The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[Vincent1234]

Agree, too! I just don't get it why Aurender misses out on a great opportunity to include Roon into their app. It would make things so much simpler. Particularly, since soundwise, everything else is really great! I so much like the way my music sounds when played through my N100H! Great stuff could become much better! I do hope Aurender makes a leap forward!

No doubt integration of Roon in the Conductor app will cost Aurender license money to be paid to Roon and that's holding them back. Time will tell if they will regret their choice. [emoji6]

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[bpw]

...best way to improve UI is listening to customers and considering posibilities how to implement certain ideas into your product.

If i were Aurender designer i would join this forum and carefully read every post. For example Mr. Wang Xuanqian,CEO of Auralic, is active member here on Computer Audiophile forum (Auralic related thread). That is good message for customers, in my opinion.

 

Please be assured that people from Aurender read this forum, as do some dealers. We care.

[biosailor]

No doubt integration of Roon in the Conductor app will cost Aurender license money to be paid to Roon and that's holding them back. Time will tell if they will regret their choice. [emoji6]

 

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Computer Audiophile mobile app

 

As a customer, I'd be prepared to pay license fees. How about two Conductor apps, one with, and one without inclusion of Roon, and the customer decides if paying the license is an option?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile

[Koso]

Please be assured that people from Aurender read this forum, as do some dealers. We care.

Great!

[Taxman]

How about two Conductor apps, one with, and one without inclusion of Roon, and the customer decides if paying the license is anoption

To be honest I don't see the point in integrating Roon in Conductor. Either invest in Conductor and make sure it gets ahead of the competition and in line with the hardware, or bite the bullet and replace Conductor with Roon entirely. I'm not sure if the Roon path is possible without a Roon server in the Aurender box.

 

A different path could actually be to focus entirely on the hardware and build a Roon compliant server box (or boxes) based on Linux with top of the line components with 100% focus on SQ

[Taxman]

Please be assured that people from Aurender read this forum, as do some dealers. We care.

That's great but it would be even better if they were more visible and also replied in threads like this one. I would go as far as saying that it's also a big part of marketing since customers like me tend to check internet activity before taking a decision to buy!

[biosailor]

To be honest I don't see the point in integrating Roon in Conductor. Either invest in Conductor and make sure it gets ahead of the competition and in line with the hardware, or bite the bullet and replace Conductor with Roon entirely. I'm not sure if the Roon path is possible without a Roon server in the Aurender box.

 

A different path could actually be to focus entirely on the hardware and build a Roon compliant server box (or boxes) based on Linux with top of the line components with 100% focus on SQ

 

I guess the technical side of incorporating Roon is not trivial. If server boxes are required, this would have to be integrated as an upgrade option.

[mabe]

To be honest I don't see the point in integrating Roon in Conductor.

 

+1

 

To my knowledge Roon provides a different user experience (vs conductor). May be Roon addresses a very specific customer base.

 

The aurender SW updates are free of charge and completely managed by aurender. For many good reasons I prefer such a one hand offering. Optimization (HW/SW) and overall support of the system is much easier.

 

Ok, there is always a way better…but keeping the SW complexity in line with state of the art UI and current/expected stability should always be priority #1.

 

“Fitness for use” could be the name of the game….

[bpw]

That's great but it would be even better if they were more visible and also replied in threads like this one. I would go as far as saying that it's also a big part of marketing since customers like me tend to check internet activity before taking a decision to buy!

 

If they were able to devote a large portion of their time to posting and responding to posts and emails, it might be possible, but the reality is they can't. That's what dealers are for. They listen to comments and suggestions we get and come up with ourselves. We're all interested in the same thing, the best performance and the best user experience.

[Taxman]

If they were able to devote a large portion of their time to posting and responding to posts and emails, it might be possible, but the reality is they can't. That's what dealers are for.

Really? How big is the company in terms of turnover, employees and sold units? Maybe companies like PS Audio, Roon and iRule are much larger, but they I think they all have a superior interaction with their customers with forums where company representatives are very active.

 

Since you seem to have first hand information, any news on the new version of the App?

[r_w]

+10

 

Add songs to queue... play queue in very high quality = thanks for a great night's listening.

 

Other functionality is auxiliary and much is done 'for the sake of it'.

 

IMHO Roon appears to 'disappear up it's own ass' solving problems that, for the majority of discerning listeners, don't exist.

 

Conductor, while not perfect and in need of a refresh, is still a perfectly fit for purpose app.

SQ and reliability first, gimmicks last.

 

 

 

+1

 

To my knowledge Roon provides a different user experience (vs conductor). May be Roon addresses a very specific customer base.

 

The aurender SW updates are free of charge and completely managed by aurender. For many good reasons I prefer such a one hand offering. Optimization (HW/SW) and overall support of the system is much easier.

 

Ok, there is always a way better…but keeping the SW complexity in line with state of the art UI and current/expected stability should always be priority #1.

 

“Fitness for use” could be the name of the game….

[Taxman]

+10

Conductor, while not perfect and in need of a refresh, is still a perfectly fit for purpose app.

SQ and reliability first, gimmicks last.

I have full respect for you and others who think the app is close to perfect, but please respect that I don't and please don't call my thoughts and requests gimmicks!

Just an example (again) about usability. I have all my Beatles albums tagged "The Beatles" and my Beach Boys albums tagged "The Beach Boys" - in line with how Discogs name the artists. In Discogs, iTunes, iPeng and probably most other user interfaces, you could either add a sorting tag for artists allowing you to sort as Beatles and Beach Boys or instruct the UI to ignore the leading 'The' ensuring that albums by The Beatles and The Beach Boys are presented after Barbara Morrison but before Bob Dylan. But in Conductor, all artist with a leading The will end up last making them more complicated to find.

