Aurender music servers: higher priced ones sonically better?

I don’t know much about the aurender, but i have streamed from itunes/bitperfect and (i cant recall the name) on my Macbook pro, and for years i have used Roon on a dedicated server. All three outperformed the CD player to the same DAC(s).

I will point out that Roon offers a number of advantages; since i have rarely used anything else in the last tow years, i can say how much they impact the sound - but the content difference is startling ( I have a love/hate relationship with Roon)

But here’s are the two things:

One -- there will be differences, based on implementation (hardware, powering, grounding, ...)

Two: on the other hand, if the software plays the music back bit perfect, you can get identical results.

Why? two critical factors in digital are magnitude and timing. Timing is the harder of the two since it is quasi analog. (read my blog on SonogyResearch if you want more). And timing is determined by the receiving DAC, but compromised by the player’s signal from which it must be derived. I admit there are some details deep down that i cannot explain. yet :-)

Roon is an interface has nothing to do with sound quality 

Roon is an interface has nothing to do with sound quality

totally incorrect. Roon is a 1) server, 2) streamer, 3) multi-room and network streamer with its own protocol, 4) upsampling DSP, 5) MQA first unfold algorithm, 6) timing and bit depth adjustment device, .....

How far do i need to continue. Totally, completely, off base.

Sorry to be blunt to the point of rude, but this is really misinformation. And Roon provides a lot of options to minimize network impacts, optimize timing, tune for rooms, etc.

I shoudl add i have no commercial affiliation with Roon expect that i was an early adopter, and often feel like a beat tester. Its a work-in-progress.

Nice system though Tom. Thumbs up on your choices, from what i can see.


2nd edit: if interested, i was asked, and wrote, a long post on how to get the best sound out of Roon in a digital audio thread not long ago.  It extended beyond Roon proper to bridge and USB interfacing (e.g.: lots of ground and power supply isolation) to get the best sound.  Remember that Pulse Amplitude Modulation is in effect a cartesian coordinate mapping of analog sound and the X (time) domain is just as important  as the Y (volume/bits) domain.

I streamed off a MacBook and / or a PC for years. The sound was, in retrospect terrible. Until I got a dedicated streamer (Auralic Aries first then Aurender) the sound was without a quiet background (very high noise floor), dynamic, or natural sound. I would constantly flipping from one track to another (in retrospect trying to find something that sounded good). When I swapped to a great streamer, my surfing ended, each tune was captivating… even stuff I normally would not like.

@ghdprentice, can you say more?
I clearly had a different experience, and its unclear what steps you took to get good sound out of a "macbook and/or PC".  Further, mac books and PCs are significantly different -- starting with, until very, very recently PCs didn't even support USB high res audio profile 2.  And, while there is huge variation, their power supplies are much noisier. Any SMPS is bad, but Apple's are typically "less bad".  The best procedure is to run them off battery for critical listening.  Will a dedicated server with a dedicated set of isolated LPS bet better? Sure - just like i built for Roon.

Did you use Bitperfect (you really need to, and its 10 bucks).  And the list goes on.  Without that your data point is useful o you, but not very valid as a learning point for others. Plus I'd like o now why the discrepancy.