Aurender n200, talk me out of signing on the dotted line

Great advice and info on this thread.  I obtained the N 200 a few months back and the "coaching" from @lalitk & Juan @blisshifi was spot on.  Happy with this in my system and both Conductor with Qobuz are bullet proof.  Can't wait to see the impressions the OP has once his Aurender arrives. 

@signaforce , sent you a message.

Robert

The n200 became mine yesterday, drop shipped from Korea.  Heavy!  I was stymied after the app and box couldn't find each other, then dropped V4 Conductor and went V3.  Success!  The app is intuitive, no glitches, iPad.  Many 44.1 radio stations and does play our favorite station.  The sound? 

What I’m reading about better streamers is an increase in dimensionality, separation, focus, realism and effortless delivery for a given resolution.

I couldn't have said it better myself.  

Still on the agenda - usb test, cd test, break in.  

How to - find a radio stream url for adding a station.

From app to sound, the Aurender has completely buried the the little U2 mini.  What a relief.  It was a blind purchase.

@wlutke add the below link for the RadioParadise FlAC link with Metadata.

http://stream.radioparadise.com/flacm

mother earth converts vinyl to high res digital

https://motherearth.streamserver24.com/listen/motherearth/motherearth

@wlutke 

Love the outcome and glad to hear you’re happy with your blind buy! 

If you’re going to store music, I highly recommend Samsung’s 870 EVO 2TB 2.5 Inch SATA III Internal SSD (MZ-77E2T0B/AM) from Amazon.  

Tweak away my friend and enjoy the ride! 

@wlutke finally! Congratulations!!! Glad to hear you like it. It’s a great streamer. 
Break in is about 200hrs. 
 

Puzzling issues with v4 though. What version iOS is on your iPad? It nay be because it’s old?

@jbuhl

Thank you! I added them this early morning, 4am now. It was easy. I’ll have a listen later today.

@lalitk

Thanks!

@audphile1

Thanks! The iPad is a sixth gen. Most likely too old.

@tvad

Thanks! N200 is up to date. App Store says V3 is for older iPads so won’t pursue it. Good link.

@wlutke here’s what I’m thinking - all user who’ve reported issues with conductor v4 crashing are users with old iPads and iPhones that run on the iOS that can’t support the v4. What the Aurender tech team can do though is not allow the v4 to be installed on the older devices. Or just don’t open the app if it’s already installed. It’s easy to do and would eliminate a ton of users claiming the Conductor app is horrible because it’s not. It’s actually very decent.

@audphile1 ​@tvad 

Problem solved.  Reinstalled again today, V4 now easily connects.  

Awesome! Enjoy! 

@tvad

Sure. I reinstalled the V4 app again. I had reinstalled it twice on day one with repeated no connects. Each time it asked for the device address shown in the n200 display. I entered the address and got a message something like "that is not the aurender address" V3 immediately connected. V4 reinstalled still would not.

Today V4 immediately connected. I shut the n200 down a few times, closed and reopened the app a few times, looked around in the app. V4 seems normal and stable.

Now listening on Spotify.  This thing is amazing!

I just did. Call me crazy but things got relaxed and natural. Unstrained.

Oh yeah the Critical Listening Mode is legit. I hate glowing displays to begin with (except for the gentle blue glow of my Pass X260.8 monos all displays are turned off) but hearing a nice improvement when you switch the Aurender into CLM is an added bonus.

wlutke OP

694 posts

04-11-2024 at 05:24pm 

…  This thing is amazing!

yep 😂

Have you looked at the Eversolo DMP8?

 1/3 the price.

@maholl50

Thanks for the suggestion.

This is the first I’ve heard of Eversolo.  Looking at the DMP-A8’s versatility and style, for the money how can I not be impressed?  Well appointed and well presented.  BUT I’m going to defer to the skeptic in me and ask can a wifi, Bluetooth, pre amp, streamer, DAC under $2k perform at the level of the rest of my system?   It would be too good to be true, as the saying goes.  I think of the A8 as more of a start point than an end point.  No, I haven’t heard one and I hope I won’t have to eat my words.  Not too worried though.  The N200 is impressive for the money as well!

I reopened my Tidal account.  Sinead O’Connor has been in my head for a week and I think I may have exorcised her because she was definitely outside my head, in the room, and belting out how nothing compares to me.  Great!

Not to hijack this thread, but as a current (satisfied) owner of an N150 I'm wondering what replacing it with an N200 would provide. 

