Music Server Advice

cfa88,

 Well out of my price range! But I appreciate the link.

Not "Roon Ready" yet. This is a feature coming in the near future if I understand it correctly. However, you can use Roon via Airplay. I'm getting used to the App and it's not too bad....a moderate learning curve. but I'm quite happy with its performance so far and I find myself not missing Roon as much as I thought I would.

I use Roon to explore "new to me" jazz artists, usually from Europe. If I like it I'll search to see if it's on vinyl and if so I purchase it. (Discogs, Bandcamp, etc.) You'd be surprised how much music is actually available on vinyl, but not sold/marketed in the US. I don't download music at all. I can still use Roon for that purpose. You're correct about my viny rig. It's anchored by an Ortofon MC Diamond and sounds simply amazing and is my preference. But I also like digital and want it to sound as good as I can afford, thus my reason for reaching out to the AGon community. 

I agree with you jaybe that the N10 sounds much better than my present setup. However, I do a lot of exploring on Roon to find vinyl releases and it is critical that I keep this function. I'm considering keeping Roon through another pseudo-system and using that for the same "discovery" purpose, exporting the list to Excel and searching/auditioning/listening using the Aurender app. Thx for your reply.

I'll add that the vinyl versions do not always sound better than the digital stream! As I acquire more vinyl it's appearing as if more record labels are capitalizing on the resurgence of vinyl and releasing vinyl just for the sake of releasing vinyl with little regard for sound quality. There are streams I'm listening to with my current setup that are truly wonderful sounding and prefer over the vinyl counterpart.

You are correct about the Pulse. I fed it with the Nuc as Roon Core. I feed the D-05x directly from the NUC via USB. The D-05x is a Roon endpoint. 

My nomenclature may be in error but functionally the Nuc feeds the D-05x via USB. I wanted to do away with using the NUC and thought that the Pulse would do that.  I quickly found out during setup that I still needed the NUC. (I know about Innuos other offerings, but I don't need or want a CD ripper.) I  knew the Aurender wasn't Roon so I tried the Aurender App and felt paralyzed by the learning curve. However, it sounded very good. So now after having both the Pusle (didn't like the sound) and the Aurender N10, I'm willing to part with using Roon as my primary interface and delve into Aurender's app. My strategy has evolved to using Roon just to discover new music and use Aurender, or other software related to another device for my primary digital listening. I also inquired about the N200 and other streamer suggestions.

dinov, I choose the D-05x over, at the time, N-05 because of the higher DSD rate and other improvements. I also use fiber opt tx/rx ethernet connection.

Adasdad,

The Esoteric D-05x is the best I can afford @ $8K, So I'm looking for a comparable music streamer to pair with it. 

test

Got from a few Aurender dealers. (Not sure they want to be published at this time.) Reach out to your Aurender dealer for more on this. Just sharing in the thread that I started. My hesitation with Aurender was the lack of Roon integration. Once I got "the word," pulling the trigger was an easy decision.  My info revealed that the new intel chip made this possible and more than likely won't be retro to older Aurender products. But no definite confirmation of the last point.

Thanks to everyone for their gracious input. Once I got word that Aurender will include Roon integration as an option in a few months, I decided on the N200.

It's my understanding that their AMD CPUs were the limiting factor. They now use Intels. Also, I use Roon strictly for the interface. I use none of the upsampling, DSP, or EQ options. I let my DAC take care of that if I find the need.

Received my N200 this afternoon. I haven't listened yet, waiting for the transfer of files from NAS to internal SSD. I installed 8TB QVO. (Transfering @3TB...an overnight task.) Setup has been easy so far. Impressively solid unit. A great match with my Esoteric components. 

...and I don't use Airplay, so this feature is meaningless to me....

I had an absolutely wonderful weekend listening to music. The N200 has surpassed my expectations and has allowed me to enjoy classical/orchestral music for hours on end. In fact, practically the entire weekend was spent listening to my favorite composers! I found myself not fiddling with apps and listening to works in their entirety...with a big grin on my face. I didn't even miss the turntable (Hope not to anger the analog gods!) To me, this is what it's all about..the music! I can only imagine what The Grimms and Playback Designs of the world bring to the table. But this is rabbit hole I'm not going down...at least not yet!