Aurender Music Server and CD Transport comparison

PS Audio's "newer" model transport the Perfectwave sacd does not use the same Oppo Digital cd drive. Because Oppo Digital stopped producing them. Kind of hard to honor a warranty when the replacement parts no longer exist. The newer transport uses a Phillips drive, a Sound United LLC who bought D+M Group then goes back to Marantz buying Phillips in 2001. 

I "heard" that PS Audio was to release a brand new transport, but for some reason that was put on hold. That sounds strange considering their latest version is only 3 or maybe 4 years old?

I own the "older" version of their transport  with the Oppo drive and from what I've read here I guess I'm very lucky because I've had no problems what so ever. Maybe because I don't use it daily. I used a PS Audio DAC for a few years the DrectStream original DAC not their latest the MK2. For the past 2 years I've been using a Terminator Plus DAC. I was curious about the R2R DACs, so I picked one up. I'd also like to try the Mola Mola DAC from what I've read and heard it's top notch for it's price.

The PerfectWave Transport that I owned used an off-the-shelf computer grade drive. I forgot what brand it was but this information is available on PSA's forum. If you were willing to take the unit apart you could replace the drive with a standard $15 CD drive from Amazon. I don't know if other PSA models used an Oppo drive but the PerfectWave Transport certainly didn't (unless Oppo used an off-the-shelf rotgut computer drive that is not designed to spin music CDs). I may be wrong about this but I'm pretty sure that Oppo didn't make their own drive. There are only a few companies that manufacture CD drives that are designed for playing music. Phillips, Teac, Marantz, and a couple others. Most of the companies making CD players and transports source their drives from one of these manufacturers. The fact that PSA bought the cheapest drive they could find - one that was designed to spin up, read data, and spin down - instead of playing music for hour after hour, is unforgivable..

When PSA would no longer support the unit I decided to replace the drive myself (three drives had failed by then). The procedure was clearly spelled out in a PSA forum thread but it required the use of all-thread screws which you could get from PSA. I wrote an email but got no answer so I called and the guy told me that they no longer supported this model. I told him that I would put a new drive in myself but I needed the all-thread screws. He told me that they no longer had them. I said, "OK, then just tell me the specifications of the screws and I will buy them myself." He refused to even give me the specs on the screws.

Needless to say, I will never purchase anything from PS Audio again. Ever.

Just a follow up to my original post. Those who say upgrade the DAC have no clue what the NAD M2 amplifier is. It is a DAC on steroids. It is purely digital built in collaboration with Diodes Zetex. Since it only sold for one year, I doubt anybody here has actually heard it.

For @2psyop  the Audiogon detective go to my Instagram and look at the photos of my two systems. Satisfied? I had the Herron/Tetra in my condo but took it to my cabin where there is more room and sounds a lot better. The smaller system is now in my condo. I did try the transport in my cabin system but I already have an Audiolab CD player and my Rega RP7 turntable.

In the end I purchased a Primare DD35. I am still on the fence if I like it. The build quality is top notch but the sound is different than my Aurender. It is a little bass heavy that I am not fond of. A/B testing between the CD and a FLAC file is quite noticeable. In hindsight I think I needed to put more money into a transport to better the Aurender. Live and learn.

A lot of you seem to be using products that have Oppo transports. Is it the same drive as used in the Oppo 103/5 203/5 blu-ray players?

If so I highly suggest checking out Oppomod.com as they sell a stabilizer plate mod kit for those drives. The improvement was pretty incredible with disc playback.

It’s a fully cnc machined kit that just bolts onto the top frame of the drive, which usually is easily accessible in most transports.

My experience is that a pretty decent CD player used as a transport only or a CD transport into a really nice DAC outperforms the servers into the same DAC.

I use the Aurender with my music burned onto the internal hard drive, listen to the same music streamed via the Aurender.  not much change at all.  But streamed via Qobuz sounds better.  However, when I use my CD transport into my DAC with the same music, it definitely sounds better.  match levels, play the same music and listen.  There are definitely differences.

Don't get me wrong.  The Aurender streamed into my DAC, sounds great.  The Aurender playing from the hard drive into my DAC ounds great.  The CD transport into my DAC sounds better. Depends on how lazy I am.  However, if I'm really not lazy, turntable into the phono stage sound best.

enjoy