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

[mauidan]

I use a Auraliti PK 90 w/linear psu connected via Ethernet to my NAS,
and USB to an asynchronous DAC.

Easy to control with the MPad app on my iPad and sound quality is on par with my other digital source a PS Audio PWT.

Interesting, have you ever compared to AIR?

Not yet. My 200 arrives tomorrow.

[Confused]

Not yet. My 200 arrives tomorrow.

I'd give it a couple of weeks to bed in before trying any serious back to back tests, subjective improvements between two sources might just be your new amp bedding in! Anyway, enjoy your new Dev!

[Morten]

I definitely think a dedicated pc is the way to go if using air, an intel nuc box can come in not much over £200 including windows so cheap enough in the scheme of things.

In my case the family would never listen for a long time so white noise would be unlikely based on my experience.

It's not like any of the other streaming options have been foolproof from the beginning, maybe Sonos is the exception.

Cheers

Chris

Indeed, I did a rechearche, for me a ultimate requirement was it has to be fanless, the only intel are somewhat underpowered, hence a paired a little more for a shuttele. I uses this http://global.shuttle.com/news/productsD...uctId=1765

It is brilliant, and only uses 6watts when it is running, hence it is always on

Kind regards Morten

[Kunter]

Hi all...
Let me put some salt on the subject...

I now have an Aries singing in the system. And... I love it.

It's still at its early hours... Supposedly it should get better... still...

Setup is, Aries connected to D800 via USB (Furutech something). On the power side, there is a Nordost Valhalla (overkill I know, but it was lying around for its next duty) which is getting its juice from Torus transformer.

The power supply is then grounded (it has a ground post) to Entreq...

Server duties held by my MacBook Pro running minimserver, and Aries connected to the Apple Airport Express wirelessly...

For the first couple of minutes, soundstage was everywhere and I could easily locate my speakers (normally those behemoths are very easy to loose, opening a door to the soundstage and disappear). 15-20 minutes into playback, things got better. Center image filled beautifully.

My only criticism is, it sounds a bit (and a bit) harsh... Will it settle down? We will see..

More of my views later...

Cheers..

Kunter

[Confused]

Indeed, I did a rechearche, for me a ultimate requirement was it has to be fanless, the only intel are somewhat underpowered, hence a paired a little more for a shuttele. I uses this http://global.shuttle.com/news/productsD...uctId=1765

It is brilliant, and only uses 6watts when it is running, hence it is always on

Kind regards Morten

This looks like an interesting solution. How does it operate in practice? i.e. I presume you can set up with JRiver or similar, connect a hard drive with all your tunes and operate via an iPad app? Is it then connected to the Dev via Ethernet and the iPad runs via wi fi, on a mini network as it were? But what if you need to set up the PC, update software or manage playlists or whatever? Does this entail connecting a screen? Or is the idea that it sits on a home network with the "main" PC? I'm not sure what the optimum set up could be? Any ideas?

[Morten]

Hello

I can see that my iPad did some strange things to the spelling in last post, sorry.

I have the PC in my living room, hence the requirement for a fan less model, I have also installed a SD disk so it is 100% silent. The reason for placing it here is that I would like to have the possibility to use USB if I for some reason could not get AIR to work properly. I use my TV set as a screen, and something’s I acutely use the PC to watch US Netflix :-).

The PC is set up with Foobar, I haven’t tried JRiver but I plan to do it, just to compare if it is better for sound quality than foobar, but to be honest, foobar just sound brilliant and are extremely stabile. I the three months I have been running it I haven’t had one crash! To control foobar I use a APP on my iPad called Monkeymote, compared to my previous setup—a UPnP setup with plugplayer as control point the PC setup is superior both in stability and user-friendliness, the search function is sophisticated.

Coming from a UPnP setup I already had a NAS with all my music (i used MinimServer on the NAS when running the UPnP) I just point foobar to the NAS and it works flawless. If I didn’t have a NAS I would have used a USB harddrive.

The PC, NAS and Devialet are all connected to my normal network with cables, I have experienced the with noise issue 2 times, I suppose if I more often restarted the PC it would never happen, but given it only uses 6watts I only shut it down when I go on vacation.

Kind regards Morten

[GuillaumeB]

I now have an Aries singing in the system. And... I love it.

Good stuff. So how does it compare to AIR?

Guillaume

[Kunter]

I now have an Aries singing in the system. And... I love it.

Good stuff. So how does it compare to AIR?

Guillaume

Early to tell...

And now I have the other toy, the new Cubox i.

Will do comparisons this weekend and post results...

Cubox is also good. Funny little device... I will post some initial impressions on the Cubox thread...

Cheers..

[Confused]

@Kunter - Most excellent! It's always appreciated when someone makes this kind of effort. (So us lazy ones don't have to bother)
I'm sure there will be much interest in your findings.

[Jwg1749]

@Kunter - Most excellent! It's always appreciated when someone makes this kind of effort. (So us lazy ones don't have to bother)
I'm sure there will be much interest in your findings.

Yep, definitely looking forward to hearing how this works out.
Bring it on, Kunter!