Comparing Aurender N20 vs eversolo dmp A8


 I replaced eversolo dmp A8 with aurender N20 for digital streaming over qobuz. I compared them playing through native apps. Both feed into Holo may nos Dac over a USB curious cable. Ethernet cable connected over etherregen. Stock power cables feeding from a dedicated 20 amp circuit. Signal going through Luxman amp, 805D4. Luxman is doing pre-amp volume control. Both streamers are broken in.

 

Result - I am shocked to see that 1/6th price, eversolo is actually sounding better overall. N20 takes control with vocals, however the body of music/instruments is leaner. Not sure why I am seeing this disconnect between powerful vocals and lean acoustics. 

 

I got n20 used, and hence my assumption on it being broken in. Not sure if I am missing something here.. need help from fellow audiogoners..

saurabhgarg

Lalitk beat me to it. Now that you've discovered the difference between  AES and USB with the N20, just wait until you hear what a difference a quality cable will make--with all due respect to the perfectly respectable Mogami cable, which did give you a good taste of what is possible. You are just scratching the surface of what your N20 can do until you get the cabling dialed in.

++1 Jimmy2615,

I would never use stock cables, as this is limiting both of the streamers. You don't need to break the bank, but something along the lines of Anti-Cables Level 3 ($300), or Zavfino Atlantic OFC ($188) or Zavfino Legion OFHC ($288) or Zavfino Fina OCC ($345)

Also as many have suggested that with USB you are using the internal "voltage controlled crystal oscillator - VCXO" of the DAC, and you'd want to take advantage of the "oven controlled crystal oscillator - OCXO) in the Aurender versus the Femto clock in the DMP-A8. I am not sure what sonic improvements this would make, but it is definitely worth an attempt.....I would try it

Thanks @saurabhgarg for sharing your findings with us. This is great to hear.

If you have a component using LPS, it sounds like a waste of money to add a costly power cable. 

As for the component improvement, it seems more the type of connection matters and can be superior depending on that individual product than throwing money at one type of connection. If one connection is superior to the USB connection on a product, that's the information to utilize. 

That's my two cents there. 

Romanesque you know little about digital . I owned a Audio store for years.

pits pretty simple ,digital travels from home to home Ungrounded, bringing in Noise,

that $5 wall wart that comes with the router is pure junk $2 worth of parts it just adds additional noise to the circuit. A Linear power supply stops that noise and distributes it much cleaner ,that is a fact ,it can be measured and well as easy to hear. Then get a Quality digital hub or ditch at minim7m the $600 LHY,SW-8

and both need a decent quality power cord ,why ? The the power cord is a filter it shields ,filters noise before going into electronics. If this were not so ,no one would 

be using a LPS power supply, or buying $1,000s of dollars in aftermarket power cords. You do as you please it’s your $$ ,I doubt 1,0000s of Audiophiles are wrong 99%  of Audiophiles use upgraded power cords ,depending too on their budget.

I go to many Audio gatherings per year and they all have similar items .

a top quality Ethernet hub can cost over $5k and night and day better sound Ansuz from Denmark. D2 my brother has with their Ethernet cables , line conditioner ,takes you to another league in streaming the. Only drawback is the $$ which is not cheap,

I also have the N20 which replaced an N200

I tried USB, and AES connections - and then it was recommended that using the Optical (toslink) connection may be optimal with a Chord DAVE DAC.  This provided a HUGE sonic benefit.  It’s much more transparent with much better high frequency accuracy and much more air to the sound.  
 

The cable is a ten dollar optical cable from Amazon.  This sounded significantly better than an a much more expensive AES cable that was tried, and  better than the USB cable.  
This leads me to believe that selecting the right connection type to your DAC maters quite a bit.  (Full disclosure:  I do believe in the benefits of better/more expensive cabling - in this case the optical cable happens to be cheap).