Auralic Aries

@rfnoise

Read your earlier comment about trying a better USB cable with your Aries.

If you haven't purchased yet, please read the review by Duster over on Audio Asylum about Monoprice's Monolith USB cable.  See link below.  The Monolith is a crazy, crazy good value....low price and outstanding performance.  I found it better than the Oyaide Neo D+ Class A USB cable I'd been running.  The Oyaide itself had received a very good Absolute Sound review.  The price for the Monolith is so low you can afford to take a gamble on it.  

https//www.audioasylum.com/audio/cables/messages/17/176921.html

@rfnoise.

I would just match the manufacturer of your router when getting an extender. Netgear or Linksys… or whatever you use. All the manufacturers make them. Typically $60 or so. They theoretically are interoperable with different companies router, but I like reducing possible issues. I have never had any. I have two of them, one for my main system and one for my headphone system. Nice thing with wired, no passwords to play with..

@ghosthouse maybe I’ve been spending too much time on the forum, but I have a hard time trusting the quality of a $15 cable... But you’re right, The price is low enough to take a gamble on. Thx, I think I’ll give it a shot.

Hello @rfnoise 

Just fyi...
Monoprice does have a 30 day return policy on their Monolith branded products.  Also, Duster at Audio Asylum is no audio novice so I find his assessment credible (not to mention my own positive experience as well as others that posted in that thread).   

Before you order, do read the AA thread for discussion about optimum USB cable length (1.5 m, as I recall).

@ghosthouse Hmm... well if the optimal length is 1.5m, this cable is only available in 1m & 2m lengths...


Also, I discovered something interesting in the Lightning DS app...

It was my understanding that the one downside to moving from PC to dedicated streamer was the loss of the PC app’s ability to perform a first unfold of MQA files, which is unfortunate if one doesn’t have an MQA capable dac. Therefore, I’ve been running my Aries in FLAC lossless mode. 
Today, however, I discovered the following information in my device’s settings:

”Decoding Method: AURALiC streaming devices are capable of decoding MQA files using AURALiC’s proprietary resampling and de-blurring method. You can select from the sampling rate settings for the process described here. Please note that this process is not an MQA-created or MQA-licensed process.

Auto: Your streaming device will detect the best decoding sampling rate based on the information in the MQA file. It will also detect the maximum sampling rate of a USB-connected DAC. 
2x Sampling Rate: Your streaming device will always decode MQA files at 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz, depending on the original file’s sampling rate. 
4x Sampling Rate: Your streaming device will always decode MQA files at 176.4 kHz or 192 kHz, depending on the original file’s sampling rate. 
8x Sampling Rate: Your streaming device will always decode MQA files at 352.8 kHz or 384 kHz, depending on the original file’s sampling rate.”

Anyone know what I should make of this?