A Somewhat, Affordable Aurender

I just received an Aurender A1000 demo unit from the Aurender team to evaluate over the coming weeks.

It is roughly the same build size as the N200 - about .75” wider.

As for first impressions, I think Aurender really got this unit right in terms of price point and performance. Given the supreme linearity of the DACs in the A15 and up, I was anticipating that this unit might sound bright given it is lower on the scale. This is absolutely not the case. From a timbre perspective, it reminds me a bit more of the A20, which is a bit richer, but it sacrifices a bit of resolution and separation, as it should at its price point, say compared to the A15. I don’t have the A200 on display, but from what I recall of its performance, the A1000 gets close!

I am very much enjoying it the A1000’s musicality, and so far I highly recommend it for any DAC/Streamer combo $5K and under!
 

@swede58 I compared the N200 against the Lumin U2 earlier this summer as I had a client who traded in the U2 to move back to Aurender. 

In short, I strongly preferred the N200. It is far more resolving and presents such that it has a much lower noise floor. Resolution and detail retrieval is much greater, whereas the U2 sounded congested. As the N200 is $1,300, I expected it to be better, but not that much better. Its performance surprised me as to how much audibly better it was.

I wish I could say that the Lumin U2 was more “musical”, but I didn’t find it that engaging, either. At the same time, I had an Innuos Zen Mini MK2 with the LPS, and honestly, despite its lower price point, I enjoyed it more than the U2. The Innuos was warm and engaging, even if it, too, was not able to deliver the resolution, imaging, and soundstaging of the N200. But for less critical listeners, the Innuos can go a long way.

In full transparency, I am an Aurender dealer, but these are my own personal experiences with these products.