Aurender Model Choices

@audphile1 You have a really nice setup and I have read good things about Bricasti!

@jfrmusic I am a big fan of Benchmark because the DAC1 USB was the first external DAC I purchased in about 2008/09 and I owned the DAC3L as well! Years later, I bought a Holo Audio Spring 2 KTE and later, the Spring 3 KTE DAC. I can’t say it was a night and day improvement, but it was much better. However, when I recently purchased a used MSB Discrete DAC w/two power supplies, it was a big improvement over all the DACs mentioned above. I have a LUMIN U2 streamer connected to my MSB with an Acoustic Zen Absolute 110 AES cable and it smokes! I auditioned about (5) different AES cables from The Cable Co. and (3) different USB cables and one Pangea “toslink” cable which was SHOCKINGLY good! The Acoustic Zen Absolute 110 AES cable was the king! I consider my speakers, (Wilson Audio Sabrina X), the quarterback of my system and I built the team of gear around them. This approach has been a success story for me!

I say all this to say, I am a fan of the AES connection and I hear that the Aurender N20 is the ticket if used with the AES and “clock” connection, as others have already mentioned. I would love to try the N20 in my system, but I’m holding tight for now. I think the Aurender streamer will be an improvement for you regardless of which one you choose, but I agree the N20 may be overkill in your system. Nothing beats a failure but a try, so if you were able to demo the N200 and N20, that should help you make a decision and be able to sleep at night!

Keep us posted!

@jfrmusic Of course you know this but it’s worth repeating.  SQ is ONLY in the ear of the beholder.  Sound quality has no relationship to what someone paid for their equipment. I’m often amazed how folks automatically link sales price as THE metric of system performance. 
 

Your experience, in your room is all that matters. If your toe taps along with Hiromi as your system is now, I say enjoy the music. Quality of recording x room acoustics x your ear-brain interface are the only relevant metrics. Making your system sound different doesn’t mean it’s better…unless you perceive it as such. 

I played around with sub-$1000 streamers for quite a while when getting back into audio and based on glowing recommendations I found a used Aurender N200 on TMR for $3000.  My speakers and DAC are not super-high quality but I was blown away by the BIG improvement when I plugged in the N200.  Very cost effective improvement, especially used.

@dbt thank you! Yes the M3 is a really nice DAC!

Your setup is very nice as well! Speaking of N20…I’ve not heard it but the OXCO clock in it should be an improvement over the Lumin U2. Add to that the much beefier power supply and I think it will sing with your MSB DAC. 

@dbt 

You have a wonderful system that I'm sure sounds fantastic. You mentioned you transitioned from the Benchmark DAC3 to the HOLO Audio Spring KTE DAC. I'd be interested in more of your thoughts on that move. Once I get the Aurender I plan to upgrade my DAC3 which I've had for the past 7 years. It is a very good DAC but I think DAC technology has improved especially with the R2R Ladder non Chip based DACs. So at the momentum the Holo Audio May KTE looks very appealing especially at its price point. Any impressions on how the Spring 3 KTE bettered the Benchmark DAC3 would be enlightening.