I can confirm that a dedicated streamer sounds much better than a Laptop. I even tried my Laptop on it’s battery power for an hour, no discernible difference.
Certainly does. I’m trying to figure out what analog music is trying to communicate. I’m not sure he understands.
I know, I remember him talking about how he demoed an ND5XS2 as a streamer, and it was the best sounding solution compared to the other ones he heard that day. I can not remember what the other streamers were though.
Easy really
Sell that auralic, get an Mscaler and use a google chrome cast audio in the meantime while you save up for a Naim ND5XS2
I tested an allo digione signature, auralic Aries and Naim Nd5xs2
The auralic Aries is made of plastic and lacks a true BNC output. Surprisingly the performance was quite poor along with rather allo digione… Naim was so much better
The newer auralic aren’t that much better than the plastic ones
I guess the old adage is true. Better to pay higher and buy high quality than end up with stuff which will end up in a skip or on flea bay
You are completely wrong. The original Aeries had a plastic case since the WiFi antennas where internal. You might consider Goggling the G series so you know what you’re talking about maybe even read a couple of reviews.
And In my original post I said I’ve just ordered an Mscaler and a pair of Audience SPIDIF cables, to go with my Qutest.
No I am not wrong I’ve also compared the new auralic streamers and still I am Not impressed at all. The naim streamer sound better
Where is the tidal connect announcement for these Auralics ? Google chrome cast ? Deezer ? Apple Music ? Amazon music ?
Auralics answer to all this is to use AirPlay
You pays your money and take your chances
By comparison the blue sound node has all these services and much cheaper
I did try to compare it to a Naim Streamer, but the software was a bit glitchy and WiFi Kept dropping. The unit we listened to was I believe the ND5 X2… it has it own built in Dac in it sounded pretty darn good. Then we compared Auralic Aeries G1 using a Chord Qutest… wasn’t all that close. The Naim sounded colored, nice but a bit cloudy. The G1 , chord combo was much more spacious sounding, bigger and clearer more dimensional. Less colored.
Anyway no point in arguing. I’m sure you believe what you think. Aloha
Naim have decades of experience in making hi fi
Auralic is a new company with relatively tiny hi fi manufacturing or design experience based in Hong kong… who knows if they will around as long as Naim or their products as legendary as Naim
Opus, but did you try the ND5XS2 with the Qutest also, or just the on-board DAC of the ND5XS2? I am pretty sure Analogmusic was comparing all of the ones he listed as a streamer only into an Mscaler/Dave, which he owns.
Just the Naim’s on board Dac
That explains the difference then, I thought adding my TT2 to my old NDS/XPSDR was a big jump in performance. Here is an old photo with the NDS on top of the rack, with MScaler/TT2 below.
In comparisons of different renderers, I wonder how much depends on the network side if things. Different cables and switches affect the sound differently with different streamers and separate renderers and DACs, while depending on the specific network setup and its electrical environment. It therefore seems entirely feasible that the sound of the rendering solution depends on the network side, and what one person finds could very well genuinely be different from what another finds unless the entire network including its electrical environment are identical.
When I compared a Naim streamer as renderer I certainly found a Mac Mini running Audirvana as renderer (fully optimised including dedicated USB bus and bypassing the Mac sound circuitry and drivers, playing from internally stored files, through Gustard U12 isolator into Hugo, sounded better than ND5XS into Hugo with the music streamed across a network from the same Mac Mini using Serviio UPnP server. Mac Mini is not made with sound quality in mind - though the Audirvana setup minimises direct effects, and Gustard very effectively isolates from its RF.
That seems highly likely - I found Hugo on the original ND5XS far better than its internal DAC.
After all is said and done. The G1 is the best wifi streamer I could afford, way better than a Node2i and I wanted a display. I’d had the original Aries with dual Femto clocks and the external LPS. The G1 ticked all my boxes, and Qutest was and is a good match. I also really like the Aurender but no WiFi . I had the Aurender n100h but I had to use Ethernet over power. I only used that for transferring my music files into the Aurenders internal 2tb hdd, at time I used first a PS Audio Direct Stream Dac , then I got a Devialet D200. Then I got very very sick and sold off everything. My current system is sort of my come back system.
The new Naim streamers are quite something else even when used as digital output only streamers
Does being a young Asian company disqualify them from making top notch gear?
Does Naim have decades of experience building Streaming devices, which are as much computers, I don’t think so.
Finally would you be so dismissive of Auralic if they were a young British company?
Is the location of the company relevant here? I hope your comment is not informed by some form of xenophobia or similar…
P.S. Just saw @opus’s comment:
My experience with the Auralic Aries G1 was nothing but positive… very well made and great user experience!
I’d like to add that my G1 is super reliable. I’ve had it shut down powered off for weeks and it boots right up ready to go, and the WiFi works great no need for switches and special Ethernet cables, and I have compared the two, I can’t hear any difference.