AURALiC ARIES

[Lavakugel]

  The more I listen to my ARIES the more I like it.  It just gets better!  Yes, beats my modded Mini for sure.  I always thought my Mini was better than my MBAIr too.  

Nice to hear. Is it a huge difference or just a bit better?

 

[jtwrace]

 
Nice to hear. Is it a huge difference or just a bit better?

Meh, that's so subjective.  I'm not much into all of that.  Also, there are other factors to what one believes is worth it.  I have a lot of music with it stored on a NAS so it's also much more convenient.  I'll put it this way, if you can spend $1599 without too much hassle, do it.  I'd be shocked if you didn't think it was worth it.  

 

[Lavakugel]

  Meh, that's so subjective.  I'm not much into all of that.  Also, there are other factors to what one believes is worth it.  I have a lot of music with it stored on a NAS so it's also much more convenient.  I'll put it this way, if you can spend $1599 without too much hassle, do it.  I'd be shocked if you didn't think it was worth it.  

For now I'm quite happy with my macbook pro and 512 gb ssd full of music. I would connect usb flash with aries but then I think my mac is running every time for downloading etc. so why aries?

 

[jtwrace]

 
For now I'm quite happy with my macbook pro and 512 gb ssd full of music. I would connect usb flash with aries but then I think my mac is running every time for downloading etc. so why aries?

OK, then don't worry about it.  If you can get a demo then do it though.  At least try it if it's easy for you.  The whole idea is that it's easy (TIDAL is integrated as are radio stations) but it's for the purist who wants a lot.  I have many TB's of music so having local HD's isn't practical but most of my listening is with a 2ch system and not my headphone rigs.  

 

[Lavakugel]

  OK, then don't worry about it.  If you can get a demo then do it though.  At least try it if it's easy for you.  The whole idea is that it's easy (TIDAL is integrated as are radio stations) but it's for the purist who wants a lot.  I have many TB's of music so having local HD's isn't practical but most of my listening is with a 2ch system and not my headphone rigs.  

Yeah for the moment I will stick with my macbook pro and amarra 3.0 which sounds absolutely stunning! TB of music and no time to listen

 

[astrostar59]

Are you wifi streaming your music? I tried wifi streaming and usb direct to my DAC and there was no difference. The wifi did create a few hassles though depending on the traffic on my local network. Many NAS are ethernet connected round the house which is nice and a good idea.
 
The only way I can see a NAS might sound better than a Mac Mini is it might create better isolation from the mains in the Mac Mini and the DAC. I have totally black backgrounds with mine, maybe as I use an external USB - SPDIF convertor then feed the DAC a clean signal. There are so many variable. I have tried my PowerBook pro 2014 but it wasn't quite as clean as the Mac Mini IMO. The Mac Mini can be set to feed only the USB signal, no screen, no system maintenance in the background. A laptop is a bit noisy by the very nature of the cramped space and close proximity of the screen to the circuits.
 
I also tried a Naim Initiserve which sounded ok, but I thought it could go out of date quickly (for the money spent). I wanted full control of tracks and file types etc. PCs have pretty cheap PS and dirty mains so a purpose built NAS is going to beat an adapted PC for sure. I have read some horror stories on slot in USB sound cards, many are terrible, though there may be some great ones around, I didn't explore that much as I have all Macs.
 
Thing is an external firewire drive with 2 or even 4 terrabytes is enough to get all your high resolution tracks on. And it is all getting so cheap. The scare stories of USB audio being rubbish has been - well rubbished. As long as care is taken in the setup, it can sound better than Redbook CDs regardless of the transport used. I use Audirvana+, have tried Amarra and Puremusic. All beat the pants off iTunes, and in full 32 bit mode and asyncronious it is so smooth and detailed.

 

[Bones13]

I use wired to the Aries. I had some stuttering with wifi, possibly due to the Sonos my wife listens to all the time.

 

[Zoom25]

Has anyone compared the Auralic Aries with Stream Magic v2?

 

[filuS]

I can't wait to get my unit, the waiting is killing me Ordered it through my friend in Germany before Christmas but I haven't had time to go to Berlin yet. Hopefully I will pick it up next week. I am curious how it will perform in comparison to my OpenELEC based system I build some time ago, from what I read it seems like Aries is a real deal in all aspects I care about. However, I really hope there won't be any more delays in releasing Android version of Lightning DS this time. I am not fan of Apple and android version got postponed couple of times already. Too bad version for tablets is scheduled for ~may, but as long as the mobile version is out there, I can live with it.

 

[Bones13]

There are other apps that will work the streaming from the upnp server, (I am using Kinsky currently on my PC) but Lightning DS is required to stream Tidal.

 

[vincentm66]

Hi all,
 
Im interested with the Aries to connect with my Audio-gd DAC, does anyone tried to compare with a Linn or Lumin and is this in the same league (lets say that a Lumin T1) in terms of network stability ?
 
 
Cheers
 
Vincent

 

[bmichels]

Where is the best place to order the ARIES in Europe ? 
 
thanks

 

[PAM005]

Hi Bmichels, go for Audionext.de!

 

[jtwrace]

  Where is the best place to order the ARIES in Europe ? 
 
thanks

http://www.auralic.com/storelocator.html

 

[bmichels]

  Hi Bmichels, go for Audionext.de!

 
thanks, I just sent them a mail.  Wil see...