Absolute top tier DAC for standard res Redbook CD

Matt the Aries has a firmware update due out in a day or so that will allow for Local USB use.. You'll now also be able to just hook up a USB drive directly to the Aries. As far as sound quality goes I'd certainly expect a unit with Femto Clocks and an external Linear power supply to out perform a computer. If nothing else it's got a way better from factor, and it's got lots of internal horsepower for upgrades in firmware. And Auralic is spending big money on programmers to make thing work as they should..

Goose is right. Do the scans with a good mic. What I have found is that minimal acoustic treatments, including sidewall absorbers, rearwall scattering(diffusors) and a couple of bass traps is about right. Anything more is overkill. Then apply the EQ with Amarra. This will make a bigger difference on bass resonances than any treatments.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

Erik - the advantage of the Aurilic Aries IMO is the Ethernet/network interface. If it uses a minimal Linux kernel to generate and output USB, then it may sound better than a computer, maybe not. All of this effort to reduce jitter in the source device is unnecessary if the output is S/PDIF, AES or I2S. The issue here is generating USB to make it compatible with USB DACs.

The best way to do Ethernet is to go directly to I2S and avoid the S/W and H/W overhead of USB entirely. This is what my new "Interchange" module does. Interchange can be swapped in to replace any of my Async USB interface modules, on my Off-Ramp converters or Overdrive DACs. It gives you wired Ethernet direct to I2S, supporting up to 384kHz and double DSD, just like the Aries. WiFi can be added with an external device, but I suspect most will use it wired. It is DLNA, so some of the extra features of the Aries are not supported.

Steve N.
Empirical Audio

In an effort to obsess about something else while waiting for my esoteric to burn in, I have jumped into a nice obsession about the current state of high end music servers. The ones I listed seam to be at the top of their game for under $20k.

I have, of course, read several glowing reviews of these products. But, as I suspected, I have also read many threads on many different forms (as well as a review of the current top dog W20 from Aurender by the infamous Seaman Eben, himself, of 6moons) that state quite flatly that these $10-$16k purpose built music servers don't sound any better then a well set up, power supply upgraded, music specific computer...

I'm just not sold. But i will try an Auralic Aeris just to give it a chace; as long as it's USB works with my ODSE.

As for servers, I have used the Antipodes several times and it will trounce most computers, particularly playing FLAC or ALAC files. It is the only server I know of that goes the full 9 yards on hardware and software. It is still a computer, but uses Linux and lots of minimized custom and optimized code. It is compatible with the Overdrive.

That said, I think the ultimate solution is not a computer and USB, but the Ethernet DAC, so the computer driving the music over the LAN does not matter anymore. This is why I'm designing the Ethernet interface.

Steve N.