Aurender N20 Review

Not surprised with this review. Have a friend with an N20 and his system sounds sublime. He upgraded from the N10 and is using the EMM top DAC. It’s a fabulous combo.

Ritmo said:

Not surprised with this review. Have a friend with an N20 and his system sounds sublime. He upgraded from the N10 and is using the EMM top DAC. It’s a fabulous combo.

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I've presently got an Aurender N20 here for review; it's very, very impressive. Superb sound quality.

I'd like to reply to the N20 post even though it's been a couple of years since the last post. Mike, it was great seeing you at the Toronto Audiofest btw. I just want someone to clarify that by adding a high quality ethernet switch, for example, a Nordost Qnet/QSource, or Melco S10 to the N20 makes that much of a difference in sound quality wrt streaming Qobuz and/or listening to stored files on the Aurender. Are the improvements subtle, or drastic? Or is more wise to budget towards a DJM giga foil, upgraded power supply with high quality ethernet cable? Then take the extra money and start budgeting towards a master clock in the 6,000 range? Thank you kindly.
Gene

Gene15352 said:

I'd like to reply to the N20 post even though it's been a couple of years since the last post. Mike, it was great seeing you at the Toronto Audiofest btw. I just want someone to clarify that by adding a high quality ethernet switch, for example, a Nordost Qnet/QSource, or Melco S10 to the N20 makes that much of a difference in sound quality wrt streaming Qobuz and/or listening to stored files on the Aurender. Are the improvements subtle, or drastic? Or is more wise to budget towards a DJM giga foil, upgraded power supply with high quality ethernet cable? Then take the extra money and start budgeting towards a master clock in the 6,000 range? Thank you kindly.
Gene

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Hi Gene,


I've done videos on my experimenting with DOZENS of switches and combo of switches from $27 to $8,000. I've tried everything from GigaFoil's to EXT1's. I've tried upgraded power cables, power conditioners and power supplies.

At the end of the day there are too many variables between individual houses and components for there to be a blanket answer for you.

I will say there is a clear different in the sound between switches cheap or expensive. In fact even though I am currently running an $8,000 switch, there is still a noticeable improvement by running a trio of 3 particular inexpensive switches by the wall, then running my 5m cable to my expensive switch where the system is located.

No person can guarantee you any results without you trying in your home, and your system, to your ears.

Thank you Mike. That makes sense what you're saying. Forgot to mention that at the Toronto Audiofest, the room where you collaborated with Audio by Mark Jones sounded really dialed in with the Clarisys Audio speakers.

Gene15352 said:

Thank you Mike. That makes sense what you're saying. Forgot to mention that at the Toronto Audiofest, the room where you collaborated with Audio by Mark Jones sounded really dialed in with the Clarisys Audio speakers.

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Thanks! Great seeing you!


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Gene15352 said:

I'd like to reply to the N20 post even though it's been a couple of years since the last post. Mike, it was great seeing you at the Toronto Audiofest btw. I just want someone to clarify that by adding a high quality ethernet switch, for example, a Nordost Qnet/QSource, or Melco S10 to the N20 makes that much of a difference in sound quality wrt streaming Qobuz and/or listening to stored files on the Aurender. Are the improvements subtle, or drastic? Or is more wise to budget towards a DJM giga foil, upgraded power supply with high quality ethernet cable? Then take the extra money and start budgeting towards a master clock in the 6,000 range? Thank you kindly.
Gene

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Hi Gene,
Yes, they really matter. Turns out "digital streaming" is susceptible to a slew of noise factors (including how they're powered) including low-source and high-source leakage impedance current, deterministic jitter, threshold jitter, phase noise and sources of noise that result in timing errors.
They are also generally very sensitive to vibration, as this impacts their clocks.

With respect to improvements provided by audio-grade Ethernet switches, I'd say the range of improvement range from "notable" to "significant" (not sure that "drastic" would be the right adjective).

Other factors that are used with switches that impact their performance with audible effects are: their power supplies (SMPS are generally pretty bad as they are a source of low-source and high-source leakage impedance current, which cause threshold jitter), the power cords used to power them, and the Ethernet cables used with them.

A great article about the factors that impact Ethernet switches for audio applications is by John Swenson, who designed Uptone Audio's EtherREGEN. My recommendation is to read this article thoroughly.

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0660/6121/files/UpTone-J.Swenson_EtherREGEN_white_paper.pdf?v=1583429386