The "Official" Aurender Discussion Thread

[Vincent1234]

9 hours ago, JS21 said:

I’m guessing it’ll be a while till we get the new skins...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the last time I'm asking about the current timelines of the long promised new UI skins, since after several times of asking already and getting NO response whatsoever this is getting rather embarassing.. 😞

@AriMargolis Your input would be very much appreciated. Again..

[Vincent1234]

2 hours ago, Koso said:

Just want to support Vincent1234. I am waiting for response to his questions too! Any response would be fair (even response  "I dont know" is better than no response).

Fully agree! We can live with extra delays; we are all grown-ups. But if Aurender participates here it would be fair to expect an answer, even when it's not a desired one.

[Vincent1234]

19 minutes ago, Mazza said:

 

AFAIK the existing Aurenders' don't have enough CPU-horsepower to run Roon; secondly Aurender have been on record many times to say that they don't want to service customer's through a 3rd-party AND lose their control over determining the sound-quality of their equipment through that 3rd-party

 

If you want Roon, then vote with your feet as you have done. Personally, I respect a Company who stick by their philosophy and strive to keep their own identity and raison d'être and I have bought into it.

True. And one of the reasons for Aurender not to use these high powered CPU's is indeed to reach a higher SQ. This is not a unique stance by the way and more server suppliers follow this same strategy. Sure this means Roon is likely off the table. But I agree with several others here that SQ should ALWAYS come first. Although I have a very high-end DAC which also serves as a Roon endpoint I have never reached the level of SQ through Roon as through my W20. Ever. If that were the case I would have sold my W20 and would have been able to buy loads of music for the sales price. 😊 But no, it simply sounds WAY to good to part from it. And I'm very glad it does.

[Vincent1234]

1 hour ago, justubes said:

There are some glaring issues such as simple things as deleting individual tracks stored on a playlist and rearranging the order of a playlist at any time seems not possible for what i have tried i havent even asked.

 

Ehhmm..? Really? Have you even read the manual..?

Of course these things are possible, and very easy too!

[Vincent1234]

1 minute ago, justubes said:

Oh my bad. i will look if i can find it, it just does not come easily or  intuitively in any case, that was my point.

 

I dont recall ever reading the Bluos manual, if there was one. But i figure out and can do many more functions be just the popup selections.

 

I dont usually read through documentations, maybe that is why i would not dare to try room.

Just swiping tracks when playing the respective playlist removes them from the list. Easy peasy. Moving them to another spot in the list is also easy. 😊

[Vincent1234]

12 hours ago, Noushy said:

They have made a lot of progress with the new app.  It offers several new skins and new display formats.  It takes time to develop and make a stable release.  People need to understand this unless they want broken software and problems.  Personally I have used several different music servers and Aurender is clearly the best.  The app is a huge part of why that works.

 

Noushy

Relax guys, all will end well. Beta software is being tested already.

[Vincent1234]

51 minutes ago, rwwjr44 said:

 

I know but I am just a bit impatient. 😁

It's coming soon. Trust me! 😊👍

[Vincent1234]

10 hours ago, SirAtilla said:

Grabbed this from the Aurender Korean web site outlining the difference between the W20 and the new W20SE that is being shown at the California Audio Show starting today.

 

It's not fully correct by the way. The current W20 supports DSD128 (over USB), not just DSD64.

[Vincent1234]

46 minutes ago, biosailor said:

 

I was also astonished how stubborn Aurender seems to be to make steps towards substantial improvements of their Conductor app. But it is as it is, it's not a bad app, very reliable, and in the end, the sound dictates which system suits you.

Guess you have tried the latest 3.0 version already (just a few days old)? Use it for a while and you will discover some nice new features. Also a completely new Android phone app is on its way. It's looking to become great too. 😊

[Vincent1234]

1 hour ago, Perfect sense said:

Here's the official product information (PDF) about the new W20SE. Casing and exterior design is the same as the W20. I'm not yet sure if there will be an upgrade path for current W20 users, but I expect and hope so.

 

https://perfect-sense.se/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Aurender_W20SE_www.perfect-sense.se_.pdf

/ Marcus, www.perfect-sense.se

 

I understood earlier that no upgrade path will be available for current W20 owners. I'm somewhat underwhelmed by the upgrades TBH and I'm wondering what the price uplift of $ 4.400,- will bring to an improvement of the actual SQ (which will not be an easy job). I will be curious to hear both versions side by side, but if there will indeed be no upgrade path possible I'm quite sure I will let this one pass. 😏

[Vincent1234]

1 minute ago, Custodian said:

Since many w20 users chose the w20 because of the facility to lock to an external masterclock, the clock upgrade in the w20se will be redundant. Replacing the psu with a linear power supply should be worthwhile. That should be possible as an upgrade if Aurender or a third party supplier would help. Otherwise not too much to tempt me to trade up.

