Aurender N10 Caching Music Server review

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by j3brow

I pulled the trigger today. Aurender N10 8TB, black, has been ordered!

Jason.......Haven't heard a peep from you about your Aurender N10. Has it arrived yet?

[j3brow]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Jason.......Haven't heard a peep from you about your Aurender N10. Has it arrived yet?

The boxes of gear are stacking up ......
Building entirely new system in our living room. Lots of moving parts here, looking at couple of months before I'm up and running. Anticipation is killing me.











Image1483406179.979610.jpg

[Masterlu]

Very Cool!

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by j3brow

The boxes of gear are stacking up ......
Building entirely new system in our living room. Lots of moving parts here, looking at couple of months before I'm up and running. Anticipation is killing me.

Jason.......You have way more patience than I do.

[j3brow]

Wife, 3 young girls, and in middle of home renovations .... my life is all about patience.

[SL1800]

Dan that is a great review of the N10!!! I have owned the X100L for about 3 years now and only lately had the itch to play around with other things. Wish I could compare to the N10.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by SL1800

Dan that is a great review of the N10!!! I have owned the X100L for about 3 years now and only lately had the itch to play around with other things. Wish I could compare to the N10.

Steve.......Thank you. You have experience with Aurender after three years with the X100L so you know the quality built into their components. You would not have spent that many years with a music server if you did not like it. If you were to replace the X100L with the Aurender N10 I believe you would notice a performance bump for sure, although the X100L is no slouch. Trust me, I understand what the audio itch is all about.

[Matt Lan]

This is a fascinating read. Actually, I've been through this thread twice, in detail. And read online reviews plus Aurender's website.

Like you Dan, I had/have been on the sidelines for a while. I almost pulled the trigger on an Olive back in the day, but things were going south with them when I kicked the can down the road.

I chose instead to get a K-03, and among the pros was the ability to access a great DAC with a variety of inputs when I eventually settled on a setup to serve/stream.

Today, I am interested in the metadata and interface quality of Roon - but don't really know how good it is beyond their website and online reviews.

I understand that a PC based system with NAS has its complications.

I really like the idea of a 'one box', quality solution, just need to get my head around a few things (in no particular order):

- what happens when a HD goes bad in the Aurender - is the second internal HD the backup? Are these easily replaced? I am trying to visualize this vs. dual NAS that is both redundant and backed up to the cloud.

- besides access to the superior Aurender clock, why is the USB input to a DAC 'less good'. Is there something generically inherent in the USB (as with my K-03) that is inferior to SPDIF?

- Depending on the answer to the above, I am trying to understand why the N10 would sound better than the N100H? I don't doubt that it does, just trying to understand why (assuming using USB, apples to apples).

I know I am overthinking this, but I keep my gear a long time. $8K for a (very slick) bundled computer and software is a lot of money to me. Just want to make the best decision on what will be my 1st foray into a server like this.

- Final Q: Ivan, what do you think? - maybe setting up to add Aurender to your portfolio? Curious.



Cheers

Matt

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Matt Lane

This is a fascinating read. Actually, I've been through this thread twice, in detail. And read online reviews plus Aurender's website.

Like you Dan, I had/have been on the sidelines for a while. I almost pulled the trigger on an Olive back in the day, but things were going south with them when I kicked the can down the road.

I chose instead to get a K-03, and among the pros was the ability to access a great DAC with a variety of inputs when I eventually settled on a setup to serve/stream.

Today, I am interested in the metadata and interface quality of Roon - but don't really know how good it is beyond their website and online reviews.

I understand that a PC based system with NAS has its complications.

I really like the idea of a 'one box', quality solution, just need to get my head around a few things (in no particular order):

- what happens when a HD goes bad in the Aurender - is the second internal HD the backup? Are these easily replaced? I am trying to visualize this vs. dual NAS that is both redundant and backed up to the cloud.

- besides access to the superior Aurender clock, why is the USB input to a DAC 'less good'. Is there something generically inherent in the USB (as with my K-03) that is inferior to SPDIF?

- Depending on the answer to the above, I am trying to understand why the N10 would sound better than the N100H? I don't doubt that it does, just trying to understand why (assuming using USB, apples to apples).

I know I am overthinking this, but I keep my gear a long time. $8K for a (very slick) bundled computer and software is a lot of money to me. Just want to make the best decision on what will be my 1st foray into a server like this.

- Final Q: Ivan, what do you think? - maybe setting up to add Aurender to your portfolio? Curious.

Matt.......As I am sure you know, Aurender does not have provisions for Roon. For me that is a none issue. The Aurender Conductor app offers plenty of additional information and links to artist and song data on top of a super slick and intuitive user interface. I don't have any need to go surfing all over the web, jumping from link to link, when all I want to do is enjoy music. It's information overload as far as I'm concerned. The Aurender Conductor app has a window that opens providing access to title and artist specific information from Wikipedia. If a person wants to click this link it will provide plenty of additional information. I don't need or want the depth of web search that Roon charges their monthly or annual fee to use. I am happy for those who find Roon to be the cat's meow, but for me the Aurender Conductor app totally satisfies my needs to enjoy my music library and Tidal.

The two hard drives in the N10 create a total capacity, not a backup or Raid configuration. Simply use an external USB hard drive to back up your Aurender files. The chances of a hard drive failing is slim to none, particularly when you realize the only time the hard drives spin are when loading files to the solid state drive cache used for playback. The remaining time the hard drives sleep. This design to hard drive operation dramatically extends hard drive life beyond what is already an amazing mean time between failure for modern hard drives. I don't spend any time worrying about it. Should a catastrophic hard drive failure occure it is simple enough to access the drives for a replacement. A two year warranty has you covered for that time period.

I don't believe anyone is saying the USB output to a DAC is "less good'. What I have stated is I prefer the SPDIF coaxial output of the Aurender N10 because it is controlled by the extremely accurate oven controlled crystal oscillator clock and ancillary phase locked loop circuits. The USB output has its data stream timing controlled by the DAC, very few of which have clocks that approach the accuracy of the N10's OCXO on its SPDIF outputs. Aurender says the SPDIF jitter is nearly unmeasurable. With most USB connections this is not the case. Whether or not this impacts the quality of the sound a person hears is an individual experience. My preference is to use the coaxial digital output from Aurender's proprietary digital output, supported by the OCXO clock. This feature is but one reason why I chose the N10 over the USB only N100H.

You can think of the Aurender N10 as a very slick bundled computer but it is far more advanced than that. The primary board is completely optimized for audio, including the 2.0 USB output. The Linux operating system has been streamlined to use only the files and system hardware necessary for the operation of the N10 without the thousands of extraneous computations going on in the background of a typical computer with a bloated operating system that cannot be fully optimized for audio. The N10's performance is seamless, ultra user friendly, with flawless sound that exceeded my expectations by a wide margin. I have heard many computer based servers, even highly tweaked ones, and none sound as good as the N10, never mind the absolute simplicity of the Aurender N10's setup and use.

I have no stock in Aurender. I am not trying to sell anyone anything. I am simply trying to answer the issues you brought up. One thing is certain, I am a very happy Aurender N10 owner. I am now considering a second N10 for my living room system. Trust me when I tell you purchasing an N10 can sting. Owning and operating two premium sound systems can begin to weigh heavily on one's bank account.

I hope I have helped you.

[docmd2010]

Dan, that review was absolutely exemplary. It was straight up poetry. You clearly have a mastery of the english language and have extreme attention to detail. Further, I appreciated your approach to auditioning your components utilizing the "scientific method" to achieve answers by only adjusting one variable.

Bravo, sir, Bravo.