Aurender n200, talk me out of signing on the dotted line

I’m not a fan of Aurender. I started streaming with a Raspberry Pi using a DigiOne HAT for SPDIF out to my DAC. It ran great, sounded good, but wasn’t very elegant, so I replaced it with a new N100H from an authorized dealer. The Aurender was never really stable and after months of back-and-forth with Aurender’s only tech guy, I gave up. I dumped it at a loss for a Bryston BDP-3 and I’ve been happy as a clam every since. Aurender said maybe something was wrong with my filing system, but there’s nothing unusual there and I’d never had an issue using any other hardware or software.

I know many audiophiles love their Aurenders, and that (along with my dealer’s recommendation) is what led to my purchase. In the end, my Aurender was nothing but a nuisance. Good riddance.

I went from an Eversolo Master Edition with linear power supply installed to a used Aurender N200 for about $3000 on TMR (somehow it was a smokin' hot deal) and the difference was very apparent---Clear, detailed!.  I don't use Roon and stream Qobuz but I'm very glad I got the Aurender

@pdreher 

I have, had exact experience with the N200 and iPad. Tuff to connect, can’t connect, lose connection after 10-20 minutes. Reboot iPad, reboot Aurender, reboot router. Took the iPad to Apple, said everything checks out, placed a service ticket with Aurender, back and forth, ultimately nothing they could come up with. 
THEN, I switched to the iPhone and wala, no more connection issues. Sorry you sold as I almost did. 

As others have mentioned, the Conductor App can be an issue for some people. For me, I can not add a song to a Qobuz playlist and support is still troublshooting. Original ticket was a month or so ago.  In addition, the program crashes once per session, which is any easy fix to reboot.  Otherwise, the unit itself is well built and I enjoy the sound.  

 

wlutke OP

681 posts

03-28-2024 at 07:56am 

@dwest1023 

Should I get sound on par with my CD I'll be happy as a pig in spit.  Good to hear.

I don’t see why not. Few weeks ago I compared the N200 to Marantz SA10 spinning CDs. To make certain my comparison was 🍏 to 🍏 I compared an uncompressed FLAC rips on a N200 (Samsung SSD mounted inside the Aurender) to a CD played on SA10. The N200 was connected to the SA10 via AQ Diamond USB. To be honest I preferred the N200 in some case but it was nearly impossible to distinguish. It was not worse than the CD. 
Compared to Qobuz HiRes version of the same album is not a relevant comparison as it could be a different mix/master on Qobuz but I did that as well.
Judging purely from sound quality (tone, accuracy) perspective it’s on par with 💿