Good to know! Looking forward to reading your review!
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Congrats to your brother! The quality of the N20 comes close to my recently acquired W20SE which impressed immediately. However if you really want to hear what it’s capable of you need a wordclock to sync with the dac.
Unfortunately that is not possible by most. Ever since the first moment experiencing the enormous (!) added value of the use of a wordclock to sync streamer and dac -dCS Vivaldi Apex wordclock in my system- it puzzles me that this option is so rare, even in high end audio…
[edit] …last but not least, the Aurender Conductor app is unbeatable!
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Congratulations on getting the W20SE and the Vivaldi Apex. Those units are as good as it comes!
Now that you brought up Master Clock Generators, that is something we will look into. Thank you.
My brother is so happy to be getting the Conductor app back again, he loves it!
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Curious if anyone has tried the SoTM streamer. I’m looking for a USB optimised system. Innuos Pulsar is looking an option, but being offered a superb deal on the complete SoTM package - SoTM Neo streamer, TX reclocker, switch with reclocking card and two 500 power supplies. I can have the whole thing on demo, just interested in any views.
Far too many parts for me. The Pulsar is one and done.
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That’s exactly what I thought. Thanks for the affirmation!
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I sure like mine
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Sorry if this has been covered before.
Lately, there’s been quite some talk about ethernet or fibre optic input to streaming devices. Of course there’s a bit of money involved for these types of input.
My question: isn’t wifi equal or even better, SQ wise, to both? Point of reference is the Aurelic Aries 2.x streamer against any other make/brand.
I’m curious to hear your arguments for or against, or any consideration necessary on the wifi side of things.
It depends your end goal, what you want to achieve. If I just want a box that’s plug and play and be done with it, I’d just pluck 7 grand for a streamer and call it a day.
But growing up with digital/silicon, I want to satisfy the “why” in my head and fortunate enough to have the background to learn and understand some of the aspect of the streaming chain.
To my experience, wifi is very noisy and should be avoided if possible. This only applys to my current home/setup/system. There are reviewers making claims that Aurelic whatever has wifi that sounds the same as other ports. That’s might be true. But call me a skeptic on that one. Only way for sure, is to try it in your own environment.
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I have used a satellite since day one, so that is Wi-fi. But from the satellite it is hard wired to the switch. So, am I hybrid?
Anyway, my streaming is sounding as good as discs, so I guess either way works. It all depends on how you set it up.
Digital cables, switch, and streamer matter a lot, no surprise there!
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FWIW, I have settled on “streaming” my local files via Wi-Fi to my router.
From there my Ethernet/Network distributes files via a series of switches and LAN galvanic isolation devices.
Primary Path to my DS Sr. is:
IMac (files and Roon Core) > Router/eero mesh network via Wi-Fi
Router > eero base station via AQ Forest Ethernet cable
eero to Paul Pang modified network switch w/iFi LPS via generic Cat 6 Ethernet cable
PP switch > GigaFoil LAN Isolator w/ iFi LPS via WireWorld Chroma Ethernet cable
GigaFoil > PSA AirLens via WireWorld Starlight Ethernet cable/PinkFaun LAN Isolator combo
AirLens > DS Sr. DAC via Revelation Audio Lab I2S cable
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Your satellite is just your internet connection. When people refer to wireless they are talking about not hooking an Ethernet cable up to their device and using a Wi-Fi connection instead. My rule is if wired Ethernet is available I choose to use it. Some argue that Wi-Fi offers galvanic isolation. This could be true. I have never experienced a downside when using Wi-Fi instead of wired Ethernet. No Sonic issues in my tests. But others have had different experiences.
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Now that makes sense, thanks!
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My experience across a few friends houses, particularly where DSD bitstreams are involved, is that a modern mesh network as a wireless bridge is great and better than their previous non-Cat-6 cable solutions.
The end devices, like the NAS or ROCK or PC at one end, and the streamer or DAC or receiver at the other end, do best when attached to the mesh satellites via ethernet cable. The controlling phone or tablet can then roam the house or outside it on the mesh.
There can also be too many layers of ethernet. Some devices that need to make a periodic usage license check handshake over the ethernet do not like being behind too many nested switches. Since I have at least two Ethernet jacks in every room, including the bathrooms, courtesy of a mad predecessor, photo evidence attached, I have two separate ethernets in the house, one for the family, and one just for me!
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Love it!
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Whose is the loo one? 
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The two family switches have 48 ports. I only have twelve on mine. But since I have a 10G switch, I can achieve more volume per go!
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AFAIK, ethernet, by design and specification, is galvanically isolated.
“All Ethernet enabled equipment has to include magnetics as the Ethernet specification for 10/100/1000BASE-T networks requires a certain level of galvanic isolation from the cable. 1:1 Transformers are usually used to meet this requirement as they also provide any required DC biasing (say when the nodes are powered from different sources, which may result in a ground offset between the transmitting and receiving equipment). Transformers also provide common mode rejection which is useful for noise attenuation between the PHY device (transceiver IC) and the physical medium (cable).”
Ethernet Magnetics: Discrete Or Integrated? | Engineers’ Insight | Avnet Abacus
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In the UK Mkii just arrived
Using Ifi Neo sream with its internet feed by optical (so isolated)
Then i2s ( PS audio pin out ) to Mkii
It’s frankly amazing compared to mkone
So much more info, atmosphere, super smooth more effortless,
It literally seems like listening to my music again
Surprised as that’s such a cliche
But this upgrade seems it’s true
Burning in perhaps 100 hours so far
Brilliant and very pleased
Go Ted waiting for next FPGA update
Currently beta massive and 2.62
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