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Aurender N200

Hi

I was hoping to get feedback on the Aurender N200.   I have a Bluesound Vault 2i that honestly has been great but I am looking for a significant bump up in sound. Will be using with a LAB 12 DAC which accepts USB class 2 output and has coax also.  I really like this DAC , although I do have the opportunity to trade up within a year so that's to be seen if I do that.  I find myself mostly streaming and want a great sounding stand alone streamer that won't be outclassed if I upgrade the DAC.   Any opinions of this unit would be appreciated 

Thanks 

128x128oddiofyl
oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl OP
3,980 posts
 

Yes, it's strange but hopefully it won't reappear.   It was super annoying,   which was really annoying because it sounds so good.    Gremlins.....

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl OP
3,980 posts
 

I was curious about how Tidal would sound through it.  I had activated the MQA license just because and was curious how it would handle files with it “ON”.   
 

When I play a MQA track into my non MQA DAC it identifies the sample rate as 96k on the DAC but the Aurender says “44.1k MQA “

Any insight into why ?   Does it with higher sample rates too.  Basically reads 2x on the DAC

oddiofyl's avatar
oddiofyl OP
3,980 posts
 

When a component keeps you up until 1 or 2 am every night it's worth the money....  that's all I can say about the Aurender.   Its amazing what it can do.  Sounds great too.  

lordmelton's avatar
lordmelton
877 posts
 

@oddiofyl 

When I play a MQA track into my non MQA DAC it identifies the sample rate as 96k on the DAC but the Aurender says “44.1k MQA

This is not correct, 2x 44.1k is 88.2k but MQA doesn't upsample. Maybe do a full shutdown and restart on your N200. Do you have upsampling switched on?

Go to MQA Core upgrade in Settings and switch to enable. My N20 came with MQA Core installed but you may need to buy it from Google Play.

You will need an MQA DAC for 176.4/192 Khz unfolding.

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,606 posts
 

“When I play a MQA track into my non MQA DAC it identifies the sample rate as 96k on the DAC but the Aurender says “44.1k MQA”

@oddiofyl

With MQA license, the Aurender MQA Core decoder in N200 can only unfold first layer of MQA files, thus the 88.2kHz or 96kHz sample rate reading on your non-MQA DAC. Technically, there is no audible difference between 88.2kHz or 96kHz files. Only you can access if there is a ‘value’ in keeping both subscription. I tossed out Tidal after extended A/B in favor of Qobuz.

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