Auralic Aries Mini

[mikey8811]

I mentioned that above. It works great into my Vega and other dacs. No complaints whatsoever. Compared to my ARIES with the UpTone Audio JS-2 and using the stock AURALiC LPS on the MINI is quite scary to be honest. Given the cost difference it makes me sad.

 

Hi jtwrace, I remember you from Audio Asylum and Audiogon.

 

I am considering an Aries or Aries Mini as a Squeezebox Touch replacement. If you were a newbie like me, would you go for the Mini?

 

I currently use the Squeezebox Touch as a player into an external DAC, with a Macbook running Logitech Media Server, with my music stored on about 5 WD My Book 2 TB drives attached to the Macbook, all in another room from where my 2 channel setup is.

 

Will the Aries or Aries Mini work for me in the same way but with less buffering and dropouts and less noise on Hi Res material?

 

Thanks

[mikey8811]

Answers to these are only the last few pages.

 

LDS = Lightning DS is the control point software from AURALiC.

 

Actually, I went through all pages and there isn't a comparison with the Squeezebox Touch. One would be helpful if possible.

[mikey8811]

Funny I never had any buffering or dropout issues with the Touch. No noise either using an ethernet connection.

 

 

OK I am using Wifi and not Ethernet. So does the Aries Mini also have dropout problems with Wifi? This happens after playing a lot. There will be constant rebuffering until the network connection is reset and router and Squeezebox Touch are rebooted.

 

The noise is apparent on quiet passages on Hi Res material and in between tracks if you catch my drift. It appears as a tape hiss like sound. Very notably on the Charlie Haden and Jim Hall recording and Charlie Haden and Gonzalo Rubalcaba's Tokyo Adagio.

 

Also, with the Touch I was using the wall wart power supply.

[mikey8811]

Nonetheless, to be of some help:

@emcee: no stock yet. Auralic scheduled first delivery to Germany, Norway and UK late October. During RMAF Auralic said US would see first deliveries as well in October. Wide availability: from November onwards.

 

@mikey8811: I own a Squeezebox Duet and Original. I got my father a SB Touch some years ago. It's nice equipment but now near the end of its lifetime. Logitech anounced it in 2009. 6 years forward in - what basically is - IT, is a giant leap. More processing power, memory to cache songs (data), improved WiFi, etc. The Aries Mini supports more audio formats and the DAC will do a far better job to convert the digital bits into analoque pulses.

 

The hiss you are talking about could stem from all kind of things (supply, grounding, rca interlink, ..., the SB Touch itself). And I do concurr with Jason: if you have 10 Tb of music please get yourself a NAS, a good router and an Aries Mini of course. Don't forget the iPad!

 

Thanks Johan.

 

So to sum up, you think I may not have the rebuffering issue with the Mini because of the improvements you mentioned? Have you or anyone else experienced rebuffering with the larger Aries?

 

The noise may still be a problem?

 

Thanks

[mikey8811]

BTW Jtwrace, do you still have your Cary SLP 05?

[mikey8811]

I suggest you bone up on the wifi speed support differences of the Touch and the Aries. Anything will buffer if your network speed sucks

 

What specs should I look out for for both devices?

[mikey8811]

It's not really about specs - it's more about coverage of the area and making sure the transfer speed is there once setup. Most routers will work today and there are many that people use successfully. Of course the latest technology is great but as long as it has 'ac" capability and the placement of it isn't too far and not too many walls between it and the ARIES you should be fine.

 

Thanks for the clarification. My router is one provided by my telco and it is a L7 Corporation Router, 802.11n. The channel I'm on says 20/40 MHz. What is ac technology?

 

It is placed in an adjoining room with 2 walls between it and where I will put the Aries. It is no more than 50 feet away.

 

I am in an apartment and there are other units around albeit few.

[mikey8811]

Yes, minimum voltage requirement is a regulated 14Vdc for the ARIES MINI.

 

Is the LPS voltage switchable by the user? I'm in a country that runs on 240V. If I purchased a used Auralic LPS from a country running on 110V, can I switch it to 240V by myself or is much complex work needed?

 

Thanks

[mikey8811]

I just happen to be a fan of the Logitech Squeezebox

 

So soundwise does it beat the Logitech Squeezebox? Any comparisons?

 

In both cases, did you use an external DAC?

[mikey8811]

This may be a silly question and I don't know if it has been answered before. I am using a Macbook with Mac OS X 10.6.8 as the server. It is an older Macbook and cannot be updated OS wise. Minimserver requires a newer OS or at least the versions I can find on their website. So I guess to use an Aries, I will need a newer computer.

 

I am currently able to run Logitech Media Server on this Macbook. Can I continue to use Logitech Media Server and use the Aries as a bridge/ player ? If so, that would be great as it would save me having to fork out for a new computer on top of an Aries.

 

Thanks

[mikey8811]

Why not get an internal HDD and install it in the Aries Mini? Does Asset uPnP require a certain OS if that is not an option?

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I have too much music to make an internal drive viable.

[mikey8811]

Thanks again. I have about 5 2 Tb external WD's linked to that Macbook and am working on setting up a NAS.

 

I just looked at Asset uPnP but it needs a minimum of OS X Mountain Lion - same as Minimserver -which I cannot upgrade to.

 

This is turning out more fiddly than I expected.

[mikey8811]

That's the thing. I was looking at Synology and it is looking costly so I may have to put it off for a while. I was hoping to be able to use my existing setup for a while before getting a NAS.

 

The alternative would be to switch to my newer Windows PC but the inconvenience there is all my hard drives are Mac formatted.

[mikey8811]

Not much point - you spend a little here, a little there. It all adds up. And I'll have one more redundant device to contend with later.

 

I may as well grit my teeth and bear it till I get the NAS.

[mikey8811]

Hi Grobec

 

Sounds like you did a good spring cleaning job there. I'll do the maths and work it out soon hopefully.

[mikey8811]

Deleted

[mikey8811]

the aries mini dac sounds better than the nad m51 Conlusion: simple is better and the mini is a great device.

 

That's high praise. The NAD M51 had pretty good reviews.

[mikey8811]

Choose Lighting DS and not UPnP

 

Hopefully someone can help me out. I have scanned my files with Lighting Server and can see them in the Lighting DS app but I can't play them on my AAM. It says library is offline. I can play the files on my Uniti 2 while using Lighting a Server as my upnp. What am I doing wrong?