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

@audphile1 

as long as you are running roon core on a computer and streaming to bricasti over network it will be fine

lol, this was the answer that I was looking for on my last post regarding streaming quality. Thank you!

And also thank you for clarifying the difference between the M1 and M21, I did not know this. I don't think I will be upgrading any time soon, but if I do, I will most certainly check with Joe.

My suggestions in reply to your questions about my post are:

1) Leave the other cables in-place. No need to change them.

2) I decided not to go with fiber optic.   It seems like Baaske MI1005/2005 devices do the same thing using a different method.

3) I don't know about putting one downstream, but it can't hurt.

@navyachts you got it! 
Since you are running Ethernet straight into Bricasti you can try iFi LAN iSilencer. 
I have it connected to my erro node then connect purist Ethernet cable into it on one end and into my N200 on the other. The iFi gizmo doesn’t do 💩 in my system but it definitely doesn’t hurt it - multiple extensive sessions comparing sound with and without it proved it’s harmless so I left it in. Given the fact that the N200’does a better job isolating network, plus it caches the songs onto SSD, I’m not surprised the iFi thingy has no effect but on your system now it’s worth trying. With Amazon return policy it’s a no brainer. 

 

https://a.co/d/bEAiPrM

@audphile1 Thanks for the iFi gizmo tip.I thinkk i'm going to try @bigby's suggestion of using this: Baaske MI1005 It's similar to what @erik_squires recommends: Ethernet Galvanic Isolator which is about the same price as the iFi. The Baaske is $195 on the tech sites but only $45 on the link that bigby offered. Not sure which is better but at $45 I thought I'd give it a shot.

I was kinds wondering about this iFi product though:  Ethernet Noise Filter