 

 

Exactly, the clock upgrade is also redundant for me as I'm using USB. Decoupling Ethernet is easily done outside the W20. The SMPS in the current W20 is only connected directly to the non-audio stuff and all audio related circuits are being fed by it through the battery pack only. So that's why I'm wondering if the SQ improvement will be worth it.

[Vincent1234]

50 minutes ago, Vincent1234 said:

Exactly, the clock upgrade is also redundant for me as I'm using USB. Decoupling Ethernet is easily done outside the W20. The SMPS in the current W20 is only connected directly to the non-audio stuff and all audio related circuits are being fed by it through the battery pack only. So that's why I'm wondering if the SQ improvement will be worth it.

@AriMargolis You have probably heard both versions side by side? Could you maybe share your experiences, especially w.r.t. SQ? Thanks!

[Vincent1234]

24 minutes ago, Noushy said:

 I have think I have read some very impressive comments. Sorry if this sounds redundant. Both of your arguments are very valid and it’s hard to make a viable reason to upgrade to the new W 20 special edition if you already have a W 20. I have been patiently waiting to buy the W 20 knowing the upgrade was coming. Now that it’s available I may be looking for a great deal on a W 20 instead. I feel like Aurender missed the target audience who will have a high end Digital to analog converter.

 

noushy

You will love the upgrade to the W20 from your N10. I did the same. 😊👍

[Vincent1234]

1 hour ago, honeymustardsteve said:

Did that a few times already. Prob didn’t test it on older iPads....

It's a known problem with iOS9.x. Will be solved with an update very soon (in beta now).

[Vincent1234]

21 hours ago, AriMargolis said:

By the way, has anybody tried the new full-featured Android app? Thoughts? Feelings? Questions? Concerns? Thank you for any feedback.

I think it's really great. I am betatesting it now and there are still some small issues to be solved. But all in all: it's really impressive. 😊

[Vincent1234]

7 hours ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

oh great, now I need to buy another Android tablet 😂

Don't. It's for Android phones! 😁

Aah, and indeed also for tablets, as I read just now. 😏

[Vincent1234]

2 hours ago, justubes said:

I cannot seem to choose any tidal streaming selections from the Android app at all.

 

Most of the current playlist is from Tidal, but does not show up when i open the Android app. 

 

Wonder if it works for Tidal?

Just change the selection from the Aurender symbol (having the same shape as the on-off button of your Aurender) into the Tidal symbol. Push the Aurender symbol from within e.g. the Search function for a second or so to change to Tidal. Done!

[Vincent1234]

10 minutes ago, Ponzi said:

Please pardon me if I am throwing too much of a curve ball here, but I have a different sort of question for our group.  It has to do with how difficult it is, for me anyway, to get recorded piano music to sound as good as  I would like it to sound.  Please understand that I could hardly be more pleased with my system (Aurender N10 and ASC-10, Luxman 900 series control and power amps, PS Audio Directstream DAC, Harbeth 40.2s, REL G2 subs, Kubala Sosna cables throughout, VPI turntable, Parasound phono amp, etc.).  I have things quite well dialed in I think.  The center fill, the sound staging, all of it, is better than I would have dared hope for.  There are surely much better systems out there, but really, I am often quite blown away by how good mine sounds.  I count myself lucky. 

 

Except when I put piano music on, which is often.  My complaint is not with the bottom 68 keys.   It is with the top 20, or maybe the top 15.  For some reason, those top keys tend, almost universally, to sound glaring, piercing.  Not so, however, when the same registers are played on other instruments.  It is true, I know, that even live, hammering D#, as in La Campanella, can be piecing in the same way.  So maybe it comes with the territory.  I would say, too, that is sometimes not so bothersome on my system, which I chalk up to power grid issues. 

 

What I think, however, is that these top piano keys are like the canary in a mine shaft.  They are telling us truths about our systems that other instruments hide.  So how does one deal with it?

