Comparing Aurender N20 vs eversolo dmp A8

@jimmy2615 yes that's the ultimate plan. Waiting on my cable, I thought will give USB a try. I was hoping to at least have a matched or better performance. In some cases N20 is better like soundstage and vocals. But it was not blowing away DMP which I was expecting. Perhaps upgraded power cable and some other tweaks will do the trick. 

I did try AES cable yesterday (it was new and cheap) and it sounded very good. So the magic is in that combo like you mentioned. 

With N20, as others stated, use AES or SPDIF out to take advantage of the N20 superior OCXO clock. Also, the previous owner of the N20 may have never even used USB out and it could benefit from few days of break in. But as others stated, the best performance will be using AES.

With N20 AES is the way to go, otherwise get N200 or stay with A8. The quality of AES cable also matters a lot as well as power cable. Try Audio Envy power cable if you’re on a budget. One of best value in cables across the board!

Lalitk beat me to it. Now that you've discovered the difference between  AES and USB with the N20, just wait until you hear what a difference a quality cable will make--with all due respect to the perfectly respectable Mogami cable, which did give you a good taste of what is possible. You are just scratching the surface of what your N20 can do until you get the cabling dialed in.

++1 Jimmy2615,

I would never use stock cables, as this is limiting both of the streamers. You don't need to break the bank, but something along the lines of Anti-Cables Level 3 ($300), or Zavfino Atlantic OFC ($188) or Zavfino Legion OFHC ($288) or Zavfino Fina OCC ($345)

Also as many have suggested that with USB you are using the internal "voltage controlled crystal oscillator - VCXO" of the DAC, and you'd want to take advantage of the "oven controlled crystal oscillator - OCXO) in the Aurender versus the Femto clock in the DMP-A8. I am not sure what sonic improvements this would make, but it is definitely worth an attempt.....I would try it