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Aurender's "Sound"

Just picked up an Aurender N100H. Great unit. However it's a bit on the warm and dark side, which doesn't sit well with my Pass class A amp. It's like a double whammy of warmth. Great for vocals, but hard to rock out on. But I like the unit and am trying to keep it.

Would love it if I could find a simple way to address this, like with a different USB cable to lighten things up a bit. 

If it comes to it, I might give up the Pass for something more neutral, as nice as this amp is it's not the best for music on the more lively side, or rock. (My tastes and opinions.) Even considering a class D amp like Nord, which is pretty much dead neutral which could peel back some of that warmth and darkness.

So is this a digital question, amp question or cable question? Yes to all.

Has anybody else encountered this double whammy of warmth, and what was the fix. Thanks all.
jaybe
three_easy_payments's avatar
three_easy_payments
2,097 posts
 
I have never viewed upsampling as a fix for anything...it can however mask underlying problems with your gear that sound poorly in native.  
erik_squires
16,186 posts
 
Hey  @three_easy_payments

I've been thinking about the whole upsampling thing.

While it does not provide more data, it does change the behavior of the upper octave's filter, sometimes by a couple of dB.  A significant, audible amount. 
tuberist
951 posts
 
that's a good amp you have Jay....what does Pass recommend for your situation? I'm assuming your room has been treated.
jond's avatar
jond
5,856 posts
 
What Dac are you using with the Aurender? I would think that would have more effect than the streamer itself.
jaybe OP
740 posts
 
I appreciate the responses folks. A bit more info.
The Aurender replaces a high quality home-built server with all sorts of internal "audiophile" parts, linear power supplies etc and ran JRiver, AO and Fidelizer. No other changes. I would characterize its sound as neutral.
The DAC is an Auralic Vega which is pretty neutral as well. It has 4 filters. I just played with those but not much difference.
Cabling is from different sources but all are in the $300-$700 range not counting the Audience speaker cables. Most of the cabling is fairly neutral as well. 
Aurender recommends 100-150 hours break in. I'm at less than 50 but I don't think the entire character of the Aurender will change during break in. But we'll see.
The amp is on the bottom shelf of a non-"audiophile" rack, in fact its a wide Sanus unit meant more for a home theatre. So, MDF shelves most likely. When I got this amp I plunked it on the shelf and there it has been sitting for 5 years. Now I'm wondering if the amp's placement and the lack of isolation devices has been contributing to the somewhat warmer/darker sound Pass is known for, and adding a new device with similar sound qualities just exacerbates that sound. I don't have much in the way of isolation stuff- Black Diamond cones, Golden Sound DH cones and squares, various Herbie's junk. Not sure if any of these might help tighten up the amp sound.
Short of other ideas I'll let the Aurender break in and go from there. I would consider swapping in a more neutral amp as well if the isolation doesn't help.

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