Streamer Fidelity: Aurender N200 vs A200 and Lumin U2 vs T3

I preferred the U2 i demoed over the Aurender A10 i had ($6k), the Aurender was a disappointment in my system, and that app is just acceptable at best.

The U2 was more lively, detailed and over all felt like music more. the A10 was just boring ( not the same as the ones your looking at but all i have to go on). I use an external DAC and I recommend this route as well the DAC is the most important part is this chain and will effect the sound the most IMO, so do not lock yourself into an internal DAC in a streamer. 

Yes I'm not an Aurender fan after owning the A10 I don't think I could bring myself to buy another. They are nice looking but performance was not what I expected for the price new. Oh you need an apple tablet to operate it as well, a phone works as a remote but you cannot set them up on the phone only the tablet. potentially they have changed this now. 

Does anyone have any experiences they can share?

Hi @glennewdick, thanks for sharing your experience. Looks like I posted my latest question before seeing your post. So when you compared both units, you used the USB out of the A10 to the same DAC you used with the U2?

Yes I used USB on both, if I remember correctly. but I have also used the optical as well,. My DAC is the Chord Dave used with both. If I was honest I had the A10 prior to me getting the Chord and the DAC in my Mac C2700 (DAC2 board) was better IMO then the A10’s internal DAC. I found the internal DAC in the A10 to be dull and lacked detail specially in the top end. impressive low noise floor but that’s about all i could say i liked about the internal DAC. not sure what the newer ones sound like but i would not venture to try again.

As a streamer it’s really no better then the much cheaper U2 and in the end i preferred the U2. that said i didn’t buy the U2 either. I ended up with a Chord Streamer because it uses what ever native app in your phone/tablet so it lets me use the tidal app native. Its a temp streamer as I’m now looking at streamers like the Hi-Fi rose with the display that lets you use it with out a phone or tablet.

In the end i feel the DAC is more important specially if its well implemented with good isolation and data handling. Its really hard now to tell the difference between all these good Streamers with the Dave.

my streamer experience is now: Optimized PC, Blue sound node, Roon Nucleus (very disappointing), Aurender A10, Chord 2go/2yu combo.

I also use an Apple tv 4k box (Tidal app ) and its probably the easies streamer to use if your TV is in the same system, but only red book CD output. Its surprisingly good actually, perfect for non critical listening or family members,  really nice having a 77" screen showing your tracks too, your size may very lol.