Aurender A20 or Lumin X1

ROON is the only way I roll. I am definitely a power user of ROON. So no interest in Aurrender (I have heard it). I prefer a $400 cheap computer to run my ROON core in a far off room away from my 3 ROON Endpoints. I use fibre optic to make any negatives of using a $400 computer far away from my gear go away.

The X1 is a great streamer and I owned it. I like the DAC of the Schitt Yggi+ Less is More over the X1's DAC. The streamer on the X1 is great as is the LeedH volume control. There is a new Lumin streamer that takes the DAC section out and is cheaper. That would be what I would get if I went back to a Lumin streamer. The X1 DAC is very good but I like the Schitt more on the top end.

The Sonore OpticalRendu is as good as the streamer on the X1, but sounds different. A bit calmer over the wild child streamer sound of the X1.

The PlayBack Designs Streamer-IF is maybe my best streamer. Unlike the other 2 which used fibre I am using Ethernet and SPDIF for the PlayBack Designs streamer into a Benchmark DAC3B. That stream sounds great. The plan is to buy a PlayBack Designs Dream DAC to use the Plink of the Streamer-IF (so fibre). That Plink streamer is likely going to be the best I have ever had. It only works on Nagra and PlayBack Designs DACs.

The main question for you is ROON or no ROON.

Feature sets are usually bigger differences than SQ.

Do you want Roon or don’t want?

My first DAC was a Lumin D2 with an LPS.

The sound was very good, musical, detail, depth, I was very happy with SQ. Unfortunatly, the app was a problem. Connectivity, chashes, post upgrade lack of functionality and system recognition. Support via trouble tickets was less than ideal. 

I replaced it with an Aurrender N20 and since added a second to my home. Both are excellent pieces, SQ fantastic, tech support very good, IMO the best app of a pure streamer solution.

Has anyone else seen the following about Roon and Aurender by chance?

On the Roon forum I had read that “They said that with the new line that utilizes Intel instead of AMD, that they are working on a Roon Ready status for Aurender.”https://community.roonlabs.com/t/aurender-roon-we-cant-be-friends-we-can/231190/14

Wouldn’t this qualify the Aurender A20 since its CPU is Intel and not AMD? Couldn’t a software update make this Roon Ready then?

ROON READY should have nothing to do with the processor. ROON READY is the ability to talk a particular protocol call RAAT. If Aurrender can be programmed with understanding of RAAT then it would be  a ROON READY endpoint. 

The reason Aurrender has not done so is likely because they are direct competitors to ROON.