Aurender N100 or X100?

Interesting discussion.  I don’t own Aurender so I can’t really opine here.  Unlike @ghdprentice i prefer the sound of my physical files to the Qobuz alternatives.  I use Melco and I need more than 2 TB.  I am wondering if there is a third party app that groups all the files in one place, a la Roon?

@mahler123 

I have looked at the Melco which got the S'phile A+ rating and have wondered why it does not seem to be as popular as the aurender despite its lower price (I think). Can you or  @ghdprentice give an opinion why that is? Is the software as easily navigated as the aurender conductor?  Does it too play from the cache memory like the aurender? FWIW I have a streamer Dac now that sounds pretty good. but trying to listen to it is a total nightmare. One glitch after another mostly because of too many different pieces trying to communicate IMO. I've used computers since 1991 but I'm getting too old to troubleshoot  so often. I'm thinking that the built in HDD will be a big part of simplifying the process

@rockrider  Thanks for the info. Extra credit for going the extra mile also. Thanks again

I had an N100H that I bought new and it was a disaster. Its biggest problem was that even a momentary power outage caused major problems. While many praise Aurender support, I found it sorely lacking. I dumped the streamer (at a loss, of course) in favor of a Bryston and have been happy ever since.

@cleeds

Its biggest problem was that even a momentary power outage caused major problems.

Uh Oh!! One of the problems in the mountains is that the power sometimes cuts our and then back on, just enough to cause the need to reset all the clocks, etc. An earlier poster @rockrider has already said

As for quirks, the units like to be shut down nicely.

No doubt this may be a deal breaker. I wonder if there is any work around? . IE I haven’t had outages happen while playing music. So the question would be, does this major problems take place when the unit is shut down or not in use? Then too, is this a quirk of all the aurenders, or just this particular one? Whatever the case, thanks for the heads up on this

While I did say the units like to be shut down nicely, it is my experience that the only issue is a somewhat delayed restart. I’ve never had a poor shutdown cause any other issues besides an inconveniently long restart. As for support, it is superlative in my experience.