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750$ Intel NUC vs $6000 Aurender N200: I don't hear the difference

I finally plunged into the source is as important as the DAC belief that is quite prevalent here and decided to test out Aurender N200. And given I have a very highend DAC, thought if the N200 pans out I would go for the N20 or N30.

 

I was expecting the N200 to blow away my Intel NUC which is 10th gen, core i7, 8GB and running Roon Rock BUT I am switching back and forth between USB playing the Roon Rock, and Co-axial playing Aurender N200, and I don't hear much of a difference maybe a hair, or not even that.

 

A few caveats: 1) Roon Rock is playing Quboz, N200 is playing Tidal (I am unable to get Qobuz login to the N200 for reason I don't understand).

2) I am comparing Coaxial on N200, USB on Roon Rock.

Caveat #2 can be ignored because I don't hear a difference between Coaxial and USB output of N200.

 

So either this is an "Emperor has no clothes" moment or I am missing something big. Any thoughts on what I might be missing before I send this N200 back to the dealer on Monday.

 

Rest of my system: Nagra TUBE DAC -> Accuphase E-650 -> Devore O96 and all Acoustic Revive wiring. 

essrand

Showing 1 response by ghdprentice

ghdprentice
6,435 posts
 

Your experience is very curious to me and completely different from my experiences with Aurender servers, I still own a N100 and a W20SE. They have completely out classed all PC based servers and other similar stand alone streamers. I would work with your dealer on this. This plain should not be true.

 

What is your incoming power like? USB cable. There is something very wrong. While I probably would have gone with an N10… yours should best a NUC without breaking a sweat. PCs are very noisy environments… regardless of what else is running. I recommend some real problem solving to find root cause… something is not right, although it does not stand out to me.

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