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Auralic Aries

Since getting my DAC I’ve been using Tidal via my laptop as my primary source, but the noise from the PC usb connection has gotten to be insufferable. So I’ve been looking at some dedicated streamers. The Aurender and Lumin gear seemed to be pretty much out of my budget, so I turned my eye to the Auralic Aries, Cambridge CXN, and Pro-ject Streambox. The onboard DAC and automatic upsampling on the Cambridge didn’t appeal to me, and I had I hard time seeing myself paying over $800 for Pro-ject’s suped up rPi, whereas I’ve read nothing but good things about Auralic. So today I won an auction for a pre-owned Aries with linear power supply for $695 including shipping. How’d I do? Seemed like a reasonable price to me...

Anyone know of any known issues to look out for on a pre-owned unit?

rfnoise
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
I use a mesh system and connect directly.  Works like a charm. Never lost a signal and it sounds better with each steamer I've had in here than going wifi.  Heard that Auralic's wifi is a very good way to go though.  I have heard of a couple of folks having an issue, but most love and swear by it.

jond's avatar
jond
5,794 posts
 
My Aries Mini did fine with wifi almost never a dropout now it's hardwired and even more rock solid.
howardalex's avatar
howardalex
64 posts
 
I use a Google mesh system which works fine with other devices dotted around my house , eg it connects to Apple TV via wi fi and streams 4K without any issues.

I appreciate that a wired connection should solve the wi fi connection issue but Auralic actually state that the preferred connection from a sonic perspective is wi fi due to “noise” issues when using an Ethernet cable.

Of course that’s got to be better than not having any sound, which is the usual outcome when I use wi fi with the Aries.

I’ve just sent it off to have yet another wi fi module installed, will let you know the outcome ….




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pabs85
53 posts
 

@ghdprentice 

 

‘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.’ 

This is an interesting description, could you recommend a track that fades out like this as a test track?
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