AURALiC owners unite!
Oct 10, 2015 at 7:34 AM Post #1,591 of 2,388
I might have found a dealer that can sell me a Taurus MK2. Still doubting about buying the GS-X MK2, but that amplifier is really impossible for me to find. Is the Taurus MK2 is good choice?

Which headphones can't the Taurus MK2 drive 100%?


It's the best choice for me. What I heard is that it can't drive the HE6 well that's why my friend didn't get it. It's able to drive both my hd800 and LCD X
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 7:34 AM Post #1,592 of 2,388
I might have found a dealer that can sell me a Taurus MK2. Still doubting about buying the GS-X MK2, but that amplifier is really impossible for me to find. Is the Taurus MK2 is good choice?

Which headphones can't the Taurus MK2 drive 100%?


The Tarus drives everything from iems, to HD800, HE560, and HEK EXTRAORDINARILY. well. It will make music with the HE6, but is not the optimal amp. And by well I mean some of the best sound you will here out of a low impedance Grado Cans to my Alclair RSM ciem , then on to the finickiest of all the HD800 with aplomb!
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 8:35 AM Post #1,593 of 2,388

Thanks DrGameboy! Indeed it is exactly as you said. Std mode drives both and the std jack is muted when in balanced mode.
 
I didn't know the Taurus could do this. What a great surprise. I sometimes would like to listen with my girlfriend so if the Taurus can drive two headphones that would just be great. I just wanted to check that there is no risk of damage? I haven't found anything in the Manual that covers this.
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 9:28 AM Post #1,594 of 2,388
The Tarus drives everything from iems, to HD800, HE560, and HEK EXTRAORDINARILY. well. It will make music with the HE6, but is not the optimal amp. And by well I mean some of the best sound you will here out of a low impedance Grado Cans to my Alclair RSM ciem , then on to the finickiest of all the HD800 with aplomb!


Good to hear. I think it will be the Taurus MK2 since the GS-X MK2 is so hard to come by ( I don't want to order from an online shop ). 
 
How is the Taurus MK2 in comparison to the Ragnarok?
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 9:50 AM Post #1,595 of 2,388
  My current Taurus is not useless, in fact it works great in single ended mode and Balanced mode, it is just in balanced mode, with volume turned up (i normally don't ever listen at this level) and with bass heavy songs, the bass distorts. could i keep my current Taurus and still be satisfied? the answer is yes, because i never listen that loud, however it just irks my nerve to know i have a very expensive piece of equipment with an issue. I might just pony up the extra 1K and get a brand new Taurus, that way i know i am the original owner and i get register it and get a 3 year warranty and piece of mind...decisions, decisions, decisions....

dude, if it works fine at normal listening levels, I would imagine that the issue is more likely to be due to your source files or your speakers/headphones rather than the amplifier.
 
don't waste your money swapping to a new one.
 
just my personal opinion.
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 10:43 AM Post #1,596 of 2,388
 
Good to hear. I think it will be the Taurus MK2 since the GS-X MK2 is so hard to come by ( I don't want to order from an online shop ). 
 
How is the Taurus MK2 in comparison to the Ragnarok?

They are both great amps, the Rag can drive speakers as well. Though I prefer the SQ of the Taurus, the Rag is a bit to smooth, some have called it a dull, homogenized sound.
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 12:22 PM Post #1,597 of 2,388
  just tried a bit at around 12 o'clock volume, can't go higher since my ears is in serious pain with a few second even with the pot at 12.
 
