OPPO 205 vs Aurender N200

I would just get a high power Mac Mini and use the Oppo as a USB DAC.
The Oppo's DACs are really quite excellent. A full fledge computer can take you anywhere. Put a big hard drive on it and store Hi Res Files and your entire CD collection. Takes up a lot less space! You need to have a drive to play discs and the Oppo is excellent at it. You can spend a lot more and do worse! The power of intelligent design. Too bad they left the market. 

Without a doubt the Aurender will provide a huge jump up in performance. It is all too easy to think the streamer doesn’t matter, it does. Just like the turntable, cartridge ion the analog side.

I used misc devices for streaming for years, PCs, laptops, iPads… then my first inexpensive Aurender boosted my whole system to a new level. I then rapidly upgraded my streamer on my main system until I am now running their flagship WE20se. Digital is now as satisfying as my analog end and what I use 95% of the time. Aurender make incredible streamers… highly recommended.


If you had told me I would spend $22K on a streamer four years ago I would tell you you were crazy. Listening to this streamer for 30 seconds I went from being apprehensive about making a wild extravagant expenditure to feeling it was a really good deal. The same happened with the $3K streamer, and $5K streamer.

I have a 203 and a 105.  Both will play files from HD on the network .  Control is by using the network function of the Oppo and using the monitor connected to the Oppo with the Oppo remote.  I haven’t tried adding a streaming service to the Oppos but there are some apps for a few.  I have Bluesound Node2s in the same system and resort to the Oppos when the Nodes aren’t playing nice

I suggest that a RasPi with piCorePlayer and a Gustard X18 will sound better and be more player friiendly than anything through that Oppo. If you’re afraid of a little work get a Magna Mano and go i2s to the Gustard.

As @fuzztone pointed out, get a better DAC if you’re considering N200. 

Which setup would you suggest?

If you spending ip on the N200 get a better DAC.
Or don’t.
It really depends how you want to stream what.
The Oppo has no player app.
The Aurrender does.