24-Feb-2016, 12:14
(This post was last modified: 24-Feb-2016, 12:23 by GuillaumeB.)
(23-Feb-2016, 22:19)Confused Wrote: Guillaume, have you listened to all these? I note you comment re not enough time with the "Beast", but do you have a view of W20 vs N1A and N1Z?
Pretty much! I've had both N1A and N1Z on home dems, and have auditioned the Aurenders a few times (though not at home). Obviously I own the totaldac d1 and used to own the Moon MiND 180. The Aurender W20 I was able to compare directly with the Melco N1Z at OAC, this was in a system that used the same speakers and speaker cables as mine so pretty close.
The reason I'm not 100% certain about the Beast is that it also has a DAC that depending on how you spec it either includes not or not.
I've also heard Jan's (Gentleman) 4 chassis transport, the Meridian Soulous system and the Olive ONE in a shoot out with an 800 and Sasha 2 speakers. Jan's transport was excellent and beat the other two contenders by a decent margin. Actually I've heard the Soulous a few times in other setups and have always been very disappointed hence my somewhat lukewarm attitude towards Roon. The Olive ONE was way better than the Soulous at a fraction of the price.
I'm not sure that the N1A beats the W20, I rather like the W20... the N1Z definitely beats the W20 (and there were others in the room that also heard the same thing - a more open and effortless sound from the N1Z).
But the N1A at £1700 or so beats most stuff south of the N1Z and in my opinion could probably give the W20 a good run for its money. In fact I have heard anecdotal reports of people going from a W20 to an N1A and throwing in a posh USB cable and being absolutely delighted with the results. Yes I'm not making that up.
N1A v totaldac d1? I'd say it's pretty close. Possibly the d1 server has the edge with detail but I'm probably biased here. I know the N1Z absolutely trounces my d1 server because I've heard it do it! The d1 server is twice the price of the N1A though. I do rather like the trapezoid shape though, it's definitely got character and you can't beat the "free" upgrade programme.
Guillaume
Industry disclosure: UK distributor for Shunyata Research
220 PRO, totaldac d1 server with additional external power supply, totaldac d1-seven, Echole PSU for Totaldac, Wilson Audio Sasha 2, Shunyata Research cables, Shunyata Hydra Alpha A10 + DPC-6 v3, Various Entreq ground boxes and cables, Entreq Athena level 3 rack, 2 X SOtM sNH-10G with sCLK-EX + 10MHz Master Clock input + sPS-500 PSU, i5 sonicTransporter w/ 1TB SSD
UK