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Auralic Aries

Since getting my DAC I’ve been using Tidal via my laptop as my primary source, but the noise from the PC usb connection has gotten to be insufferable. So I’ve been looking at some dedicated streamers. The Aurender and Lumin gear seemed to be pretty much out of my budget, so I turned my eye to the Auralic Aries, Cambridge CXN, and Pro-ject Streambox. The onboard DAC and automatic upsampling on the Cambridge didn’t appeal to me, and I had I hard time seeing myself paying over $800 for Pro-ject’s suped up rPi, whereas I’ve read nothing but good things about Auralic. So today I won an auction for a pre-owned Aries with linear power supply for $695 including shipping. How’d I do? Seemed like a reasonable price to me...

Anyone know of any known issues to look out for on a pre-owned unit?

rfnoise
ghdprentice
6,362 posts
 
I love analog as well. The Aries was the first major step for me to realize sound that was equally satisfying compared to analog.

A simple trick if you want to plug in the Aries, or any streamer, when you are not next to the router. You buy a wifi extender… that plugs in like a wall wart near your streamer (really easy to configure, just push two buttons… and it’s done). The extender has an Ethernet port on it. Works great. One of the reasons I bought my Aries was because it had the ability to put itself on the wifi, as my router was upstairs. All my streamers are on using extenders, sound great. 
rfnoise OP
153 posts
 
@ghdprentice Thanks! I’ll look into that! Any particular brand you’d recommend?
mgrif104
328 posts
 
@rfnoise - I personally use a google WiFi mesh system with 3 waypoints, plugging the primary unit into my initial router, (which I have completely locked down for security purposes and have turned off WiFi broadcasting),  In essence, I can have two distinct WiFi networks if I wanted.  In any case, the WiFi points connect to the primary and create a much more stable signal across the house.  And, each provides the ability to plug devices in via an Ethernet cable. So, it solves two problems - eliminating poor and uneven coverage across my three floors, and providing a secure, stable and fast short connection for my streaming transport.  There are other mesh units you can get, but google’s works fairly well for a modest price.
ghosthouse's avatar
ghosthouse
4,279 posts
 
@rfnoise

Read your earlier comment about trying a better USB cable with your Aries.

If you haven't purchased yet, please read the review by Duster over on Audio Asylum about Monoprice's Monolith USB cable.  See link below.  The Monolith is a crazy, crazy good value....low price and outstanding performance.  I found it better than the Oyaide Neo D+ Class A USB cable I'd been running.  The Oyaide itself had received a very good Absolute Sound review.  The price for the Monolith is so low you can afford to take a gamble on it.  

https//www.audioasylum.com/audio/cables/messages/17/176921.html

ghdprentice
6,362 posts
 
@rfnoise.

I would just match the manufacturer of your router when getting an extender. Netgear or Linksys… or whatever you use. All the manufacturers make them. Typically $60 or so. They theoretically are interoperable with different companies router, but I like reducing possible issues. I have never had any. I have two of them, one for my main system and one for my headphone system. Nice thing with wired, no passwords to play with..
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