Auralic Aries

@ghosthouse So... my Monolith USB’s arrived today. It turns out that the 1m length cable was long enough, so that’s the one I hooked up. I sat down to give a skeptical listen and... WOW! The soundstage somehow seemed more focused, and more well defined spatially. Much more natural sounding presentation throughout the entire range. And this is with the cable fresh out of the box. If there’s any kind of “burn in” period, whereby the sound improves over time, I’m in for a treat.
I kept wondering if I was suffering confirmation bias, but I don’t see how that could be, as (no offense) I honestly wasn’t expecting anything out of a $15 cable other than mild disappointment.

Guess I’m officially in the “cables matter” camp. Thanks so much for the hot tip! Best $15 I ever spent!

@rfnoise

Pleased to read the Monolith USB made a positive difference for you. You are very welcome, of course, but all credit to Duster over on Audio Asylum.

My reaction to the sound quality improvement with the Monolith was much like yours...it seemed to open things up. I can’t say I’ve heard a difference (certainly not anything major) between 1 meter and 1.5 or 2.0 meter lengths but I did want to be sure you were aware of potential issues associated with a short length. Some are very insistent about a minimum 1.5 meter length for best audio quality.

The value represented by the Monolith gives me an excuse to trot out my 3 rules of audio:
1) You can always spend more.
2) There’s always something better sounding out there.
3) Pursuing #1 does not guarantee arrival at #2.

Hope the Monolith keeps you satisfied for a long time.

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. 

1) You can always spend more.
2) There’s always something better sounding out there.
3) Pursuing #1 does not guarantee arrival at #2.

@ghosthouse -- thanks for posting that. It's perfect!

@mike_in_nc 

Glad you enjoyed it.  
Learned at the audio school of hard knocks; 
hard knocks seemingly the only way to get things through my thick skull.
;-)

FWIW, the Pro-ject Stream Box sounds quite good. I haven't listened to too many higher priced streamers, but I listened to a $7500 Naim NDX 2 as a streamer feeding my Pontus II DAC and without comparing head-to-head, I'm not sure I could confidently say whether the Pro-ject or the Naim is better sounding. I do like for a budget component that the decision was made to not include costly features such as a built-in DAC or LCD screen & that effort was focused on reducing sources of electrical noise. Some details about the design of the Pro-ject from the designer are in this thread:

https://www.avforums.com/threads/why-is-pro-ject-stream-box-ultra-s2-so-expensive-700euro-for-an-r-p...

@ghdprentice I totally agree with you. The only other forum I’ve spent time on caters to vintage Vespa enthusiasts, and is populated by a group of genuinely helpful folks, where abusive posting will very quickly get one banned. When I first came over here I was rather shocked at some of the posts I saw.

@ghosthouse school of hard knocks indeed. Other than the Klipsch RF-5’s I bought a few years ago that were so bright it was like someone was pounding a piccolo into my ear canal with a hammer, I’ve been rather fortunate in having not made any bad mistakes in my system. In this hobby screwing up can be both expensive and demoralizing.

@calvinandhobbes yeah I looked at the pro-ject, but I’d heard mixed reviews of Volumio, and felt the price was steep for a tricked out Raspberry Pi. Ended up paying less for my used Auralic, and their Lightning DS app is incredibly intuitive. 

Been hearing nothing but great stuff about the Auralic.  Their Vega 2.1 DAC is on my very short list right now.

I’ve got an Aries and despite having a strong and consistent wi fi signal it’s always been unreliable in terms of staying connected to the wi fi network. I had the wi fi module replaced (apparently to a better one) but the issues persist.
I won’t be buying another streamer from this manufacturer for that reason. 

That's too bad.  I always have wifi issues with TV and everything else in the house, lol.  I use an ethernet connection, because my homes wifi sucks (I need to get a new router and am lazy), lol.  That's for a streamer though and I'm all set there.  I have spoken to a couple of long time dealers and they said their newest stuff is amazing and built well.  Neither have had issues with the Vega G2 DAC's (I'm only interested in the G2.1)

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.

My Aries Mini did fine with wifi almost never a dropout now it's hardwired and even more rock solid.

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 ….

@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?

@pabs85 

 

Exactly.