Having had the Aries in place for a week ish I have noticed that after a few hours of listening I find it a bit bright. Mrs Bruss doesn’t and rather likes the sound vs the Node ( both run via a Qutest). Mrs Bruss is out for a couple of hours so I thought now is the time for some back to back comparison. Bill Evans trio ‘Sunday village vangaurd’
I can simply not hear a difference between the P8 and the Aries/Qutest Green (hi roll off filter). It is uncanny, I can usually get some difference or nuance. When I go back to a neutral filter on the Qutest It becomes a little brighter, but only a little. The background audience voices become more apparent.
Switching to the Node there is a difference. The whole becomes more condensed in some way across the frequencies. Not a great difference but it is clearly different.
It seems Mrs Bruss is correct and I just need to apply a filter on the Qutest. Perhaps I should look for a Naim dac (ndac) to see if it softens the sound compared to the Qutest,
Nice that those two sources are now there or there abouts, compared to each other.
That’s always a satisfying feeling when you achieve balance across sources (on a HiFi journey).
Thanks. It is somehow comforting to think the system is about right.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a P8?
Rega Planar 8 turntable
Doh! It’s not like I don’t have one of my own!!!
Having just received an nDAC I’d say it’s a wonderful beast and has quashed any ideas we had of trying qutest/hugo. And that’s on stock mains, not with our XPSDR.
Music just has a wonderful fluidity.
Sounds good. I have updated my DAC to the Auralic Vega now. The overall effect is to no longer need the roll off filters that the Aries needed with the Qutest. It seems any streamer/transport needs matching with its dac to perform at its best.
Yes we’re in a quandry on streaming transport. And many could be difficult to audition.
naim don’t do one but ND5XS2 would suffice for digital out. Some other interesting options for same sort of price include things like Lumin with the U2 mini just about to come. We await that with interest. G1 obviously and others.
We could always just buy an NDX2 but seems a complete waste of cash. It’s same streaming board as ND5XS2 with an enhanced analogue stage (redundant we have nDAC) and a screen (redundant all control of current 272 is via tablet).
Yes, it has been a difficult path for me. I wanted something at least as good a sq as the turntable, better if possible, but with the extra convenience of pressing a button, on an app or a remote. I have tried the Node, and now both the Auralic and the GoldNote. The Node is not at the sq level even with the Qutest, both the GN and the Auralic are. The Node however has the best and easiest to use control app. At the other end the GN has possibly the worst I’ve come across to the point of being almost unusable, the Auralic is somewhere between. It is a shame about the GN app as I like both the sq and the appearance of their kit. I haven’t contacted them yet re their app, but on other issues before buying they were very approachable so I will see how they respond in the next couple of weeks. For me its important to have an app that can be easily used, it is part of whether the overall kit is a success.
App quality is a big consideration for us now. We use other apps in preference to naim with 272 for usability, speed, navigation and features.
We’ve looked into the Lumin app recently and oh boy it’s feature rich compared to naim and does all the UI basics the naim app lacks (finger zoom on album view to change grid size for instance, pretty standard in 2022). It is so so much easier to browse our large music collection (popups take you straight to filtered list by artist, genre, year etc.)
Hence our interest in the Lumin U2 mini when it comes. Fingers crossed they add ability to add an external PSU (since so many people add TP or SBooster) but even if we’ve to get a screwdriver out to upgrade PSU it will still be a strong candidate as a transport.
It’s possible to use several OpenHome compatible apps to control a Vega G2, including Lumin and Linn. No setup required, either.
Roger
You can but only to connect your local storage or internet subscription service, Qobuz or similar. No radio feeds as Linn does not recognise the Auralic device to connect radio feeds or program presets.
Marvellous — a nominee for the posting of the month! 
Sometimes I astonish myself with my own stupidity - I think my few remaining brain cells must be dedicated to life support!
Don’t be too harsh to yourself. I certainly made countless silly mistakes when I didn’t have enough coffee in the morning — well, that’s at least my lame excuse… 
I use MinimStreamer to stream BBC radio stations and that works on both Linn and Lumin. I’ve not experimented with other radio stations and BBC ones may not work outside UK.
Roger
This topic was automatically closed 60 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.