Streamer creates a Wow experience

Aurender doesn’t use Roon by design and choice, they have their own eco-system with nothing else interfering.

Aurender’s Conductor app does nothing whatsoever to influence the sound of streaming, internal hard drives or attached NAS. It purely has the function to index and select tracks to play. It is available for both Apple and Android.

Conductor’s Folder application is the best way to use Conductor IMHO because it’s like a DOS version that lists everything by text and small thumbnails, great if you have a large library or playlists.

The N20 and N30 substantially benefit from the addition of a 10 Mhz master clock.

If you are using usb to your dac, your sq will always be flawed, it doesn’t matter how many tweaks/gimmicks you add to make usb sound better.

omg ... here we go... 🍿

let’s see --

... all dacs sound the same

... it is all 1's and 0's... none of it matters

... cables make no difference

... vinyl is better than digital

... tubes are better than solid state

... if you can’t measure a difference there ain’t no difference

... fuses are the most important part of every system

and so it goes, around and around

I know many here like Aurender, but found it to be very buggy and had connectivity issues that I was unable to resolve, despite numerous exchanges with Aurender customer support and sending the unit to Aurender to replace the SS drive.  I give Aurender kudos for trying everything to resolve the problem, including inspecting the unit (which I bought used from a dealer) and replacing the SS drive at no charge.   I just couldn't get it to work consistently and had to move on.  YMMV.

@lordmelton

Thanks for your post. I just want to reiterate, the use of external clock with N20, N30 or W20 requires a well thought out holistic approach and a commitment for SOTA digital streaming. Attaching a 10mhz master clock to a streamer is a half bake idea even with a high quality DAC. A external clock on streamer end alone will not yield full benefits in terms of musical rhythm, pace, timing, realism and phase coherence.

In order to realize aforementioned benefits, you need a music server and a DAC with master clock inputs. The external clock can then be used as a single source to synchronize timing between both digital devices ensuring jitter-free and time-perfect data transmission.

My previous setup included a N20, DA2, Ref10. While adding the Ref10 made a difference over already excellent internal clock in N20, the differences was not day n night or should I say worth $8K (clock, PC, BNC cable). I was looking for next level improvements and thanks to @mikelavigne and my dealer @gestalt audio, I now have what I believe a true SOTA digital streaming front end. I also encourage the use of high quality Ethernet switch / noise filtering device to further enhance your streaming experience.

BTW please ignore silly comment that a LPS for digital audio is snake oil. Utter nonsense. Best wishes.

@charles1dad Yeah, I know.  I was just trying to be nice instead of my more normally cantankerous self.  I use the iFi iPowerX power supply with my Zen Stream. 

@reimarc I highly encourage you to jump in.  There are obviously many ways to go — it can be very overwhelming — but I’d highly recommend the route I took as the results are spectacular, it’s not that expensive, and it could hardly be easier to get up and running.  The iFi Zen Stream by all accounts is an excellent performer at a very reasonable price.  It can be had for $399, and I view the iPowerX (or some other external power supply) as not optional.  I got my iPowerX from B&H used for $75 and works great, and they apparently still have more...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1551794-REG/ifi_audio_306039_15v_ipower_x_15v_anc2.html

Setup could hardly be easier and you can just follow the few steps on their quick start guide and be done in five minutes.  The only wrinkle is you can’t stream Qobuz directly through the Zen, so you need to download the mconnect app and link your Qobuz to it, then you play Qobuz through the app to the Zen.  I’d only recommend the mconnectHD version for $5.99 as it allows you to play everything and the install/setup process was a breeze — not sure that’s the case with the Lite/free version.  Anyway, if you’re looking to just get started with a relatively affordable yet high-performing option with an absolute minimum of headaches, I can’t recommend this setup more highly.  Best of luck.