432 EVO

I went and heard the Aeon this morning.  This was in the dealer's shop using my DAC so it was really for me to decide if the sound was intriguing enough to warrant a home trial.  I liked what I heard.  There was tremendous detail in the presentation without any digital harshness.  The sound was relaxed and very listenable.  I wanted to hear more.

The electronics used were nothing like my home setup.  I've decided I want to explore more and will update when it's set up in my home.

Ok, I had the server in my system for a couple of hours this morning and here are my impressions.

It comes with dual power supplies, one is a 9v and the other 12. Hopefully I got this right but the 12v is the main power supply and the 9v is for the motherboard.

It took a good 20 minutes for the server to warm up from a cold start. We tried it with 2 different USB cables, I don’t recall the brands used but there was a big difference in price. One was $1200 and the other $3000. I played it with both but much preferred the more expensive cable. It focused the soundstage and made it bigger.

I only used Roon since the ripped files weren’t mine and I wanted familiar music for the audition. Tracks I played were Norah Jones "Come Away with me" Tom Waits "Looking for the heart of Saturday night" America "Sister golden hair" Grateful Dead from Barton Hall 5/8/77 "Scarlet Begonias" Alison Krauss "The lucky one" Steely Dan "Babylon Sister" and Paul Simon "Late in the evening". There were huge differences between recordings and I chose the America track due to it’s lack of quality. It sounded pretty lousy! The rest sounded at least as good as my Modwright/Oppo spinner setup but most sounded better. There was more detail and the bass took on weight. My speakers are open baffles, Spatial audio X3 which sound on the thin side with my regular CD player used as a transport. There was none of that here. The sound covered the spectrum. With the upgraded cable the players had a much more specific place on the stage. Not much changed tonally but I found the sound more engaging. The added flexibility of being able to stream is a huge bonus for me. I pulled the trigger.

I don’t write reviews for a living so I apologize for anything I might have missed. If anyone has any questions I’m capable of answering please ask. I’ve given up on waiting for the transport I ordered. I’m not getting any younger and I wanted to get on with my life.

Jeff

Oh, and my DAC is a Weiss 502

It's me he's referring to.  I know it's apples to oranges but the Modwright/Oppo 205 combo is a CD player I used as a spinner.  

I liked the sound with the less expensive cable but like it more with the more expensive one.  I hate the whole cable game but I trust my ears and I'm not going to delay my satisfaction over a little bit of money.

The sound was much more robust with the streamer.  It's not really a fair fight based on price but the ears want what they want.

To your question about whether or not my system sounded better over all, yes it did.

Perfection is unattainable.

It's a line from a movie

@tjassoc 

I think you got the gist of my message.  I participate on some other boards for hobbies I'm interested in where folks generally encourage people to share their experiences.  It promotes discussion and mostly positive feedback.  When people get snarky with their comments it does two things to the poster (at least for me).  It makes me wonder why I wasted my time sharing my impressions or it makes the poster second guess their own decisions.  

I made up my mind and put my money where my mouth is.  I really don't care at all what someone's negative opinion is about the dealer or the equipment if they haven't heard to what I did on MY system.

It might help the overall community if the comments reflect someone taking time out of their day to share something and asking questions (which many do) without the undercurrent of negativity.  Otherwise folks may just move on, keep their feelings and opinions to themselves and enjoy their equipment.

This isn't a pissing contest.  It's about enjoying a hobby.