emm Labs DAC: adding either a Sonore Signature Rendu or Auralic Aries G2

[Albrecht]

On 4/23/2020 at 2:05 PM, Urs said:

Thank you, firedog. Your thoughts are very welcome and reasonable. I don't expect that I would be able to hear a significant (reproducable) difference with regard to sound quality. Therefore it's indeed more about features, build quality and how it fits into my system. From what I see and read, build quality is on the same level. The Auralic is more versatile, but I am not yet sure about my gut feeling. 🙂

Hi,

Sounds like you have a great system that I'd love to hear......

 

I disagree that the Aries is equal in sound quality. IMO, - and it's somewhat clear from the mainboards, - that Aurilic uses off the shelf computer mainboards that as one knows, are significantly inferior. Aurilic has spent millions developing their software, to the detriment of not paying good attention to hardware: which is by far the most important part of any of this.

 

Something like the Sonore, with it's SonicOrbiter OS Swiss Army knife allows you to flip between several different server software in literally seconds. Yes, Aurilic runs Roon, and you can get LMS to go on the Aries via LMS plugins... etc. But it's not nearly as elegant as SonicOrbiter. 

WIth your EMMLabs gear, - I sure would want to be able make clear comparisons between different methodologies.

 

Of course, - with your system, - my strident recommendation is to do a home eval. And at the price points, - I definitely would add the DCS Network Bridge as another test case.

 

The Aurilic build quality IS questionable IMO, - AND, - there IS an appreciable difference in SQ, - AND, - the Aurilic is LESS Versatile....  Cheers,

 

[Albrecht]

1 hour ago, Superdad said:

 

Don't get me wrong--I am obviously a Sonore fan--but what you state is factually quite incorrect.  Auralic does not use any off-the-shelf computer designs in their products. And having examined some of their boards rather closely I can say that their engineers are more innovative than many of the other music server firms (I'll not name names).  Look closely at the Aries G2 for evidence.

 

 

Interestingly, they are the close to the only streamer & DAC manufacturer to utilize the Silanna ICE08USB galvanic isolation chip (at USB output of Aries G2 and USB input of Vega G2). [Full disclosure, this is the chip we use at the input of our ISO REGEN; the Silanna admittedly can be a bit problematic, and the chip is now discontinued, though I know that Auralic has many thousands of them.]

 

Hi Superdad.

thanks for the correction.....

EEeek. - the world has moved on since i last looked at the Aries (earlier version)? Which was essentially a typical Intel mainboard...

The G2 is decidedly NOT an off the shelf PC mainboard. Thanks for the pic and correction...

Cheers,