Aurender Conductor app reliability and user experience

Just an update from my side. I had the opportunity to listen to an N200 renderer+Berkeley alpha series 3 DAC and compare the SQ with an A200. I'm the kind of person that prefers to spend more money on amplifiers and speakers rather than digital components. I was wrong.

The A200 sounded good, better than the Bluesound Node 2i+Topping Dx7 I have at home. The bass is controlled, the trebles sound great, and the instrument separation is good. Then I listed the N200+Alpha series 3 and the SQ improved noticeably. The bass was heavier and more controlled, the reverberations of cymbals were more prolonged, and the piano chords were better separated.

I think I'm going to buy a separate DAC and renderer. Maybe start with the DAC and later add a renderer.

@robertkpax Glad to hear you had a positive experience. The N200 is a great unit, and I typically encourage my customers to pair it with a T+A DAC 200. That DAC has great musicality and bandwidth that compliments the Aurender N200 really, really well. It’s also a benefit that they share very similar form factors and look fitting together. Happy to answer questions on either if there is any interest from your side. 

@lalitk 

@robertkpax 

Like lalitk says, Conductor does what it is supposed to do and it does it with ease. Unlike lalitk, I've only been using my N10 for five years, but it has been pretty uneventful. The only problem I've had was found to be the fault of Tidal and it was fixed pretty quickly. From what I understand, Conductor is some of the most mature streaming software out there; and of course it is captive to the Aurender brand.

You can use it with both an iPad and iPhone. I've never tried the iPhone app but the iPad app works very smoothly. I like the Aurender GUI a lot for sure. I don't have a lot of experience with other streaming software but did play around for a couple hours with Mosaic, which is the dCS built-in streamer. Didn't like it compared to Conductor, it was really a few steps back IMHO. Of course, YMMV. Good luck.

@blisshifi  Is there a way to listen to say paradise radio where you can skip songs?

In my head phone set up I'm using the bluesound node as the streamer and the Internet radio functions are so much better. That's where I discover most of, y new music. Maybe I'm just doing something wrong or is shoutcast just inferior to what the Blue Sound uses.

@maxdukecapone Unfortunately I am not familiar with Radio Paradise or streaming radio platforms in general. I tend to discover music predominantly from getting suggestions from others, review sites like Pitchfork, or letting Qobuz or Tidal automate playlists for me. 

Perhaps others with more radio service experience can weigh in on your inquiry!