Could the new Audender A30 be "the one" for a simple system?


If this replaces & consolidates the preamp, DAC, headphone amp, CD player/ripper and streamer, all you’d need is your amp and a phonostage. You’d save money in theory, even though this is $18k. I’d buy one! #NeedLottoMoney.

Of course there are other choices, and many people would not want to consolidate their DAC and preamp and prefer separates.

This would be a simple system: A30, amp and speakers (if you’re not a vinyl person). Robert Harley has extolled the wonders of the Aurender Conductor app for managing one’s digital music. I look forward to the reviews, especially of the DAC and headphone amp sections.

A30 https://aurender.com/a30/

A30 is the flagship model from Aurender’s range of analog output digital music players. Like A10 and A100, A30 is, at its essence, a caching music server / streamer & DAC with internal storage and control via Aurender Conductor. The Aurender A30 also includes full MQA Decoder technology which enables you to play back full-resolution MQA audio files and streams, delivering the highest possible sound quality of the original master recording. What distinguishes A30 from the others is the pure audio performance and exhaustive feature set. Aurender have designed A30 to be the comprehensive digital focal point of your system providing useful aides not usually associated with a typical music server. Functions like CD ripping, a high-quality headphone amplifier, 10TB of internal storage, ultra-wide color LCD display and an integrated software suite of metadata editing and library management tools. All this, and much more, makes the A30 the new performance standard in all-in-one digital source components.


128x128patrickdowns
It looks to have everything you would need.  How much is it?  It uses a lot of separate power supply's, a Teac transport for ripping and a excellent Western Digital Purple 10TB HD.  I believe it also has the latest AK DAC.  If the price is right I would go for it.  The build quality is very high and the Conductor software is one of the best out there.
$18K ... ouch! It’s their flagship now, iirc. Outta my league unless I bought used. But if by combining all these—a $3-5k DAC, a CD player/ripper, a $3-5k streamer, a $2-3k headphone amp and a good preamp—and eliminates many interconnects, maybe it makes sense?

Anyone has one of these yet? Would love a compare between the ACS10 and/or N20 units?? thanks

@wjt3 The ACS10 would not be comparable because it is designed as a music ripper and library, not a hi-rez streamer, although it can stream.

The N20 would probably be at a similar level to the A20 and A30 except that the N20 can use different DACs.

If this is not important to you and don't want to spend money on ICs and PCs and Digital ICs then the A20 or A30 would be excellent choices.

Was looking to gain more SQ. I was thinking maybe the dac on the A30 would be a step up over the Ps Audio Direct Stream dac I have now from my ACS10. Also the A30 being just a better unit overall???