Aurender N150 vs N200


Wondering which one I should do as my first streamer. I.e. how much better is the N200? I was thinking N200 at first, to just do this once, but now thinking (more responsibly), N150 would be good enough for my first.

The rest of the system:

  • DAC -- Denafrips Pontus II
  • Pre -- ARC Ref 5se
  • Amp -- Art Audio Px-25
  • Speakers -- Blumenhofer Genuin FS2
saulh

There is a comparison chart on their site.  My thinking was the same ,   The N200 has a lot more in terms of power supply, isolation, etc    I’m sure the 150 is awesome but I think it only has USB and doesn’t have the un-interruptible PS.  
 

What does piss me off is the 150 has power meters and for some reason they were not included on the 200.  It was a feature in all of the press releases and on their site at one point.     When i questioned this I got some BS reason about meter tracking accuracy …. C’mon that is a lame excuse. Who cares ? They look cool. Every product in the line up has them but the N200.  That is BS . 
 

That aside the build quality is really high end.  Nothing feels cheap about them.   They are sweet.   Support is top notch.   I had a few things that bugged me about Conductor 3 but all of those issues are fixed with Android users.   
 

Overall I am glad I got the N200.  I guess if your other gear is in the same price tier it makes sense to get the 200.    I have a great sounding DAC and if I do upgrade it down the road the N200 will not be outclassed by its replacement.  

@saulh no idea how N150 sounds. I think you have a weak link there and it’s your DAC. I think it’s out of its league there. The streamer will definitely improve the sound but that bottleneck will remain. 

I agree with @audphile1. If you get N200 now, you should look into upgrading your DAC down the road. If you get N150 now, it will likely commensurate well with your Pontus II. 

Is N150 good enough for your first streamer, the answer is YES! 

With the level of components you have I would get the N200 and upgrade the DAC to a similar level.  The Pontus II is a great DAC (I have one with a Hermes DDC) but I believe @audphile1 and @lalitk are correct about it being a bottleneck relative to your gear.

There's an N200 for sale used from The Music Room here for not much more than a new N150: