Music Server Advice

@communique1

If you don’t wanna give up on ROON then consider the alternative from CAD’s CAT, Grimm Audio - MU1 and one of many Wolf Audio offerings. I was at AXPONA recently and I got to hear all the server/streamers from the top names, including EVO432, Auralic (full stack with clock) Innuos Statement and Aurender N30SA.

The app interface is an important part of the streaming experience. I have been an Aurender user for 10plus years, it is the only brand I found to be well balanced and consistent in all areas, i.e. sound, build and robust app. The Conductor app takes little getting used to and it is certainly not as fancy as ROON but more importantly it does not do any manipulation of your digital bitstream. Their focus always been an optimized audio performance over a fancy app interface like ROON that consistently manipulates incoming bitstream and compromised performance.

I am also a lifetime ROON subscriber but stream through Aurender 99.9% of the time. Once you done messing around with ROON, consider a Aurender N200 or N20 and call it a day :-) 

I casually mentioned Computer Audio Design’s CAT in my last post. This is a relatively new product that doesn’t get lot of press here. If you mind extra boxes and added cost, CAT server is worth check out with an external power supply and one of the CAD grounding module. 
https://www.computeraudiodesign.com/cad-cat/

@communique1 

Good call, enjoy your N200! 

“Would the top Aurender best the Grimm as both Server and Streamer?”
@fastfreight 

After listening to MU1, I can say MU1 is not in the same league as N20 and N30SA. 

The N20 clearly excels in terms of low frequency extension and slam. Based on my listening impressions, the N20 a step or two above in terms of transparency and coherency. The MU1 is good but for me, N20 offers lot more and one may prefer over another based on downstream DAC and personal taste of the sonic signature in the context of rest of the system.

@fastfreight 

Time will tell how Roon implementation will sound compared to Conductor app. Based on my interactions with Aurender chief designer, they will try to keep the signal as faithful as possible to original bits. That’s been a hallmark of Conductor app. As far as W20SE vs N30SA, it’s a matter of personal preference. I do plan on comparing the W20SE vs N30SA in a month or so and keep what sounds best to my ears. Both streamers will be slaved through my Merging 10MHz master clock. 

“with the N30SA having a 10MHz Rubidium clock,”

@blisshifi

I don’t think this is true. N30SA uses a high quality OCXO internal clock.

To answer your question about oversampling, I am not a fan. I prefer my digital bits in their native resolution. To my ears, oversampled files sounds artificial and adds unnecessary distortion. Each time I tried over sampling, the results have been inconsistent. My DAC allows me to stream upto DSD256 over Ethernet and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

There are always going to be those who prefer upsampling based on their setup and personal preferences. I rather pay for a native high resolution file then fiddle with on the fly upsampling 😊

@blisshifi

No worries. Now, it wouldn’t have been nice to get an upgraded clock module in N30SA then just the aforementioned upgrades with two chassis. From what I can tell, you get the same PCB board & clock as in N20. I wish I didn’t have to choose between N30SA and W20SE. My ultimate setup, W20SE for DK and Norah and N30SA for Stevie Ray Vaughan 🤣