The N100 Owners Thread

Etunes said:
Please pardon the stupid questions but I'm a bit unclear. NAS to computer running Aurender software then out to DAC? Can the software be installed on the NAS?

Thx
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Mike is right; for NAS, you need to install AMM on a PC/Mac. NASs don't have an OS.

Now I want to be clear...because it is easy to misunderstand this kind of thing, and then people will be going around saying "you have to install AMM to use the N100". That's not exactly true. You need to install it, if you want pretty album covers, and meta-data, etc. If you're OK, with just browsing through a folder-structure and selecting your files; you DON'T need it.

Also...again; supposedly, if you're not using NAS for storage...but attaching a local drive to the N100. My understanding is, you need to hook the drive up to a PC/MAC...run AMM once; and then attach it to the N100, and you'll have cover-art, meta-data, etc.

My (educated) guess: running AMM that one time, loads all the files on to the local drive...so the N100 can read them. Which likely means...every time you add new files, you'll need to run AMM again; to update the info.
 
FlexibleAudio said:
Thank you Adam. As a neophyte, I was under the mistaken understanding that asynchronous connections (usb or i2s) still need a clock in the server/streamer that plays an important role at the server/streamer, but is controlled by the clock in the DAC. This is not the case?
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There is a clock on computer USB side - usually 12MHz, and some even say that it's performace does matter even if you use a DAC which has an asynchronous USB input.

However, the OCXO you have reffered to and probably seen inside the Aurender S10 (and possibly W20) is dedicated to SPDIF board.
 
Elberoth said:
There is a clock on computer USB side - usually 12MHz, and some even say that it's performace does matter even if you use a DAC which has an asynchronous USB input.

However, the OCXO you have reffered to and probably seen inside the Aurender S10 (and possibly W20) is dedicated to SPDIF board.
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So this explains why Aurender makes no reference to the clock in the 100N and one would assume it is not at the OCXO level; but the question regarding its impact on SQ sounds like it is still somewhat of a debate. Since it up for question, one would presume if it has an impact it must be quite small.
 
There is a nice post (#3) on CA regarding the importance of computer clock, written by John Swenson:

Uptone Audio Regen

I know that Jcat paid a lot of attention to clock quality when designing their USB card, and so did Paul Pang, who was the first to employ OCXO on am PCIe/USB card (although I have serious doubts that the wires he uses are impedance optimised ... which kind of defies the purpose of OCXO IMO).
 
Elberoth said:
There is a nice post (#3) on CA regarding the importance of computer clock, written by John Swenson:

Uptone Audio Regen

I know that Jcat paid a lot of attention to clock quality when designing their USB card, and so did Paul Pang, who was the first to employ OCXO on am PCIe/USB card (although I have serious doubts that the wires he uses are impedance optimised ... which kind of defies the purpose of OCXO IMO).
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Adam, I see John's comments post in #3 provides some good information about the importance of power isolation to minimize USB noise caused by data packets inducing current in the PDN (which is very relative to my understanding of the advantages of i2s (non-packet format) over USB (packet)), but I did not see a reference by John to clock importance in the computer versus the dac. Did I miss something or was it a different link?
 
Not directly. But an USB hub (and the Regen works as single output USB hub) is build of only a few parts, and the clock is one of the more important ones. At least that is my understanding. I may be wrong though.
 
I just received my N100 this week. I installed a 1TB SSD. Still waiting on support to format it. I used AMM to index my music on a USB drive which is ripped to WAV (tagged with INFO tags). It read every tag and picked up the covers and transmitted it to the N100. I then plugged the USB in the back of the N100. I am able to view my whole collection on my iPad. My goal is to convert/re-rip everything to uncompressed FLAC and get it on the SSD. The USB drive is an easy interim step. Tidal integration works perfectly. I can't listen just yet as my Grimm active speakers are set to arrive on 3/25. I will certainly post my impressions when up and going.

This is a huge system transition for me; a minimalist system that you can't tweak other than room treatments. My old system was: Linn Klimax DS > FM Acoustics 245 > FM Acoustics 411 MK 2 > Magico Mini 2. Often in this hobby you do silly things. I'm betting on no this time (I hope).
 
I was very impressed hearing the prototype Aurender N20 a few weeks ago. Like the W20 it has dual wire, so I can connect my PM Model Two to it. The software was very user friendly, including sorting by sample rate, since the main disadvantage of the Model Two is that you have to manually change sample rates. Not a big issue for me, since most of my digital files are 192/24, the 10,000 albums I have ripped from vinyl and R2R. What is very nice (also may apply to other Aurender models) is that you can have both front and back covers and inserts, very nice for vinyl rips. I understand that the production model of the N20 should be available later this year, maybe early next year. I hope to have the prototype in my home for a few weeks later this year to try things out.

