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No moving parts generally bodes well for used equipment. I owned a Aries G2 for about a year. Good sounding unit… then upgraded to Aurender. |
@mgrif104
I never directly compared the N100 with the Aries G2 on my large system (the Aurender N100 was on my headphone system, which is also very revealing). I inferred that it would win… it is very impressive for its cost. I was so impressed I didn’t think it was worth the trouble of swapping the Aurender into my main system. For a while I used both systems for evaluate components. In listening the N10 wins without any question in all aspects. Did you listen to the N10 before the power supply upgrade they did a couple years ago? I find power supplies really important. Also, the DAC you use. I had a Sim Moon 650D with the add on separate power supply… it really striped things naked and was dead quiet… so if you fed it a signal that was not pristine, you heard it. Ultimately the performance depends on the system the component is in. My systems are pretty revealing and a weakness is really obvious. |
I first got an Aurender N100 for my headphone system while I had the Aries G2 in my main system… I was really impressed… it is really quiet with natural sounding stable images. I felt Aurender is in a whole different class than the Aries. I always felt the Aries was noisy and images in the center stage were very confused. I started realizing what was possible, I listened to the N10… and immediately bought the W20SE. I had read… and quickly confirmed there was a big jump in sound quality between the N100 —> N10 —> W20se. I can now attest to that. My streamer digital end is now at the level of my analog end, and I have a new Linn LP12 and an Audio Research Reference 3 Phonostage. I listen to streaming most of the time now… Qobuz. If I feel nostalgic I will play a vinyl disk. I have a couple thousand clean, many audiophile recordings that a fun to listen to. But at the same fidelity I now have access to hundreds of thousands of albums… so, much music, so little time
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@rfnoisewell compared with a PC the Auralic is definitely a step up. |
The noise in the Aries G2 is having a high noise floor… not a sssssh coming out of the speakers. Just in case someone thought that was what I was talking about. |
Congradulations. That streamer showed me there was a whole new world of music out there to explore when I removed the MacBook. |
I love analog as well. The Aries was the first major step for me to realize sound that was equally satisfying compared to analog.
A simple trick if you want to plug in the Aries, or any streamer, when you are not next to the router. You buy a wifi extender… that plugs in like a wall wart near your streamer (really easy to configure, just push two buttons… and it’s done). The extender has an Ethernet port on it. Works great. One of the reasons I bought my Aries was because it had the ability to put itself on the wifi, as my router was upstairs. All my streamers are on using extenders, sound great. |
@rfnoise.
I would just match the manufacturer of your router when getting an extender. Netgear or Linksys… or whatever you use. All the manufacturers make them. Typically $60 or so. They theoretically are interoperable with different companies router, but I like reducing possible issues. I have never had any. I have two of them, one for my main system and one for my headphone system. Nice thing with wired, no passwords to play with.. |
@mike_in_nc
Mike, Many people on these forums use terms they do not understand correctly or have very loose definitions for the terms they use. I have to agree with you there. But noice floor is a very important term particularly with increasingly sensitivities of sound reproduction in good audio gear. It is something I have struggled with for decades. Part of the reason has been my affinity for electrostatic and ribbon speakers coupled with solid state equipment. These speakers are extremely revealing particularly in the upper frequencies.
First, “A noise floor is the threshold below which no audio intelligence can be heard. In other words, at any audio system’s (either record or playback) noise floor, the background noise of that system becomes just as loud as the signal giving a signal-to-noise ratio of 0.” Sdolezalek. It is a lot like a furnace or other multi spectrum background noice source running in parallel with your music. The frequency distribution can be very different among sources. When the frequency hash is high it can be very grating if you are familiar with it… in headphones it makes them “fatiguing” if you can’t put your finger on it. It can be in the upper and inaudible frequencies only and affect the overall sound through interactions of the frequencies. It takes some experience to identify this kind since it is not as easy to recognize as furnace noice. It can exert pressure on your ear drums without being disurnable like a cymbal tap or other easily recognizable sound.
I have many personal stories about it. Quickly, two were adding the outboard power supply ($8K) to my Sim Audio 650D DAC ($8K)… any question about the drop in a noice floor is, is demonstrated by this kind of change. Also, going to battery power in audio product like the Aurender W20SE demonstrates this. The background opens up, each sound is suspended in space… emptiness, the leading transitions of sounds reveal microdynamics. Image specificity increases dramatically. Meaning central confusion diminishes (note, the noise comes from both speakers equally, so it is a mono signal. it confuses the central sound stage not stage right or left.
I am sure you are correct about some people not knowing what noice floor is. But some of us do and it is a very important parameter as you move up to higher levels of audio reproduction. One that is critical in assessing high end components and systems.
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@rfnoise .
Sure hearing more notes can be attributed to lowering the noise floor. But a lot of damage is done to the sound stage, imaging, and background long before the level of covering up actual musical notes occurs. For instance, in a symphony hall when the orchestra slowly fades out into absolute silence and you are left with this airy silence and cavernous quiet. If your system is reproducing this, the music fades but you are not drawn into this cavernous comfortable silence… that is the noice floor jacking you up… like an amp with the bias too high. It isn’t that you hear it directly, it is indirect… like undifferentiated pressure on your eardrums. A lack of being drawn into the silence.
@kmmd ‘’I mention costs on a component to help people get an idea of the category of component I am speaking about. People on this forum have greatly different exposure to audio components. Some low end some high end. So instead of making most of the readers look up some component it is offered as a convenient reference point… that I am not talking about cheap or highly exotic components. Yes, in general, you get what you pay for. Also in the case of the Sim components I think few people would know that they offer a power supply that is as sophisticated as the actual component. It is a shorthand. If every detail was carefully fleshed out such not to allow someone to find an opening to criticize, then every post would be pages long and no one would read them.
@Jond ..
Source component noise floors are critical because the rest of the chain is a series of amplifications. Even if the noise floor of the streamer is low, what noise is boosted and then added to the noise of the next component. Just like in analog the source is most critical in what is to follow. |
The Aries is a good streamer, with a great presentation and leagues ahead of cell phones, iPads and dozens of low and mid-FI streamers. It was never my intent to bash it. High FI has many levels of performance. Depending on your equipment you always want to match components that sound good together and to you. I simple related my experiences and finding in my system. .
The noise floor topic I think is very important and interesting as it took many long years to be able to really put my finger on what it is and how to articulate it. The other difficult one is rhythm and pace… |
Thank you for the kind words. I am very much a advocate of forums being a place of information exchange and support, not place of self-aggrandizement, bravado, criticism, and personal attacks. My favorite forum is Audio Aficionado… it is a private forum for high end enthusiasts with a no tolerance policy towards any vitriol. My system and experience is average in that context. |
