Is Aurender N10 still a good option

I started with a Vault 2i and the N200 was a step up in every metric...   I think because Aurender mostly focuses on streamer/servers they are more proactive and thorough with firmware.  They Beta before calling something a firmware revision.  And you can opt in or out of Beta unlike that Bluesound Vault update recently that rendered my machine useless for a week. 

You do pay more for Aurender but the hardware is built like a tank and support is excellent,  to me it's worth the money....   it's your source .   The streamer quality is important if you have a resolving system,  if not then why bother just keep using a decent entry level box into a decent DAC.   I didn't think  I would buy something like the N200 but I'm glad I did. 

I had, or should I say still have an N10, but have recently replaced it with a used Antipodes DX3. The main reason was the crap Aurender app, especially if you mainly stream classical and a decision to go with Roon. As you probably know Aurender does not do Roon. I didn't expect the Antipodes to sound better than the N10 but it does, not by a huge margin but tighter bass and a more musical  top end. While the N10 is a very good streamer beware the app and of course give it a miss if you think you might want to use Roon in the future. I didn't but eventually succumbed and now have a streamer to get rid of,   .

I have owned  the n100,  n150 and the n10.  I still have them all, now using the n10 in speaker rig, n150 for headphones and secondary system.

My assessment:  

The n100 sounds great with local files  streaming is ok but not great.  Actually a great deal and a way to try Aurender.

N150 sounds even better with local files, streaming is much better than n100 but still not as good as local files.

N10 is quite a bit better than N150 with local files.  Streaming is really good, haven't yet decided, but may stop buying cd's and files.  Not sure yet, local files may still be better.  The only thing I don't like about the N10 is the hard drive is a bit slow compared to the ssd in the n150, and not user replaceable.  The N10 has the ocxo clock which makes the spidf outputs sound great, better than usb (though haven't compared all that much, tired of a/b ing)  at least with my yggdrasil.  The n200 does not have the ocxo clock, you would have to step up to the n20 which is much more expensive.  You can get an n10 for close to 3k.

I was a bit leery of such an old player, so tried to make sure I bought one that is relatively new. It is built like a tank.   Mine was originally bought in 2019.  I have heard upgrades were made during the manufacturing life of the model, don't know for sure.

Roon would be nice as the conductor app is pretty good, but a bit lacking for classical anyway.  But roon is not great  for finding your local files especially if you like classical.  As you get used to conductor it gets better and you find ways to get what you want.    I use the qobuz app sometimes just to look for new music etc. and info from roon is available other places.  Plus I found roon quite a pain, core would stop working etc. had to spend quite a bit of time on it.  The rumour is that newer models will eventually be roon enabled.

Best of luck but Aurender is indeed a good choice

I use a lumin x1 streamer/dac using roon. Got a separate power supply which is ideal.

I find this outstanding. The dac inclusion is done extremely well don't have to worry about all the external BS wiring interconnects. And the temptation to switch a dac all the time. I have two dacs that are mothballed right now.

Aurender sounds nice.

Thanks to everyone here for all of the advice. I have some solid direction now.