The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[classeaddict]

I highly recommend that do not audition the W20 in your system unless you are willing to pony up the $$$$$

I own a W20 and speak from experience!

 

Steve

[Ponzi]

Hmmm.  I like my N10 a great deal and I am quite sure it delivers everything the W20 does, any evidence to the contrary that may exist notwithstanding. 

[classeaddict]

39 minutes ago, Ponzi said:

Hmmm.  I like my N10 a great deal and I am quite sure it delivers everything the W20 does, any evidence to the contrary that may exist notwithstanding. 

 Hmmm why do you reckon Aurender makes the W20...because they can charge more? The fact that the W20 uses batteries to power the drives to me and that alone clearly provides a lower noise floor.  What do you have showing the N10 delivers everything the W20 does?

 

steve

[Vincent1234]

47 minutes ago, classeaddict said:

I highly recommend that do not audition the W20 in your system unless you are willing to pony up the $$$$$

I own a W20 and speak from experience!

 

Steve

I bought a used one in perfect condition. That will save you a few nights lying awake.. ?

[Vincent1234]

40 minutes ago, Ponzi said:

Hmmm.  I like my N10 a great deal and I am quite sure it delivers everything the W20 does, any evidence to the contrary that may exist notwithstanding. 

I owned the N10 myself and it's really excellent indeed. But in the right system it's no match for a W20. As it should be. Trust me..

[Ponzi]

I was joking.  I'm folding my arms is a desperate effort to save some $$$.

[NordicBob]

On 3/23/2018 at 9:37 AM, Vincent1234 said:

Let us know how it works out for you! ?

I wil be sure to do so.  Before auditioning W20 I have to convince my wife first

[michaelD]

So for all the W20 owners.  If you can’t take advantage of the dual XLR connection or the world clock does it sonically make enough difference to move to the W20 over the N10?  I don’t think so but I have never compared the two.  Also assume the system has enough resolution to hear the difference if there is any.  

[Vincent1234]

3 hours ago, michaelD said:

So for all the W20 owners.  If you can’t take advantage of the dual XLR connection or the world clock does it sonically make enough difference to move to the W20 over the N10?  I don’t think so but I have never compared the two.  Also assume the system has enough resolution to hear the difference if there is any.  

Absolutely! See my earlier posts. I'm using a top-spec USB cable and the W20 sounds way better than the N10 did through the same USB cable.

[NordicBob]

3 hours ago, michaelD said:

So for all the W20 owners.  If you can’t take advantage of the dual XLR connection or the world clock does it sonically make enough difference to move to the W20 over the N10?  I don’t think so but I have never compared the two.  Also assume the system has enough resolution to hear the difference if there is any.  

 

One really needs to audition both the N10 and W20 in their own systems using their own ears to determine if the W20 would be that much better sonically  than the N10. Just my 2 cents on this issue 

[NordicBob]

10 minutes ago, Vincent1234 said:

Absolutely! See my earlier posts. I'm using a top-spec USB cable and the W20 sounds way better than the N10 did through the same USB cable.

May I ask which USB cable that you are using to compare the N10 vs the W20?  Thanks and most appreciated.

[Vincent1234]

2 hours ago, NordicBob said:

 

One really needs to audition both the N10 and W20 in their own systems using their own ears to determine if the W20 would be that much better sonically  than the N10. Just my 2 cents on this issue 

Of course you are fully right. That goes for each and every component in your system, so a very expensive one as the W20 is no exception by any means. It all comes down to synergy. But in a high-spec system it literally took me 5 seconds (in a piece of Arvo Pärt) to be stunned by the improvement compared to my N10. I'm not exaggerating.

[Vincent1234]

3 hours ago, NordicBob said:

May I ask which USB cable that you are using to compare the N10 vs the W20?  Thanks and most appreciated.

Sure you may. I'm using a Crystal Cable Dreamline Plus (mono crystal silver) USB cable. I auditioned it after an advice from one of my audio buddies. It's very expensive, but the improvements it brings are stunning. It's been one of the best investments in audio for me. 

[Vincent1234]

8 minutes ago, Vincent1234 said:

 

Nothing to add actually. This was an accidental post that I'm unable to remove.. ??

[isquirrel]

1 hour ago, Vincent1234 said:

Of course you are fully right. That goes for each and every component in your system, so a very expensive one as the W20 is no exception by any means. It all comes down to synergy. But in a high-spec system it literally took me 5 seconds (in a piece of Arvo Pärt) to be stunned by the improvement compared to my N10. I'm not exaggerating.

I can attest to that, I prefer to use AES 110ohm and Word Clock 75ohm BNC cables for my W20 to DAC connection, but the USB connection I have been exploring since the latest update for MQA files and I find USB with a cheaper cable to be within 90% of my expensive AES setup. BTW the word clock works for both connections.

 

I also added 4 x HRS Vortex feet and removed the standard feet and that made a very nice improvement.

