750$ Intel NUC vs $6000 Aurender N200: I don't hear the difference

Check this youtube video where Jay's Audio Lab finds that the Taiko Extreme (a universally acknowledged best music server ever) has no sonic effect when used on his MSB DAC.

The lesson I have gotten is that the effect of the server mainly depends on how competent your DAC is with input signal. Mine (Nagra Tube DAC) seems to be very competent because of various design reasons and has taken particular efforts to negate the bad effects of USB input. So I don't need to waste time with music servers just like Jay with his MSB Select 2 DAC. YMMV. 

So do a home trial of the music server with your DAC, before blindly assuming that music server is needed because some guru/dealer/forum-member says so, or because-it-costs-10K$-it has-to-beat-a-600$-NUC.

This basically debunks the source first theory of digital that lot of people in this site and others seem to be propagating.

A truly dumb question - What is NUC referring to?  I suspect the C is for a computer but not sure.  My last server/streamer was a Mac Mini with a solid state drive.  The now discontinued entry level Aurender N100H blew it away.  Just curious.  This is on a very high resolution system.

If I'm not mistaken, Jay, in the Youtube video above (evaluating 300K plus systems on Youtube - really?) is comparing ethernet with USB inputs on the DAC.  If so the comparison is invalid.  USB can sound really good but there are always jitter issues.  Some DAC's are better than others at dealing with them but they exist.  I have a Jay's Audio CD transport that sounds better played directly into the AES input on two high end DAC's than the USB of the same disc from my 6K music server.  Source is always a limiting factor but it isn't the only one.  If you have system components that are unable to reveal all that your source can do, that's the limiting factor.  

I use a NUC directly to the DAC. It sounds way better than going through an end point. My NUC is running ROCK, is fanless powered by a Nikola linear PSU.

After being in this hobby for so long, I begin to realize that a lot of stuffs people tell me are wrong!

Now, I am considering adding a DDC to my NUC, and I bet it will outperform most high-end streamers.

I won’t argue with @essrand’s experience. I’ve never used a NUC so I can’t offer an informed opinion.

But it’s important to understand that the N200 is optimized for USB output, with the SPDIF output available only for convenience, in case the need arises.

The N200 doesn’t have the OCXO clock Aurender uses in some of its gear. If it did, it would make no difference for the USB output. USB connections are asynchronous—the timing of the data transfer is controlled by the clock in the DAC, whereas SPDIF (or AES/EBU) signals are controlled by the clock in the source.

Since the N200 doesn’t include such a clock (to make it more affordable than the N20 and other Aurender products), you aren’t getting the best audio it’s capable of if you use its SPDIF out.

The reason for optimizing the N200 for the USB output was mentioned earlier in the thread: native DSD can be transferred only via USB (or I2S). Therefore many DACs, including my Bryston BDA-3, prioritize the USB input.

Aurender says the USB board in the N200 is physically separated and electrically isolated from the noise-generating CPU board.

@essrand ultimately based his evaluation on the N200’s USB output, which is the correct method. So I do not mean to argue with his conclusions. But none of the comments mentioned Aurender’s design decisions, and it’s important to understand the philosophy they utilized in designing the N200.