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Up for sale is a unique Auralic Aries G2.1 ‐ best of all Auralic Aries! This kind of upgrade nobody does (at least I haven't seen any) unless they do that for themselves, like I did. I am selling only because I have another project. This Auralic Aries G2.1 is way better than G2.2, even better than the upgraded G2.2. Yes, G2.2, like all Auralic devices, has a bad power supply, so it already got upgrades... So, here comes the ULTIMATE ARIES UPGRADE: - power inlet Furutech (Alpha-copper rhodium-plated), - new connectors Furutech (copper gold-plated) from inlet to the switch and to the power board - way better quality mains power switch - new pure copper (99.9999 OFC) in teflon (best insulation known for audio) 1mm² (17awg) wiring throughout the unit (instead of stock tinned brass wire 0.5mm²) - modified Hoer-wege power supply, - used Cardas silver solder - copper gold-plated connectors go to the main board, and I'm using better connectors' housings than the stock ones - vibro dampening material on the chassis - EMI shielding and - RF absorbing material in critical areas. The sound improvement of the Ultimate upgrade is huge! It is very much comparable to the power supply swap upgrade. So this Ultimate upgrade kind of 2 times better than the well-regarded Hoer-wege power supply swap upgrade. And many times better than the stock one! Power supply swap (1st stage upgrade) improved overal musicality, and gave a sense of how good the Aries main board is. The Ultimate upgrade unlished the full potential of both Hoer-wege power supply and Aries main board! The improvement is across the entire audio spectrum: way better bass articulation and slam, high frequencies are so crean and detailed yet nimble, instrument and voices isolation drastically improved, and silence is never been so quiet! I am selling this gem with BONUSes! - 2Tb Samsung 860 EVO SSD almost full of music (around 4,000 albums), - remote control, ‐ external drive for CD playback and ripping. Read about this unique CD Player and Ripper functionality below. Also, I can offer for an extra cost two Hi-End cables: - USB cable Revelation Audio Labs Prophecy CryoSilver Reference PowerFree 1m or - AES/EBU Crystal Cable / Siltech Silver Reference 3m Most believe that Aries G2.1, which is a major improvement over the very high rated Aries G2, is the best sounding and most versatile streamer/music server available for a reasonable price. Auralic G2.1 has many features, including TWO SEPARATE CLOCKS and insane double Faraday cage to isolate critical circuitry. The only weak part in the stock Aries G2.1 is a mediocre noisy power supply, bad wiring and connectors. This G2.1 I'm offering has a professionally installed power upgrade from Stephan Hoer, the hoer-wege power board. The upgrade also included RF/EMI absorbing and chassis dampening material specific for Aries (inside the chassis). Now, this is one of the best streamers for sure when it comes to its sound quality, stability, features, software, and looks. The traditional digital brightness and thinness that people associate with streaming are not the case here. This streamer makes music uniformly more analog sounding. Not in a fake LP way, it just made the music sound more visceral and real, with greater solidity, image separation, soundstage width, depth, even height, and even more coherence, both in terms of frequency and timing. It supports Roon, Apple AirPlay, Bluetooth, and Spotify Connect as well as Qobuz and Tidal streaming, in addition to many other features. It has ) and is an extremely versatile device. - Wireless or Ethernet cable ready. - virtually every output imaginable: SPDIF/RCA, AES, USB, and Optical. - HDD USB input allows any usb storage device or thumb drive to be inserted and music loaded to Aries library with all albums organized with Lightening DS software. - Roon ready; recognized as a Roon endpoint, can use Roon software on iPad as well. - will download and display music library from NAS or other upnp storage device for easy playback. - flawless streaming Qobuz, Tidal and internet radio. CD PLAYER/RIPPER Unique jitter-reducing CD playback feature. By connecting a simple USB optical drive with a good external power supply, you will have a playback system that rivals many of the best high-end CD transports. This playback feature uses our advanced Memory Cache technology to compare multiple scans of the CD data, ensuring its accuracy. This process eliminates errors and drastically reduces jitter resulting in superior performance. When ripping, the streamer will read each data sector twice at the speed you select. If the two sets of data match, the read will be considered accurate. The streamer will save the data and move to the next sector. If the two readings do not match, the streamer will reduce its speed and re-read the data an additional 8 