Seeking music server recommendation: aurender vs Innuos vs other

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Benko

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Q1: Old timer high end audio, new to digital beyond CDs looking to buy a music server to rip my CDs to and for streaming: I've read good things about Aurender ACS10 Music Server/CD ripper and also Innuos servers/CD ripper. Any thoughts on either brand, or other brand you'd recommend?

I'll be using my oppo modwright 105 CD player as DAC for now.

My tastes run towards the more musical and I don't like bright.

Q2: Classical music: does software for either work well with classical music?

Thanks for your time.
 
Benko said:
Q1: Old timer high end audio, new to digital beyond CDs looking to buy a music server to rip my CDs to and for streaming: I've read good things about Aurender ACS10 Music Server/CD ripper and also Innuos servers/CD ripper. Any thoughts on either brand, or other brand you'd recommend?

I'll be using my oppo modwright 105 CD player as DAC for now.

My tastes run towards the more musical and I don't like bright.

Q2: Classical music: does software for either work well with classical music?

Thanks for your time.
Click to expand...

The ACS10 is great. I don't play much classical, but jazz, female vocals, and soft rock and Aurender does it all well. The ripper is simple to use - literally open the disk tray, insert CD and close tray. Everything else is automatic. You can edit using the Aurender ACS Manager App. On a just released CD - never in circulation before, like the new Krall CD that just came out - you will probably have to use your iPad and type in the names of the songs. It's simple.
 
Aurender all day long. Sound and support. But the Lumin U1 is excellent too.
 
I was in your shoes a little more than a year ago. I have not heard Innuos but I believe the ACS10 has more on board storage. I ended up with an ACS10 and love it, it is easy to rip your collection and use. I have the 8TB version, ripped about 1200 CD's or so and only used a small fraction of the HD.

I did make a mistake and bought a NAD 50.2 which is feature rich, however, I was not happy with the sound. I can't explain it but, though music servers, there is a difference in sound quality. The ACS10 was more expensive but the performance increase surpassed the expense to me. Not even close.

Unless things have changed Innuos does not have their own app. The Aurender app, Conductor, is pretty good.

The ACS10 is a really high quality unit for guys like me who aren't that into computers or just don't want to use computer for streaming. Or, more of a plug & play type of thing. Worth mentioning, ACS10 only has a USB output. Linox based. Aurender does sell a USB converter.

If you are picky about the album titles and such you will have to learn the editing features. Sometimes my albums showed up as part of a box set and track number may say 3 1, 3 2, etc opposed to just 1, 2, etc. It don't bother me as long as I can tell what I am playing. I do highly recommend the ACS10 as a happy owner.
 
So if one were to start thinking about a “closed” system (as opposed to multiple PC / HQP type), streaming not important and would use a larger library with a fair amount of DSD, what Aurender would one look at that isn’t ridiculous $?
 
Swisstrips said:
So if one were to start thinking about a “closed” system (as opposed to multiple PC / HQP type), streaming not important and would use a larger library with a fair amount of DSD, what Aurender would one look at that isn’t ridiculous $?
Click to expand...

Hands down, yes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Thanks everyone for their replies.

Quick question because I am totally new to digital audio: I assume when I rip CDs I can add comments e.g. singer/songwriter or Beethoven symphony to help me search when I want to play back?

THanks.
 
Benko said:
Thanks everyone for their replies.

Quick question because I am totally new to digital audio: I assume when I rip CDs I can add comments e.g. singer/songwriter or Beethoven symphony to help me search when I want to play back?

THanks.
Click to expand...

On the ACS10 this is automatically done, but you may edit it, if you desire to more refine it.
 
Mike said:
Hands down, yes.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm curious about - the model equiv (non DAC) to a multiple PC config - think JCAT control and audio PC or a multiple ROON core and HQP audio PC with a streamer e.g. SOTM or Sonore feeding the audio PC (then to DAC)

It looks like:
X100L
N100 series
BIG jump $ > ACS10
 
Benko said:
Thanks everyone for their replies.

Quick question because I am totally new to digital audio: I assume when I rip CDs I can add comments e.g. singer/songwriter or Beethoven symphony to help me search when I want to play back?

THanks.
Click to expand...

