New streamer needed

You know that’s a good point. When i had it I don’t think they offered android version. Worth checking it out though. It’s been few years without Auralic for me and I can’t tell you for sure. 

@stievus if you can stretch it, there are few used Aurender N10 streamers on US Audiomart. 
Another option is Lumin U1 (not the mini). But the UI(user interface) of the Aurender app is significantly more user friendly. 

I’m not sure about N100. Not familiar with Accuphase or Merason either.
It took Aurender N200 in my system to level the playing field. 

I would try the N100 then if the price is right.

CDs when played back on a top notch player or a transport fed into a good dac sound really good. As a matter of fact trying a very modest transport, Audiolab 6000CDT, into my Bricasti M3 DAC was the driving factor for my streamer upgrade. I just couldn’t stand listening to the built in network renderer Roon endpoint. One of the biggest differences was how articulate and engaging the CDs were. Yes there are potentially different masters on Qobuz and not necessarily the same as the CD and you can hear it in the mix but the emotional engagement aspect wasn’t comparable no matter how many songs/albums from Qobuz and Tidal I compared to CDs.

Don’t you love it when you ask for advice and you get a response claiming that you’re pretty much delusional because what you hear, none of that is real, it’s all in your head. The details, transparency and depth is all confirmation bias. Or your dac is not entirely immune to jitter. Or it is both confirmation bias and your dac sucks.

In your case the Accuphase machine is top notch. It’s going to be an uphill battle for the lesser streamers to reach or beat the baseline set by the DP-67.
Stay the course. Don’t let any of this sway you away from trying a good streamer. It might take some more time and a bit more funds to get to that level but once you do, you will probably never play another CD again unless it’s a rare album not available on streaming services (you can also rip those to a nice SSD and enjoy playing those local files thru your streamer)

As I replied in my earlier post…Aurender N10, Lumin u1 are definitely worth looking into. I’ll add the Aurender N200 and Lumin U2.
My preference would be the Aurender because of better build quality as well as better UI. I honestly don’t think the lower model Aurender N100 will get you where you want to be although it might be relatively close.

As to budget…you’re probably looking at a price range of $3,000 - $4,000 on a used market and $5,000 - $6,000 new. 

@mdalton I respond honestly based on my own experience. There’s nothing ad hominem about my response at all.
I disagree with your theory and your endless confirmation bias propaganda and you can’t get over it.

Nothing for me to dial back here buddy. If you don’t like my posts, don’t read ‘em

 

mdalton

225 posts

03-02-2024 at 04:51pm

@stievus

I swear, this is the last time I’m going to ask;

who posts something like this? Pathetic.

doesn’t matter what he was using. CD beat it and he’s looking to match the quality of CD playback. 

@riccitone ​​​​@romanesq you guys are highjacking the thread

@mdalton well the way you react to what I post is your confirmation bias. 
@stievus a good way to look at it is everything has to more or less be on the level. What I mean is the quality of your transport has to at least match the quality of your DAC. There are products that punch above their price point but I’d say it’s not very common. Look at different streamer designs and what they’re optimized for. It’s important to understand that and how it might impact your digital front end performance, the synergy a particular streamer would have with your DAC.
In the case of Aurender N100, N150 and N200, Lumin U1 or U2…these are more USB optimized. The Aurender N10 and N20 have USB optimization but also feature a top notch OXCO clock for the SPDIF out. That gives you great performance if your DAC is geared more towards SPDIF signal processing.
If you have a DAC with a great USB section, you’d go for the N100, N150, N200 or any of the Lumin units. But that’s not to say the performance of the USB optimized streamer such as N200 is bad via SPDIF out. Trying it is the only way to know. 
Another aspect of it is power supplies. Linear power supplies in digital is almost always better than the switch mode type as the latter will pollute right back into the AC line potentially impacting other components in your system. 
Hope this helps. Take your time with your research and if possible audition streamers before buying. Good luck. 

@riccitone

Didn’t mean to offend you. I think switches are just a different topic. This turned out to be kind of like when someone farts in a full elevator and the person who asks who farted is the rude one. I get it. Lol

@riccitone figured adding some humor would help 😜

All good dude. Enjoy the rest of your weekend! 

@benanders that’s a solid advice! I did this as well. For the comparison I used dbpoweramp to rip to uncompressed FLAC. The software is free if you use just the basic features. CD rom drive is a $40 LG external unit. Nothing fancy. 

@benanders LMAO. I’d love to compare the two files though - one ripped with my $40 LG and another with that high end drive. But I won’t be buying it to do it because I’m pretty sure it would be exact same 💩 as my $40 drive and I would have to return the fancy burner. And that would be unethical. 

Do you think Stevie Wonder can tell the difference between roland and a yamaha? Or is he full o’ 💩?

We’re highjacking the thread now and I don’t want to be hypocritical. So my apologies to the OP…

@stievus I use EERO mesh network throughout the house. One access point is close to the equipment rack. Ethernet cable is Purist Audio 🐈‍⬛ 7.

I have 400mps service and the EERO sees about 200-260mps. More than enough to stream high resolution files. I never had a problem.

Probably not. What’s the speed on wifi you’re getting there?

Assuming the speed coming in is much higher than this?

Get a mesh network. It’s inexpensive. Check EERO on amazon. 
You will improve your internet coverage throughout the living space and you can place one node in close enough proximity to your audio rack that you can either go wifi or wired. Keep in mind that wifi implementation in the streamer will possibly matter. It’s essentially another source of noise. But…the Auralic Aries G1 that I had few years ago sounded slightly better using wifi. Auralic pays special attention to the WiFi implementation though so keep that in mind. 

Yeah 144 is more than enough. You can also get a cheap wifi extender for that room. If Volumeo comes with return policy, definitely try it. 
 

Look into a used Auralic Aries G1. Does wifi, caching, linear power supply. Nice user interface as well. It’s slightly brighter sounding but not to a degree to become offensive. Within the right system and paired with a good dac it will be very good.
Being the older model, I think you should be able to pick it up at a reasonable price. Auralic is highly regarded. 
 

https://us.auralic.com/blogs/news/aries-g1-review-by-positive-feedback
 

Just checked hifi shark for Netherlands…plenty for sale…

https://www.hifishark.com/search?q=auralic+g1

not sure how reliable the site and the seller, but here it is at €1,499

https://www.marktplaats.nl/v/audio-tv-en-foto/mediaspelers/m2087510874-auralic-aries-g1

@stievus was hoping they would have bridged that gap with android support by now.
As to the differences…I don’t know how it’s different from other wifi streamers. Auralic offers an overview of the design and their approach to wifi related noise on their website. To answer the question whether or not it sounds better than other WiFi streamers you have on your radar or matches the sound quality of your cd player, only you can determine that. Unfortunately until you have it in your system you won’t know.

And for DSD…if you don’t have a large collection of DSD files, I wouldn’t worry about it. Over 90% of your listening will be streaming from Qobuz or Tidal. 

Ok so DSD isn’t a requirement. But the main requirement stays which is you’re looking for a streamer that matches your cd player in sound quality. 
So my take on this is, buy new with return policy and try. You can start with the cheaper streamers at the bottom of your price range. If you’re satisfied with performance, you’re good!

Another option is to bring your cd player with your few favorite reference cds to a dealer that would let you compare in the store. That also means you will be evaluating it in a system you’re not familiar with but it may be a better option than blind buying anything. They might also give you a demo unit to take home for a day or two, who knows. 
Or like you said, buy used at a good price and sell if you don’t like it.