Why I Sold My Aurender N200
People seemed more interested in why I sold my N200 than wanted to answer my questions in my last post on streaming quality, so here ya go:
I recently sat down with my wife (who has a much better ear for sound quality than I) and we A/B tested back and forth between listening to the N200 and the Bricasti M1 SE II’s network card and heard no difference.
Just before selling the N200 I contacted a very well-known and reputable dealer for his opinion on this. If anyone would know about the sound quality of streaming, he would and I asked what streamer he would recommend. He sells Bricasti, Playback Design, Lumin and Grimm streamers. his response to me was:
"In my humble opinion, there is no need to get a dedicated streamer if you have the network board in the Bricasti"
Most member’s comments are very positive on their N200, maybe you guys have much better ears than us, so please enjoy, but in my case, I sold it and gave the much-needed funds to my daughter who is just about to start her last semester at law school.
End of story.
Hope you all had wonderful Christmas and here’s wishing you all a Happy New Year!
Thank you all for your informative comments and kind words. Some say the more money you throw at it, the better it will sound (especially when it comes to Aurender) but @marco1 says it best: The only way to know is by putting it in your system and listening for yourself. |
@lalitk +1 (sorry, but I wasn't referring to you) |
@rbstehno what streamer did you go with? @audphile1 I have not tried Audirvana vs Roon and may not get to trying that as I have a lot of stuff going on right now, so time to do so at present. If I get a chance, sometime in the future, I will let you know!
LOL re. the honest dealer comment. Just a quick note on this, it’s the same network card in all the Bricasti models so the better sound is obviously related to other/better components in their upper line with the M21 being $10K more than the M3. I have the M1 so $4K short of the M21, it would be cool to try and hear the difference $4K would make. Maybe I can ask my daughter for a loan! |
@bigby
Will this affect the quality of my Purist Audio Design CAT7 Ethernet Cable, making it irrelevant? I guess I would have to purchase another to plug in downstream. Or, would I be better to go with a couple of Fiber Media Converters and a patch cable set up?
I don’t have so much music so if I want to listen to my ripped CDs they are on my Seagate hard drive and I can play them from there.
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@rbstehno I sold my Roon Nucleus but still have some time left on my subscription so the only way to access Roon and Audirvana would be via a computer, which is supposedly a no no. Is this what you suggesting? |
lol, this was the answer that I was looking for on my last post regarding streaming quality. Thank you! And also thank you for clarifying the difference between the M1 and M21, I did not know this. I don't think I will be upgrading any time soon, but if I do, I will most certainly check with Joe. |
I guess these galvanic isolators would make my Purist Audio Design CAT7 Ethernet Cable redundant. @audphile1, you in the market for a second one? @robshaw thanks for chiming in, you should post some pics in your virtual system her on AG. Enjoy your bliss! |
@bigby thank you! |
@audphile1 Thanks for the iFi gizmo tip.I thinkk i'm going to try @bigby's suggestion of using this: Baaske MI1005 It's similar to what @erik_squires recommends: Ethernet Galvanic Isolator which is about the same price as the iFi. The Baaske is $195 on the tech sites but only $45 on the link that bigby offered. Not sure which is better but at $45 I thought I'd give it a shot. I was kinds wondering about this iFi product though: Ethernet Noise Filter |
@audphile1 no, but I sure wish PAD offered a shorter cable than 1 meter! |
@lalitk c'est la vie - I'm only out 50 bucks which is the smallest amount of money that I have ever been out on this audio adventure! |
@erik_squires so Erik, is this item Baaske MI1005 going to provide the protection that you getting from the Everstar or the TrippLite units that you speak of? There is no power through the ethernet connection only data, so I presume the only reason you are using these are a as surge protector, from lighting strikes and the like. Is this correct? I don't think these have anything to do with cleaning up noise or improving SQ. |
@audphile1 I’m no expert on anything, I come here to learn and find things out.
It was on your recommendation I went with the Purist Audio Design CAT7 Ethernet Cable (switch to streamer)
It was on your recommendation I went with Acoustic Zen Satori speaker cables. It was on your recommendation I went with these ethernet cables for the rest of my network: Patch Cables It was on your recommendation I went with the Aurender N200 over the renderer in my DAC. It was on your recommendation I went with the Briscati over my Gustard R26 and to honest with you with all the money spent on these items, I haven’t really heard much improvement over what I had, hence the sale of the N200. Now. I’m considering selling the M1. Probably return the Baaske MI1005 too, at least I will get back what I paid for it and not take the hard hit as did with the N200. Maybe I need to get my ears checked. In the meantime, I think I'm done here. Thank you
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