2FlyingYorkies
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- Thread Author
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Friends, my 2017 vintage Aurender N100H in my main system has had its OLED display screen die for the second time now (and the N100SC in my basement system has had this happen once as well). I sent the Aurender guys a note, and assuming parts are still available, I'm assuming they'll send me a replacement display that I can R&R on my own like I've done the last two times.
We really enjoy the Aurender interface and the ability to both stream and keep our personal ripped library onboard without needing a separate NAS. But I'm less and less excited about the robustness of the unit itself... Between the display dying every few years and the unit's complete inability to deal with sub-second home power dropouts (despite being on a large toroidal power distributor with enough capacitance that music from other sources just keeps on playing), I find myself less inclined to do another repair. So the question is what to do?
If I repair, it's effectively zero out of pocket and I keep what I know and generally enjoy. But what if I decide to make a change? I use a standalone DAC and don't really want to go to an all-in-one solution; I like the ability to mix-n-match the DAC to the rest of the system, and don't really want to pay for an included DAC that I likely won't use.
Is there anything on the market similar to Aurender's "stream and store, using a separate external DAC" setup? It looks like the newer and higher end Aurender models get rid of the OLED in favor of an LCD screen - are these known to be more robust? That might be enough to keep me in the family, but I'm very much open to other options here.
Budget is less than $10k, preferably much less.
We really enjoy the Aurender interface and the ability to both stream and keep our personal ripped library onboard without needing a separate NAS. But I'm less and less excited about the robustness of the unit itself... Between the display dying every few years and the unit's complete inability to deal with sub-second home power dropouts (despite being on a large toroidal power distributor with enough capacitance that music from other sources just keeps on playing), I find myself less inclined to do another repair. So the question is what to do?
If I repair, it's effectively zero out of pocket and I keep what I know and generally enjoy. But what if I decide to make a change? I use a standalone DAC and don't really want to go to an all-in-one solution; I like the ability to mix-n-match the DAC to the rest of the system, and don't really want to pay for an included DAC that I likely won't use.
Is there anything on the market similar to Aurender's "stream and store, using a separate external DAC" setup? It looks like the newer and higher end Aurender models get rid of the OLED in favor of an LCD screen - are these known to be more robust? That might be enough to keep me in the family, but I'm very much open to other options here.
Budget is less than $10k, preferably much less.
