Macbook Pro to Aurender

Oh and yes, my dealer had a person to help set it up. I would only recommend purchasing from a dealer who has a computer person who can help set it up. Unfortunately, I found out that that can be pretty rare. 

mribob, I rip cd's with an iMac into a synology NAS with dbpoweramp. Very simple and easy. I then use the Aurender media manager to populate the data so I can see it with my iPad. On purchased high resolution downloads I download them into the Aurender itself. I have the N100H but instead of a 2TB HD I had them install a 1TB Samsung Pro SSD. I have about 150 downloads on it from 48/24 up to dual DSD ( most 96/24 and 192/24 ) and it is using about 1/4 of the 1TB at this time. My NAS is a synology Slim414 with dual 2TB samsung HD and I use it for CD's that I own. I do not back up my CD's yet as I have them if there is a fail and to be honest, with Tidal sounding as good as it does I rarely need to rip a CD to listen to what I want. On my high resolution downloads there is a copy on my iMac, I back up to a separate 1TB portable drive and there is a drive on the Aurender, so 3 copies. I also listen to SACD and CD with the MSB UMT V transport I have so I do purchase SACD's and the occasional CD of material that is not available elsewhere. 

Dave:
Glad you are enjoying your Aurender for a music server...do you have a NAS, or RAID interfaced for music back up? What do you use for back up? Did you dealer help with install and configuration? Was it easy to import your old JRiver library, with album art, etc? How do you rip and import a CD into  the AUrender's library? Do you miss access to a big monitor screen to see what you are doing?
Thanks,
Bob

You need to check out the Soundscience Music Vault Diamond. I'm not affilated in any way just a satisied customer

Well, a follow up. Aurender custom installed a samsung 1TB 850 Pro SSd into an N100H and my dealer set it all up. It is working great and I think that it actually is a sonic upgrade from my Macbook pro. It sure is easier to use. Tidal is definitely better and I listen to it a lot now. Very happy and Aurender provided great support as I was getting all dialed in.

Tried the Aurender. Some nice things, others not so great. Lack of ability to easily get Meta Data for ripped CD's was kind of the deal breaker. Very nice build etc but it all came down to that realization that it is really a computer in audiophile clothes but does not do some of the things my Mac Pro does. Probably does some better but I think it would be more of a lateral move at this point. My concern with the Mac Pro is long term storage of audio files but the same concerns of Hard Drive failure will be the same with the aurender, my mac has SSD hard drive. So, I think I am going to try an Elgato Thunderbolt SSD for my high res file and the mac Pro ssd for the red book.

Well, I am demoing an Aurender N100 now. Several hours for my music to transfer but Tidal came up easy as pie and sounds great without any problems so far. Simple, really great build quality. So far so good.

The way I put this to clients is whether they need any of the more "esoteric" functionality of JRiver such as multi-channel or room correction. If not, and they are just looking for a music server, then the Aurender is great, and a lot lower maintenance overhead, plus an easy way to ensure you always have a physically separate backup of your computer files (rip on computer, drag and drop to Aurender).

Thanks for the reply's. I am going to demo the N100H in the next few weeks and see what I think.

I also used to have a MacBook Pro as my source and also moved onto a server. I ended up with the Salk server and have been very pleased with the improvement in sonics and ease of use. I've never heard the Aurender or Antipodes, but would love it if someone did a shoot out with all three.

I have an Aurender N100H.. I think you'll be very happy.