New streamer? N150 vs U2

OP,

Congratulations. Excellent to hear you are happy. What you are hearing is exactly what good streamers do. I’m sure you’ll have many happy years with it. Conductor gets easier and easier to use as you get familiar with it.

I had a chance a couple of years back to compare the Aurender N150, Lumin U2-mini, and Esoteric N-05XD. In this shoot-out, the streamers were connected via USB to a Berkeley Audio Design (BAD) Alpha USB 2, which was connected via AES/EBU to a BAD Alpha Dac 3. The mark of the Aurender sound was delicacy. Mircodynamics and other aspects of phrasing by musicians were rendered faithfully. There was air and ease. The Lumin and Esoteric produced sound that was more intense but was dense in the sense the sound stage was flattened to some degree in the vertical plane.My preference was for the Aurender N150. 

I compared the Aurender N150 plus BAD Alpha USB 2 combo to a Bluesound Vault 2. In this shoot-out, these units were streaming to a BAD Alpha Dac Reference 2 with the Michael Pflaumer MQA software upgrade.The N150 was connected to the Alpha USB via an Audioquest Diamond USB cable. The Alpha USB was connected to the DAC via an Audioquest Diamond AES/EBE  cable. The Vault was connected to the DAC via a DH Labs D-750 SP/DIF cable with a BlackCat BNC to RCA adaptor. The rest of my system is described in my Audiogon profile.

The N150/Alpha USB combo was clearly superior to the Vault 2. Although I had streamed from the Vault 2 for many year with great pleasure in the head-to-head it was apparent that the Vault 2 was producing distortion, particularly jitter. Easily heard on female vocals were glare and shoutiness. The N150 did a better job of producing the original timbre of vocals and instruments. Again, there was delicacy and clarity. An easy analogy for me is a white wine with a high degree of minerality- where you can taste or imagine you can taste the water in the region the grapes were grown.

That said the N150 imparted some sweetness to the sound. Others have commented on the warm coloration produced by the N150. Some may prefer this. Also, the sound stage is not small but a wider and deeper rendering would be nice. I am eager to compare the N150 to N200 to see if the latter produces a more true-to-life sound in my system.

A heads-up that the break-in time on the N150 was considerable. (I was breaking in the USB and AES/EBU cables at the same time so it’s possible those pieces were responsible for the long break-in instead.) At around 200 hours the sound becomes stable. Prior to the sound stage and instrumental sounds go through several evolutions. There may some addition relaxing of the sound after 200 hours.

Visitors here might also have interest in my recent post comparing the BAD Alpha USB Reference to the BAD Alpha USB 2 digital-to-digital convertor (DDC).

@bosssound 

Although I had streamed from the Vault 2 for many year with great pleasure in the head-to-head it was apparent that the Vault 2 was producing distortion, particularly jitter. Easily heard on female vocals were glare and shoutiness. The N150 did a better job of producing the original timbre of vocals and instruments. 

It's amazing isn't it? This digital streaming progression. You think it sounds fantastic, until you get better stuff, better cables, filters, switches, better filters, better switches, and you then realize how cloaked the music was. 

What software did you use for the comparisons?