FYI RE: Summary of Aurender System Software Release 4.9.39/5.9.39, App Release 2.8.1.1558

Aurender’s newest System Software and App release (available now) includes improvements to displaying Tidal MQA content on the App, the addition of Internet Radio for the U.S., Canada, and Germany, and various other improvements and fixes.  The response from Aurender customer support is below:

"Normally, we (Aurender) post software release notes on our website.  Or you can look at this link for information on the software updates:

http://support.aurender.com/software-release-notes 

You will find links for information and mini user guides within the notes, including adding custom internet radio stations as favorites.   My actual software upgrade took less than five minutes plus the time needed to delete and re-install the Aurender iPad app (maybe less than 2 minutes).

Updating system software always comes with a new App release, so after downloading a new upgrade, the App MUST also be updated. Therefore, the first step in all our manual documentation is to first download the latest version of the Aurender Conductor App before updating the system software.

Note-1:   This means you MUST DELETE the current Aurender Conductor iPad app and download a new one from the App Store (I failed to delete the Aurender iPad app after the install and the new features were missing).

There is no decoding of MQA content with any Aurender music server other than our A10 now, so your DAC must be a certified MQA Full Decoder for MQA playback to be executed properly.

Note-2: My Bricasti M1 SE DAC does not currently support the MQA format.

The internet radio stations all vary quality-wise. Most internet radio streams are 128Kbps at best. We listed 10 Recommended stations based on dealer and end user feedback. As I mentioned, custom internet radio stations can be added by the end user and will appear in Favorites (I suggest you search for Calm Radio since they offer many different types of music for listening).

Masters MQA content from Tidal is filtered under Albums, and there is also a Masters section under Playlists.

We have not had a chance to implement a mail service for Aurender upgrade notifications. It would be something you would need to sign up for through our support site, which is still undergoing a lot of work".

Note-3: After the upgrade, my Tidal sort sequence was changed to date added and I needed to change it back to artist name sequence.  Please press down on the sort field tab and select the sorting option you want.  

Note-4: My friend reports his Audio Research DAC 9 does NOT work with his Aurender N10.  Aurender reports the following:

"Unfortunately, the USB interface on any of the Audio Research products is NOT compatible with Aurender's USB output (meaning it does not work).  We (Aurender) have been in communication with them about this and how to implement compatibility with their USB interface, and now it simply does not work. We are not sure when they plan to address this but as far as we are aware, they are working on it."

Note-5: My friend will contact Audio Research and his retailer for a status update of this issue. 

This is not news to us, or Audio Research, we have been discussing this with them for some time now. It is a compatibility issue on their end, which this review on Computer Audiophile makes very clear:

https://www.computeraudiophile.com/ca/reviews/audio-research-dac-9-review-r644/ ".

I hope the above helps you better understand the new Aurender Software upgrade. I am still working with the new software upgrade and have additional questions for Aurender customer support.  Additional information will be posted when I have the answers.