Streamers - Auralic, Aurender, Lumin, others...


Any recommendations, please? :)
I'm looking for a streamer only – without a DAC.

I’ve been leaning toward the Auralic Aries S1 since it’s reasonably priced and available pre-owned. It also has a coaxial input, so I could connect my CD player as a transport. I’d mostly use it as a Roon endpoint, as I run Roon on a Mac Mini and really enjoy it — especially for its great music recommendations.

I’ve read some threads here, and many of you seem to love Aurender and Lumin. Has anyone had a chance to compare them with the Auralic?

Thanks!

gabriel123

Very happy with my Sonore Signature Rendu Deluxe (USB) paired with a Sonore Opticalmodule Deluxe as a Roon endpoint.  Stays on 24/7 and performs flawlessly with my Sonictransporter as its server.  I never have to fuss with it to get it to work properly…it’s as if it is invisible unlike other streamers I have used in the past.  Great sound quality and customer service.  Good luck with your search.  

auralic is out of business

maybe their ip will be bought by another concern in time, but for now the company is kaput and their website is non responsive

their sold units in circulation will continue to work but owners should be prepared for no more ongoing company support, o-s software/firmware updates etc etc in the foreseeable future

auralic has made quite good products since they came onto the scene with the original aries and mini -- though in more recent times they have gone up up up in price with each set of product revisions -- making them increasingly dubious in terms of value for money... this fact no doubt contributing to their commercial demise

If you use a streamer as a roon end point you won’t be taking advantage of Aurender’s proprietary processing including caching to internal SSD. In this case I’d go for Lumin. I also recommend considering Roon Nucleus One and get out of mac min as roon core. While the mini is ok, nucleus one is a better sounding option. 

Thanks, everyone!


I use a Mac because it’s fast with the M1 processor and does upsampling flawlessly. I don’t think connecting it directly to the DAC is a good idea, though.
If Aurender has a better app, interface, and good recommendation algorithms, I’ll have no problem switching from the Mac.

What a drag that Auralic went belly up. I was wondering what was going on today — their website’s been down all day. I wish there were something like an Auralic — small, black, with a coax input and upsampling option. There’s a coax input on my Lampizator, but I have to press the button manually to switch from USB.
With the Auralic, I could connect my CD player and decide remotely whether I want to listen to CDs or Tidal.

 

What about the cheaper Aurender models, like the N150? Are they good as well?

I don’t know why, but Lumin doesn’t have a good reputation in my country. Some people have griped about the sound quality. How would you compare Aurender and  Lumin in terms of sound quality and interface / app?