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

@mdalton 

Just FYI…noise does decrease with burn in when it comes to cd players, transports and streamers. I have experienced this several times myself. 
My N200 took over 200hrs to settle. I wonder if that’s where the N200 designation originated…like Jimmy Two Times…anyway I digress…

The noise floor with the N200 dropped after about 130-140hr mark. A cd transport I was trying out recently exhibited similar behavior. 

As an aside, no one was harsh to anyone here. Some facts, and may be some occasional sarcasm, including the OP’s last post referring to most here being technologically challenged unable to put together a NUC. I kind of find that ironic given the tests that were conducted but hey…. 

So let’s not play the snowflake, “I’m offended” card here. Not warranted in this particular case. 

@audphile1 

A little projection perhaps?  After acknowledging that you hadn’t read the whole thread, you went ahead and posted this:  

“didn’t read the entire thread but I saw this post and it didn’t stop me from trying the N200. The test conducted by the OP is flawed in several ways. 
1. As already mentioned above the N200 is optimized for USB. The spdif out sounds fine but it’s very audible how much better the USB is. (see the posts above talking about the N200 clock)

2. Tidal sound significantly worse than Qobuz with the N200, and I think with Aurender in general.

So for the comparison the N200 was set up in a worst possible way. But even in this configuration I would expect it to beat the nuc. I tried streaming with my mac mini and it doesn’t hold a candle yo the n200. “

Two years ago the op had followed up on his first attempt - one day prior - but in your haste to defend your own decisions/biases, you criticized the op’s test - which had already been corrected - as “flawed”.  In civilized society, this is where we say “I’m sorry.”  But hey, I’m a snowflake.

Don’t know what you’re getting at but ok.

Good luck and happy listening!

@mdalton I’ll be honest, I had to look up the word disapprobation 😁

I agree the OP was seeking clarification as to the reason why there was no difference, I commend that.

I couldn’t find any burn in suggestions on Aurender’s website, but here is one for Playback designs player/streamer:

BREAKING IN THE MPS-6 Breaking in the MPS-6 is time consuming but well worth the effort. It would be a mistake to pre-judge the performance based on what you might hear at first listen. This is what you can expect to hear at different intervals during break-in:

1. Out of the box: The MPS-6 will have good clarity, but the highs can be recessed. Bass might appear to be a bit muddy and lacking punch. Soundstage might sound closed in.

2. 50 - 150 Hours: The sound will open up a little bit, but can still sound a bit brittle. 3. 150 - 350 Hours: Midrange will start smoothing out and clarity will increase, but highs might continue to remain recessed. At this point, there probably will not be much change in the bass. You will probably wonder how the Playback Designs converter will ever sound like others have described, but we assure you that you will start to hear substantial changes within another week of play.

4. 350 - 500 Hours: The magic will be starting. Highs will be open and airy. Midrange will appear much more full bodied and natural. Soundstage will be huge and the image presentation will start appearing very holographic. Bass will be incredibly deep and tight with texture and detail galore.

5. Over 500 Hours: The MPS-6 will continue to change subtly over the upcoming month of usage, but you should be recognizing a very life-like and natural sound. During break-in when you do not listen to music it is best to feed an external digital audio signal into any of the digital inputs of the MPS-6.

@mclinnguy 

Hah!  Sorry about that, just seemed like the right word for the occasion.  Re the opened can of worms, as you can probably tell, I’m highly skeptical, though truth be told, I recently paid a few bucks more on a cable purchase for burn-in. It’s kind of like deciding to pray if I’m on a plane that’s going down.  But I digress.  We hear so much about components and/or processes that “lower the noise floor” or create “blacker blacks”, etc.  Some I believe, some I don’t.  But removing noise strikes me as one of the easier things to measure.  So, for example, if a manufacturer claims a streamer experiences less noise - which could in turn help us hear some of the subtle cues noted in the literature you quoted - the a simple signal-to-noise ratio measurement (or its ilk) , would prove the point beyond a shadow of a doubt.  And that’s something I’ve seen out there in manufacturers’ literature.  Manufacturers say a lot of things, but sometimes they’re just not true.  btw, love your system!