Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server

[ZincAlloy]

Hi all - as some of you know, I've been considering the purchase of an Aries to upgrade from my trusty Squeezebox Touch. The less than stellar views of Guillaume and Rufus (whose opinions, BTW, I respect) has led me back down the route of AIR. I have a uPnP based system - based on Synology 212j NAS, Logitech Media Server and MediaMonkey as the ripper. I've now disabled LMS and have configured MediaMonkey to output audio to AIR, with WASAPI enabled.

I've been playing music for the last 5 hours with no dropouts or white noise, controlled from MonkeyMote on my iPhone. Long and short of it is that, it sounds wonderful. Much better than the SBT/LMS solution that I've been using for the last 5 years. On the downside, the control point is very basic and I have to have my PC on to play music - no biggie, it's in the study upstairs and does not intrude into my enjoyment. Also, no streaming services or internet radio available - that I can find anyway - at the moment.

So, if you're waiting (like me) for Devialet to implement uPnP support (or at least make a definitive statement on this topic), there is a workaround, which is essentially FOC. Also, if you've not used AIR recently (based on all our previous experiences of it being somewhat suboptimal), I'd really recommend that you give it another go.

I was amazed at just how much better it sounded than my previous set up, and I've saved myself £1500.

ATB, Ken

That's very nice of you to say Ken. In truth I feel a bit bad we didn't give the Aries enough of a chance hence the part 2 on Saturday.

But you're right, AIR sounds pretty good doesn't it?

Any news on SAM for the Akurate speakers by the way?

Cheers

Guillaume

Hi Guillaume - suspect Akurates won't get the SAM treatment anytime soon. But, I've just found £1,500 that I didn't have yesterday, so I have an alternative solution to that problem ..

ATB, Ken