Aurender

It’s not that bad on Android.  I spoke to them last week and they are doing updates to improve stability.    I think some people are not setting permissions and it cuts out.  I set permission to always on on the background and made a few other changes and it is much better.    They said in the new few weeks. 
 

Bluesound has its issues too.  My Tab could not always find the Vault.  I would have to close all programs and launch Vault.  Minor inconvenience for such a great platform

The Aurender search function is much better. Going straight to Albums, Artists and Songs is much better.  The Queue is much better , playlist compilation.  All much better 

One has to always remember that this tech is still sort of in its infancy.  Fortunately these devices ( most of them ) get better through firmware updates.  I’ll take some minor quirks if the sound quality is excellent, which it is.  

@bigkidz

I bookmarked your website. Holo is sending me a new DAC. I’m guessing that production is a challenge. You seem to have a wide array of products.  I bet your R-2R Tube DAC sounds quite musical.

I appreciate oddiofyl input. However I have not had any issues with bluos for weeks now. Not a single hiccup. I don"t have vault, just using the NODE to stream Qobuz. And the reliability is awesome. Aurender will have to make huge strides towards android reliability before I ever consider it. And as far as the Aurender sound being so much better than the NODE, it all depends on how you set up your NODE. No need to keep rehashing how I do it, just look at my system, fully described there. I honestly don"t see what I am missing sound wise vs. Aurender since my streaming setup is at least up to par with both my vinyl and CD setups, and they are no slouch, also fully described in my system. If Aurender works great for many, great, but it's far from the only game in town and similar performance can be gotten for much less money in my experience. Whatever Aurender did to get such reputation on this site is obviously genius. 

@vonhelmholtz Just seeing this thread now and weighing in.

First, sample rates higher than 176-192KHz are nowhere near as important as the quality of the clock and the protocol. With that said, I would take a digital source with a quality clock maxxed out at 192KHz using AES over 768KHz USB any day. I am in the camp that believes USB is noisy and fatiguing in comparison. One case I can make is using USB from my $24K Aurender N30SA into my $38.5K T+A SDV 3100 HV. Where USB will use the T+A’s reference clock, even with 768Khz, I still prefer AES and the Aurender’s clock with 192Khz sample rates. The quality of the clocks in Aurender’s higher end units is very admirable and the N30SA (and the T+A DAC) is one of the reasons I’m debating so hard on whether I should give up on vinyl completely (you and I have discussed this). Many other endgame DAC manufacturers also prioritize AES, such as Berkeley, and AES is a professional protocol used in the pro audio / recording / mastering / production works. It is NOT a legacy interface.

Audiotroy mentions that Aurender can’t run Roon because it’s processors aren’t strong/fast enough. This is by design. By utilizing a low processing power architecture, Aurender can achieve lower noise floor, better separation, and just more of everything. Conductor is a proprietary platform to work its best alongside this low processing power environment. On the contrast, there is much debate about the “sound of Roon”. There was a fairly lengthy thread on this where I also commented on the elements that make a quality server/streamer (a robust linear power supply, low power, low noise, isolation, and clocking).

Also, I’m not aware of Aurender having any issues with native DSD playback. The Conductor platform allows users to choose whether they want native playback, DSD over PCM (DoP), or conversion to PCM. In this case, it boils down to the DAC’s supported formats.

Agree with others on i2s. There’s been a lot of hype, but implementations vary.