@wlutke I’m still amazed with the difference the N200 made in my system so I can your excitement 😊

@mediaferret have you emailed Aurender about the differences between the two units? It also depends on the rest of your system how much of an improvement the N200 be over the N150. Probably a good idea to start a new thread to get some more visibility and more thoughts from the N200 owners who moved up from n150.

@audphile1  Good points, thanks. I haven’t inquired with Aurender yet.

@audphile1

It’s been leaps and bounds. The WW Starlight 8 spdif and the Nordost H2 AES were a bad match for the U2 mini and AM DAC 4. The Silver Starlight 8 just plain worked. Then Aurender arrived. Then Tidal. My digital game has finally landed. It’s exciting.

How does the USB compare to SPDIF?

I also wanted to mention that Qobuz sounds slightly better in my system than Tidal. I use both though as Tidal has some albums that aren’t available on Qobuz.

Don't know yet.  So much, so new, so fast.  Still catching up.    

👍

@audphile1

I sit here evaluating usb vs spdif. I give the usb a big thumbs up on performance. cleaner, clearer, quieter. Bottom is tighter, midrange is good, top is good but too aggressive. My vinyl is fine so maybe the cable or break in? Possibly a tube? I’ll stick with spdif and let things settle for now. It’s non fatiguing and fun.

@tvad

Thank you. I have an Amperex PQ I think is a white label somewhere in a box of tubes. Certainly worth a try. If not I ‘ll try Brent Jesse. Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. Or I should say the simplest solutions are always the best!  Aurender says they have optimized the usb out on the n200 and downgraded the spdif clock to save on cost.  

I believe mine is a 6922. What shape it’s in is questionable. We shall see. If a no go then maybe a Mullard.  BTW big thanks again for the help.

@wlutke in addition to the points @tvad is making wrt tubes, realize that the USB cable needs break in, the USB out on the N200 needs some run in time and the USB in your DAC was never used. I would switch to USB and let it run overnight while you’re not listening on repeat. SPDIF sounds smoother but it’s not as dynamic and not as open. Soundstage with USB is notably better. Just give it time. As @tvad mentioned the N200 is optimized for USB out. 

@tvad the answer is the clock. N20 and up use high quality OXCO clock for SPDIF. The n200 clock is nit on the same level. The USB out on the N200 is isolated and as long as your DAC clock is up to the task, USB is the way to go…with N150 and N200. 

I should clarify SPDIF sounds smoother, but USB does not sound harsher. The smoothness with SPDIF is really rounding off the edges and reducing precision. Not a bad thing in some systems but it restricts the N200. 

@mediaferret the biggest difference between the N150 and the N200 is a blacker, lower noise floor and a wider/deeper soundstage. Depending on your DAC and the overall resolution of your system, I’ve found the improvements can be minimal to substantial. While the N200 improves upon the N150 from a fidelity perspective, the bigger jump is to the N20, which adds a good amount of harmonics and tonal richness beyond both the N150 and N200. That said, N20 is a big investment and should be made by those who are confident that their systems will be able to properly render everything it is capable of. 

@blisshifi This is useful, thank you. 

I’m loving my N200! I signed on the dotted line and 37 hours later DHL dropped it off on my doorstep!  South Korea-Indianapolis-customs-Missouri-my doorstep in 37 hours.  I was blown away!

Oh and I had no problems in installing on two phones and two pads. I’m using my NAS and Qobuz.

All the best.

Next day:

The n200 and DAC ran on repeat overnight. Still hot so I dug up a few Amperex:

1 Orange label PQ etch 436

2 Orange globe 7308 etch 100 and 728

2 7308 JAN Orange globe etch 714 723

1 6dj8 Bugle Boy Holland etch GA40L1

also has 6433 inked on glass

Insight anyone? White label PQ they’re not.

Thanks

@wlutke takes 200hrs to run the N200 in. It did go thru a rough patch at some point but eventually settled. 
For tubes why not try EH or Gold Lion? The NOS stuff is hit or miss. Been there, done that. 

@wlutke after the break in I would look into trying different cables. What’s connecting the AM DAC to the Pass amp? What speaker cables and power cords are you using?

@wlutke

After cabling…I would dive into grounding and fuse. I finally got my Aurender fully broken-in and going to replace the fuse tomorrow. My reference for all things digital is HiFi Tuning Supreme Cu.

https://www.vhaudio.com/hifi-tuning-supreme-cu.html