Aurender

@lalitk Nice to know about Euphony Stylus on Pink Faun. I recall when Euphony first came out there was a lot of chatter about how it sounded better than Roon. I have one friend that still uses it, but I never personally owned a hardware solution that ran it. Thanks for sharing. 

@vonhelmholtz Yes, while the streaming processes and protocols may be the same, the quality of the power supply, clock l, and isolation in the design of the circuits and components (isolation overall by chassis, isolation inside across individual components, etc) are the main reasons why each unit sounds the same. 

@blisshifi 

Just to make sure that I understand..The better clock is integral to providing the ultra low jitter Coax/AES output, but is not central to USB output, thus for USB only the N200 is sufficient.

@mkdm11

My replacement Holo May DAC KTE will be here on Wednesday. I’m interpreting your post to say that AES/Coax vs USB performance is very close With the Holo. If this is correct, then USB would certainly provide you with the added ability to listen to high bitrate PCM and DSD, but given the fact that you are struggling with interconnects, my interpretation of your remarks might be off.

I used to own a N100H and a separate CD transport which to me sounded great. In the interest of going to a one box solution, I picked up an ACS10 which I run via USB into my Holo Audio May. The Conductor app allows me to flip between Tidal and my stored music easily and seamlessly. I use a dedicated iPad as my interface and scratch my head at why anyone would want a subscription to listen to music? The cost of the iPad is half that of a lifetime Roon subscription so it makes perfect sense (screw using a phone!). The sound is fantastic and Ari has always been very helpful whenever I have questions. I couldn't be happier! 

@vonhelmholtz To respond your assumption, the answer is "typically yes, but not always".

As oddiofyl mentions, he still prefers the coax out from the Aurender to the USB. While the higher end Aurenders have even better clocks, the N200's coax may still be better than the USB interface to your Holo. You would have to experiment and decide.

Sometimes, but rarely, even with USB, some DACs can be set to prefer the internal clock of the source vs in the DAC. Very, very rare.

And in the case of T+A DACs, both the SDV 3100 HV and the DAC 200 both have some masterclock functionality built in, so it still optimizes the clocking coming in from the Aurender when using coax/AES.

And again, with the N200 vs the higher ends via USB, what you are still getting in the other units are a more robust power supply and better isolation that will give you additional tonal density and clarity. I would say something like the N20 would give you more body and meat on the bones in the same way your new phono stage does, where as the N200 will sound just a bit leaner/neutral. The N200 gets very close to the N20, but there is still an audible improvement in the N20 (say 20% better) but at double the price. The N20 is the sweet spot for near end game at its price point, but the N200 is probably Aurender's best unit for price/performance ratio.