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750$ Intel NUC vs $6000 Aurender N200: I don't hear the difference

I finally plunged into the source is as important as the DAC belief that is quite prevalent here and decided to test out Aurender N200. And given I have a very highend DAC, thought if the N200 pans out I would go for the N20 or N30.

 

I was expecting the N200 to blow away my Intel NUC which is 10th gen, core i7, 8GB and running Roon Rock BUT I am switching back and forth between USB playing the Roon Rock, and Co-axial playing Aurender N200, and I don't hear much of a difference maybe a hair, or not even that.

 

A few caveats: 1) Roon Rock is playing Quboz, N200 is playing Tidal (I am unable to get Qobuz login to the N200 for reason I don't understand).

2) I am comparing Coaxial on N200, USB on Roon Rock.

Caveat #2 can be ignored because I don't hear a difference between Coaxial and USB output of N200.

 

So either this is an "Emperor has no clothes" moment or I am missing something big. Any thoughts on what I might be missing before I send this N200 back to the dealer on Monday.

 

Rest of my system: Nagra TUBE DAC -> Accuphase E-650 -> Devore O96 and all Acoustic Revive wiring. 

essrand
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,241 posts
 

 

marco1

469 posts

 

The OP saved $5k+.  He’s happy.  Why try to convince him or anyone else he did something wrong.  I say congrats and enjoy the music
 

There are two sides to this coin. I agree with you…whatever floats your boat and makes you happy…that’s side one of the coin. The side two of it is the inconsistency in the A/B testing between the two use cases, the subjective nature of it all and the part where the inaccurate data posted here will result in misguiding others who are potentially striving to improve their systems. May be I’m completely off track here, but here are my $0.05 cents (inflation adjusted).

jastralfu's avatar
jastralfu
422 posts
 

@musiclover1 Im using an Audioquest cinnamon I think.

@audphile1 you make a really good point.  It’s still a valid comparison, in the sense that one combination sounds better than another, but not in the context of this discussion.  Easy with the keyboard warrior tough guy nonsense though, please.  I made an honest mistake with respect to comparing dac to dac or streamer to streamer.  Some constructive criticism is always welcome.  I know just enough to know I don’t know much and I have plenty to learn.  We all make mistakes.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,241 posts
 

@jastralfu 👍 yeah bull 💩 was just a technical term but it isn’t constructive criticism. I agree. It did get the point across though…

😂

Happy Listening!!!

jastralfu's avatar
jastralfu
422 posts
 

@audphile1 I did get your point and I appreciate you making the distinction. In my haste to add something to the conversation I forgot that the HiFi Rose is an all in one unit and, to your point, all I did was confirm that I like one component stack better than another and did not compare dac to dac or streamer to streamer. I got rid of the HiFi Rose before I got the Denafrips, but that would have been an interesting experiment to run though. Another reminder to think before speaking or, in this case, typing! By the way, I like your system!

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,241 posts
 

@jastralfu thanks for the compliments on the system! I looked at your system page and the pictures show how much attention and effort went into assembling that setup. Nicely done!!!

As to testing the Rose with the Denafrips stack…in my experience my mac mini used as roon core and streamer was easily beat by a dedicated streamer. Going direct to DAC. But…when you have a DDC in the chain that reclocks the signal, the results may very well be different. So we can only speculate about how the Rose as streamer would sound vs. the Mac. Never know until you try. 
 

 

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