2. digital
  3. 189850-145382

Sound Quality

First off, I am pleading ignorance here, so my apologies up front, but I need some help on figuring out what this digital stuff is all about. It was simple, just to pull out a CD and play it, but with streaming and such, it seems to be a whole different ball of wax.

After finally finishing the remodel on my home, I've have had a bit of time to sit down and listen to my system. My Aurender N200 came with an SD card loaded with music. Most of it is ripped from hybrid SACDs or at 16bit- 44.1kHz "Original Mastering Recording" CDs, (some are DSF files some WAV files, but all sound the same to me). The music sounds flat and dull but when I play the equivalent song on Tidal in 16bit-44.1 kHz it sounds much better.

I have a second SD card  with some HD Tracks CDs at 24 bit-96 kHz that I which sound really good through the N200. Maybe understandable being hi-res, but some say they can't hear a big difference between the two, but I sure can in this instance.

I understand that up sampling, DSD and HQ Player can even bring better sound to the table, but I'm having enough trouble with just the basics here, that stuff is way over my head. 

I'd like to rip a couple of my own CDs to a new SD card and try it to compare with the SD card that came with the N200. What is the best method to do this?

As always, your thought & comments are much appreciated!

128x128navyachts
bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,596 posts
 

@navyachts 

Question. You say ‘SD card’, are you actually speaking of a USB thumb drive ‘stick’ mounted to the USB port in the rear of the N200?

The N200 has two drive bays for two separate 2.5” hard drives, which I would highly recommend utilizing in lieu of a ‘flash drive’.  4TB 2.5” drives are fairly inexpensive today, and the N200 will accept two 8TB drives. That said, the rear USB port can be used to mount an external hard drive, or ‘thumb drive’ too, so I would think Aurender engineered that port to sound as good as any internal drive you install into its drive bays.

Thus, have a feeling whatever drive was included with the N200 (assumed from a third party) may have been compromised, as previously mentioned. 
 

Ripped files (given a high quality rip) should sound every bit as good as streaming, if not better in some/most instances (DSD or HiRes PCM files).

 

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
5,098 posts
 

“Even further to that, how can I take the files that are on the SD card that's in the N200 and move them elsewhere?”
@navyachts 

I hope this is a temporary move? Ideally, you want to play files stored on N200 SSD (solid state drive) not elsewhere on your network. 

You gotten some good advise, getting a better DAC would be the next logical step. Patience is the key when it comes to optimizing your streaming setup. You’re off to great start with N200. As far as hearing differences between stored vs streaming files, it would come down to original mastering and downstream components. If you’re planning to rip CD’s, I would select WAV as ripping format since WAV encoding uses no compression. Have fun! 

navyachts's avatar
navyachts OP
477 posts
 

@audphile1 Says DSF Files not DSD files

@bkeske no, not USB thumb drive. SD cards that are inside the N200

@lalitk I don't want to play the files elsewhere on the network, I just to park them for reference, then freshly download them onto the N200 (now blank) SD card. Thanks

New DAC is on the way!

 

bkeske's avatar
bkeske
5,596 posts
 

@navyachts 

Good, then you are speaking to an SSD hard drive in one of the two N200 Bays. 

I was a bit confused by the terms you are/were using.

navyachts's avatar
navyachts OP
477 posts
 

OK, I have one for you all! I am trying to access the SD card in the N200. I get there but when I click on the file (Music 1) I get the Microsoft Security "Enter you credentials to connect to: (network address)

I have no username or password for this. I have gone through all the steps the internet has to offer on trouble shooting this, but nothing has fixed the problem.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to bypass the network credentials prompt?

More to discover