I am loving the N200, sound quality is much better with it as the source into my DAC. I am using a LAB 12 DAC via coax and it sounds excellent. I think it actually sounds better through Coax vs. USB. I am going to try it with my RME DAC also and try some DSD material.
The Aurender is actually my transport in a sense. I rarely play physical media so this I think was crucial to great sound. I traded a component that had a lot of trade in value toward it so it was only $850 out of pocket . I'm glad I chose this unit, I will always use an outboard DAC . I almost went with the A200 but aside from the DAC the N200 has more features . Now if I do upgrade my DAC it will have a great digital source in front of it.
The Lab 12 sounds great but it's inputs are buggy. It can not cope with two active 24/88.2 legacy inputs at the same time. It cuts out and has trouble selecting the correct input. You have to turn the idle source off. Its super annoying , so even though the DAC sounds great , I don't see myself owning it too much longer. It's a shame , it sounds great.
Build quality of the Aurender is really high end. It is beautifully made , everything about it feels quality. Truly a worthwhile upgrade in my system. It can play all the files ripped in my Vault 2i , it can play or copy any files on NAS . Its awesome