Clock vs Streamer advice

“I strangely found it more fatiguing for long sessions.”

@zpatenaude37 

While I respect your decision to go with network card option w/Bricasti….the N200 is anything but fatigued sounding. My best guess, you are now used to N100 laid back and slightly recessed sound. Whereas N200 is more dynamic, detailed and has a better much frequency extension and slam. Just my .02 cents. 

@lalik +1

This is an unusual observation. This is just not a characteristic of the Aurender sound. I can only think the fatigue is coming from elsewhere in the system.

@lalitk haha, my brain may have fatigued because I’m not used to such attention to detail

I will admit that I was listening with some bias. The used N1Z is the cheaper option. I was really hoping that I would prefer the N1Z to save some money, so maybe I tried to create a preference for it.

There were several albums where the difference was not notable. But when I listened to Glenn Gould, the Goldberg Variations, the N200 shined above. Then Billie Holiday. Her vocals have always sounded a bit harsh in my system. On the N1Z, it was slightly harsh, but with the N200, it was not. And then Tool’s Chocolate Chip Trip had another dimension on the N200 compared to the N1Z.

@zpatenaude37 if not too late…I’d like to chime in.
I have done a pretty extensive comparison in my system between the Bricasti M3 network card used as a Roon endpoint and the Bricasti M3 used as DAC driven by Aurender N200. To me, the network renderer in the Bricasti does not compete with the N200. This was the case even when I used the N200 with a stock power cord and the included Aurender USB cable.
Few important items to make a note of with the N200 -

1. It requires close to 300hrs of break in to settle. There are times when it will sound “digital” and grainy in the beginning and midway thru. It all starts going away after about 250hrs and by 300hrs it’s awesome

2. The N200 is optimized for USB. Yes the spdif out sounds good but USB is just better in every way. However, even with the spdif out using DH Labs D750 cable I liked it better than using the M3 network card

3. The Aurender is very resolving but not harsh. If your components or cables upstream are tuned to brighten things up, you will hear the brightness imparted by the upstream components.

This streamer is not a small change when added to the system and as any impactful upgrade will require some work to properly integrate. Once done, it’s smooth, tube like and extended with great dynamics. That is how I would describe it. Going back to the Bricasti network card, using the same Ethernet cable I use to feed the Aurender, the soundstage collapses, clarity reduces and the overall presentation just doesn’t match the N200. Not to completely disregard the Bricasti network card, it competed and beat out the Lumin U1 Mini in my system. So it’s not terrible at all. It just doesn’t hold a candle to the N200.

@audphile1 thank you for the input. I may wait and save a bit more for the N200. I have been pretty concerned about spending the $1500 when I can't demo it. And I was not very smart with my demo. The N1Z only has USB, and the N200 dealer let me borrow a $2500 MIT SPDIF cable. It was easy to just switch inputs on the DAC quickly by using just spdif on N200 and USB on N1Z. I didnt even try USB on the N200. 

I also can't stand the Aurender app, but I'll live with it. Every single time I went to pick a new song, it disconnected, so I had to go back and find where I was on the playlist. It was the same bullshit with my N100H. The guy at Goodwins Audio said its the same for him too.