I forgot to mention that I also compared it to the Matrix, and the Lumin sounded better, in my system.
excellent, quel câble Chrod est-il
Il s’agit du Chord Sarum T 
Superbe 
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Merci 
Bonjour, Philippe. By Matrix, you mean the X-SPDIF 2? Used how?
Also, when you say the Lumin is better than an alternative or “won easily”, could you describe what that means for you? Thanks!
Bonjour Marc.
Yes the X-SPDIF 2, connected to the Nucleus + via USB and to the psa dac via I2S.
Admittedly not really directly comparable to the Lumin connected through Ethernet to the Nucleus and AES/EBU to the dac.
By better in my system, I mean closer to what I hear at (classical) music concerts. Or what I used to hear before COVID 
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So, realistic, relaxed, non-digital, dynamic ease? More of these things?
Yes, all that good stuff that makes it sound more real.
Mille mercis.
To get back to waymanchen’s plight, I had heard from a while back that folks thought Aurender sounded better, but that Lightning was a better app. Since at the time I was coming from 3 years with Roon, I didn’t want a crap app. And - as usual, I didn’t know if people were simply preferring whatever they had bought or if they had been able to do any meaningful comparisons beforehand. So in fair part due to functionality, I chose Auralic, and have been very happy with it.
I’m now asking a couple of guys at a dealer who have heard: Lumin, Auralic, Innuos and Aurender and they seem to be giving the sonic edge to Aurender. Still - if it breaks/is buggy/has a poor app… Je ne sais quoi faire! 
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Maybe waymanchen has hit on the use for the DMP in retirement - as a big Matrix! 
The other thing about the current server SOTA - if one device is using switching power supplies and you are comparing to another with linear - not a meaningful comparison. If one is using an inexpensive internal linear supply, and the other a big external with dual toroidals - again…
And this is just power. Everything matters on these dang things!
It is absolutely mad that an $8,000 machine packs up after 5 years. And the thing is solid state, no moving parts! I’d get on to the distributor and tell them to get it fixed. From the problems it has had, I’m amazed it hasn’t’t gone back already.
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I was under the impression Aurender had HDD in those?
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Auralic, Lumin, Aurender, and Innuos all provide interesting alternatives in the server/streamer world. I’m still leaning toward an Innuos Zen or Zenith because the cost of the Zen is pretty reasonable, the sound is reported to be excellent, and the Innuos software allows good integration with Sonos (which would be great for me with my current 6-room Sonos investment).
In asking Innuos customer service about some of their available options, I got an update on their new software app. I would like to avoid Roon if I can, and Innuos has been working on their own software for two years. With regard to this long-promised software, Innuos told me “We are very close to the release… a few weeks. Stay tuned.” As usual, hope springs eternal.
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Care to share, why?
Not pot stirring…just curious.
Good luck with your search.
Cheers.
The first two years while the Aurender N10 was under warranty, it was not too bad. Only occasionally I had to restart it a couple of times to work. I use support once when it would not log on and they found it was my connection on the ethernet cable. But the last few years, the start up problem became more frequent. Now it will not start up at all. I’ll probably sent the unit in to fix it and use it in a second system or maybe sell it. I do hear a faint whirling when the unit is on so there are moving parts inside.
This I can say is when this unit is working, the sound especially with the tricked out Matrix is monumental!! To me, the sound cannot be better!! It’s really that good!! When I went back to the Mac Mini, the Mac sounded mid-fi!! But after 5 years, the itch is still there for something better, so I am in the process of getting the Esoteric N-03T to put in the main system. Hopefully it will outperform the N10 without all the quirks. It may take awhile depending if they have the unit in stock, but I will report back when I get the new unit running.
IIRC there are also a couple of hard drives inside.
If I’m recalling correctly, in the Aurender room at the last RMAF, they had two sets of about a half dozen models on display - one side of the room with internal storage, the other without. They had a TV just to display a graphic flowchart - do you need: X? Do you already have Y?..
I’ll check - I have pics somewhere. Sorry - none of the actual hardware! 
. Small and crowded room full of people staring into plexiglass-topped boxes.
(This chart is over a year old as of Nov. '20)
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I just checked - 4TB of (2TBx2) internal hard disk drives, with 8TB an option.