Post by sidvicious on May 29, 2016 10:37:23 GMT -5
Well, I have had a great two weeks, when it comes to audio, I received and set up my VPI Classic 1, which I love and after such, I traded in my old Champion the VPI HW-19 MK IV, toward a new friend, the Aurender N100H, computer based audio player. I have heard this unit at my dealer’s shop for about two years now and although he is a Vinyl Head, like myself with a Linn LP-12, which he is a dealer and one of the few dealers in the area that can professional set up the suspension for it and he has a Linn Jig to set it up. I had been noticing for a while now that all of the Audio that he has been playing was either coming from the Mac system with customized hardware and power supply and the Aurender N100H. He had told me that after taking an Aurender home he stopped using the Mac Mini setup, because the Aurender was so much better. (If interested in the VPI Classic check out my other thread) He only uses the Mac for rips and Cover Art.
Well, I more and more vinyl wasn’t getting played in the store except when requested by customers. He stated he still loves vinyl, but the Aurender had taken over playback and while he listens to vinyl still at home, he was captivated by the Aurender. I started seeing more music on thumb drives. I started to ask question more, January of this year and the dealer did show me the software and I heard him, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Fast forward to last week Saturday, a day after my VPI Classic arrived and I started spending more time with it than the HW-19 and I knew I wasn’t going to listen to it as much in my second system because the phono stage in that system wasn’t up to the task, it’s a cheap Pro-ject that was just meant for my Technics 1200.
I begin negotiating a deal with the dealer, and I got a a email this Thursday that he had a mint, but used unit in from a customer that upgraded to an Aurender N10. I told him I would be in that day. I spent an hour with the dealer learning how to set it up and fortunately for me there were some problems related to his use of a wifi extender, which died and he had to repeat the set up process four times, which allowed me to learn more about the unit than I would have learned that day. The dealer replaced the wifi extender and we went on with the set up. The dealer uses a Netgear Wifi extender to let you transfer music wirelessly, but this wasn’t something, I was sold on. I always believed the best way to deal with music in a network type setup or data is hardwired, based off my many years of experience as a computer technician and owner of a computer business, 10 years ago.
I took the Aurender home and set it up and the next day, on Friday, I set up the Nas Share on my computer. Here is how this works, you download the software on your Ipad and then on the PC or Mac you will be pulling music from. On the PC, I had to tell it where to pull the music from and the same with the IPAD. I then did a scan on the PC with the Software Aurender Media Manager and it found the hard drive with the music and I was able to go into the IPAD and find the Nas Share as my computer’s hard drive. On the PC you use the Run command and type in the IP address that your Aurender is on after connecting it to your network. You will be greeted with a box that wants you to put in the default user name and password and you are now into a music folder with categories that you can drag and drop files into. The Aurender comes in a N100 without 2tb hard drive and the one I have, which is the N100H with two terabyte drive. They both have a 120 gig solid state drive that just caches the files for quicker access and there is a Aurender, X100 line with 6tb and 12tb versions as well as the N10 and W20 parts which are a lot more money, now enough with the tech stuff.
The software for the Aurender is very good, it allows you to pick you album and play one song and with the touch of a button bring the rest of the music from that album over and mix up the tracks that you want to listen to on a playlist, you can do this for multiple albums. The software allows you to do sub categories inside the main one which are Blues, Country, Jazz, Etc and Lost and Found. The interface works well, and if there are problems with your unit, the unit will send a report to the company and sometime that day they will send a software fix or have the unit fixed by the time you get home from work. So how does it sound, in a word flat out amazing, my collection is mostly CD rips at lossless wave files, but the few MP3’s that I have 328 sound great. Bass is balanced, treble is very nice with no sibilance and the midrange is to die for.
You will hear more details in the music than you knew were there. If you already have a great system, this will take you to the next level, because it can retrieve detail in spades and have you plastered to your chair like the guy in the old Maxwell tape ads. You will hear percussions that you didn’t know existed, right out front. Bass is deep and well defined without being boomy. The midrange is just heavenly, especially female voices, like Adele, you can close your eyes and hear her dead center, like she is in the room with you. The treble is rich and sibilance free and you will hear every cymbal as it is struck and every guitar solo being plucked evenly.
The BAD: Well, even though, this is the next evolution in audio and even I have to admit it is, it’s a computer and as such, I experienced the unit sometimes not communicating with the unit, but it’s a quick fix, you go into the settings and have the software search for the Aurender unit and bam, it’s back up. The software will also find new music that you might have ripped and update or you can choose to just update the new files. The Aurender will not search for Cover Art for you, you must have the cover art first from your rips, in my case, my computer's hard drive or there will be what looks like a gold CD circle as your cover art.
I never like Adele’s new album on the CD (bass to hard and sounded harsh), but through this thing, it’s amazing. The shut down routine, while not hard doesn’t always work as intended, but here it is, hold the big button on the left until the word, power off, please wait, then the screen goes black and the button flashes blue four times and it cuts off and you can now shut it off from the rear button and unplug the unit if you choose. I have done this three times and I seem to get the power shut off abruptly warning and it sinks the unit back up, but remember with any hard drive, if you keep shutting it off abruptly, you can corrupt the hardrive’s data or cause damage to the hard drive, so I have to get this solved.
