Aurender

@navyachts 

Congratulations on purchase of N200 and if I may say so, wise decision towards building a solid digital from end that will give years of joy. One of the things I appreciate about Aurender is shelf life of each model. I enjoyed the N10 for 5 plus years before I decided to step up to N20 and finally N30SA. I’m done for a while :-)

@lalitk Thanks! N30SA...WOW! I'm done at the 200! With all that Aurender experience I presume you us the AUDIO USB 5V - 0.5A output to the DAC?

“I presume you use the AUDIO USB 5V - 0.5A output to the DAC?”
@navyachts

I am not using USB or vulnerable SPDIF/AES protocols. There are very few who realizes how well designed Aurender products are in their implementation of hardware and software. One of the very unique features of any Aurender streamer is their seamless integration with carefully chosen high end DAC’s. Merging Technologies, MSB and DCS are among the few I know of, I am sure there are more out there. My Merging Technologies DAC and Aurender allows seamless integration between the two over Ethernet. In addition, I am also taking advantage of amazing capability of external re-clocking available on higher end models like N20, N30SA and W20SE. I can stream files upto DSD256 from my Aurender server over Ethernet.

If you want to learn about RAVENNA protocol, read up on Merging Technologies DAC. The DAC with Ethernet Card are the way to the future. An important consideration since you are going to be looking DAC’s in near future.

@lalitk $20K for DAC and power supply (Merging+Nadac) not in my lifetime afraid, but thanks for the info, looks pretty cool though.

@navyachts 

I completely understand. I have been at this pursuit for a while and believe that I have reached the summit as far as my digital front end. Technology keeps on evolving; for now, I am in a place where music matters more than the gear.