Aurender vs. HQ Player

[eltee00]

Anyone here use both? On a straight sound quality basis, which one is the better choice? I'm looking into taking the computer out of the equation so I am not distracted by the endless tweaks, and the headaches that go along with them, so I can focus on just listening to music. I'm very tempted by the idea of a Aurender N100, and if I can get close to the sound quality of HQ Player upsampled to DSD, I might sell my Mac Mini + Sotm100 combo for an Aurender. On top of that I can have an easy to access to Tidal within the Aurender app and that is a HUGE plus for me.

[Foxman50]

eltee

 

I have just had an Aurender N100 on loan over this weekend. My usual setup is Mac Mini running JRiver and set to transcode to 2xDSD and also a Naim NDX.

 

I have not tried HQ Player so can't comment directly, and i suppose it may depend on how modified your Mini is. Mine is not, only plenty of RAM and an SSD.

 

However I will say that the Aurender is head and shoulders, no its head, shoulders, legs, feet if fact its so far ahead of both the Mini and NDX its not funny.

 

I think as far as detail goes the Aurender and Mini are on a par, it's just the way the Aurender gets the music across is quite outstanding. The weight, the authority, the chiseled sound-stage. Get a demo.

 

Just a word of warning though, where are you storing your music. If on a Synology NAS you may have trouble getting the AMM software to work. I couldn't, but i am trying to get this resolved. It maybe just me

 

Graeme