Someone will always say you could have something just as good for less money. You should be happy with the aurender. They have probably sold thousands of these and it is rated very high. Plus there are thousands that love them!
Aurender N20
Wow, just received my used N20, installed a 2TB 870EVO SSD and downloaded Conductor. Uploaded 72GB of purchased and ripped CD files from my Synology NAS. Connected to Qobuz and I must admit, I wasn’t prepared for what I heard. I thought that my fiber isolated, upgraded power supply iFi Zen Stream was really good, but it is no where near as good as the Aurender and I’m just listening to AES. Upsampling was set to 176.4K and so I went with it. I purchased from an experienced Dealer, so I went with his bang for the buck DH Labs AES and USB cables, which he doesn't sell. Evidently, they punch above their price point.
Local media and Qobuz sound equally stunning. This gets close, or rivals my analog system and that is saying something.
Complaints so far.. no information regarding bit rate of music. I’m use to Roon and this is not Roon..not even close. I think that with Qobuz I can make playlists with quality high bitrate music and import the playlists.
Anyway, if I would have heard the N20 first, I would not have anguished over spending the money. Again, having a good dealer, or trusted friend really makes the difference. Time to burn in the cable(s).
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So sad that Aurender doesn't do Roon. For me, Roon is irreplaceable: so much pleasure from finding new music and new links, looking up artists and the like. And the combined Roon + Qobuz library is simply brilliant. There must be a market for Roon plus great sound quality. Maybe my only real choice is dCs. Or maybe someone can tell me why Aurender doesn't make a unit that works with Roon. For now, I will stick with Roon, using a Lumin streamer and a Denafrips Terminator+. Sounds great - maybe not as good as an Aurender - but the Roon interface wins over all! |
I agree that moving to Aurender represents a loss with regard to user experience. Conductor does allow for extensive search functions, but lacks lyrics and more inclusive background information. Per those in the know, function is kept basic to reduce internal noise from the internal server/computer. |
Conductor is similar to iOS, it's bespoke software made exclusively for Aurender. Whereas ROON is similar to Windows, it's compromised because it needs to work on a multitude of devices. Personally I use the Conductor "folder" option which is like the DOS version, only thumbnails, minimalistic. Great if you have a large library and large playlists. |
Roon is indeed irreplaceable for many. See this video with Ari from Aurender. He explains the Aurender lineup and he also explains their choice not to use Roon. (57) In Stereo with Mike & Rick - Episode 4 - Ari Margolis with Aurender - YouTube FYI - I do understand that Taiko have put extensive R&D into a Roon interface but if I'm not mistaken, it still does not have the SQ that their new, XDMS interface has but that is current in Beta (or Alpha) stage of development. And of course, I should point out that their server is much more expensive than the N20. |
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