times. If all 8 readings are identical, then the streamer will save the data and move on to the next sector. If they are not identical, the most matched reading will be saved and the streamer will continue on. DESCRIPTION FROM THE MANUFACTURER Lightning OS is full of cutting-edge innovations that bring your music to life like never before. An extensive memory cache with bit-perfect functionality, and on-device playlists help you seamlessly experience and explore all your high-resolution sources. Take control with user apps like Lightning DS or Roon and meet true audiophile streaming. A 4.0-inch true color in-plane switching display with a resolution of over 300ppi provides complete operational feedback: playback status, configuration settings, and a full library view for browsing your collection. SPECIFICATIONS Streaming File Formats AAC, MP3, MQA, WMA. Also, AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, OGG, WAV, WV Sampling Rates PCM: up to 384KHz in 32Bit DSD: up to 512 Streaming Inputs - Network shared folder, - USB Drive, - Internal Music Storage (if internal SSD/HDD installed), - UPnP/DLNA Media Server, - Native TIDAL and Qobuz Sublime+ streaming, - Internet Radio, - AirPlay, - Bluetooth, - Songcast, - RoonReady Control Software **** AURALiC Lightning DS for iOS *** AURALiC Lightning DS for web browser (device settings only) ** OpenHome compatible control software (BubbleUPnP, Kazoo) * Roon (Roon Core required separately) Network Wired: Gigabit Ethernet Wireless: 802.11b/g/n/ac Tri-Band WiFi

Over the past several years I have been testing and experimenting with different network systems for my customers and for use in audio. My last test was the straw that broke the camels back. I was testing with ASUS high end routers and ZenWifi wired backhaul. About $1000 worth of hardware and the software broke more things on my network from wireless printing, to Chromecast and HomeKit. I worked for week and found that while there are some workarounds out there, I did not find what I would call a commercial way to deploy this at scale. Most of this stuff worked OK with TP-Link Omada, but It was time for a change! A quick trip to Microcenter, to buy one Ubiquity UDM SE $499 and one Unifi 6 LR $184 access point. An hour after I got home I had ripped out the ASUS stuff and Omada gear I had standing by in parallel but off. I did not replace my 24 port dumb network switch for now. The new 3.0.13 Unifi OS is dramatically smoother than the 1.x version I had played with a while back. The UDM SE has some nice features that my older UI gear did not have. The controller is now the OS and is built in There is an 8 port POE switch on the SE The WAN has two ports a 2.5Ge ethernet and a 10Ge SFP slot The LAN also has a 10Ge SFP Slot. The uint is silent. NOTE I am running with only Local control I have not connected to Unifi Cloud. I have to use that for my customers so that I can control their gear from wherever I am. Since I work out of the house I will stay with local only for now. With the 2.5Ge wired connection I now actually see the full internet speed I am paying Xfinity for! Screen Recording 2023-02-01 at 11.30.02 PM.mov I placed the Unifi 6 AP in my favorite location, the 2nd floor hall ceiling. The single AP covers all of my house rather nicely, it has been too cold to test outside, maybe to tomorrow. I have a Unifi IWHD AP setup in my far corner basement office to give me fill in WiFi and four extra ethernet ports. (I will see about going to WiFi 6 down there later) I link the network to my in-laws next door to provide them service with a P-T-P 30Mb wireless link. I did not want to trench in fiber five years ago when they moved in. They have an 8 port switch and a Unifi NanoHD AP there. This is an extension of my internal network. Keeping it all in the family! Tomorrow I will start deploying Unifi Protect to replace the NEST cameras and Doorbell. this will keep all that data inside the house, out of googles hands, reduce power consumption, etc. I may even deploy Unifi Talk to help the in-laws to replace the crappy ATT "wireless home phone" and save them some $$$ Here is a snapshot of the console this evening. Just shy of 50GB of traffic on the WAN, 70 active devices on the network. Virtually instant response from Siri controlling lighting. HomeKit automations are actually working, along with Airplay and mDNS All of the IOT other than cameras will now use Thread and soon Matter, I have removed the Hue lighting and have started replacing it with the new NanoLeaf Essentials lights. I am adding Eve Home motion sensors and I am looking at a couple of AC switches and outlets. The Printers are happy, Bob is happy, and the two families will be a lot happier now that I am no longer experimenting on them.... RJF :PS I almost forgot. To make all this IOT stuff work there are two settings I had to change: That was it, JUST WORKS -- RJF