Can't hear any distortion at all

I totally forgot to try this.  I tried it two ways.  Since having it true full blast on all sources and the Taurus would probably destroy my headphones and make me go deaf at the same time, a) I turned the volume of the Taurus all the way up, and turned up the volume gradually on my vega and b) maxed out the vega at 100, and slowly turned up the volume of the Taurus to acceptable levels.  Both A and B yielded similar results.  There was the regular bass hit that was pretty clean (with some static that they add in there to add texture to the bass I guess) and the lower booming bass line that's still defined and controlled.  I didn't hear distortion at all.  I guess you have problems with either your amplifier or that you're turning the volume up so high that you're feeding too much into your headphones.  I then tried turning it up pretty high (gradually), and it was like I had cheap laptop speakers playing since I was holding it away, but holding it closer could not hear distortion.  Either way.  Not sure why this is a problem unless there is distortion at lower levels but you just can't hear it as easily.  Otherwise just take the good deal that you got and enjoy the music at non-deafening levels.  You'll be able to enjoy music for much longer anyway.  
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 4:50 PM Post #1,598 of 2,388
  I totally forgot to try this.  I tried it two ways.  Since having it true full blast on all sources and the Taurus would probably destroy my headphones and make me go deaf at the same time, a) I turned the volume of the Taurus all the way up, and turned up the volume gradually on my vega and b) maxed out the vega at 100, and slowly turned up the volume of the Taurus to acceptable levels.  Both A and B yielded similar results.  There was the regular bass hit that was pretty clean (with some static that they add in there to add texture to the bass I guess) and the lower booming bass line that's still defined and controlled.  I didn't hear distortion at all.  I guess you have problems with either your amplifier or that you're turning the volume up so high that you're feeding too much into your headphones.  I then tried turning it up pretty high (gradually), and it was like I had cheap laptop speakers playing since I was holding it away, but holding it closer could not hear distortion.  Either way.  Not sure why this is a problem unless there is distortion at lower levels but you just can't hear it as easily.  Otherwise just take the good deal that you got and enjoy the music at non-deafening levels.  You'll be able to enjoy music for much longer anyway.  

 
I contacted Auralic and told them i am willing to exchange my current Taurus for a brand new one. Can't wait..hope i do not make a $950 mistake...but from your testing results, it seems like my Taurus is in-fact defective.
 
Oct 10, 2015 at 4:56 PM Post #1,599 of 2,388
I contacted Auralic and told them i am willing to exchange my current Taurus for a brand new one. Can't wait..hope i do not make a $950 mistake...but from your testing results, it seems like my Taurus is in-fact defective.


You could look at it in another way in that the Taurus punches well above its weight in the price/performance ratio so you still have a good deal :smiley:
On a serious note in a few months you will have forgot all about this episode and be enjoying your new amp
 
Oct 11, 2015 at 4:18 AM Post #1,600 of 2,388
Thanks DrGameboy! Indeed it is exactly as you said. Std mode drives both and the std jack is muted when in balanced mode.

I didn't know the Taurus could do this. What a great surprise. I sometimes would like to listen with my girlfriend so if the Taurus can drive two headphones that would just be great. I just wanted to check that there is no risk of damage? I haven't found anything in the Manual that covers this.


Imo when Std is selected the balanced gets less power, it doesn't sound as good as on bal: lower volume and compressed
 
Oct 13, 2015 at 2:23 PM Post #1,601 of 2,388
  I am very disappointed with Auralic right now - having troubles developing an app on certain platform is understandable, but dropping what was promised (and quite essential for a lot of customers who were relying on that promise) and announcing it as quietly as possible - that's just a low-blow in my opinion. And buying 250EUR device just to be able to fully control another 1500EUR device is so wrong... Fortunately for now I don't need more than what Android version provides, but who knows what will I need in future.

 
  I don’t remember if it was actually Auralic them self that said that there will be an Android version of the Lightning DS or someone else that kind of spoke on their behalf on CA. This was more than one year ago, then I was considering to perhaps get a streamer. I sure got the impression that they, Auralic, was in the process of developing an app for Androids. If it never was Auralic intension to develop one, then would they not have declared that a long time ago? On the other hand if they actually have said that there will be an Android version of the Lightning DS, I would have expect them to also live up to that.

 

My 2 cent.

 
Absolutely piss poor. Simply not good enough. I briefly looked at the Aries, glad I didn't pull the trigger now.

Been a happy Vega user for some time, however this would make me think very carefully about buying any of their future products.