Besides the sound quality and ease of use, I was also impressed by how the software interacted with several different NAS drives.

The only disadvantage to the Aurender is that it only does two channel, so I will be keeping my Mac mini to use with my Exasound E28 for mch files.

When I get the N20, my daughter and son-in-law and grandkids will be getting my BADA2 for their system (upgrading from their Meridian Explorer DAC!)

Larry
 
Midnight Rambler said:
I just received my N100 this week. I installed a 1TB SSD. Still waiting on support to format it. I used AMM to index my music on a USB drive which is ripped to WAV (tagged with INFO tags). It read every tag and picked up the covers and transmitted it to the N100. I then plugged the USB in the back of the N100. I am able to view my whole collection on my iPad. My goal is to convert/re-rip everything to uncompressed FLAC and get it on the SSD. The USB drive is an easy interim step. Tidal integration works perfectly. I can't listen just yet as my Grimm active speakers are set to arrive on 3/25. I will certainly post my impressions when up and going.

This is a huge system transition for me; a minimalist system that you can't tweak other than room treatments. My old system was: Linn Klimax DS > FM Acoustics 245 > FM Acoustics 411 MK 2 > Magico Mini 2. Often in this hobby you do silly things. I'm betting on no this time (I hope).
Click to expand...

MR...I was just about to ask; if I was the only one, with an N100 so far. Good to have some company!

Good to hear, the AMM worked as advertised. When you say you're "waiting on support, to format your SSD"; do you mean Aurender support?

I would have thought, they'd be kind of uncooperative; to hear dealers tell it...you're not "supposed" to install an SSD yourself.
 
Yes Aurender support. The dealer said it was ok to install the SSD - he even sent pictures.
Not sure what they do. The SSD has some music related folders on it that were likely installed after I rebooted. The N100 shows up in the finder of my mac, but I can't log into it.
I got an automated reply that they are at a trade show.
 
How long does the AMM take to scan your music stores in the NAS? Mine has scanned for over 10 hours and not complete when I go to work this morning. It is horrible if I have to scan again every time I add songs to NAS.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
MR, do you mean that the SSD cannot be used right after installation? I saw an installation video in YouTube and find that it is easy to do so and planning to install one myself. But it may not be the case if it needs Aurender Support to do something after hardware installation. My dealer will charge me around USD70 for the installation (excluding the SSD).
 
It took less than 10 minutes to scan my USB drive of 335 Gb and transmit to the N100. There is a progress indicator to follow it.

The ssd shows up on the iPad app right away but yes tech support needs to do something to it. They contacted me earlier and are doing it now. Seems to take a while. Installing the drive was easy. You do need the correct Allen key and screws for the ssd. There is double sided tape that makes it hard to pull the cover off. It appears to serve some thermal purpose.
 
astrotoy said:
I was very impressed hearing the prototype Aurender N20 a few weeks ago. Like the W20 it has dual wire, so I can connect my PM Model Two to it. The software was very user friendly, including sorting by sample rate, since the main disadvantage of the Model Two is that you have to manually change sample rates. Not a big issue for me, since most of my digital files are 192/24, the 10,000 albums I have ripped from vinyl and R2R. What is very nice (also may apply to other Aurender models) is that you can have both front and back covers and inserts, very nice for vinyl rips. I understand that the production model of the N20 should be available later this year, maybe early next year. I hope to have the prototype in my home for a few weeks later this year to try things out.

Besides the sound quality and ease of use, I was also impressed by how the software interacted with several different NAS drives.

The only disadvantage to the Aurender is that it only does two channel, so I will be keeping my Mac mini to use with my Exasound E28 for mch files.

When I get the N20, my daughter and son-in-law and grandkids will be getting my BADA2 for their system (upgrading from their Meridian Explorer DAC!)

Larry
Click to expand...

Larry,

That is some very interesting info. Do you know what are the main differencies between the W20 and N20 ?
 
Am I missing something? I don't see an N20. I know of an N10, an N100, but no N20. I'm getting an N10 for my Devialet 400, when available. :celebrate008_2:
 
When transferring music to the SSD on the N100, does one drag the files to the drive and the unit sorts them based upon tags or is it best to drag the file to the folder of the appropriate genre?

Thanks in advance.
 
Midnight Rambler said:
When transferring music to the SSD on the N100, does one drag the files to the drive and the unit sorts them based upon tags or is it best to drag the file to the folder of the appropriate genre?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

My understanding was that the storage on the N100 was for caching music from a NAS and not for permanent storage.
 
The N100 has the capability for a 1 TB internal SSD which I installed. The unit comes with the necessary SATA cable.
My collection is not huge [< 400 GB currently] so this makes perfect sense for me. Between Tidal streaming and the internal storage this was the perfect solution for me at least.
Getting ready to start moving the files over and I wanted to do it right the first time.
 
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