AURALiC Aries price reduction

From what I can see your GT40 only has a usb input so it will not work with the optical digital output of the Chromecast. You would need to use the analogue output of the Chromecast. Its built in DAC is not bad at all, so I guess the sound quality would be quite similar to the combination of the laptop’s usb output and the GT 40’s DAC. In the final analysis the sound quality of a streamer is in its DAC.
See here for the analogue perfomance of the Chromecast Audio: http://archimago.blogspot.nl/2016/02/measurements-google-chromecast-audio.html
I use it in a very revealing system and I have no complaints. Sonic differences between DACs are very small at best.

Thank you again for the feedback.  So instead of looking to spend around $1K, I should consider something that costs $35?  That's low risk enough I suppose.  If I did connect the digital output of the Chromecast to the GT40, do you believe that would be a sonic upgrade over the T430 laptop I use now?  And how would I manage my library and playback?  I mostly play albums start to finish but will occasionally create a playlist.  Please excuse my limited knowledge in this space.

I do like my system BTW.  The center piece(s) are the T&F Arts.  Amazing speakers, especially for their size.  I have owned the Model 4 for more than 20 years.  Great amp and I am glad I never got rid of it.  I got it upgraded and put it back in the chain after I purchased the Arts.  It does a fine job of driving them and I am quite happy with the sound.

exile_ken-I think mikhaelkuz makes a really good recommendation above.

However, if you like your system (the Forte is a giant-slayer, imo)  and want to add a streamer and are having a hard time justifying the price of an Aries, the Aries mini with the power pack is a good option. Often pre-owned are available around $500.

I think dedicated streamers are an outdated concept that is about to go the way of the Dodo. You are locked into the apps that are available for the various services that you are interested in (as with so-called ’smart’ tv’s). I think they are the audio equivalent of the old dedicated word processors, before the advent of universal PC’s with packages like first Wordstar and then Wordperfect or Word.
In my view one is now better off with something more universal like a Chromecast Audio. No streaming service can afford to ignore its market prominence, and hence there is an app for everything. With Buble UPnP it can access a NAS. Since you can use a big screen tablet as a remote controll, navigating your library should be quite transparent, depending, of course, on your NAS software (about which I know nothing - I only stream from internet).
The inbuilt DAC is pretty decent for secundary systems (up to 24/96), but there is also an optical digital output for more ambitious applications. That digital output is bitperfect, so the final sound quality would depend on the DAC of your choice, from cheap and cheerful all the way up to something like a Benchmark DAC3, or, if you also require a disc player, something like an Oppo 205 with its optical input. The Chromecast also does multiroom.

Exile_ken, given modest system I believe it will be hard to justify expense for an expensive streamer such as auralic or aurender.
Perhaps simple device as oppo 103 (or better 105), which is streamer/dac/player/preamp will serve you better. Jriver is $50 and will handle absolutely everything you throw into it, and many times more powerful then LightingDS. The only loss being playback without pause and lack of Tidal integration (you can still play Tidal on oppo). 

Thank you both for your feedback.  Its good to know that Lightning can handle my library.  Hopefully it wont lose my tags (a lot of time and effort spent).  Wharfy I have what would be considered mid-fi system to most Hi End aficionados, and for me and my financial reality the Aries is about as high as I would go.  For the record my system is made up of the following:

Trenner & Friedl Art speakers
Forte Model 4 Amplifier (upgraded by John Soderberg)
Furutech ADL GT40 Preamp / DAC
Music Hall MMF 5.1 TT
Lenovo T430 / 8 GBs RAM / Windows 10 
Foobar 2000

All items except the Forte Model 4 and T430 purchased used on Audiogon.

mikhaelkuz-Yes, you are correct; you added useful info about input/outputs and price point.

"Price point proportional"-I compared the Aurender sound quality on my bedroom system with my main system. What the Aurender does well, imo, isn't apparent in the bedroom set-up. The Aries mates well with this equipment. 

wharfy, from your perspective what is "price point proportional"? IMHO it is hard to justify (for me at least) price of a streamer to be the same as DAC/preamp.
Also comparing oranges to oranges - Auralic Aries femto used now runs 1000 or below, so there still a gap of ~1K. However I hope sound quality will justify the difference in price. Everyone I heard is very happy with Aurender, and apparently it is much less quirky then Aries. But Aries has coax and AES/EBU outputs, and some DACs do not have USB input (of sufficient quality at least) -so in those cases you will need an extra USB to SPDIF convertor, another piece in a puzzle, etc.
I tried to compare CD rip fed with Aries with CD played on the same player which is my DAC, and was not able to hear any difference. So it is hard to imagine how much better (for CD rips at least) Aurender can be. But I was wrong before, many times )).

