consistently play tracks that I enjoy more than I do tracks in Conductor’s (Qobuz’s?) similar “radio” feature.

[GJo]

2 hours ago, HifiVoice said:

Switching between Conductor and ROON works like a charm. 

 

Marc is happy 😃

 

 

 

I may be doing it incorrectly, but I find switching from Roon to Conductor requires a device restart (N30SA). 
 

On the other hand, switching from Conductor to Roon is quick, seamless and does not require restart. 
 

 

[GJo]

2 minutes ago, HifiVoice said:

 

This is probably the reason that it is stil in beta, and some of these things require a bit more software engineering before making an official software release. 

What I tried this morning when Roon was enabled and controlling the N30SA was to disable Roon in Conductor 4. Then, I was a able to stream using Conductor without an N30SA restart. 
 

To use Roon once again, I simply enabled Roon in Conductor, selected the N30SA in Roon and began streaming. 

[GJo]

42 minutes ago, HifiVoice said:

On my N200, when switching from ROON to Conductor…

What steps specifically do you take switching from Roon to Conductor?

[GJo]

5 hours ago, VoicesInMyHead said:

 

Roon to me sounds muffled and flat in comparison. I maybe need to do more testing, but to me this is almost unlistenable and it leaves me in a quite awkward situation where I feel disappointed and uncertain of what to do.

My experience with Roon on my N30SA is completely opposite of muffled and flat. 

[GJo]

14 minutes ago, VoicesInMyHead said:

 

Nice! Then I just need to upgrade... 😀

 

@HiFiVoice owns a N200H, and he stated:

 

Quote

Sound quality wise the differences between Conductor and ROON are small. Conductor sounds a bit more refined, airy and delineated than ROON, and positions the sound stage a little bit more backward in the 3D image, but the differences are very subtle.

 

That said, we all hear and evaluate differently. What he evaluates as small, you may consider large. Also, you may both discern varying characteristics.

 

I don't dismiss your observations whatsoever.

[GJo]

15 minutes ago, Anonamemouse said:

...a good friend of mine who has pitch perfect hearing (which is quite scary) has experimented with it about a year ago. He was not impressed sound wise, but kept it because he liked the app. According to him, the sound was "good enough if you don't know any better".

"Good enough if you don't know better."

 

Nonsense.

[GJo]

2 hours ago, Anonamemouse said:

This guy can PERFECTLY tune a single string just by hearing alone. I trust him blindly. 

 

Regarding your posts on the topic of Roon, you wrote:

 

Quote

I do not have ROON and no interest in getting it... 

 

That's the pertinent data point when putting your Roon posts in context. No experience. No interest.