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Aurender N10 - Sound quality performance is erratic

I am having problems with my N10. Some days it plays amazingly good, other days good and some days not good at all.

I live very near Aurender in SoCal and so I took my unit in for service and they provided me with a loaner. The first session after I put the loaner in the system was all-time good. Then the next day wasn't all that great. Then the next two days were good but no great. Anyway, this is just weird. Both N10s appear to exhibit this erratic behavior.

My internet is ATT DSL at 24Mbps and that has been suggested as the culprit (I was thinking about calling and asking them to give me a trial at 50 or 100 Mbps to see if the increased speed will eliminate the problem - 24Mbps is fast enough I almost never seen buffering in Netflix). It has been suggested that I get hi-speed cable to solve this problem and get rid of the twisted pairs on the phone line. I have tried a DSL filter and it hasn't seemed to help, assuming I've got it installed correctly.

So have any of you N10 users had this problem? If so, how did you fix it?
pokey77

Showing 3 responses by jdavis37

jdavis37
28 posts
 
Pokey.... are most of your issues associated with streamed music versus music stored locally (such as FLAC or whatever format files stored either on your Aurender hard drives or NAS type drive)? Curious. I am keeping the N10 on my short list for music servers (2019 purchase) to replace what I now have but I have this far only played music stored locally.
jdavis37
28 posts
 
Thanks Pokey,

I won;'t be purchasing a new music player until 2019 but starting my search early. Never know what you run into along the way. I have no immediate plans to stream (I can stream with current player but don't) and I will be redbook all the way given the DAC I am buying. Of course I may at some point go to streaming so not saying never! I know on my current player (Linux based) I typically try to reboot it every week or so. This seems to eliminate any dropouts. I am playing music directly connected to it via USB drive (FLAC) but use their iOS app to drive it and thus the network. My player had a lot of issues with its wireless connection so I went to hard wired and with weekly or biweekly reboots no issues there. If I forget and encounter a drop out I simply reboot the player and all is well.

The N10 appears to be a rock solid player, one on my radar screen. I need S/PDIF output (via RCA or AES) so it certainly qualifies in that way. I am assuming it will work for a USB connected drive as well as using the internal drives? 

I am also curious if the 2 internal drives can be changed out to SSDs if they are not already. I know it caches music to a smaller SSD but with current sizes increasing and prices dropping going all SSD would be nice.

How are the apps they provide? 

Glad your network issues are being resolved and you are able to enjoy the music more!
jdavis37
28 posts
 
Thx Pokey. It will most assuredly work with the DAC I am buying (R2R, NOS, limited to S/PDIF or AES input). The N10 appears to be a really nice piece and if the well builtness, etc also translates into "hey it actually really does sound better" then it will be on my very short list. There just are not that many music players/servers/streamers focused on S/PDIF these days! USB only in the server would require another box to be bought and that really is not a desired thing. Given its price tag I will most likely look for a demo or very clean used one. My spousal unit is very understanding of my hobbies.. to a point! Thx for the feedback and keep enjoying your music!
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