My temporary fix is to put the unit in Stand by mode through the software and only push the button one time and it blinks and one time and goes into standby mode. The drives inside, to my knowledge are not user replaceable, according to the dealer, but I will be putting an email in to Aurender to get a confirmation.
The GOOD: Aurender is constantly updating it’s software and when you get the unit, you should upgrade the software right away. This is probably one of the best units of it’s kind on the market, not my unit, but Aurender as a whole, if you went to Axpona, you saw this unit and it’s been at various shows in the last two years. The sound quality is amazing.
You need to have a current DAC that plays DSD files, but Aurender has even thought past this, they created the Aurender UC-100, Spidif to USB/ Coaxial converter that you connect to your N100H to it’s USB output labeled 5volts and you plug the coaxial end of the UC-100 using a coaxial cable into your Dac’s Coaxial input and you are set, no need to upgrade the DAC, but this isn’t cheap at $500, but it’s the solution for those with older DAC and my DAC is an excellent DAC (Audio Research DAC 8) and I wasn’t interested in buying a new dac.
So if you are asking was this a good purchase, yes, its’ great the sound quality is excellent and it doesn’t help that I got several hundred dollars off of this unit and my trade in. This device will take your audio system to the next level. I won’t be dragging all of my music files over to the 2 tb hard drive, only things I consider special. My dealer made me an interesting offer after he found out I had the VPI Classic 1, as part of this deal he stated he would professionally set up my VPI Classic 1 for free, he has the same tools as Michael Fremer and he has been in this business for 40 years so I agreed even though my table is setup, but I asked him to let me know how close to correct my set up of the table is. His system is one to die for and he has had a couple of reviewers at his home Headphone reviewers and Audio Reviewers, print and internet reviewers and one that said his system sounded better than this professional reviewer’s system did with Magico $100,000.
My dealer is using my Dac the DAC 8, my phono stage the PH8 and my now our Aurender, but he will be upgrading to the Aurender N10. My dealer is using a tricked out Linn LP12, a Ref 5se and Vandersteen 3A Signatures with twin Vandersteen 2wq subs, a full Sonus System throughout his home and other more expensive equipment. I now have to find a new place for my Marantz NA7004, which is a great streamer, but is outclassed by this unit. Oh I almost forgot, you can add a USB thumb drives or an external hard drive to extend your space. I have a Audioquest dragon fly connected to mine (Aurender) just before the Aurender N100h. So excuse me if I stop now and go back to enjoying the VPI Classic 1 and the Aurender. The last thing I would like to have is another Vandersteen 2WQ. This will be one hell of a birthday gift to myself, I have worked hard all of my life and I have earned this!!!
Well, I more and more vinyl wasn’t getting played in the store except when requested by customers. He stated he still loves vinyl, but the Aurender had taken over playback and while he listens to vinyl still at home, he was captivated by the Aurender. I started seeing more music on thumb drives. I started to ask question more, January of this year and the dealer did show me the software and I heard him, but I wasn’t really paying attention. Fast forward to last week Saturday, a day after my VPI Classic arrived and I started spending more time with it than the HW-19 and I knew I wasn’t going to listen to it as much in my second system because the phono stage in that system wasn’t up to the task, it’s a cheap Pro-ject that was just meant for my Technics 1200.
I begin negotiating a deal with the dealer, and I got a a email this Thursday that he had a mint, but used unit in from a customer that upgraded to an Aurender N10. I told him I would be in that day. I spent an hour with the dealer learning how to set it up and fortunately for me there were some problems related to his use of a wifi extender, which died and he had to repeat the set up process four times, which allowed me to learn more about the unit than I would have learned that day. The dealer replaced the wifi extender and we went on with the set up. The dealer uses a Netgear Wifi extender to let you transfer music wirelessly, but this wasn’t something, I was sold on. I always believed the best way to deal with music in a network type setup or data is hardwired, based off my many years of experience as a computer technician and owner of a computer business, 10 years ago.
I took the Aurender home and set it up and the next day, on Friday, I set up the Nas Share on my computer. Here is how this works, you download the software on your Ipad and then on the PC or Mac you will be pulling music from. On the PC, I had to tell it where to pull the music from and the same with the IPAD. I then did a scan on the PC with the Software Aurender Media Manager and it found the hard drive with the music and I was able to go into the IPAD and find the Nas Share as my computer’s hard drive. On the PC you use the Run command and type in the IP address that your Aurender is on after connecting it to your network. You will be greeted with a box that wants you to put in the default user name and password and you are now into a music folder with categories that you can drag and drop files into. The Aurender comes in a N100 without 2tb hard drive and the one I have, which is the N100H with two terabyte drive. They both have a 120 gig solid state drive that just caches the files for quicker access and there is a Aurender, X100 line with 6tb and 12tb versions as well as the N10 and W20 parts which are a lot more money, now enough with the tech stuff.
