Aurender N200

Yes, done for a while , one last piece to the puzzle and I have my desert island system.   

I sold off about $5000 worth of stuff not being used., or more   Have a few thousand in stuff to sell so it will take the sting out of it.  Shame to not use it. They went to good homes 

I had enough stuff for a nice second system but it didn't make sense and I turned it into the Aurender and the Toolshed Line stage I'm having built now 

Yes, it's strange but hopefully it won't reappear.   It was super annoying,   which was really annoying because it sounds so good.    Gremlins.....

I copied some songs on HDD to  the 4 TB SSD I installed and it was easy.  I scanned the drive and it got most of the artwork and titles .  It actually did a pretty good job considering there were several formats.    I am loving this thing more the more I use it.  

Thanks for the reply.  I think I'm going to pull the trigger.    I have the rest of my system well sorted out.   The source is so important,  I think it's time .   I can still rip CDs with the Vault and move the files so with the amount of CDs I buy or copy its minimal hassle.   

Hi thanks all for reaching out.  I’m actually trading  an item toward it.   Going to do a little more homework but I think it’s a good fit for my system and any DAC I have now and might have in the future. 

I pulled the trigger on a Aurender N200 ,  thanks to Mario at The Music Room for putting it together for me .    

Well the.Bluesound, while very good is far from perfect.  I have often questioned what is going on in the digital domain with my Vault 2i with respect to volume and at what position is it truncated.   I lose the app often, I have to close all apps and restart occasionally.   Sort of a first world problem.   I’ll use the Vault still 
 

The Aurender should have a much better output through its digital outs.  
 

I actually sent a product to TMR to sell.  I didn’t need another product in that category as I am having one built.   I asked about streamers and Mario offered me a generous trade in on my unit and the out of pocket wasn’t much so for me it was an easy choice.   
 

Since I mostly stream I thought this would be a good solution and be a clean stable signal to my DACs 
 

That’s good to hear.  I like the fact that it has bays that the end user can install SSD s in.   I’m sure I will have to get one and move my music there.   The  Vault  is a great way to get into streaming but I’m hoping this is  a much better device all around.   

Thanks , it's shipping tomorrow.... can't wait to put it in .   Nice feature is the 2.5 drive bays .  I'm picking up a drive for it this weekend .

I have been waiting for streamers to mature and really be a high quality source for a while….  I figured how much longer am I going to wait?  My system has has a major renovation and it’s worthy of a great source .

All of these devices have their pros and cons   I like the two box approach and hope this will be a great front end    

Thanks Charles.   I have been holding off for too long.   I sold the Zesto to fund the Toolshed Preamp.   The Music Room gave me such a good deal I couldn't pass it up, I traded the Zesto plus some cash on the Aurender.   My sale of some displaced products will fund the Toolshed 101d preamp.    It worked out good .

I'm doing my system sort of in reverse order.   My Forte IV are great,  but I want to really have my electronics sorted out before I replace those.  Most likely with LaScala or who knows maybe Volti Vittori or something along those lines 

Those Forte are very good , they sound better with each improvement upstream so until they cease to impress im going up this path.  

I'm currently set up in a roughly 13 x 15 room. It not very big.  That will hopefully change in near future to a slightly larger space.  

I'm using Forte IV but eventually want a horn loaded bass cabinet like a LaScala or Vittori.    The Forte IV sound really good with the Toolshed , will be even better with the 101d preamp.  

Not sure about single driver designs, I have virtually no experience with them  I did hear Charney speakers a while back but it was in a conference room type of setting  

The Preamp and Aurender  will be my last purchase for a while.   I totally went off the rails this year buying, trading and selling  stuff.    

I am confidentt it will be.   Now I know what to expect from Toolshed .   The amp exceeded my expectations for sound quality and obviously build quality.   It's a special piece for sure.    

Actually the input sensitivity is about 2.4 v.    Seems like my last preamp with 12dB put the volume in the sweet spot for average to a little above average listening.  Im guessing the gain will be around the same.   Not quite sure but it won't be like my former CJ which was I think 27 dB which was ridiculous.   At 9 o'clock it was cranking with most amps

Thanks again Charles .   Kids are adults ,  bills are low right now for me,  work pays for car and everything associated with it plus phone.    Hearing is still good,  now is the time to do it !   Never been a better time actually. 

I'm hoping the Aurender will be a slick interface and hub of my Digital universe.   I'm definitely going to take full advantage of storing all of my music on it.   The sole fact that it is a casching memory player is what drew me to it.  Many advantages to that .

