Follow up:
1) Aurender support.
I have asked Aurender support to check my unit, they did their
best.
After thorough week long investigation I have got answer
from Aurender, I'm pasting it below, IMO it might be of some value for audiogon Aurender
owners:
"We checked and again did not find
anything wrong with your Aurender on the software side.
WIFI Router is used only for controlling app,
music is streamed directly from internal drives.
Yes, but noise can still be introduced via the
ethernet cable. It may help, but don’t expect a “night and day” difference
there.
Your Aurender N10 already has a very fine
linear power supply built in. Certainly, a good power cable will make a
difference. This will be more easily audible than playing with ethernet cables.
Still, temper your expectations here…it makes a very clear difference, but will
it completely transform the sound of your system? usually not.
"
2) Wifi router.
I already have replaced cheap router power adapter with
battery based PSU (I did not heard difference as expected , as it is only for
controlling app).
I will try better Ethernet cables (Supra 8) and will use
better router soon.
Aurender firmware has been upgraded to newest version
3) Audition
Aurender N10 vs moded AudioAero MKII vs T+A d10 (with expensive
NOS tubes)
Me and my audio buddies have gather after Christmas to one more time compare transports and reach some
conclusions. Most guys are season audiophiles except one.
Four guys are digital only.
- To settle in, Aurender has been on for week, AA player for
1 day.
- The some PC cable used for both units Shunyata Alpha Ztron
DIgital connected to dedicated line terminated with Furutech GTX socket.
- we have used CD track which has been ripped to 16/44.1 WAV
(playlist).
- amplification modded Supratek Chenin mkII (tube) ,Clayton monoblocks
(solidstate class A),
- speakers YGA Anat Studio speakers
Our impressions after audition N10 vs AudioAero:
For some reason AudioAero did not sound to his full
potential, friends said it never sounded that bad, on the contrary Aurender N10
sounded better then ever (new firmware - who knows):
Summary of our impressions:
Friend K: prefers N10 better hights , velvet mids, AA to
much bass (he is not an audiophile).
Friend B: N10 balance is lower, less hights and less
sibilants, bad sound stage, AA good sound stage better highs but sound to
technical, verdict draw
Friend S: AA goes much deeper, wider sound stage, harmonically saturated, N10 leaner, grayer ,
preference for AA but difference is not like night and day
Friend A: AA a little to aggressive, but there is shine in
the mids, better attack, N10 has jagged frequency band, garish and lean, prefers
by wide margin AA (aggressiveness vanished when AA used with Acrolink 7100)
Friend T: AA to much bass, besides that AA is better in
every aspect, N10 has no colors no liquidity, behind weil.
Friend J: AA more information , mids are withdraw, N10
better mids, but very gray, dummy sound, AA wins
Next contender we have tried was T+A d10 SACD/CD player (we
have used only CD's for comparison), unit has not been modded but better then
stock tubes has been used: some NOS Siemens, Telefunkens etc.
To our surprise, it has been unanimous (nobody has expected
it) T+A was not just better then AA or N10 it was crushing victory, all aspects
have been better: highs mids, bass finally has been under control, huge
sound stage, liquidity. Totally different
league then N10. Just a few comments: balanced, musical, good controlled bass,
saturated, liquid.
Next we has tried standalone DAC's we had Lampizator 4.5 and
Cello Music&Film DAC 8.
Cello in character has been similar to AA Cap but much less
refined, nobody was impressed, Lampizator was very different, very upfront,
good for voices but for nothing else, very flat sound stage, strange mechanical.
Integrated DAC's of AA or T+A have been much better.
Additionally we have compared Shunyata Alpha Zitron Digital
Power Cord with Acrolink 7100 Power Cord, again unanimously Acrolink won when
used with AA or T+A.
When everybody got cozy about T+A sound , digital we could
have leave with, I decided to put analog on: SME 20/2 + SME V + Kisseki Purple
heart (SME with small mods: VanDenHul wire has been replaced with Kondo wire,
cheap DIN socket with silver WBT RCA socket).
If there has been 1mile difference between N10 and T+A, now
between T+A and SME there has been 10 miles difference. Nobody has any doubts
there is a long, long way for digital to reach that kind of musicality if ever .... My
vocabulary is not rich enough to describe it, just music with sound coherent,
liquid, natural, with finally saturated colors, huge sound stage.
Happy T+A owner just asked me how much does it cost to start adventure with analog. Illusion time is over for some of us.
4) Future plans
It is not surprise for me that analog still is king of the
hill and will be at least for decade or longer. Even knowing that, I'm not
going to give up on it. One of my friends is very experience and knowledgeable electronics engineer, and he is going to look
at my N10 to see what can be done to make it fuller more colorful. It will take considerable
time and some money but I hope that he will be able to much AA musicality. or
maybe even T+A (I know I'm letting myself t to be carried away :)
Will update thread when
N10 will be back with all mods.
Thank you for reading, hope that has any value.
Regards