 
UDATE: 
 
Two days ago I did another Google search and stumbled upon a forum where "BubbleDS next" was hinted. It didn't seem to work flawlessly on my Galaxy Note 4 however. But it pointed me to BubbleUPNP. Nowadays, this app apparantly integrates cloud streaming as well. Tidal is my main music source, so this kind of made my day - scratch that, my whole month. Because... it just works!! I keep my lightning DS installed of course, in case I would need to change Aries specific settings (which I doubt many people do very often, me myself hardly ever) and for the occasional radio station listening session and other streaming modes. But as for basic functionality, BubbleUPNP does all I can ask for at this very moment :) And with basic, I do mean very basic (quite sad for Auralic in this regard): I can now always see what's playing on the now playing tab. Lightning DS always struggled to sync that with the Aries and keep the screen info updated. Neither did it ever manage to show the right duration of a song when using Tidal. In BubbleUPNP, I quickly find songs (the search function also combines my own library and tidal), but now I can just add them to the playlist without the currently playing song restarting after a 10 second silence. Go figure :p It even always appears in the playlist, whereas lightning DS just froze half of the times I tried and the song wasn't added after all.
So, to wrap things up:
- Auralic, PLEASE contact Bubblesoft, as - contrary to Linn - they are not competitors as far as I know, but they sure as hell do make working software. You can both win by partnering up!
- Auralic, please advise you're customers in the meantime to use Bubblesoft apps (BubbleUPNP or BubbleDS next, whichever works for them), so you at least help them with a good alternative for the app you're failing to deliver them for the time (1 year and counting ^^) being...
- Android users: the Aries is no longer a brick, or a one song at a time streaming device (if you don't want to listen to a whole album). I would be more comfortable buying it now, as open source software saves the day for Auralic. After all, I can't but recognise they DO make excellent hardware. My Vega and Taurus mk2 deliver a truly stunning listening experience.
So now go listen what those frankly positive reviews about that Aries are about. I'll do so in any case, without being hampered by unusability. Finally :)
 
Oct 15, 2015 at 9:13 PM Post #1,602 of 2,388
I feel bad now. I should have suggested BubbleUPnP, it's only one of my favourite apps for Android for the last several years. If I'd been thinking I would have suggested to try it. I use it with UAPP on my Android phones to stream Tidal to DACs without native Android support, as well as using it with my NAS and Shield Android TV.
 
Oct 15, 2015 at 10:47 PM Post #1,603 of 2,388
Whenever I think about getting a nice streamer, I end up going back to using my iPhone/iPad streaming from my plex server. It's not the most amazing hi-res quality but it's about CD quality I believe.  The interface just works and it's fast.  Actually the magic is in the Plex server since out of all the free ones that I tried, it indexes everything so browsing the library is snappy.  When streaming using foobar or other DLNA servers I keep getting stoppages.  Plex is that server side that fixed my issues.  I thought the client mattered but using the server with VLC player also was snappy.  Oh well.  It's good to support a good product (server is free but client is not).  
 
Oct 17, 2015 at 5:18 AM Post #1,604 of 2,388
After the recent discussion about the proper Lightning DS app for Android (or lack of it), recent Android update to 6.0 screws with things even more - LDS does not work on my Nexus 5 phone at all, it just crashes instantly. Now I am very curious whether they are going to fix it or leave it in the dark. I am afraid that if they are not developing android version at all that I might be out of luck here. While 3rd party apps may be fine (I have heard about BubbleUPnP) for managing playback, I am not sure how good they are at setting Aries unit up.
 
Oct 19, 2015 at 9:22 AM Post #1,605 of 2,388
Just curious if anyone has had an issue with switching the input and output on their Taurus MKII? My Taurus is stuck with the light on BAL ouput and XLR input. Basically the front panel buttons are inactive except for the power button. Turning the unit off and on, unplugging, etc does not solve the issue. I was doing some A/B testing against the Headamp GS-X mk2... Both powered with a PS Audio p300. No issues with the GS-X though.
 

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