Innuos or Aurender

Let me also put in a word about Innuos support.  My Phoenix module quit working after a brief power outage.  It could see but not connect to my DAC.  The Stream 1 still worked through the regular USB port, however.  Within the day I was working with a tech in Portugal, with no language barrier at all.  He could not figure out the problem.  Because I had on the very first Stream 1’s that reached customer hands, they asked if they could bring it back to the factory to examine it.  A label was quickly emailed, it was picked up promptly, and I had back from two trans-Atlantic flights in about 9 or 10 days, fully working, with guidance on how to avoid the problem.  I chose to buy a backups to run just the Stream 1 via the LPS1.  I’ve had two power drops since then with no problem.  

When I bought the Stream 1, I looked very hard at the Stream 3, but the cost delta was fairly large, and I want to put that money into a preamp upgrade, about which I am still considering my options in light of all the great postings I received here at Audiogon.

I am using a 2024 iPad Pro 11, which also my primary browsing tool, although I use a MacBook Pro for any sizable writing task, such as lengthy email.  It works, although switching from one album to another very occasionally takes an extra tap on the new album—maybe every three or four days.   It rarely persists, but the rare times that it does, I simply close and open Sense, which happens almost immediately … just several seconds to get full capability.  I also use the web to play music via Tidal Connect on my Mac Mini M4Pro in my office system, which is my old stereo equipment I replaced; t consists of my Mac Mini, a Schiit Mimir DAC, a NAD C356BEE integrated amp, my 1992 Infinity Modulus satellites—the pre-mass market Infinity, and a DefTech Supercube 6000.  The resale was so low on these that I just decided to make them a second system, and it sounds pretty good for old stuff.

Aurender or Innuos are both excellent products but had different sound signatures in my room.  I found the Innuous more detailed and more sound stage forward in my system.  The Aurender delivered a smoother more analogue sound.  I was impressed with both but felt that the N20 played better with my speakers and went with that.

I have music stored on my office hard drive from rips and downloads and I found it easy to send the files to the hard drive on the streamer over my network.  I haven't had any SQ issues and it sounds bit perfect to my ears.  Good luck and let us know which way you go.  

I recently traded in my Innuos Pulse for an Aurender A1000.  I was playing the Pulse through the DAC in my McIntosh MSA5500. The issue with Innuos is that there are no local dealers or service centers. I wasn't happy with the overall sound of the system, so traded in the McIntosh MSA5500 for a McIntosh MA352 and use the A1000's DAC which is quite good.  The sound is much smoother, and I don't need to worry about DSD through USB. The only downside of the A1000 is that it only has RCA outs, no balanced.  I haven't found that to be a problem, and delegated my balanced cables to the Parasound phono preamp connection to the MA352.  So far I have been quite pleased with the sound.

Lots of Aurender on sale at Musidirect:

 https://www.musicdirect.com/shop/?query=aurender