[NordicBob]

10 hours ago, Vincent1234 said:

Of course you are fully right. That goes for each and every component in your system, so a very expensive one as the W20 is no exception by any means. It all comes down to synergy. But in a high-spec system it literally took me 5 seconds (in a piece of Arvo Pärt) to be stunned by the improvement compared to my N10. I'm not exaggerating.

 

I bet that I will have the same reaction that you have to the W20.  When I find something significantly better, it doesn’t take me long to discern the difference.  Yes, 5-10 seconds is all that it takes.  I’m anxious to audition one.

[NordicBob]

10 hours ago, Vincent1234 said:

Sure you may. I'm using a Crystal Cable Dreamline Plus (mono crystal silver) USB cable. I auditioned it after an advice from one of my audio buddies. It's very expensive, but the improvements it brings are stunning. It's been one of the best investments in audio for me. 

 

Thanks.  I’ve heard great things about the Crystal cable.  I’m presently using an Synergistic  Research Galileo USB cable which I find excellent too.  When my dealer brought the demo SR Galileo  cable out to my home, I was using an Audioquest Carbon USB.  The SR Galileo was so much better that I noticed it immediately and didn’t  want to remove it, but I had to since it was the demo which  my dealer needed back before he left.  The good news is that I got my own Galileo in a couple of days.  There was  going back to the Audioqust once that I heard the Galileo.  The interesting part was that until I heard the difference in these 2 cables myself, I was skeptical that there would be much of a difference, if any at all.  Hearing is believing.  

[agladstone]

On 3/18/2018 at 3:10 PM, Vincent1234 said:

Next time then! ?

I never knew this either! I’ve been converting all of my SACD ISO’s to DSF. 

I will have to try and see if the Aurender can play my ISO’s without prior DSF conversion, this would save me a lot of time  

[agladstone]

1 hour ago, agladstone said:

I never knew this either! I’ve been converting all of my SACD ISO’s to DSF. 

I will have to try and see if the Aurender can play my ISO’s without prior DSF conversion, this would save me a lot of time  

FYI, As I had suspected, the Aurender/ Conductor DOES NOT play SACD ISO’s directly (as @Vincent1234 had stated). 

You MUST first convert the files to .DSF using dBPoweramp or ISO2DSD first. 

[Vincent1234]

5 hours ago, agladstone said:

 

[Vincent1234]

Just now, Vincent1234 said:

That's not correct, @agladstone. I have never stated that the Aurender plays ISO files directly. What I said is that the Aurender will convert any correct ISO to separate DSD files itself. You DON'T need to convert the ISO's yourself upfront; the Aurender will convert them automatically once placed on its harddisk. I've done this many times and all you need to have is a little patience for the Aurender to unpack the ISO to playable files. Patience that you apparently were lacking.. ?

 

[Vincent1234]

On 18-3-2018 at 5:35 PM, Vincent1234 said:

It's not needed to convert ISO's yourself as your Aurender will take care of extracting them to individual DSD tracks automatically. All you have to do is simply copy the ISO's to your Aurender and have a little patience. After a while they will be converted to invididual DSD tracks and you are ready to go.

@agladstone, this is what I said.

[marslo]

52 minutes ago, Vincent1234 said:

 

The same here for over one year, it takes 10-15 min approx to unfold ISO files of 2,5-3,0 GB - the average sacd.

[jon2020]

I may have a good story to tell.

 

When I brought home the N10 for audition, it was because the power supply of my N100H had suddenly failed with the unit unable to be turned on. So out it went for repairs while I enjoyed the N10 as a substitute. I have described in previous posts how much better the N10 is, compared to the N100H.

 

Well, after several weeks of bliss with the N10, the dreaded call from my local dealer came yesterday to collect  my N100H which has just been shipped back from S Korea. I felt terrible that I had to return the N10 or pony up for the upgrade. But before a final decision, I should probably relisten to my N100H.

 

Upon first listen, to my great surprise, I feel the pangs of withdrawal from the N10 ebbing away rapidly. The returned N100H sounds almost as good as the N10! Unbelievable but true! To cut the story short, the "repaired" N100H gets me 95% of the way to the N10. 

 

I have no idea what Aurender did to the internal power supply but it sounds like they most likely upgraded it substantially to avoid any recurrence of the original problem. And the resultant improvement in SQ is just amazing! 

 

To all N100H owners, if you happen to have the "misfortune" one day of a failure in the power supply, ship it back and wait to reap the fortunes of the repair upon its return.

 

Enjoy the Music! 

[agladstone]

16 hours ago, Vincent1234 said:

@agladstone, this is what I said.

So do you mean from the network folder via a computer? (Copy and paste an ISO into Aurender’s Music 1 folder for example and then it unfolds it?) 

i did try and play ISO’s directly from Conductor App and it gave me a notification like “file type not supported” ? 

I was trying this from the folder view and selecting SACD ISO’s I have on my NAS which is added as a NAS drive within Conductor App. 

I will now try to just add an ISO file to the Aurender’s internal HDD and see what happens.