Exile-Ken-I have both the Aurender and Aries. I originally purchased the Aries for my main system Audio Research components driving ProAc speakers and really liked the sound and user friendly features. Lightning DS is a great feature because I can use it on my iphone and ipad. Access to my music files is seamless also.

Then, visiting my local audio shop, I heard the Aurender played through my system and realized how much better it is in my system. The sound appeals to me because it is CD quality-dynamic, detailed, great extension top to bottom, front to back, side to side. Also, the conductor app is great. It sets up in a snap and there is very short wait time to access music files.

What I’ve learned having both of these is the following-
Aries is a great server at its price point if your music system/components are price point proportional. I kept the Aries, for now, and am using it in my bedroom system, which is a Cayin 50T driving a pair of Audio Physic speakers.

If you have spent a lot of money to assemble a system that has the most/best sound qualities you aspire for, then purchasing an Aurender is worth it. And as others have said the N100 does come up for sale for under 2K. And when they do, they sell quickly.

Hope my comments are helpful.

exile_ken, yes now it is running Lightning server and LightningDS.
I have approximately 60,000 tracks from various sources (my different rips, tracks purchases, hdtracks downloads, etc) and library is very manageable. I did not measure, but it took less then an hour for sure to load and index it from my NAS (Synology 414 with 12G of drives). Integration with Tidal is pretty dicent (for example when I am search for track in my library search terms remains when I am click Tidal, which is very useful). Tidal sounds way better now then with OPPO app.
There are some quirks (not all album artwork shows up, I have to figure out why) and it is by no means a swiss-knife jriver (I have to try jriver+BubbleUpnp I used with OPPO) - but still not bad. I am running 5.1 beta, and having my CUE-based rips plays without pauses is great (OPPO could not).
I am running LightningDS on new ipad with 128G memory. As a convenience it worked I would say B- so far, but as playback quality concern - A+ (at least compared to my PC, OPPO or previous cheap streamers, which were even worse). Is it femto clock, is it AES/EBU vs coaх I do not know.

Thank you Mikhaelkuz for the update.  How do you find the LightningDS app.  I have 20K plus tracks in Foobar 2000.  Would my library be manageable, plus Tidal access, with the LightningDS app?

I confess to being confused about what goes together.  I'm running Roon as a core on an upstairs iMac and planned to run the Roon remote app downstairs on my iPad.  The Ayre QX-5 Twenty DAC is downstairs and receives files via ethernet.  Would a N100H or Melco have any role in such a setup?

db

I got used Aries recently. I do not know how much Aurender is better, but compared with OPPO-105 Aries streaming sound quality is way, way better and easy audible. I actually very surprised as I bought it for convenience and was shocked how much more smooth and detailed sound from Auralic Aries is. And especially imaging - image from proper hi-rez became 3-dimensional, like I only had before from the very best CDs or even better (I am using AES/EBU to my AYON CD-5). Apparently I was blaming HDtracks downloads for nothing )).

Hi Ken,

Be patient - mint used N100H can be had for ~$1800.

Dave

Thank you for the responses.  I was having a hard time with paying $1,599 for the Aries, so $2,200 (two N100Hs on AG currently) for an Aurender is a bit outside of my range.  I did miss the coverage on the G2, although I am not an avid "audio press" consumer, I do pop into AudioStream fairly often though so not sure how I missed it.  A quick glance shows the G2 to be even more north of my price range.  

The N100H is the one to beat in the <$3k retail price range of server/renderer/streamers. 

Dave

+1 Aurender N100H.  Top notch sound / build quality and best app, period. 

Bottom line is the Aurender Conductor app is far superior to any other app out there, so If I were you I would consider spending a little more for a streamer/server from them. Even though the Aries would be a nice upgrade. Why not do it right the first time :-) Aurender makes streamer/servers for around 2k. If you don't need a DAC, your set! USB 2.0 audio output assures a high quality connection to your DAC, plus connections for ethernet and NAS drive too. (The super expensive ones have DACS or several terabytes of storage in them). O and its MQA compatible as well. Can you tell I want an Aurender too! LOL, If I could buy a Auralic with a Conductor app I would. But they don't make that.

Matt M

There is wide coverage in the 'audio press' of the G2 series being released in Sept. followed at some point in time by the G1 and G3 series.