The software for the Aurender is very good, it allows you to pick you album and play one song and with the touch of a button bring the rest of the music from that album over and mix up the tracks that you want to listen to on a playlist, you can do this for multiple albums. The software allows you to do sub categories inside the main one which are Blues, Country, Jazz, Etc and Lost and Found. The interface works well, and if there are problems with your unit, the unit will send a report to the company and sometime that day they will send a software fix or have the unit fixed by the time you get home from work. So how does it sound, in a word flat out amazing, my collection is mostly CD rips at lossless wave files, but the few MP3’s that I have 328 sound great. Bass is balanced, treble is very nice with no sibilance and the midrange is to die for.
You will hear more details in the music than you knew were there. If you already have a great system, this will take you to the next level, because it can retrieve detail in spades and have you plastered to your chair like the guy in the old Maxwell tape ads. You will hear percussions that you didn’t know existed, right out front. Bass is deep and well defined without being boomy. The midrange is just heavenly, especially female voices, like Adele, you can close your eyes and hear her dead center, like she is in the room with you. The treble is rich and sibilance free and you will hear every cymbal as it is struck and every guitar solo being plucked evenly.
The BAD: Well, even though, this is the next evolution in audio and even I have to admit it is, it’s a computer and as such, I experienced the unit sometimes not communicating with the unit, but it’s a quick fix, you go into the settings and have the software search for the Aurender unit and bam, it’s back up. The software will also find new music that you might have ripped and update or you can choose to just update the new files. The Aurender will not search for Cover Art for you, you must have the cover art first from your rips, in my case, my computer's hard drive or there will be what looks like a gold CD circle as your cover art.
I never like Adele’s new album on the CD (bass to hard and sounded harsh), but through this thing, it’s amazing. The shut down routine, while not hard doesn’t always work as intended, but here it is, hold the big button on the left until the word, power off, please wait, then the screen goes black and the button flashes blue four times and it cuts off and you can now shut it off from the rear button and unplug the unit if you choose. I have done this three times and I seem to get the power shut off abruptly warning and it sinks the unit back up, but remember with any hard drive, if you keep shutting it off abruptly, you can corrupt the hardrive’s data or cause damage to the hard drive, so I have to get this solved.
My temporary fix is to put the unit in Stand by mode through the software and only push the button one time and it blinks and one time and goes into standby mode. The drives inside, to my knowledge are not user replaceable, according to the dealer, but I will be putting an email in to Aurender to get a confirmation.
The GOOD: Aurender is constantly updating it’s software and when you get the unit, you should upgrade the software right away. This is probably one of the best units of it’s kind on the market, not my unit, but Aurender as a whole, if you went to Axpona, you saw this unit and it’s been at various shows in the last two years. The sound quality is amazing.
You need to have a current DAC that plays DSD files, but Aurender has even thought past this, they created the Aurender UC-100, Spidif to USB/ Coaxial converter that you connect to your N100H to it’s USB output labeled 5volts and you plug the coaxial end of the UC-100 using a coaxial cable into your Dac’s Coaxial input and you are set, no need to upgrade the DAC, but this isn’t cheap at $500, but it’s the solution for those with older DAC and my DAC is an excellent DAC (Audio Research DAC 8) and I wasn’t interested in buying a new dac.
So if you are asking was this a good purchase, yes, its’ great the sound quality is excellent and it doesn’t help that I got several hundred dollars off of this unit and my trade in. This device will take your audio system to the next level. I won’t be dragging all of my music files over to the 2 tb hard drive, only things I consider special. My dealer made me an interesting offer after he found out I had the VPI Classic 1, as part of this deal he stated he would professionally set up my VPI Classic 1 for free, he has the same tools as Michael Fremer and he has been in this business for 40 years so I agreed even though my table is setup, but I asked him to let me know how close to correct my set up of the table is. His system is one to die for and he has had a couple of reviewers at his home Headphone reviewers and Audio Reviewers, print and internet reviewers and one that said his system sounded better than this professional reviewer’s system did with Magico $100,000.
My dealer is using my Dac the DAC 8, my phono stage the PH8 and my now our Aurender, but he will be upgrading to the Aurender N10. My dealer is using a tricked out Linn LP12, a Ref 5se and Vandersteen 3A Signatures with twin Vandersteen 2wq subs, a full Sonus System throughout his home and other more expensive equipment. I now have to find a new place for my Marantz NA7004, which is a great streamer, but is outclassed by this unit. Oh I almost forgot, you can add a USB thumb drives or an external hard drive to extend your space. I have a Audioquest dragon fly connected to mine (Aurender) just before the Aurender N100h. So excuse me if I stop now and go back to enjoying the VPI Classic 1 and the Aurender. The last thing I would like to have is another Vandersteen 2WQ. This will be one hell of a birthday gift to myself, I have worked hard all of my life and I have earned this!!!
. I have about 8tb's of DSD and 24bit material so I opted for the 12tb's of internal storage. I have to say with this much music the only way to go is hard wired for the transfer of it, but the transfer went seamless. 
