exactly what is auralic aries? and what does it do?
where does it 'fit in one’s/my system?
my system is 2013 mac mini i7 16GB RAM amarra Sq USB out to Schiit Gungnir DAC and RCA’s out to Magni hp amp and my avr
I listen to Qobuz hifi and TIDAL hifi BeatsMusic(my 400+ MOG transferred playlists only) iTunes(my 800+/15000+ songs in aiff)
i do not have NAS or an iPad(yet) and only ‘hirez’ music i have are my ripped DVD-A albums(from DVD AUDIO extractor)
does Aries improve sound quality is it used WITH/WITHOUT AmarraSq or is its function only ‘ease of use’ ie streaming to another sound system with apple tv in another which is a huge PIA right now even using AIRSERVER
how do i connect it if my Gungnir DAC only has single input USB
please help no has answered me on my CA forums maybe my questions are stupid to them or considered intuitive self explanatory- thanks bobbmd
The Aries is a file player. It handles sending a PCM or DSD data stream to a DAC.
The files are stored on either an USB drive attached directly to the Aries, or on a computer/server attached to a router (the Aries Ethernet connection is in turn attached to the router. The Aries can also receive the file data over a wireless connection.
The Aries takes these files (FLAC, WAV, etc.) and plays them so that a DAC can read them.
There are many here with the device who can explain further and answer questions.
I don’t think you could use Amarra with the Aries unless it also works as a UPnP server. As Elk said, you can either connect a USB drive (Mac or PC formatted, among others) with your music files directly to the Aries or use the ethernet connection with a Mac, PC or NAS on your home network that is running UPnP server software. You could use iTunes on the Mac to rip and organize your music but you would need to either then connect the drive to the Aries or run UPnP software on the Mac (such as minimserver, JRiver Media Center, etc.). The Aries has a built-in Tidal application but I have not used it. There is no way for us to compare sound quality alternatives to your set-up as we don’t have the same hardware. There might be someone here, though, who has used both the Aries and Amarra with a PSA DAC who can comment on their experience. The Aries did easily beat my early 2009 Mac Mini running JRiver MC 19 over USB.
Dennis, assuming appropriate server software on the NAS, yes. I don’t use a NAS myself but I do use my Aries with minimserver on a Mac (minimserver is also available for some NAS drives). I use Auralic’s iPad app (Lightning DS) or BubbleUPnP on an Android device, using Open Home. The Lightning DS app also sees (and can apparently use) my JRMC and Logitech Media Server libraries. The Aries can also be set for use as a regular UPnP device, which broadens the software that can be run (although last I checked they had accidentally broken that feature). That would probably include things like Twonky or Asset, if NAS drives still use that. I have not had any problems with DSD files (other than double rate files on a slow server).
Yes, no computer needed…I use a Synology NAS with Minimserver… Also in the next update to Aries it will allow Samba shares, and of course you could do the DSD right off a USB drive directly attached to the Aries…
erikm said
Yes, no computer needed..I use a Synology NAS with Minimserver.. Also in the next update to Aries it will allow Samba shares, and of course you could do the DSD right off a USB drive directly attached to the Aries..
For USB drives connected directly to the Aries I’m pretty sure you have to use the Lightning DS control point. I have a 4TB USB drive (a clone of the one I use for JRMC and minimserver on my Mac Mini) connected that way and it works well, so no computer or NAS needed. Some people use an external server and just use the USB input for playing temporary files, such as those brought over by a friend.
I second everything that stevem2 and erikm says about the Aries above.
What I would like to see from Auralic is a possibility of controlling the Aries over the (ad-hoc) network established by the Aries and use the memory stick/USB drive as your library. Then you could get rid of the router dependency also. However, this will not happen according to Auralic. I am not sure why, because there is not a huge amount of traffic going to and from the control point. The only issue I see is the automatic firmware update over Internet not available over the dedicated network.
It would be just great to bring your Aries and iDevice over to your friends house for both serious listening and party.
Let us know what you think once you finally get home. There are probably worse places to be stuck than Rio, though (assuming that’s where you are now).
I’ll put in my 2 cents on it for sure. I’m sure I will have a few setup questions on it but will ask on the Aries forums as opposed to clogging up Paul’s site. I will comment on how it integrates with the Sprout though. Should be a killer little setup.
Just left Rio and am in Mobile AL for 3 weeks before I head home to MN. Brazil is not a bad place to be. It’s sad that it’s beauty is spoiled by poverty and corruption though… And yes there are lots of little brown bums with butt floss bikini’s all over the beach. However, there are also a lot of very large brown bums with butt floss bikini’s all over the beach too.
Well. My Aries fired up and I went to download the newest firmware and I now have nothing. After numerous reboots and resets all I get is the “wifi” symbol on the front face regardless of whether it is hard wired or not. When hard wired there is no traffic according to the lights at the port. The Lightning DS doesn’t see the Aries at all. Under the device tab it simply shows “no device”. Again, lots of resets and reboots with no luck. Any ideas out there? I’ve sent this to Auralic support as well.
When you see the wifi symbol in the Aries display the Aries has created its own network. This means that you will have to select this network in ‘Settings-WiFi’ on your iPad. Then the Aries will show in LDS and you can configure it according to your desire. I encourage you to read the Auralic release notes for further information.
However, there are also a lot of very large brown bums with butt floss bikini’s all over the beach too. 
