Aurender X100 with Devialet

[MusicLover]

"I recently received my X100 which substitutes a, now apparent, rather mediocre software optimised laptop. I'm posting my initial thoughts on the newcomer for those interested. First impression is a sense of a more mature sound. It's fuller, more natural, real and engaging. No doubt, it draws you more into the music.

For Jeff Fritz the X100 only improved, albeit greatly, certain types of music; small ensembles mainly. My experience on the other hand differs, maybe because I come from a lesser source and hence I feel the improvement in all areas.
I listen to a great deal of classical, and complex passages have become an absolute pleasure to listen to (see Wagner or Bruckner). Likewise, piano works performed, for instance, by the great Brendel or Pollini, now convey much more faithfully the caracter of these performers and I would even venture to say, the character of the piano itself. It's also the sense of space in the soundstage that now feels so real (depth in particular, as pointed out by fellow member Adam).

Moreover, it is now also easier to discern better recordings, and while it's true that the Aurender shines with high-res material such as Doug MacLeod or Xiomara Laugart recordings, which are absolutely jaw dropping, the unit improves noticeably also on regular redbook resolution.

As the niche of servers and streamers evolves so quickly and there is so limited info/home demo availability on certain models, I hope someone can benefit from my (limited) experience."

  I appreciate your post about X100. I sold my Lumin A1 Network Player last year and have been looking for another source. Health and financial issues forced a move to smaller living space and rather not have NAS in my small space. The DAR audio website will be reviewing X100 in April. I've read all previous reviews about the X100. The new N100 with linear power supply and adding largest SSD could be interesting, as if I'm not mistaken, could be used without a NAS if ones library does not exceed the on-board SSD storage space, and of course if one will use the N100 with a NAS, that's what its's designed for. Before I heard about N100, I thought how nice would it be to have twin SSD's in the X100 (besides the caching SSD)?

 What no one will answer for me is, can user hear any HDD noise emitting from the X100 when listening to music?  The Polish reviewer commented to effect that the X100 shared some sound quality similarities with the Lumin Network player. This is good and not so good speaking from experience with the Lumin (A1).

Hi Geoff,

Absolutely no noise from the HDDs as they don't operate when listening to the music, only the SSD does. And even when they cache the content or when you copy files into them they are super quiet. And I sit less than 2 mts from it (hopefully it's not my deficient hearing tricking me!   ).
The X100 feels and behaves as a high end piece. Only thing so far I have noticed that may be improved is the feeling of the front buttons on your finger when pressed (only to switch the unit ON/OFF really). Rather pedantic, isn't it? Different story if I was paying 20000 eur for it...

I also though about the new power supply on the N100 (linear, as they've got enough space now). But as long as the implementation is well judged and executed (see Devialet), a switching type can also sound properly, as the X100 shows.

Cheers,



ML