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 you're confused, I'm beyond confused right now (see last post) 3 hours on this issue so far, great Sunday indeed!

@lalitk thank you, but I was getting impatient and too quickly started a re-installation of Windows 10 before your advice, oh well. at least I know now, lol.

After a fresh install of Window, same thing. Yes, aurender/aurender are the credentials...UGH!

@lalitk  Once the music is all off the SD Card in the N200, is there also a way to format it (in place) so I can start transferring some newly ripped music to it (cut & paste)?

@navyachts 

The SSD drive (SD Card) doesn’t not require any formatting by end user (you). It’s done by Aurender software. Once you have transferred off all the previously stored music, you can start transferring newly ripped music (cut & paste).  One way to track your music is by creating folders in SSD drive. 
Music 1 ➡️ DSD 

Music 1 ➡️ CD rips. 
 

How to create folders….right click in Music 1 folder, click New, Folder ➡️ rename