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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
pdreher's avatar
pdreher
1,212 posts
 

I replaced an Aurender N10 with a Roon Nucleus paired with an IFi Zen Stream as the Roon endpoint. The Roon Nucleus/IFi Zen Stream combo handily surpasses the Aurender in sound quality, stability and user interface... and it was 1/4th the cost of the Aurender.

essrand OP
297 posts
 

Check this youtube video where Jay's Audio Lab finds that the Taiko Extreme (a universally acknowledged best music server ever) has no sonic effect when used on his MSB DAC.

The lesson I have gotten is that the effect of the server mainly depends on how competent your DAC is with input signal. Mine (Nagra Tube DAC) seems to be very competent because of various design reasons and has taken particular efforts to negate the bad effects of USB input. So I don't need to waste time with music servers just like Jay with his MSB Select 2 DAC. YMMV. 

 

So do a home trial of the music server with your DAC, before blindly assuming that music server is needed because some guru/dealer/forum-member says so, or because-it-costs-10K$-it has-to-beat-a-600$-NUC.

 

This basically debunks the source first theory of digital that lot of people in this site and others seem to be propagating.

hifiguys's avatar
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hifiguys
13 posts
 

A truly dumb question - What is NUC referring to?  I suspect the C is for a computer but not sure.  My last server/streamer was a Mac Mini with a solid state drive.  The now discontinued entry level Aurender N100H blew it away.  Just curious.  This is on a very high resolution system.

hifiguys's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
hifiguys
13 posts
 

If I'm not mistaken, Jay, in the Youtube video above (evaluating 300K plus systems on Youtube - really?) is comparing ethernet with USB inputs on the DAC.  If so the comparison is invalid.  USB can sound really good but there are always jitter issues.  Some DAC's are better than others at dealing with them but they exist.  I have a Jay's Audio CD transport that sounds better played directly into the AES input on two high end DAC's than the USB of the same disc from my 6K music server.  Source is always a limiting factor but it isn't the only one.  If you have system components that are unable to reveal all that your source can do, that's the limiting factor.  

viethluu's avatar
viethluu
90 posts
 

I use a NUC directly to the DAC. It sounds way better than going through an end point. My NUC is running ROCK, is fanless powered by a Nikola linear PSU.

After being in this hobby for so long, I begin to realize that a lot of stuffs people tell me are wrong!

Now, I am considering adding a DDC to my NUC, and I bet it will outperform most high-end streamers.

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