Caved in for Aurender N10

[jdandy]

Earlier this week I ordered a new Aurender N10 music server. I procrastinated for months but resistance proved futile. Before I knew what happened I caved like a house of cards in the wind. The more I researched the Aurender N10 the more its features, design, and build quality impressed me. Everyone who owns the N10 has nothing but praise for the sound quality and ease of use. I asked a lot of questions but it was necessary for me be certain this was the right music server for me before placing the order. A big thanks to Suncoast Audio for answering all the inquiries that ultimately led to the Aurender N10 going into my studio system.

I have to endure a short period of time before the N10 arrives so the wait is on. The anticipation is causing my days drag by. I ordered the N10 in silver with 4TB storage. I like the way the machined logo on the top cover stands out against the silver aluminum. The logo's contrast sort of disappears on the black model. I also prefer the contrast between the dark display window and the silver face, as well as the contrast between the black cooling fins on the sides and the silver case. The silver N10 will blend perfectly with my Esoteric K-03. While I wait for delivery I downloaded dBpoweramp and installed the software on two PC's and one laptop. That way I can rip CD's in multiple locations, all networked together with the N10. For days I have been ripping my music library one disc at a time to a hard drive in anticipation of moving the music files to the N10 once it is installed and network connected. I downloaded the Aurender Conductor app to my iPad. It looks good. I am about as ready as I can be, excited, and anxiously looking forward to enjoying the Aurender N10 music server in the studio. Color me a happy camper.

[2fastdriving]

Wow, congratulations Dan, looking forward to your thoughts!

[Randy Myers]

Gratz Dan... should be a fantastic machine for you...

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by 2fastdriving

Wow, congratulations Dan, looking forward to your thoughts!

Marc.......Thank you. Once I have it loaded with music, mastered the app, and have a hundred or more hours on the Aurender N10 I will do a complete review. I have little doubt the performance, sound, and ease of use will surpass my Olive 04HD music server. The N10 has gotten stellar reviews, not to mention they are seen being used in many demo rooms at audio shows. That tells me what the audio professionals think of the Aurender N10.

I have my fingers crossed the N10 will arrive late next week. That gives me plenty of time to keep ripping my library. That chore is rather time consuming. I have done it multiple times with other music servers so am familiar with the drill. The dBpoweramp software is a gem and easy to use. It performs a process called AccurateRip, guaranteeing bit perfect rips of my CD's. The dBpoweramp software takes care of meta data and grabs cover art in high resolution from the Internet and allows the user to search for higher resolution cover art if you wish. You can edit data at will. The software also provides a music converter and a batch converter for mass file conversion. It is a slick program. I purchased the Family Pack ($68.00) that allows me to install dBpoweramp on up to five computers. I am running it on my office PC, the control room PC, and my Sony Vaio laptop. It is slick software that rips to all common file types. I am ripping everything in FLAC.

[2fastdriving]

Originally Posted by jdandy

Marc.......Thank you. Once I have it loaded with music, mastered the app, and have a hundred or more hours on the Aurender N10 I will do a complete review. I have little doubt the performance, sound, and ease of use will surpass my Olive 04HD music server. The N10 has gotten stellar reviews, not to mention they are seen being used in many demo rooms at audio shows. That tells me what the audio professionals think of the Aurender N10.

I have my fingers crossed the N10 will arrive late next week. That gives me plenty of time to keep ripping my library. That chore is rather time consuming. I have done it multiple times with other music servers so am familiar with the drill. The dBpoweramp software is a gem and easy to use. It performs a process called AccurateRip, guaranteeing bit perfect rips of my CD's. The dBpoweramp software takes care of meta data and grabs cover art in high resolution from the Internet and allows the user to search for higher resolution cover art if you wish. You can edit data at will. The software also provides a music converter and a batch converter for mass file conversion. It is a slick program. I purchased the Family Pack ($68.00) that allows me to install dBpoweramp on up to five computers. I am running it on my office PC, the control room PC, and my Sony Vaio laptop. It is slick software that rips to all common file types. I am ripping everything in FLAC.

I use EAC (exact audio copy). It's free and works well. But it's not very fast. And some cds aren't found online so I have to type them in. Only once in a while.

[nicoff]

Originally Posted by 2fastdriving

I use EAC (exact audio copy). It's free and works well. But it's not very fast. And some cds aren't found online so I have to type them in. Only once in a while.

EAC reigned supreme as the best ripper for years. I use it too. However, it does not have the friendliest GUI. That's where DBPoweramp comes in. It is as accurate as EAC and has better GUI and metadata sources.

Either EAC or DBp are better solutions than a player that rips CDs. That's because once you rip your music bit-perfect and save it in your computer, you can keep it forever and transfer it to whatever music player you have. No need to re-rip ever again. Not to mention that it easier to edit metadata using your computer.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Randy Myers

Gratz Dan... should be a fantastic machine for you...

Randy.......Thanks. I am excited to have it arrive so I can hear what all the fuss is about.

[Jean-Marc jmajma]

Well done, Dan! Congratulations. I sometimes look at these Aurender servers, maybe one day?

It's not evident on the internet pic, I guess it shows CD cover and so on?

I too use dbpoweramp to rip in FLAC my music (stored in a Synology NAS running embedded Logitech Media Server) and I have to say it's a good software.

[jdandy]

Originally Posted by Jean-Marc jmajma

Well done, Dan! Congratulations. I sometimes look at these Aurender servers, maybe one day?

It's not evident on the internet pic, I guess it shows CD cover and so on?

I too use dbpoweramp to rip in FLAC my music (stored in a Synology NAS running embedded Logitech Media Server) and I have to say it's a good software.

Jean-Marc.......The cover art is displayed on the iPad. The iPad is where the majority of the N10's functions are accessed. The front panel AMOLED display, actually two AMOLED displays side by side, does not show cover art. The displays purpose is to show song titles, bit rate and conversion information, and also serves to display left and right channel level meters that can be switched between blue or yellow. Using the buttons on the front of the Aurender allows the display to show the device information with details about Server name, LAN/Wi-Fi status, IP address, and other details.



Aurender Conductor App (stock photo)

[JemHadar]

Congratulations Dan, enjoy in good health.
Looking forward to hear about your long term experiences with the Aurender.