A Somewhat, Affordable Aurender

@navyachts I've had the Innuos Zenith mk3 for a while, with 8TB storage, and I really enjoy it. If I didn't need the local storage and mainly just wanted to stream from Tidal or another similar service, I would probably go with the Innuos Pulse which is sort of the same thing but focused on streaming rather than being a music server. 

@tubeguy80 if you don't mind me asking, what streamer are you using now?

I'll echo what others have said about the older X100L. That was my first Aurender and I loved it. Later tried moving "up" the line and found that I didn't really care for most of the others, unless I went all the way to the top of the line. And by then I felt there was better options from the competition. 

Don't know if the X100L would hold up as well these days just because it's been so long since I heard it. But I have always wished Aurender could capture that magic again. 

@oddiofyl OK,thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, have a great weekend!

Big open sound with great low end. As Blisshifi said, great detail and resolution. It’s not cheap but the build , sound , and support is top notch. If I didn’t leverage a trade toward mine I would probably not have purchased it outright and that would have been a shame because it’s that good.

I was listening to Pink Floyd The Final Cut tonight and there is a lot of low level detail throughout that lesser transports whether optical or rendering miss. These mumblings are crystal clear and intelligible with the N200

The Vault is in a second system and I still use it everyday but when time allows and I really want to get lost in the music I fire up the main system.

I just picked up the excellent sounding Teac 701t so if I own the physical disc I will play that but due to convenience and overall great quality I find myself using the Aurender.a lot

I just installed the LHY SW-6 Ethernet switch and am using a media converter between the modem and SW-6 SFP port. The switch’s isolated ether jack feeds the Aurender.

I think I am at the point where my digital front end amazes me and I’m afraid to further mess with it.

@blisshifi ​@oddiofyl 

👍🙏

@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. 

@oddiofyl so what do hear better coming from your N200 over that of the Vault, using the same Lab 12 DAC?

An A1000 would be high on my list for an all in one.  I like the N200 Interface.   I also have a Vault 

The N200 gets better with each FW Rev.  

@oddiofyl  what would be high on your list, the N200?

What is it you like about the N200?

If in the market for a Streamer /DAC it would be high on my list.   

No,  I had listened to Innuos and already owned a Vault.    I bought my N200 in a trade deal that I couldn't pass up.   I'm glad I did , it's a great piece.   

@swede58 

No, actually I did not. I listened to a  U2 mini with an SBooster, an N150 and I have a BS Node N130 with a Teddy Pardo LPS.

@oddiofyl @curiousjim 

Did you compare the Aurender N200 to any other streamers? How does it compare to Lumin U2 and other similarly priced streamers? It will be used with an Esoteric K-05XD.

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!
 

For those above who did not read the attached link, it is about a combination streamer/DAC, not a stand-alone streamer.

Another vote for the N200.  

@mattmiller totally agree. The X100L is a gem. 

The discontinued model X100L was around $3500 it came with 6 TB of storage, I love the sound of this unit, quite frankly its the best sounding music server ive heard, at any price.

Not cheap , but it looks like a really nice unit.  I've been happy with my N200, this would be first on my radar for an all in one streamer /DAC