Why I Sold My Aurender N200

@rbstehno what streamer did you go with?

@audphile1 I have not tried Audirvana vs Roon and may not get to trying that as I have a lot of stuff going on right now, so time to do so at present. If I get a chance, sometime in the future, I will let you know!

@rsf507

I’ve asked my dealer if I can do better streaming from my Bricasti M3 and has told me "maybe" for 15-20k additionally. He said just enjoy your music and if you really want better or different try the Bricasti M21. Love honest dealers.

LOL re. the honest dealer comment. Just a quick note on this, it’s the same network card in all the Bricasti models so the better sound is obviously related to other/better components in their upper line with the M21 being $10K more than the M3. I have the M1 so $4K short of the M21, it would be cool to try and hear the difference $4K would make. Maybe I can ask my daughter for a loan! 

Try Audirvana. If you don't have Roon, then you won't mind its interface and its getting better with every release.. 

It's the software that makes a difference in sq. When I had the Auralic, I went back and forth using Lightning DS (Auralics software) and Lumin's GUI, yes, Lumin software worked on the Aries.

I used to use Pure Music 15 years ago instead of iTunes, then went with audirvana when it came out. When I get rid of the auralic and the usb dac, I went with roon. I have retested audirvana off and on the last few years and it is a little bit better in sq, but I can't go backwards in the GUI.

I only use my streamer to interface ethernet (data from roon server) then galvanically isolates the signal to i2s to the dac. This streamer only has i2s and spdif, no other outputs, and since 99% of dac users use usb, this wouldn't be a good fit for most.

@bigby

Try adding a Baaske MI2005 or MI1005 to the ethernet cable to clean up the signal before going into the Bricasti.

Will this affect the quality of my Purist Audio Design CAT7 Ethernet Cable, making it irrelevant? I guess I would have to purchase another to plug in downstream. Or, would I be better to go with a couple of Fiber Media Converters and a patch cable set up?

@fpomposo

Personally I would keep the Aurender because of the hard drive capability

I don’t have so much music so if I want to listen to my ripped CDs they are on my Seagate hard drive and I can play them from there.

@rbstehno I sold my Roon Nucleus but still have some time left on my subscription so the only way to access Roon and Audirvana would be via a computer, which is supposedly a no no. Is this what you suggesting?

@navyachts as long as you are running roon core on a computer and streaming to bricasti over network it will be fine. If Audirvana site is accurate about Bricasti compatibility, it should work exactly the same way - audirvana on your computer, streaming over network, computer away from your system. 
 

Somehow I have a feeling Audirvana sound quality may be better than Roon but I can’t check that in my system as I mentioned earlier my DAC is not equipped with network card. 

As to the difference between M21 and your M1S2, I’m pretty sure the delta sigma and DSD sections are identical and the 2 DACs will sound the same. What sets the M21 apart is the R2R section. And many who own M21 prefer its R2R DAC over the delta sigma. Don’t take my word for it though if you’re looking to upgrade confirm this with Joe.