Finally got everything set up.  Took about 6 hours over two evenings to get the Mini to communicate with my desktop.  A lot of trial and error, back and forth, doing and redoing to get my music library to share with the Mini.  The Tidal setup was very easy in comparison.  Now to see if Tidal is worth it.  Be aware that you need to be sure you are going to keep the Mini before activating the Tidal subscription.  The Tidal portion is non-refundable once it is activated.

wilcox said:

   
To the casual listener, there is little or no difference between the iPhone as a source vs. the Aries.
...

Click to expand...

How did you connect the iPhone up to your DAC?
When I try to do that I get an error on the iPhone saying not enough power.

sydlow said:

  How did you connect the iPhone up to your DAC?
When I try to do that I get an error on the iPhone saying not enough power.

Click to expand...

You need a USB hub, something that will provide external power.

sydlow said:

  How did you connect the iPhone up to your DAC?
When I try to do that I get an error on the iPhone saying not enough power.

Click to expand...

 
I use a Schiit Wyrd but any powered USB hub should work.

Anybody got a mini? How's the sound?

lavakugel said:

  Anybody got a mini? How's the sound?

Click to expand...

The sound is great.  The setup and interface not so great.  Took me about six hours of trial and error to get it to communicate with my desktop.  Could be why Auralic recommends a NAS.  Getting Tidal to work was much easier.  I can't tell the difference between direct connection of my laptop and the Mini.  I am using an old Ipad gen2 for the interface and the router that came from the cable company.  I did not want to spend more money for a new Ipad and router so I will just wait and see how well the whole setup works together before doing anything else.

Hello,
A recent owner of Aries here.
 
Seems that the boss at Auralic commented on CES something about Room correction on Aries (which was "promised" as a future feature long ago).
 
So, any info, news, or wild guesses about Room correction with Aries ?
 
Thanks
 
David

About support for MQA in the future i received an answer from Xuanqian Wang | CEO & Designer 4 weeks ago:

Hello,

Meridian dont like AURALiC and they seems to believe we are a potential threaten to them, as they are not interested in corporate with us with MQA integration, we will not support their standard in the future.

We are going to demo the iPhone version in RMAF show early next month, there is no confirmed timeline but it is coming very soon.

The USB output is mostly working in async mode which means the precision is effected by DAC which sending sync request, it is not possible to provide a measurement with proper explanation.

I hope this will help.

Xuanqian Wang | CEO & Designer |

beolab said:

About support for MQA in the future i received an answer from Xuanqian Wang | CEO & Designer 4 weeks ago:

Hello,

Meridian dont like AURALiC and they seems to believe we are a potential threaten to them, as they are not interested in corporate with us with MQA integration, we will not support their standard in the future.

We are going to demo the iPhone version in RMAF show early next month, there is no confirmed timeline but it is coming very soon.


Xuanqian Wang | CEO & Designer |

Click to expand...

FWIW, Auralic posted a similar comment on Facebook a few weeks back and later redacted their statement, instead saying this:
 
"(Correction to previous posting RE: MQA, written by someone not at CES.) During CES, MQA discovered that wireless high-resolution Music Streamers without built-in DACs (i.e., AURALiC’s ARIES, ARIES LE) require a slightly different implementation of its technology.
MQA has not yet completed finalizing the definitive version of the technology; no MQA partner has yet to receive the actual final version of this emerging technology, which will be downloadable to any product in the very near future.) Because of this, AURALiC’s original plan to include TIDAL/MQA capability in the v3.0 firmware being issued today will not occur.
Xuanqian Wang
President & CEO"

 
It sounds like there may have been some sort of rift between the 2 companies, but hopefully cooler heads have or will prevail, and ego's might step aside enough for them to realize that MQA on existing DAC's like the Auralic Mini are the real game changer. If I need to buy a new DAC when I've already got 3 (Auralic Aries Mini, Oppo HA-1 & Schiit Yggy) then I am not at all interested in MQA. If it can work with at least one of my existing DAC's (the Mini) then by all means bring it on! But I think it would still be in both companies interest to partner up, even if there are some bad feelings toward each other, because ultimately it makes both of their products more relevant to not just audiophiles but the broader public.
 
Also, in case you weren't aware the iPhone app is live on the app store finally too, just search for lightning DS. It's been working great for me for about a week or so now.

I have an ARIES and like it but.... I still do not understand how to add music track to an existing instant playlist:   When I built an instant playlist, I press on a track and sometime it goes well (it add it to list and ask id I want to play next, play later...), but sometime...(most of the time) it just play the track immediatly instead of asking if want to add it to the list, and therefore the instant playlist is destroyed and I need to start again the instant playlist ! 
 
So... how to make ARIES understand that I do not want to play that track but that I want to add it to the curent instant playlist. ?  is there a special gesture ? 
 
thanks

ROON  ? ???
 
I read ROON is implemented now with ARIES !  How does it work ? can't see it in my Lightning interface ....

It's coming soon. They've only announced that it will be coming. You will have a choice to use Roon or Lighting DS as the interface. The trade off being Roon is better but Lighting DS is free.

If you already subscribe to Roon then it's a no brainer

I assume it'll be a Roon end-point and not a full fletched Roon server.

A few weeks now since I got an Auralic Aries LE. I like it, the Lightning DS software works extremely well in combination with my Synology NAS running MinimServer. A very convenient solution bringing very good sound quality to my living room set.
 
But the real improvement came today. I ordered a Swagmanlab Linear PSU. A friend of mine was in Hong Kong and brought it along for me. Wow, how a good linear power supply makes a difference indeed! As I was using USB to connect to my DAC (a NAD M51) I thought, with an asynchronous connection, who cares about those Femto clocks, which is why I opted for the cheaper LE version. Of course that also gave me a switching supply. But then again, for those zeroes and ones, who cares. Now I know better.
 
Compliments to Mr Leung from Swagmanlab to make such a sturdy, well built power supply for a competitive price. It is excellent and brings a true sonic advantage to the Auralic. Where at first I hesitated if the Aries was really worth the investment, with this power supply I know it was. Deeper bass, wider soundstage and incredible purity to the sound. At first it seems a minor detail, but the more I listen, the more I appreciate it!

Another topic. I'm a user of Apple Music. But... Lightning DS doesn't support Apple Music yet. I've contacted Auralic customer support, and I'm only the third ever to ask for Apple Music support so... not really on their priority list.
 
My question: are there other Aries/Aries Mini/Aries LE users out there who would like Apple Music support?
 
When considering that Apple Music wants to move to 24/96 I was hoping not to be the only one...