Caved in for the Aurender N10

jdandy

jdandy

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Earlier this week I ordered a new Aurender N10 music server from Suncoast Audio. I procrastinated for months but resistance proved futile. Before I knew what happened I caved like a house of cards in the wind. The more I researched the Aurender N10 the more its features, design, and build quality appealed to me. Everyone who owns the N10 has nothing but praise for the sound quality and ease of use. I know I asked a lot of questions but it was necessary for me be certain this was the right music server before placing my order. A big thanks to Mike for answering all of my inquiries that ultimately helped put the Aurender N10 into my studio system.

Now the wait is on. I have to endure a short period of time before the N10 arrives. The anticipation is making my days drag by. I ordered the N10 in silver with 4TB storage. I like the way the machined logo on the top cover stands out against the silver aluminum. The logo's contrast sort of disappears on the black model. I also prefer the contrast between the dark display window and the silver face, as well as the contrast between the black cooling fins on the sides and the silver case. The silver N10 will blend perfectly with my Esoteric K-03. While I wait for delivery I downloaded dBpoweramp and installed the software on two PC's and one laptop. That way I can rip CD's in multiple locations, all networked together with the N10. I have been ripping my music library one disc at a time to a hard drive in anticipation of moving the music files to the N10 once it is installed and network connected. I downloaded the Aurender Conductor app to my iPad. It looks good. I am about as ready as I can be, excited, and anxiously looking forward to enjoying the Aurender N10 music server in the studio. Color me a happy camper.
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Dan, the N10 is an astonishingly good digital front end. When you first get it, I recommend creating a play list and leaving it on repeat 24/7 for at least 30 days to break in the N10.
 
Congratulations Dan! It sounds like you really did your homework and all of your research helped you arrive at a logical conclusion. I look forward to reading your report once you take delivery.

Best of luck,
Ken
 
The N10 with Tidal is so good that I would have far fewer CDs now if I had had the N10 for longer than the year I've had it. I also endorse using dbPoweramp for ripping. One of its features is that the Windows version will detect HDCD processing and will rip the 20 bit HDCD layer of a CD. This eliminates the need for an HDCD-capable DAC. Not all HDCDs are labeled as such, so you can just put dbPoweramp on auto-detect mode for the format.
 
Mike said:
Dan, the N10 is an astonishingly good digital front end. When you first get it, I recommend creating a play list and leaving it on repeat 24/7 for at least 30 days to break in the N10.
Click to expand...

Mike.......30 days, uha? That's 720 hours of break-in. Holy mackerel. Listening to it just four hours a day, seven days a week it would take a half year to hit that mark. The cool thing is the playlist will reside in the SSD so no moving parts are used during the break-in period. Thanks for the tip.
 
jdandy said:
Mike.......30 days, uha? That's 720 hours of break-in. Holy mackerel. Listening to it just four hours a day, seven days a week it would take a half year to hit that mark. The cool thing is the playlist will reside in the SSD so no moving parts are used during the break-in period. Thanks for the tip.
Click to expand...

That's what I do. I'm sure breakin is noticeably much quicker. But frankly, I leave mine on 24/7. It sounds great out of the box, but really opens up after a few hundred hours.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
asindc said:
The N10 with Tidal is so good that I would have far fewer CDs now if I had had the N10 for longer than the year I've had it. I also endorse using dbPoweramp for ripping. One of its features is that the Windows version will detect HDCD processing and will rip the 20 bit HDCD layer of a CD. This eliminates the need for an HDCD-capable DAC. Not all HDCDs are labeled as such, so you can just put dbPoweramp on auto-detect mode for the format.
Click to expand...

Anthony.......I am looking forward to having Tidal integration with the N10. I presently subscribe to Deezer through my Sonos Connect but it doesn't integrate with any other server software. Having the Tidal library integrated into the Aurender Conductor app will be advantageous. Thanks for the HDCD tip.
 
Mike said:
That's what I do. I'm sure break in is noticeable much quicker. But frankly, I leave mine on 24/7. It sounds great out of the box, but really opens up after a few hundred hours.
Click to expand...

Mike.......When you say you leave your N10 on 24/7, do you mean fully turned on or in Standby mode when not in use? Do you have the N10 powered with a UPS? When you press the front panel power button to put the N10 in Standby mode does the oven controlled crystal oscillator remain heated? If the N10 is powered completely down with the switch on the rear panel, how long does it take the oven controlled crystal oscillator to reach its operating temperature and stabilize?

