USB quality on N100H and ASC100

[pete6737]

Hello All,

I’m back to considering an Aurender to mate with my K03X as a DAC. My son’s homemade linux computer with Jriver has been giving me some issues and I’m getting ready to take the leap. My question is if there is any sound quality differences in these two products using usb? The N10 is just out of my reach and I’m down to the N100H and ASC100. If the audio quality is the same, I’d like have a cd ripper in addition. Currently, ripping to Flac with a computer is cumbersome to me. Since Sonics takes precedence over ease of ripping cds, for me, it seems like the N100H wins but I really can’t wrap my head around sonic differences in what appears to be similar products.

The literature on the Aurender website states “Although the ACS100 can operate as a stand-alone music server / streamer, best sound quality is achieved when using an N100H, N100C, N100SC, N10, A100, A10, A30 or W20SE Aurender music server / streamer as the main player”

So by reading this, one could assume there’s an sonic difference between the N100H and ASC100. I guess I’d like to know to what degree or what causes the difference? I.E different circuitry etc...adding a cd ripper changes the quality of the audio from the USB port?

Any light that you can shed on this to aid in my decision is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Pete