 

Maybe not an issue for you, but very annoying for me. I have been told that the best way to fix this would be to retag my music, byt even if I could, that is not very flexible or user friendly.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Hi Guys - I'm finishing up my Aurender A10 review this afternoon, sending it to Aurender for fact checking, then publishing it as soon as I get the OK that the review is factually correct (standard procedure).

 

Given the time differences between Minneapolis and Seoul, I'm guessing it will hit the front page Friday.

[russellbobby]

Hi Guys - I'm finishing up my Aurender A10 review this afternoon, sending it to Aurender for fact checking, then publishing it as soon as I get the OK that the review is factually correct (standard procedure).

 

Given the time differences between Minneapolis and Seoul, I'm guessing it will hit the front page Friday.

 

Looking forward to it Chris. Great to see that you have spent a month with the A10, as it really improves with time.

You have been running with the new update. Any chance the rest of us get it by tomorrow?

[r_w]

I did say it needs some work and would agree that better sorting would be an example of that...but you can type 'Beatles' in the search box to view all Beatles albums - hence it is 'fit for purpose', just not quite as you want it (right now).

 

One thing I find a bit daft is the 'last played' playlist is ordered back to front, playing albums in reverse order is not good.

 

I think what some of us are really saying is that less functionality in favour of best SQ should be the Aurender way (as long as the app remains easy to use)

 

I've got over 19k songs and have not yet failed to find one of them and have it playing in seconds - remember CDs?

 

;-)

 

 

 

I have full respect for you and others who think the app is close to perfect, but please respect that I don't and please don't call my thoughts and requests gimmicks!

Just an example (again) about usability. I have all my Beatles albums tagged "The Beatles" and my Beach Boys albums tagged "The Beach Boys" - in line with how Discogs name the artists. In Discogs, iTunes, iPeng and probably most other user interfaces, you could either add a sorting tag for artists allowing you to sort as Beatles and Beach Boys or instruct the UI to ignore the leading 'The' ensuring that albums by The Beatles and The Beach Boys are presented after Barbara Morrison but before Bob Dylan. But in Conductor, all artist with a leading The will end up last making them more complicated to find.

 

Maybe not an issue for you, but very annoying for me. I have been told that the best way to fix this would be to retag my music, byt even if I could, that is not very flexible or user friendly.

[mabe]

I did say it needs some work and would agree that better sorting would be an example of that...but you can type 'Beatles' in the search box to view all Beatles albums - hence it is 'fit for purpose', just not quite as you want it (right now).

 

I think what some of us are really saying is that less functionality in favour of best SQ should be the Aurender way (as long as the app remains easy to use)

 

+1

 

@ Taxman

 

"Mp3tag" (as example) is commonly used as convenient sorting tool.

[Taxman]

"Mp3tag" (as example) is commonly used as convenient sorting tool.

Thanks! Not sure what you mean that it's a "sorting tool", but I use mp3tag to manage all the tags for my 25 000 files/songs and it's quite convenient since you can create macros to automate advanced tasks. In theory I could change all artist tags to things like "Beatles, The" or "Ferry, Brian" to get it sorted properly and the way I want, but I don't want to have it presented like that in the UI. Stubborn? Yes I probably am!

[Taxman]

I think what some of us are really saying is that less functionality in favour of best SQ should be the Aurender way (as long as the app remains easy to use)

 

Maybe I'm wrong, but the sound quality is what it is based on the hardware and to some extent to software in the Aurender box itself, but it has nothing to do with the functionality in the Conductor App, so I don't see what you would gain by limiting functionality?

 

Trying to be creative one option could be to provide open APIs to the Aurender Server, allowing 3rd parties to build control apps, software players etc.

[jglacken]

Looking forward to it Chris!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Computer Audiophile

[JS21]

Awesome!!! Thank you Chris.

[r_w]

That's a good idea BTW.

 

Things I would like to see are Internet Radio (radio via airplay doesn't sound so good to me) and better sorting as mentioned before and IME compilation albums aren't listed as 'various artists' but by the 1st artist name on the album, so it's hard to see the comps in an isolated view.

 

... having said that it's still 'fit for purpose', it just needs a bit of work, IMHO what it doesn't need to do is completely disappear up its own ass with endless features, just for the sake of it - sometimes less is more.

 

;-)

 

Trying to be creative one option could be to provide open APIs to the Aurender Server, allowing 3rd parties to build control apps, software players etc.

[r_w]

You gain simplicity... as in you get a system that doesn't require any training to master.

 

... but I agree that the above should not mean that obvious common sense helpful features are be omitted - that defeats the object.

 

Perfection is doing as little as possible for as much as possible, not as doing much as possible just because we can. That balance will be dependent on each end user's opinion, so there is no possibility of Aurender achieving perfection for all.

 

;-)

 

 

I don't see what you would gain by limiting functionality?

[The Computer Audiophile]

The A10 review is up!

 

Computer Audiophile - Aurender A10 Review

[russellbobby]

The A10 review is up!

 

Computer Audiophile - Aurender A10 Review

 

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?

[SirAtilla]

The A10 review is up!

 

Computer Audiophile - Aurender A10 Review

 

Curious as to the version of Conductor you were using as one of the features described has not made it into the current GA version yet.