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Aurender's "Sound"

Just picked up an Aurender N100H. Great unit. However it's a bit on the warm and dark side, which doesn't sit well with my Pass class A amp. It's like a double whammy of warmth. Great for vocals, but hard to rock out on. But I like the unit and am trying to keep it.

Would love it if I could find a simple way to address this, like with a different USB cable to lighten things up a bit. 

If it comes to it, I might give up the Pass for something more neutral, as nice as this amp is it's not the best for music on the more lively side, or rock. (My tastes and opinions.) Even considering a class D amp like Nord, which is pretty much dead neutral which could peel back some of that warmth and darkness.

So is this a digital question, amp question or cable question? Yes to all.

Has anybody else encountered this double whammy of warmth, and what was the fix. Thanks all.
jaybe

Showing 4 responses by jaybe

jaybe OP
786 posts
 
My AR pre takes 6H30Ps so not any room for tube rolling
jaybe OP
786 posts
 
I appreciate the responses folks. A bit more info.
The Aurender replaces a high quality home-built server with all sorts of internal "audiophile" parts, linear power supplies etc and ran JRiver, AO and Fidelizer. No other changes. I would characterize its sound as neutral.
The DAC is an Auralic Vega which is pretty neutral as well. It has 4 filters. I just played with those but not much difference.
Cabling is from different sources but all are in the $300-$700 range not counting the Audience speaker cables. Most of the cabling is fairly neutral as well. 
Aurender recommends 100-150 hours break in. I'm at less than 50 but I don't think the entire character of the Aurender will change during break in. But we'll see.
The amp is on the bottom shelf of a non-"audiophile" rack, in fact its a wide Sanus unit meant more for a home theatre. So, MDF shelves most likely. When I got this amp I plunked it on the shelf and there it has been sitting for 5 years. Now I'm wondering if the amp's placement and the lack of isolation devices has been contributing to the somewhat warmer/darker sound Pass is known for, and adding a new device with similar sound qualities just exacerbates that sound. I don't have much in the way of isolation stuff- Black Diamond cones, Golden Sound DH cones and squares, various Herbie's junk. Not sure if any of these might help tighten up the amp sound.
Short of other ideas I'll let the Aurender break in and go from there. I would consider swapping in a more neutral amp as well if the isolation doesn't help.

jaybe OP
786 posts
 
Agree burn-in has to happen. Still ongoing. Hopefully make a difference. Going to play with cables as well. Thanks everyone.
jaybe OP
786 posts
 
ATC speakers, neutral and revealing as can be. I regularly use Caig Deoxit products.

Isolation devices helped out a bit and have better ones on order. Got some USB cables on the way as well.

After about 125 hours either the server is changing for the better, or I am. Or both. It's getting interesting.
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