Congradulations on the Aurender. It is a truly high end streamer. If you want to give your analog rig a better run for it’s money it will probably take a different DAC. The streamer is probably capable of getting really really close. .
Aurender N20 Streamer & Holo May DAC vs Analog
A couple of caveats..
1. My retail analog system is 2x $ of my digital.
2. Power cable to phono preamp > to Aurender
3. Analog signal interconnects $$$>$ digital cables.
Analog is much more musical with regards to tonality, airy soundstage with great imaging, detail, impact .. in every way.
Aurender/May DAC USB vs AES/EBU is source dependent and I haven’t figured this out completely, but CD likes AES with upscaling. Most other sources benefit from USB with regards to imaging, airy presentation and detail/tonality. Still early, but, for example, playing “Friday Night In San Francisco” these differences were quite apparent with Qobuz 176/24. I was definitely favoring USB, but Analog was so much more of everything and much more involving. Analog was amazing.
Aurender is major upgrade from iFi Zen Stream with their best power supply and fiber optic Ethernet isolation.
Trial and error seems to be an expensive hobby. Juan @blisshifi texted the same suggestion. |
In my case, my digital chain and analog chain cost me almost the same. Knowing your analog chain and having owned many similar pieces (VPI table and tonearm, MSL cartridge, Audionet phono), it is all very high quality and capable of exceptional reproduction. In my experience, the Holo, while coveted by many in the community, has a very different character - one that I find to side on the more articulate vs the musical and soulful. I tend to categorize it alongside the Tambaqui and DCS Bartok, where many will say it is musical while being articulate, but when compared to other DAC manufacturers like T+A, MSB, Gryphon, EMM, one can hear where the latter brands just have more tonal density, texture, air, and breath and the former brands sound more brittle and dry in comparison. Circling back around, it required me to equal the investment I have in my analog rig to get my digital rig to perform about as well. While you can get much farther with digital with less when you are just starting out, once you’re in the endgame stage, digital becomes equally expensive to achieve similar endgame results that analog can offer. |
@vonhelmholtz One other thing I recall is that you were just resent a new Holo after your last one failed. From what I read in the past, the Holo May requires up to 600 hours of play time to fully burn in. Where do you think you are with the unit timewise? |
Posts like these make me feel great about what I am able to achieve with my well constructed but reasonably priced streamer setup vs. my much more expensive analog one. Both have slightly different presentation but are 100% equally satisfying. Details under my house of stereo system. Actually listening to my CD setup now, just as good too. Enjoy whatever you got! |
To get the best out of the N20 you will need: 1. Get a 10mHz 75 Ohm clock, something like After Dark or Chinese will work, no need to spend $1000s, but a quality 75 Ohm clock cable is essential. 2. Hi-End power cable, $3-5k. For DAC too. 3.Silver USB cable 1.5m 4.Purple Fuse. For DAC too. Concentrate on SSD playback until you get it sounding right before you start messing with streaming. No need to upsample. Switch DOP off if you have DSD files. If you are considering changing your DAC the Terminator 12th Anniversary has a built-in clock output designed for the W20SE but it should work with the N20. Check with Alvin at Denafrips. |
A 10 mHz external clock helps the internal clock be more accurate. It makes a big difference. It is not essential to have a clock input/output on your DAC but the Terminator Anniversary kills two birds with one stone. Silver USB works very well for me but USB cables seem to vary wildly in performance to cost. As @soix said put your best analogue cables on your digital rig and compare. However you need a few months for everything to burn in. |
The Holo springs May KTE is a far better dac in absolute terms but is not a streamer , the Aurender is nice ,they are known much more for their streaming many guys buy a high end dac, then get a good streamer the dac by far is the most important part of the system ,for all music starts there ,Good or bad , the speakers too equally. Important .i have over 40 years as a Audiophile and. Owned a Audio store Spending on a top quality dac the New Denafrips Terminator + 12 th anniversary is a bit better still . |
Would it be blasphemy to say that if you de-couple the streamer's true purpose of delivering a file un-altered to the DAC on the back end that the front end is what matters? For my money ROON does the front-end the best. Now if you can find a streamer with a ROON core, do a blind test where the only thing you change is the streamer, your expensive Aurender streamer or any PC with a ROON client installed, can you actually tell the difference? Theoretically if the streamer is not altering the file's contents the answer should be obvious. So, what do your ears tell you (no cheating on the blind testing)? In the final analysis the source file is what matters the most of all. Try some 384 Khz 32 Bit Floating Point (see DXD specification for details) files out to see what they sound like. On every single system they will improve the sound; better sonics make better sound not streamers.
Cheers |
“if you can find a streamer with a ROON core” There lies your rub @recherche ….so many variables with finding a one box ROON solution without the complexities of a science project or paying top dollars. Streamers from Aurender, Innuos, Lumin and Auralic offers elegant one box solution….those who says they can do it cheaper and make it sound as good as the offerings from aforementioned brands, more power to them. I am not going to get in the way of their double, triple blind test escapades :-) |