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Aurender N10 - Sound quality performance is erratic

I am having problems with my N10. Some days it plays amazingly good, other days good and some days not good at all.

I live very near Aurender in SoCal and so I took my unit in for service and they provided me with a loaner. The first session after I put the loaner in the system was all-time good. Then the next day wasn't all that great. Then the next two days were good but no great. Anyway, this is just weird. Both N10s appear to exhibit this erratic behavior.

My internet is ATT DSL at 24Mbps and that has been suggested as the culprit (I was thinking about calling and asking them to give me a trial at 50 or 100 Mbps to see if the increased speed will eliminate the problem - 24Mbps is fast enough I almost never seen buffering in Netflix). It has been suggested that I get hi-speed cable to solve this problem and get rid of the twisted pairs on the phone line. I have tried a DSL filter and it hasn't seemed to help, assuming I've got it installed correctly.

So have any of you N10 users had this problem? If so, how did you fix it?
pokey77
pokey77 OP
1,269 posts
 
So I listened today from around 10-11AM when I had to quit. Sound was good but not great. It was mostly like yesterday. This day-to-day variability is killing me.

I called AT&T today and they updated my modem/router via phone support. The speed test still won't complete though. After I hung up about 5-10 minutes later, the modem/router quit working for a few minutes and rebooted and everything seems alright now but I won't get to play music until tomorrow so I have no idea if the software update has helped or not. Anyway, they are going to send out a tech on 10/29 to install a new DSL modem/router and I hope this will wind up being the culprit. I'm still not sure if the speed test website is partially malfunctioning or if the DSL isn't working correctly or if it is the modem/router. 
pokey77 OP
1,269 posts
 

The ATT tech came out this morning. Before he got here he was running tests on the line. My modem/router happened to be acting up and one of the indictors was red rather than green and he figured it was the modem/router. Then he went outside and checked my exterior lines and said that everything was OK.

He went off to the "box" and replaced all the wire associated with my house though he said he didn't see anything wrong. He said there are two wires from the box to the house and he switched them to give me a new line though he said both tested the same. He said I was also now on a closer box if I understood right.

Then he came back to the house and he took out the old modem/router and replaced it with the most current model. He set up both the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands and helped me get all my devices reconnected to the network.

I checked connectivity with the Aurender but because it is connected via lan line, there was nothing needed and it worked fine.

The internet does seem faster now but that could be placebo effect. Hopefully I'll be able to get a listening session in later today to check for sound quality. 


jdavis37
28 posts
 
Pokey.... are most of your issues associated with streamed music versus music stored locally (such as FLAC or whatever format files stored either on your Aurender hard drives or NAS type drive)? Curious. I am keeping the N10 on my short list for music servers (2019 purchase) to replace what I now have but I have this far only played music stored locally.
pokey77 OP
1,269 posts
 
@jdavis37 

All of my problems have been with streamed music. I have not uploaded any music to the player yet. I've been trying to iron out my streaming problems first.

As you probably read above, ATT was out here on Monday morning and replaced my modem/router, replaced the wiring inside, checked all wiring outside the house, and replaced all wiring in the "box" at the edge of the neighborhood and gave me a new line. I've had very good listening sessions on Monday, Tuesday, and just a little while ago, today. I am very pleased with the quality of sound since the ATT tech was here.

I can highly recommend the N10. It is pretty easy to use and it sounds very very good. It is able to accurately playback a very high resolution image and it amazes me the sound quality it can provide on a well-recorded Redbook file. I'm very happy with the N10 and with the customer service provided by Aurender. I'd do it again.
jdavis37
28 posts
 
Thanks Pokey,

I won;'t be purchasing a new music player until 2019 but starting my search early. Never know what you run into along the way. I have no immediate plans to stream (I can stream with current player but don't) and I will be redbook all the way given the DAC I am buying. Of course I may at some point go to streaming so not saying never! I know on my current player (Linux based) I typically try to reboot it every week or so. This seems to eliminate any dropouts. I am playing music directly connected to it via USB drive (FLAC) but use their iOS app to drive it and thus the network. My player had a lot of issues with its wireless connection so I went to hard wired and with weekly or biweekly reboots no issues there. If I forget and encounter a drop out I simply reboot the player and all is well.

The N10 appears to be a rock solid player, one on my radar screen. I need S/PDIF output (via RCA or AES) so it certainly qualifies in that way. I am assuming it will work for a USB connected drive as well as using the internal drives? 

I am also curious if the 2 internal drives can be changed out to SSDs if they are not already. I know it caches music to a smaller SSD but with current sizes increasing and prices dropping going all SSD would be nice.

How are the apps they provide? 

Glad your network issues are being resolved and you are able to enjoy the music more!
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