I will let the N10 play in repeat mode for at least 150 hours or more before I attempt to write a review on its sound and performance. I am a believer in component break-in.
 
Dan,
I can perfectly understand your excitement, I felt the same when I placed the order for my W20.
After every day use I put the server on standby mode, the unit remain hot and is ready to play immediately after it' s woken up.
I switch off the unit when I leave home for several days and when the storm is coming - I disconnect also the Lan cable.
My first Aurender -S10 broke down after a heavy storm being connected only to internet with LAN cable! To fix it up was quite expensive, the wireless card was broken.

Congratulations, enjoy!
 
jdandy said:

Mike.......When you say you leave your N10 on 24/7, do you mean fully turned on or in Standby mode when not in use? Do you have the N10 powered with a UPS? When you press the front panel power button to put the N10 in Standby mode does the oven controlled crystal oscillator remain heated? If the N10 is powered completely down with the switch on the rear panel, how long does it take the oven controlled crystal oscillator to reach its operating temperature and stabilize?

I will let the N10 play in repeat mode for at least 150 hours or more before I attempt to write a review on its sound and performance. I am a believer in component break-in.
Click to expand...

Fully turned on and running a play list. My music is stored on a 48TB NAS. The one N10 is connected to the Shunyata Denali 6000T, my other one is connected to the AudioQuest Niagra 7000.

I'm unsure if the crystal oscillator remains heated in standby, but I would assume so. The longest startup occurs after an abrupt shutdown (power outage). It has to go through a recovery process, but gives you a countdown on the progress.
 
Congratulations Dan.

Mike has recommended the N10 to me so I'm eager to read your review. I'm thinking of switching up my dac situation but still unsure of which way to go.
 
I just took delivery last week of an N100H 4TB from Mark Jones of Toronto (and Audio Shark). If I were not so overcome by pleasure from the SQ of the new digital front end, I'd die from embarrassment that I didn't hear what I was missing when I was running JRiver on my Macbook Pro with a 6m USB (DH Labs Mirage). I also switched to a 2m Nordost Heimdall USB, and the shorter run likely has some impact on the SQ upgrade. But the Aurender with my PS Audio DS DAC is sounding so good that I find I can no longer listen to music in my car on my morning commute. The contrast has just reached a point where the 14 speaker Bose system in my Cayenne doesn't sound like music... at all.
 
Mike said:
Fully turned on and running a play list. My music is stored on a 48TB NAS. The one N10 is connected to the Shunyata Denali 6000T, my other one is connected to the AudioQuest Niagra 7000.

I'm unsure if the crystal oscillator remains heated in standby, but I would assume so. The longest startup occurs after an abrupt shutdown (power outage). It has to go through a recovery process, but gives you a countdown on the progress.
Click to expand...

Mike.......Thanks for the information. If you are using the USB out form the N10, the oven controlled crystal oscillator is not used. I will be using the coaxial digital output specifically to take advantage of the OCXO clock generator. I plan to power my N10 from a PurePower 2000 AC regenerator with battery backup. That eliminates abrupt shutdowns from power loss. Interesting to know the N10 is able to automatically recover from such an event.

A 48TB NAS seems huge to me. It would take me three lifetimes to need that much storage for music.
 
Ritmo said:
Congratulations Dan - a very nice piece!
Click to expand...

Mike.......Thank you. Out goes the Olive 04HD and in comes the Aurender N10. I am super excited to get it installed in the studio system.

I probably won't have it until the end of the month. The wait is killing me.


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madfloyd said:
Anyone know if there is supposed to be a significant sonic difference between the Aries and the N10?
Click to expand...

They're like night and day. Aurender is night, Auralic is day. One is darker, the other, brighter.

If you're bothered by one, it's almost sure you're going to prefer the other one.
 
The inside of the Aurender N10 is as beautiful as the outside.


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Under that aluminum cover resides the custom designed digital output board and clock generator with an oven controlled crystal oscillator for
the AES/EBU, coaxial, and Toslink digital outputs.


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The overall design and high quality craftsmanship is a true work of art.
 
Agreed. Their casework is amazing. Even the entry level N100 and X725 have excellent build quality.
 
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