I owned an Aries G2 a few years ago. It was pretty good, but I wanted to have sound quality on par with my vinyl system. Then I found Aurrender, my first Aurrender the N150. I have two Aurrender and have heard the N10, N20, and I own the W20SE. If you can afford it, I recommend the N20. All of these should have much better sound quality than your current streamer. Also over the Grimm. I had one of those in my system for a while. The Grimm sounds very good, but… The Aurrender sounded a bit better, much more solid construction, easier to use and the Conductor App is much better at controlling it. I find Aurrender all around to be an outstanding choice.
Next step up on the streaming food chain?
I’ve been enjoying my Auralic Aries G1 for nearly 3 years now. If I wanted to explore a significant step up in my streaming quality, and not a small incremental increase in quality, what devices should be on my short list? Aries G2.2? Grimm MU1? Something else? The G1 is awfully good, however, I still perceive an extra layer of dimensionality and roundness with my analogs set up (see profile for details) that I would love too achieve in the digital realm. Or am I barking up the wrong tree, and should I focus on my DAC, a Bricasti M1, and try as non-oversampling R2R dac? FWIW, I think the Bricasti is excellent- it was the first DAC I ever heard that made me say- "that sounds terrific" instead of saying "that sounds great for digital"