I am really looking forward to this.  I went from playing PC ripped content on a thumb drive through my OPPO, to the Vault 2i, and finally this.  I have two DACs to  play with , one Non OS with tubes and the other can play DSD.    Being able to store music on the N200 was a major factor in my consideration.    Removable drives are the way to go I think

I should have it Thursday , I'm going  to pick up one of those EVO drives.  Those with the fact that it is a memory player sealed the deal for me .

Missed Fed Ex today.... usually they come a day late at 7pm.....   

My daughter is going to hang out here tomorrow to receive the N200.    She's such a great kid.    She works nights so that's pretty solid of her to do that.  

50/50 Chance I'm going to work Friday.......  

It sounds great , just getting used to the different layout compared to Bluesound.  

It will not achieve digital lock with my Lab 12 via coax on anything 88.kHz or above.   Noise and dropouts,   Works flawlessly via USB , not sure why.   Seems to work fine with RME adi2 via coax so I'm not sure what's going on there, need to troubleshoot further.  

It definitely sounds better , frustrating that it won't work via Coax out.  That is how I wanted to use it with this DAC.    Works fine with Vault with same cable , works fine with RME .  Tried new cable, known good cable.     Only loses lock above 48k with Aurender. 

Hi Juan

I tried setting the delay and no change.   There is digital noise and the unlock light glows dim and the sample freq lights flicker.   Only works via lower sample rates.   Three known good coax , including new d-750.  

Tried the Vault in both coax inputs of DAC works flawlessly 

Works fine via RME coax input.   

Problem only exists with N200 via coax to the Lab 12 DAC

I believe it’s the DAC and not the Aurender.  
 

I reached out to my dealer and they believe there is an update that needs to be done on my DAC    He is going to investigate and get back to me.  It sounds great through either DAC  

It was nice being able to play content on the Vault through the Aurender.  Pretty cool

Build quality seems high on this unit. It is built like a tank.  Real solid 

Yes, super easy.  Just click on NAS and follow prompt.  It found my Vault right away.  I just signed in as guest and I could see all of my songs. It is in  Folder layout but easy to navigate

Yes , it's definitely the DAC's input board.     There is a socketed upgrade that should take care of it.  Waiting to hear back from my dealer .

Still sounds great,via USB so it's not like I can't use it.   

The Aurender does a lot of cool things,  it can assemble a Playlist and pull from multiple drives or streams to reassemble that list.   

I have no doubt they will take care of me.  It's under warranty and it sounds like they have addressed this in new builds.    

Yes.  The Aurender sounds better, absolutely 

It sounded good via USB but via coax with the Aurender as the clock it is markedly better.  More weight , shimmer in the upper registers

I swear I could hear the brass of a cymbal crash’s warble … the deformation or flexing of the cymbals    
 

If you stream a lot, have a great sounding DAC and your system can realize the potential of a really good streamer you should see if your dealer is kind enough to let you take one home to demo .  Further proof everything in the chain makes a difference   Whether things play nice together is a different thing    
 

I’m glad I read into this further and kept along the right troubleshooting path  

I had a hard time believing either was broken    Simple software toggle   

Exactly,  maybe their experience was indifferent for what ever reason but there are a lot of lateral moves in this hobby that can be very flavor of the month club impulse buys.  
 

This obviously was a major upgrade but with 80% of my content streamed or stored on a drive or PC this made sense for me.  It is amazing what it can do, I haven’t even scratched the surface yet.  It is so intelligent,  it is unreal how smart this box is.   It monitors every parameter of its operation 

Many have said the Android version is bad but I went in and allowed permission for it to always run in the background and that made it much more stable. 
 

A must have for me was a screen with Album art and other metadata.   Transport keys are nice to have also.    SPDIF was high on the want list too. 

FYI Aurender Owners. 

It's NOT the DAC after all.  After getting familiar with the Aurender set up and output options I figured out what was going on.   

In the Aurender settings in the Main Square Aurender Tab , displaying  Library there is an antenna or flag shaped Icon. Click and you will see DSD and 24 bit icons

Click and hold and a menu will pop up for each. It will allow you to turn off DSD output and limit to whatever sample rate you need.  For me I turned off 384k and sync problem went away.   

I thought my switching DSD off and limiting 384k sample was my problem but no....