 

And then there is this:  Generally, live piano music strikes us as less intimate than maybe we would like, more muffled or congealed.  I assume that is why it often gets miked.  We need to get closer to it.  Concert grands are so big for that same reason.  They are big for other reasons too, the over tones and such.  But no matter how big the piano gets, a tiny little violin dominates over it tonally.  Sit in the audience at an piano quintet and the piano is in the back ground.  I don't mean only physically but dynamically.  So, do sound engineers tweak things that results in glare?

 

I have come to prefer listening to piano music in my car.  It's almost like getting inside the instrument.  The glare is less, although still there.  I would say that the piano in the car sounds better but it is not how a piano really sounds, on an actual stage.  So am I just hoping for too much? 

 

Any thoughts or guidance would be much appreciated. 

Well, that's a tough one.. 😬

My first guess would be to take a look at the DAC, maybe in combination with the Harbeths. There's a LOT of processing going on in the PS Audio and I've heard some people saying it's got some sort of unnatural glare in the higher tone regions. I haven't heard the PS Audio myself, so I really cannot comment on it myself. But if it's true it might be a sub-optimal match with your Harbeth tweeters. 

The rest of your system to me looks less likely to cause the glare you are talking about. But obviously there's a lot of if's and guessing from my side here.. 😉

[Vincent1234]

2 minutes ago, blugosi said:

Since DAC and vinyl present the same issue, I will not raise a comment on the PS Audio DAC.

It seems you have reached , or exceeded, the limits of your room. You probably need room tuning.

 

If indeed vinyl and DAC cause the same unnatural glare the issue would be likely in the Harbeth tweeters and/or the room.

[Vincent1234]

5 hours ago, agladstone said:

Differences between N10 vs N100H ? 
.. I know this topic has been discussed previously, but I couldn’t find too much information while trying to search through older threads. 
I currently have a N100H and I’ve discovered a preowned N10 for sale. 
Trying to decide if I would find a large enough increase in sound quality/ features, etc to justify the upgrade expense? 
Also, with all the newer models out including the ACS10 and / or A10, would it make more sense to upgrade/ invest in one of them vs. the N10 which has been out for a while now and this preowned unit is probably 3-4 years old and in use that entire time. 
thoughts??? 

Also my experience. Went from an X100L to an N10; very big step in SQ! And afterwards I was lucky to be able to buy an almost new W20 for a good price. Also a very big step forward. I can truly say that every Aurender is priced according to its performance. 

[Vincent1234]

13 minutes ago, biosailor said:

Priced according to its performance: right, but OVERPRICED according to its performance!

I just installed a USBridge Signature along with a Shanti LSP from Allo and the combo beats the Aurender N100H hands down! 500 Euros versus 3000 Euros for the smallest music server! And then you go up to, how much, 8000 Euros, to get a noticeable increase in SQ? Aurender is just plain overpriced!

For 500 Euros I get a for more resolving system than my Aurender N100H that is also flexible inasmuch as it can be tuned with the player of your choice. Aurender should think about the competition!

I can well imagine that building your own solution will end up cheaper and could also be better sounding than a turn-key solution such an Aurender. But those two cannot really be compared. Aurenders are meant for people who don't want to be involved in too much 'computer stuff' and tuning things themselves. Also the aluminium casing accounts for a large part of the overall costs. You will not be able to get such a great-looking casing for a DIY project. Different horses for different courses. 😉

[Vincent1234]

8 hours ago, wjt3 said:

Hi all--- anyone here compare the acs10 vs the n10 or even the W20?? I have the acs10 and love it but just thinking?!?!? thanks

I haven't listened to the ACS10 myself, but considering its functionality and price point I think it's safe to assume that its SQ is closer to the N10. I had the N10 and was pretty much shocked about how much better the W20 is. It's very expensive, yes, but it's also way better. With Aurender you will get what you pay for. 😉

[Vincent1234]

Absolutely recommended: Cardas myrtle wood blocks, 3 under each device. They work wonders AND are pretty cheap. I have them below preamp, amp, DAC, clock and W20. Also work great with speaker cables. There's hardly any application where they do not work well. Just try them!

[Vincent1234]

3 hours ago, isquirrel said:

I notice a nice SQ increase with the latest firmware on my W20. I noticed whilst it was upgrading that it also upgraded the FPGA. Anyone else noticed it?

I had the same impression. And indeed I think this is the first FPGA upgrade I'm aware of.

[Vincent1234]

2 hours ago, isquirrel said:

I am not having any issues with playing High Res files, I have tested all the way up to 24/192 PCM and all is fine.

 

 

Same here: no problems whatsoever.  Using W20 and dCS Rossini.