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+--- Thread: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server (/Thread-Mac-AIR-v-MiND-180-v-Auralic-ARIES-v-totaldac-d1-server)
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - Confused - 05-Sep-2014
Very diplomatically phrased Guillaume! I must admit that I totally get the point of this thread. I associate turning on a PC with the first thing I do when arriving in the office for a difficult day at work. I don't really want to turn on a PC to listen to some music. Having said that, I do use a PC / AIR Ethernet. The sound quality is superb, I like messing about with playlists, and love the ease with which I can manage a large collection of music with a PC. Then you add in excellent iPad apps and similar, it just gets better. So, if someone can come up with super optimised PC nirvana, this will be of great interest to many for sure. Some terrific links and info above, I look forward to discovering the ultimate solution (if anyone can agree it exists!) on the new thread.
Also, when Guillaume & Rufus discover the ultimate sound quality PC alternative for just Euro 500, the joy will be unlimited. (we can all only hope)
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - GuillaumeB - 05-Sep-2014
(05-Sep-2014, 07:56)Confused Wrote: Very diplomatically phrased Guillaume! I must admit that I totally get the point of this thread. I associate turning on a PC with the first thing I do when arriving in the office for a difficult day at work. I don't really want to turn on a PC to listen to some music. Having said that, I do use a PC / AIR Ethernet. The sound quality is superb, I like messing about with playlists, and love the ease with which I can manage a large collection of music with a PC. Then you add in excellent iPad apps and similar, it just gets better. So, if someone can come up with super optimised PC nirvana, this will be of great interest to many for sure. Some terrific links and info above, I look forward to discovering the ultimate solution (if anyone can agree it exists!) on the new thread.
Also, when Guillaume & Rufus discover the ultimate sound quality PC alternative for just Euro 500, the joy will be unlimited. (we can all only hope)
New thread created! Called: CuBox - Project X.
Now back to our comparison of Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server!
... Have some news to report very soon!Guillaume
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - GuillaumeB - 05-Sep-2014
(03-Sep-2014, 10:02)IanG-UK Wrote: Hi Guillaume
I should admit that I am an anti-multi-box buyer so, for example, I would never buy Naim knowing that I would be told it would be better with six power supplies and I would never buy the DCS stuff where you need to buy four boxes to get their best product!
So, sorry to be a pain in the a***, but if one has a source, be it a laptop (with screen and cd ripper and data) or a CD player/transport (with discs), both of which will plug straight into the Devialet, what does the D1 do (aside from any sound quality considerations) that the straight connections cannot achieve? Because here you surely need four units - source, cd ripper, tablet and D1?
Hi Iain this looks interesting: it's a music server that's also a ripper. No idea about the sound quality but it caught my eye after what you were saying about wanting more functionality in one box. This certainly seems to have all the bases covered.
http://www.sotm.sonore.us/SOtM2.html#3
Guillaume
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - ErikM - 05-Sep-2014
Looking forward to it!
Now back to our comparison of Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server!
... Have some news to report very soon!Guillaume
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - GuillaumeB - 05-Sep-2014
Hello chaps...
Spent the whole afternoon doing A/B testing with the Entreq distributor who is someone who's opinions I really value. He's worked in the industry for over 30 years.
Anyway he has visited my house many times in the past and he knows my system and setup very well.
He was absolutely flabbergasted by the improvement in sound quality from the totaldac d1 server. Actually that might be an understatement. Even though totaldac only sell direct and don't have a distribution model as such he's talking about getting one for personal use.
He was very impressed with A+/AIR which he heard for the first time in my setup.
Re the Aries he though that it was excellent in the midrange but lacking something at the top and bottom ends. It was almost as though the sound was compressed in a way. Some of the tonal texture was spot on though and very impressive. There were bits he liked a lot.
But his reaction to the totaldac was something else... I've never seen him respond with such enthusiasm and amazement. It's truly the Devialet on steroids!
He was here 6 hours.
Guillaume
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - Morten - 06-Sep-2014
(03-Sep-2014, 22:09)ZincAlloy Wrote:(03-Sep-2014, 21:57)Confused Wrote: I must admit I quite like things like the Krell Connect and Musical Fidelity M1CLiC. Or even the utter simplicity of a Naim Unitiserve. Does this make me a bad person?
(Although I'm pretty sure the Totaldac must be somewhat superior sound quality wise)
Not at all! I admit my solution is kludgy and, as I said, the control point is pretty crap. Like some of us, I suspect, I'm waiting for the audiophile equivalent of the SBT/iPeng ecosystem .... At Squeezebox prices!! The idea behind the Aries and the MOON Mind is exactly what I want - a DAC-less high quality renderer with a superior UI. If I had the brains, I'd develop one myself ....
BTW - thought the MF had been discontinued?
ATB, Ken
Hello Ken.
I have been using a PS audio solution with plug player as control point for many ears, when I upgraded to Devialet I bought a PC, the foobar and monkey mote is in my view much better, the search function is lighting fast, there is the posebility to read the lyrics on most tracks etc.
Iam wondering if you don't have all those options?
Btw. I have newer experienced a dropout, had the withe noise two times, the system have been running for around three monts.
And needles to say, it sounds fantastic.
Kind regards Morten
Just for info, my PC is a fanless Shuttel, it uses 6watts, hence it is newer switch off :-)
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - GuillaumeB - 06-Sep-2014
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
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - ErikM - 06-Sep-2014
Seems that AIR is the way to go then.. If it's better than the Aries and it's basically free that's kind of a no brainer.. Now what we need is to find something as good as the Totaldac that doesn't cost $6500.00 cause no way would I ever spend the price of a Dev 120 for a moderate improvement in SQ over AIR.. but that's just me..I know I could spend $6500.00 on other parts of my system which would yield much greater returns...
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - mauidan - 06-Sep-2014
Bryston has announced the release of the BDP-1USB digital music player, which is priced $1795 in the United States. The BDP-1USB looks almost identical to and borrows most of its technology from the company’s flagship BDP-2 player, but is designed to work with USB DACs.
Could be the poor man's totaldac d1.
RE: Mac AIR v MiND 180 v Auralic ARIES v totaldac d1 server - ErikM - 06-Sep-2014
I was reading about that..could be a contender!
(06-Sep-2014, 19:10)mauidan Wrote: Bryston has announced the release of the BDP-1USB digital music player, which is priced $1795 in the United States. The BDP-1USB looks almost identical to and borrows most of its technology from the company’s flagship BDP-2 player, but is designed to work with USB DACs.
Could be the poor man's totaldac d1.