Another one (server) bites the dust!

I saw Aurender in April at Axpona. They displayed the whole line with tops off.

Builds look impressive. Are they Roon Ready? Maybe you don't care.

I have used an Innuos Zen 3 for a couple years and like it. Streams, Rips, stores.

Under $3k. No DAC. 

@budburma 

It's a nice match for my pure Class A amp and Harbeth speakers, which is clearly a warm setup. Never gets muddy nor too sharp, always clear and warm to me. But both Aurenders are very dependent on the sound of the DAC you have or choose. Personally, at the time I put the money saved from not buying the N10 into a higher end DAC. I think the prices are closer now. No regrets. Hope this helps a bit more.

@deadhead1000 Thanks for that. It makes sense. RIght now, used prices have flipped the N10 a little cheaper, but pretty much a wash. I imagine either would sound great. The upgrades for quietude on the power side of the N200 are pretty attractive, too. So it comes down to features in large part. Class A and Harbeth. Nice.

@jeffseight I looked a lot at Innuous and it reads like a piece of gear I'd like. USB only out and a shortage of internal storage put me off. Funny how priorities change - I've been from an "anything for better sound" listener with boxes, cables, isolation devices, wires and tubes all over the place to a "less boxes and wires, dammit" paucity of equipment consumer.

In the end, The anything for better sound with some efficiencies became the middle path. It's true that the Aurender N series doesn't offer ripping and that's a drawback for me - I still get CD's as gifts/promos/etc (but it's more and more rare) and an all-in-one is attractive....BUT more boxes in the signal path (e.g. USB to spdif reclocker/LPS/wires etc) makes me wince and gives my obsessive nature to recable and tweak an awful lot of fertile ground to take root. I guess it could also be seen as more opportunity to fine tune.

@lalitk your system's are always so beautifully displayed...I'm curious if you've spent some time listening to Aurender? I've heard from one member who spent a lot of time with both and found the later versions of the N10 were more to his liking ( @deadhead1000  - these had upgrades in their power supply).

I am curious which DACs you all use. I have a bit of upraditis there (or just change-itis like an audio mirror) there to go with the new server - upgrade/change or tweak w/cap upgrades on the AMR.

As always, enjoy the tunes!

@budburma

Thanks for the compliment. I am a longtime Aurender user (10 plus years). Out of few Aurender models I’ve owned, the N10 was in my system around 8 years. As far as I know there were no hardware upgrades introduced during the lifespan of N10. In any case, N10 is a solid performer at used prices. The newer N series is an improvement over older models as I outlined in my first post. If your DAC excels with SPDIF, you can’t go wrong with either N10 or N200. My latest DAC is Ethernet based so I am no longer relying on legacy protocols like AES/SPDIF or USB (what a relief). 

I have owned few DAC’s over the years, Modwright Elyse, ARC DAC9, Rockna Signature Balanced, Berkeley Reference 2, EMM Labs DA2 and my current DAC - Merging Technologies +NADAC. I am very happy with Merging DAC, which appears to be my end gane DAC. You can read up about it in my virtual system here,

@lalitk I gotta say, if you own all the equipment pictured, and it is all in one residence (to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy), you might just be an audiophile. Seriously, that is quite a collection of kit. I might have a hard time deciding what to play, at your place, I would have a tough time deciding what to play it on!