Why does the aurender N100h sound so bright and edgy


Have ps audio direct  stream dac hooked to the aurender n100h , replacing my Mac mini ,the sound was bright and edgy with poor bottom end  , playing through my Franco serblin ktemas , and WYETECH Ruby momoblooks  must be a defective unit
pavpet
My apologies for being wrong about the MQA part as has been pointed out to me in another forum but I do stand firmly by the fact that the new system version makes the sound "bright and edgy" as described.
Pavpet,

This may be the answer to your problem.

I find the latest software upgrade which is meant to cater to the unfolding of MQA files, actually degrades the sound of redbook and non-MQA hires PCM and DSD files considerably. It does make the N100H sound bright and edgy as you describe.

Fortunately, you can roll back to the original version by doing a factory reset as described in the manual. If your unit comes with the latest version, you are out of luck. My dac is non-MQA and so is yours, and that may be an issue.

Turns out the issue I mentioned in a previous post was not with the N100H but with the AQ JB. 
All is well now with removal of the JB. :)

Pavpet - I’m with a few other posters on this one... might just be your cables!

What power, USB cables and IC’s are you using?

Good USB and power cables in particular, will allow the PS Audio DAC to perform to its best abilities. I’ve found They have a tendency improve details and clarity and smooth things out.

Also - you have to allow the component and the cables adequate time to burn in. Some of my IC’s took over 400 hours to reach their best and in that time their "character" changed several times - from OK, to ugly, to amazing!

Just this week I installed C7 IEC connector on the power cable of my Node 2 - the improvements were instantly apparent - prior to this I had been using a quality cryo’d adapter.

If after all that you are not happy with the sound - at least you will know the cables are not the issue.

In the past four years I have had the opportunity to try some amazing cables of all types and I firmly believe cables are as important as the components themselves.

Hope that helps - Steve




I can assure uou if you put all hirez files, or Flac,Wav files usjng the internal 
2Terabyte hard drive this would not be the issue.  Running a  iMac you are looking 
Detail server based knly is the way to go.  What are uou guys running gof dacs ? 
And Yes  the digital cable does count. I am using a Audio Quest Diamond.
If the Aurender 100H was this bad it woild not have won at least 5 mayor awards.
I compared everyhing from $3k on down. I had thd Bryson-2 player 
This unit is  better ,and  Aries was not as refined soundjng snd built like a plastic toy compared with internal 2T drive weighs over 10 lbs
And the Biggest memory buffer by far a Solid State 120 Gigabyte. Compare this  with Any competitor. P.s Bryson recommended and is great , DB Power amp
This not only will rip cd but will take your digital files from Apple and convert them 
To Wav,or Flac files,or many other file types for under $40. A great product to get .
I have the aurender and no issues. I also have the PS DS. I do prefer the aurender.
Thanks 
Thanks everyone for there comments being an audio file since 1970 , I know if something sounds right or it doesn't, 5 min listening to the aurender , sounded like everything played was MP3 quality,and I immediately checked this out ,as it was a borrowed unit from a friend with music on it, so my only conclusion must be fawlty unit, when aurender is out of system everything is glorious
I'm with @audioman58 on this one. I have an Aurender N100H connected to an Ayre Codex DAC using an AudioQuest Coffee USB cable. I did upgrade the power cord to a Pangea on the Aurender.  Very happy with the results, better than any CD player or transport I've used and certainly better than the mac air I was using.   
FYI, you can also run MinimServer in a NAS drive where music lives so don't need PC to play music.   This is how Lumin works.

Installing MinimServer on a QNAP NAS

Installing MinimServer on a Synology NAS
I have the direct stream dac as well , using jr, with Mac mini, will purchase bridge || as well , aurender what a disappointment
@pavpet  my brother is using bridge II with his Direct Stream.  Excellent SQ and bridge II is very stable.   He serves from JRiver in a mini.

Both of us had PerfectWave DAC MKII with bridge I.  Very good SQ but bridge I was very unstable.   It hangs and requires a daily reboot but appears problems have been addressed in bridge II.
I'm going to go with ps audio bridge ll , I have transparent ref mm2 interconnects 
plus I have  dedicated ac, must be a flaw in the aurender,
I have not found any of the above to be true. 
If this were the case it would not have won at least 5 individual awards.
I have the 2 Terabyte hard drive  and  have my whole library on the internal drive.
I wanted to  mention  I have a good  Cardas power cord and a 
Audioquest Diamond digital cable which the 2 cables have a lot to do with  this.
It sounds like a faulty power supply you are experiencing or very bad mains 
If in the city .  


I didn't like the aurender line of server, the sound and some of the gimmicks they promoted, so I bought an auralic Aries and was glad I did. I have since sold that and went the directstream bridge II route and couldn't be happier.
I had a Aurender N100H connected to a Wyred4Sound dac2se dsd dac.  I  much preferred the sound of my Sony all in one HAPZ1ES Music Player.  I honestly do not see what all the fuss is about with the Aurender.
I just brought home a demo unit of the N100H for audition and I had to send it back.

I don’t find it to sound bright or edgy. Quite the opposite, actually.

What I found wanting in the N100H is the stability of its internal computer environment. At times, it sounds glorious and at times, it sounds incoherent with intolerable distortion, which could have come across to you as bright, edgy with a poor bottom end.

What the N100H needs is a beefier power supply and a more consistent, stable platform. Sometimes rebooting brings back all the glory but at times, that did not make the problem go away at all.

Hope this helps.