Those settings revert back to default at power off 

TOTAL PILOT ERROR !!!   I was trying to compare USB via Coax with them both plugged in and it was confusing the DAC .   Removed the USB and problem gone.  Plays anything up to 24/192k like it should.   Duh... 

A very worthwhile purchase,  I finally have a digital front end that sounds great with streaming and stored content .   Listening to some 24/192k content and it has never sounded better.     Amazing machine.  

Thanks again to Mario and Dan at The Music Room 

Update. I was not imagining things , the DAC can not cope with more than one active SPDIF input. It has trouble switching between any Redbook and HiRez source across it’s SPDIF bus. Turn one unit off on Coax 1 and the unit on Coax 2 will resume play. It is the input board’s logic or it is not well insulated.

It isn’t broken in the traditional sense , but it is not working properly. No problem if USB from Aurender to DAC and Optical from Bluesound to DAC .

Unfortunately it is a recent build and has the most recent firmware so at this point as really believe it is a hardware limitation.

It’s a great sounding DAC.  That’s the rub…. 

Manufacturer reached out to me and seems intent on helping me 

This N200 is amazing what it can do.   I had some content on a hard drive with some    .wav and .flac files and they have never sounded better.   If ican stop listening and turn it off for a little while I am going to put a  Samsung EVO 4T  SSD in it later.

I just wanted to say how responsive Aurender is with support.    Super fast and helpful.    This was a great purchase.    They are working on an update that should be out soon that will address Android disconnects

Honestly the Vault wasn’t exactly super stable, have to close all programs for the Tab to find the Vault 

Minor issues I can live with in a product category that is always being refined through firmware.  

When a component keeps you up until 1 or 2 am every night it's worth the money....  that's all I can say about the Aurender.   Its amazing what it can do.  Sounds great too.  

Aurender does not support Roon.   

The Aurender pulls your Playlist from wherever they are, it will pull from local drives or Tidal / Qobuz from what it looks like.  

I have used Roon and really don't need it , the Conductor App is easy and fairly intuitive.   I am not adding another subscription,  I have enough thanks 

I demo'd a product a few months ago in a Roon environment and wasn't impressed , and it didn't sound great, ok but not great.   And it should have,  was it the system or the source ? Not sure but I wasn't wowed

Update on problems with signal lock,  I was away for a few days and left the system unplugged.  Returned , powered back up and the problem with signal acquisition was gone.   I really like this DAC, that was a weird and frustrating problem.   Hopefully it is gone for good

I was curious about how Tidal would sound through it.  I had activated the MQA license just because and was curious how it would handle files with it “ON”.   
 

When I play a MQA track into my non MQA DAC it identifies the sample rate as 96k on the DAC but the Aurender says “44.1k MQA “

Any insight into why ?   Does it with higher sample rates too.  Basically reads 2x on the DAC

Thanks all.  I connected another DAC that displays sampling rates and  I see what's happening.    

Aurender made some updates to Conductor 3. It seems completely stable now with Andriod . It looks as if the problem with it losing connection has been solved. Much better.

Aurender just had an update for the N200…. Not sure if it is also for other machines but it’s worth  checking 

I will tell you how good Aurender support is.   Last week I tried checking for updates and got an “Error “ message.   I clicked on the support tab and the next morning I got an email saying that they are working on new firmware.   Last night I got an email from Kelly letting me know the latest firmware is ready..   They are on point over there ! 

I am listening to it right now actually.....  It has been great .  I bought a new turntable a few weeks ago so it took a little nap for awhile.   

I had a few issues with the way the menu was rendered with my Android but they took care of it remotely.   Aurender support is really good.  They respond quickly and you can allow them remote access to roll back firmware, add firmware , tweak,  etc.

Sound quality is excellent.    My Vault 2i sounded good , the N200 is much better as a "transport" for all things digital.  

I can rip songs with the Vault and pull them across the network to the 4tb SSD  I installed.   The built in Radio functions are OK,   I had the opportunity to use the Beta of  "V Radio" and it was much better.   I guess its not ready for prime time but it is supposed to return in Conductor 4 software.  

One thing that I can not stress enough with streamers , especially ones costing this much is the support.   It is crucial to the enjoyment of these devices.   Aurender Support is the best support I have encountered in a device that is software driven. 

Ranks up there with the best service in general I have received from a company 

Nice.   I'm sure you will love it.   There will be a new version of Conductor, not sure if it is an enhancement of "3" but I got the impression it will be a full upgrade 

It's  great machine.   Enjoy

Enjoy !  Great machine