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

[PhilP]

Day three of back to back comparisons between AIR, Aries and the totaldac d1... this time with Rufus sitting in the sweet spot!

We decided to focus a bit more on A+/AIR and the Aries this time.

Couple of changes:

- we selected "direct mode" in the A+ settings
- we used an Entreq Apollo USB cable (with Apollo ground cable) between the Aries and the Devialet
- we replaced the Transparent AES/EBU with an Entreq Apollo AES/EBU (with Apollo ground cable)

Results:

- we preferred A+ with Direct Mode to A+ with just use maximum I/O buffer size selected. There wasn't a huge difference between the two but with Direct Mode it did seem slightly less bright/analytical (not that it was that bad but you get my meaning).
- the Aries with a USB output definitely seems better than AES/EBU. I had also found this a few days ago when I first tried the Aries with the USB cable so we can't only put this down to burn-in.
- moving on to the totaldac d1 it was a substantial (read big) improvement over the other two, despite the change of AES/EBU cable to the Entreq one. Once we were playing music through the totaldac it was very difficult to go back to the other streaming methods.
- So in first place by a long margin: totaldac d1, A+/AIR was in second and the Aries came in third place.. we both felt that the Aries had improved a fair bit since our first audition last week.

I'm sure Rufus will fill in with a lot more detail since he made loads of notes!

Guillaume

Thanks again Guillaume, it's really great that you and Rufus are putting so much time and effort into doing this comparison. You appear to have given the Aries every chance and it's disappointing that it's not quite there in terms of sound quality. However, I guess for some the usability advantages of a streamer like the Aries over a PC/Mac will persuade many to buy it rather than use AIR.

I was told that Direct Mode actually won't work over ethernet or wi-fi - even if it's selected in A+ that selection doesn't do anything. Apparently, it only works with USB or AES/EBU. I don't know if this is true. As I'm sure you know, Audirvana implemented Direct Mode as a way of by-passing CoreAudio when Apple removed Integer Mode in Mtn Lion. I can't test this with my system as I can't select Direct mode or Integer Mode when running AIR. Did the integer mode indicator on the Audirvana display come on when you were running it with AIR? If so then I guess it does work. If not then then I Guess it doesn't.

Thanks,

Philip