When you rip a CD, you will have the option of choosing the metadata from different sources. Unfortunately the Metadata available for free for classical music is all over the place. It will seldom be consistent.
On a multi disc symphonic CD, I have found one CD with the tracks in one language and another Disc in another language.
On your Beethoven example, unless you fix it, you could end up with discs by Beethoven, L. v Beethoven, Ludwig van Beethoven, and any possible variation you can think of. And unless you fix it, you will have a hard time finding what you are looking for later on. Not to mention that some metadata confuse the Composer (Beethoven) with the Conductor or Artist (Abbado).
And while you can make edits using the same software that came with your device, you will be better off investing in metadata software particularly if you have a large CD collection that you are going to rip.
If you are using a paying service like Roon or similar, you will get better and more consistent metadata. In that case, you could, for example, choose to display the metadata from Roon while playing your ripped CDs.
Ripping your CDs and having all your music digitized will allow you to listen to your music in a very different way. Once you get used to it, it is hard to go back.
 
I don't believe that Roon works with aurender, but I've written Aurender to see if other metadata editors work with their hardware. Only have a few hundred classical CDs but I wonder how much work it would be to edit metadata for all e.g.

Beethoven Symphony 9 Furtwangler
Beethoven PC 1 Davis

Thanks.
 
Benko said:
I don't believe that Roon works with aurender, but I've written Aurender to see if other metadata editors work with their hardware. Only have a few hundred classical CDs but I wonder how much work it would be to edit metadata for all e.g.

Beethoven Symphony 9 Furtwangler
Beethoven PC 1 Davis

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Aurender doesn’t work with Roon. However, Aurender will include most of the info you require automatically. Anything you desire to add / edit is easily done with their App.
 
Benko said:
I don't believe that Roon works with aurender, but I've written Aurender to see if other metadata editors work with their hardware. Only have a few hundred classical CDs but I wonder how much work it would be to edit metadata for all e.g.

Beethoven Symphony 9 Furtwangler
Beethoven PC 1 Davis

Thanks.
Click to expand...

You can use MP3TAG to fix the metadata. You would rip all of your CDs to the hard drive and when done, then you use another computer running MP3TAG to access that drive and fix what you need to fix. The nice thing about doing it that way, is that you can determine how you want the data to look and you can do so using batch processing.

If you are willing to consider a streaming music service like Qobuz or Tidal (I believe that both work with Aurender), you can sign up on a trial basis and you could check the sound of streaming versus the sound of your rip. If you decide that you like the sound of Tidal/Qobuz better, then you could avoid the hassle of ripping and metadata fixing altogether.

I personally ripped all my CDs years ago and I now find myself listening to the music streaming service (Qobuz) and don’t bother to play my ripped music (or CDs) unless they are not available in Qobuz. If I were starting today with digital, I would not bother ripping my collection but that’s only because I found no sound difference between streaming vs ripped. Other folks may prefer the ripped version or the physical CD but that is not my case.
 
Will the ACS100 for less money meet your needs?

Swisstrips said:
That's what I'm curious about - the model equiv (non DAC) to a multiple PC config - think JCAT control and audio PC or a multiple ROON core and HQP audio PC with a streamer e.g. SOTM or Sonore feeding the audio PC (then to DAC)

It looks like:
X100L
N100 series
BIG jump $ > ACS10
Click to expand...
 
As Calvinmentioned when ripping the CD the ACS10 searches the internet and automatically adds the artists name, cover art and track list of the CD. You have the option of searching your library by artist or album title. My Classical CD's listed fine for the most part. Some of the other CD's have small sgitches but could be edited, however, as I mentioned even with the glitch I could tell at least the artist. For example, my Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, listed as Pink Floyd Discovery. And a few others had the box set name opposed to the actual title of the album. I never had music on a computer so the ACS 10 is great for novices like myself.

Benko said:
Thanks everyone for their replies.

Quick question because I am totally new to digital audio: I assume when I rip CDs I can add comments e.g. singer/songwriter or Beethoven symphony to help me search when I want to play back?

THanks.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks again Aurender sounds like it is a good choice for me and software looks plenty good enough.

"ACS10 only has a USB output."

How much difference does this really make in sound quality?
 
The other "popular" choice would be Innuos and it too is USB only so the Aurender may be your best choice especially from a good dealer.
 
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