Auralic Aries

[PhilP]

Hi Philip,

My setup in the case of the MiND, Aries and d1 server:

QNAP NAS > AQ Diamond ethernet > Draytek router > AQ Carbon cat 7 > Cisco switch (with power cable connected to Isotek Sigmas) > AQ Diamond ethernet > MiND/Aries/d1 server > Transparent XL AES/EBU > Devialet Master

I should add that both the QNAP NAS and Draytek router are connected to an Entreq Silver Minimus ground box using Challenger RJ45 ground cables.

At the streamer end the MiND is currently grounded to a Silver Tellus box using an Apollo cable. With the Aries and d1 server I will compare grounded to Entreq v non-grounded (obviously I've already done this with the MiND).

I have already been experimenting with AIR with the following set up:

MacBook Air (2014) running Audirvana > wifi > Draytek router > AQ Carbon cat 7 > Cisco switch > AQ Diamond ethernet > Devialet

I don't currently have a PC and haven't yet tried J River...

Guillaume

Hi Guillaume,

that's a really excellent set-up for comparing the streamers and the Entreq comparison will really be the icing on the cake.

Just a couple of questions:

1. Why will you use AES/EBU for the streamer to Devialet connection when you're using ethernet for all the others? Is it because you have an especially nice AES/EBU cable? It would be great if you could try ethernet for that connection as well as that's what us lesser mortals are most likely to use

2. It's difficult to perform any sort of comparison without expectation bias and no doubt some people will complain if you don't do the comparison blind. Any thoughts on this?

3. Have you noticed any difference between vanilla AIR on the Macbook versus AIR with A+? I'm still not sure how A+ can improve the sound when AIR + itunes is bit perfect?

I'm sure you will have a really enjoyable time performing the comparison and hope you've booked enough time off work

Best regards,

Philip