I have received the ACS-10. Got a very good deal on the 2X8TB version from a guy that bought it new, but decided he needed to down size. I have been copying files to it using a direct network connection from my Aurender X100L to the ACS-10. I did listen to some tracks briefly, but didn't listen enough to determine anything other than it sounded at least as good as my N100H and X100L. The original owner had maybe 10 hours on the unit, so some burn in may be required.
You can't listen to music on the ACS-10 when copying files so I will have to wait to do more listening, but first listening impressions are I can sell either my N100H or X100L to recoup some of the cost of the ACS-10.
I will report back in a couple of days with more initial thoughts. I'm not an audiophile, nor do I have golden ears so my review of the sound of the ACS-10 won't probably be helpful to most.
The unit is well built, the ripping functionality is fast, but there are issues with copying files and the smart sync functionality. I have started the copy process from the ACS application multiple times and the process of copying files from my X100L has either locked up, paused with a "waiting" message, or displays copy complete when it didn't complete. I have sent a couple of messages to Aurender yesterday outlining these issues, but haven't heard back.
You would think that copying files would be a core set of functionality that would work out of the box. Again, I have the X100L connected directly to the ACS-10 via a CAT6 ethernet cable. The ACS-10 has one LAN port for connection to your router, and two additional LAN ports for connection to additional ACS-10s or other Aurender devices. I tried switching out the ethernet cables to no avail.
I tried the Smart Sync option initially where the contents of an external Aurender device's library/database are supposed to be incorporated into the ACS-10's database. It didn't seem to work on the first attempt. It does it in the background supposedly, but there is no indication anything is happening and the library on the ACS-10 didn't seem to display much of what was on the X100H.
Lastly, the ACS-10's standalone application leaves a lot to be desired. It needs work, it needs to be more user friendly when it comes to the system's status when copying files, syncing to other Aurender databases, and the processes that are running. Several times when using the Conductor application I could see the ACS-10, X100L, and N100H as available Aurender devices, but I couldn't connect the ACS-10. I would get an error that the IP address couldn't be found (even though a status message in Conductor quickly displayed showing the ACS-10 IP address). The ACS-10 was on my network, the ACS-10 was displaying the IP address on its display, and I could ping the ACS-10. I had to do a soft shutdown (hold the button on the front of the device) and want 2-3 minutes while it shutdown, then push the button again to restart the ACS-10, then wait 2-3 minutes while it started back up. I could then connect to it via Conductor. By the way the startup/shutdown process is very slow!
The above problem and the others I have mentioned above make me hesitant to recommend the ACS-10 and gives me some buyer's remorse. Hopefully Aurender will work to fix the problems quickly as it has a lot of potential, especially if the streamer sounds better than the N100H and comes close to the N10.
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