Why I Sold My Aurender N200


People seemed more interested in why I sold my N200 than wanted to answer my questions in my last post on streaming quality, so here ya go:

I recently sat down with my wife (who has a much better ear for sound quality than I) and we A/B tested back and forth between listening to the N200 and the Bricasti M1 SE II’s network card and heard no difference.

Just before selling the N200 I contacted a very well-known and reputable dealer for his opinion on this. If anyone would know about the sound quality of streaming, he would and I asked what streamer he would recommend. He sells Bricasti, Playback Design, Lumin and Grimm streamers. his response to me was:

"In my humble opinion, there is no need to get a dedicated streamer if you have the network board in the Bricasti"

Most member’s comments are very positive on their N200, maybe you guys have much better ears than us, so please enjoy, but in my case, I sold it and gave the much-needed funds to my daughter who is just about to start her last semester at law school.

End of story.

Hope you all had wonderful Christmas and here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year!

128x128navyachts

Roon done right (Grimm MU1 or MU2 or Merging Tech are core as well as streamers and purpose built for Roon). 
The problem for me was Roon sound quality which is sterille and not engaging. It is the case with network card in Bricasti as well as using Aurender N200 as Roon endpoint point. Using Aurender Conductor is significantly better. 
So if you are comparing N200 to Bricasti network card using Roon, I can see why you can’t tell the difference. I cancelled Roon for now as after extensive comparison I couldn’t stand listening to dull and sterile sound that Roon produces in my system configuration. YMMV. If you like it, you saved yourself a nice chunk of change. 

That sounds like a good reason to me.  The Bricasti is a great DAC so I'm not surprised .    

The Grimm wins hands down.  Not so dry sounding as the others you mentioned and it runs Roon, which is a necessity in my book.

Best thing ever to give your daughter some well deserved cash for a good project.you should be proud of her.i still member the trauma of going through dental and because they wanted me to be the first with dds and MD in a new program not tested I just went to med school.bless the vets when I was at the va doing surgery the cafeteria would close prior to us finishing the surgery day.the vets would order extra food for us residents.we would our nightly rounds to check on patients and they would feed us. The cost of professional school is hundreds of thousands of dollars today.that deters some of our brilliant people.enjoy the music stay healthy

A great Christmas story.  Good for you.  Best of luck to your daughter.  Hope everyone enjoys the next week through New Years.  A great time of year to be with friends, family and enjoy the music you love!