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Aurender

I have a Korean car, watch KDramas and even listen to some KPop, but I don’t get what Aurender is doing.

I’m currently in digital hold given that my new Holo DAC died, but intend on listening to my IFi Zen stream and look at upgrade paths.

Some of the most respected members of this forum swear by Aurender, so it must deliver, but here is my point of confusion:

1. Coax and AES are the preferred outputs, but higher bandwidths require dual AES out, but I don’t have dual in on my DAC.

2. Aurender’s top models claim to have great clocks, so why not pass this on to the DAC via I2s?

3. Top Aurenders accept external clocks and I assume this is used with a DAC that accepts external clocks, but why bother when I2s would take care of this?

4. The argument against I2s is that there isn’t a standard, but this isn’t a problem in most implementations.

I’m sure that I have misrepresented things above, so please correct my understanding.

vonhelmholtz
blisshifi's avatar
blisshifi
1,259 posts
 

@lalitk I don’t think I was misinterpreting, and we are both on the same page. I just don’t think, in Aurender’s product strategy, it makes sense to build on the internal clock, as we know that the power supply demands for it to perform like the MC10 would result in a compromise of performance if implemented into the existing chassis space for the N50. Maybe future innovations will allow for that in future models. I think from a market perspective, you also hit it on the head with your second to last paragraph.

DCS as well is keeping clocks separate. Unfortunately, their flagship Varese is a five chassis digital front end that takes more space than the N50 plus clock, but it does include mono DACs at a total of… get ready for it… $267K! 🤦‍♂️ 
 

 

blisshifi's avatar
blisshifi
1,259 posts
 

That said, I do WISH it were an option in the N50, like you do. :)

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,821 posts
 

“five chassis digital front end”

@blisshifi 

A five-chassis digital front end demands some serious real estate, and unfortunately most people just don’t have that kind of space. I own a three-chassis Merging Technologies digital front end, and even that feels like a challenge whenever I think about adding more pieces to the system. At one point I actually ran a five-chassis (Merging + N30SA) digital setup… lol!

To this day, I have yet to find a server + DAC two-chassis combo that can handily beat Merging’s performance. A high-performance clock paired with a state-of-the-art power supply + optically isolated LAN signal really makes all the difference when it comes to digital streaming.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and indulging me in my little rant 😊 Always enjoy our conversation and exchange of ideas on digital front ends.

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