Auralic Aries G1

[Johnny 99]

I am sorry if I duplicate an existing thread, but I searched the chat forum and found little information regarding the new Auralic Aries G1 in conjunction with Devialet.

I have a somewhat troubled past concerning streamers. I started out with an Aurender N100H connected to my Expert 120. It is indeed a good streamer, but sound wise it was a bit on the dark side. I always felt like treble was lacking a bit and therefore, made the sound to be darkish.

Next was Roon on my Mac Mini 2018 via Ethernet to my Devialet. Initially, I quite liked the sound (not to mention the vast step of Roon's graphical interface compared to Aurender's Conductor app). But after extended listening, the sound became a tad too bright and became fatiguing.

So, I decided to buy Roon's Nucleus to avoid any computer noise spilling into the Devialet. Much to my surprise, the Nucleus didn't sound much better via Ethernet/Devialet. The sound was anaemic, flat and totally uninvolving. In the meantime, I sold my Nucleus and fretted of having sold my Aurender.

I also had an Auralic Aries Mini somewhere hidden in a drawer, that I had used only for a short time. Just out of curiosity, I connected it to my Devialet (with my music library on a Samsung 2 TB SSD) and I was totally surprised that I liked the sound so much better than compared to the Nucleus. The bass was much better, the aneamic sound was gone. Even though the Aries Mini sounded a tiny bit noisy, I thought that's the direction I should move. For streaming Tidal/Qobuz, however, the Aries Mini is not good. Stable streaming, but the highs were brittle and unnatural. But local files were pretty good.

Having read all those great reviews concerning the new Aries G1 (G2 is too expensive for my taste), I went to see my local dealer and asked if he had a G1. He told me that the supply for the G1 is totally dried out and that it would take months to get a new batch delivered to him. But he offered me an Aries Femto to try out. After connecting it to my Devialet and setting up the Lightning DS software, I was ready to go. Boy, was that thing good: totally quiet, music emanated from a black background, and I very, very much liked what I heard. Good bass, great treble, and totally clean. Most of all, the sound was totally involving and enjoyable.

So it basically confirmed what I expected from the Aries Mini, only much better! Now, I would like to invest into nowadays's technology - the Aries Femto will be phased out (as far as I know).

Before spending over 2K, I would like to hear your experience with the G1. Feedback mostly appreciated! Thank you!

Sailor4W

Hello this is my first post on Devialet Chat having found the above comments / review subsequent to the purchase of my Aries G1. I'm not sure if you have now bitten the bullet and purchased a G1 but though you might be interested in my thoughts.

Firstly a bit of background.
I've had my Expert 120 for nearly two year and had been managing to stream tidal to it via the Devialet air app on my laptop (windows). In principle this worked fine but was dogged by my laptop crashing and and interruptions when it decided to back up to the cloud or audible e-mail alerts etc. The major draw back however was my wife couldn't access the system when I had my laptop at work (far from ideal).  A stand alone streamer / network bridge was obviously the answer.  I didn't want to spend silly money (eg. dCS) but needed something that didn't let the side down in terms of performance and sound quality. Alerted by the reviews the G1 looked like the perfect answer.

For the record the Aries G1 sits in a system comprising an original Expert 120 with PMC Twenty.23 speakers all connected with Chord 'Shawline' (speaker cables and digital coax) - Planning to get my old Linn LP12 turntable up and running shortly following a forced stay in the loft when the children where young. I'm sure their are more system tweaks I could do but as they say one thing at a time.

Experience

On first plugging in my G1 my initial reaction was to be fair a little underwhelming. I've no idea why this was the case other than noticing a few days later that the digital connection was possible plugged in the wrong way around. Maybe like speaker cables they have a directionality who knows? Anyway after a few weeks thing have settled down and its really starting to sing. The Lighting DS app works very well even on my iphone (imaging an ipad would be perfect). I would totally agree that the sound has a more analog quality eg: more tonal depth to the sound and a less lean quality plus improved timing and rhythm . This is particularly evident with classical music and jazz. The only slight negative is the direct Devialet air connection via my laptop did deal with more contemporary music (eg: the R&B and Grime my teenage daughter likes slightly better). This had more air and grip particularly in the bass region with the subsonic filter on. Like most things its swings and roundabouts so don't let this put you off. 

I hope you find this helpful and I look forward to joining in on other discussions.