Now that we have some time for everything to settle in, my brother says the N10 is notable better in SQ than his Mac Mini. Playing files on the N10 also sounds better than playing music on Tidal. Playing files on the DMP sounds a little clearer than on the N10. He has a better HDMI cable with the DMP though. I remember going straight with USB from N10 to DS, the DMP was better sounding. Only when I use the Matrix and using I2s, the N10 overtook DMP in performance. I use the same HDMI cable on both units. The I2s input is much better than the USB input on the DS.
I finally got my Esoteric N-03T today and am listening to it for about one hour and the word WOW doesn’t do it justice!! Whoever said transports don’t matter too much don’t know what they’re talking about. This transport is completely in another world!! It completely annihilated my DMP playing the same files off the same memory stick! I haven’t set up my NAS yet. When I do, I suspect it will even sound better! And I thought nothing could be that much better than the DMP! The sound has so much fullness and sound so complete that makes the DMP a little lean and lacking body. It also has incredible resolution rivaling my analog rig and without the noise. No doubt it easily outperform my former Aurender N10. I am using the fully loaded Matrix, RAL HDMI, Audience FrontRow USB, and tricked out Farad with it though. Later on I will try going USB direct and see what if there is any difference. Now to see what happens when it breaks in.
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It is amazing what $11,000 will do. 
I am certain it sounds great, and looks good, too.
Do you know what is inside that make it heavy? I do not expect a streamer to be this heavy, although I bet the casework contributes a good deal to the weight.
Enjoy!
Probably the two transformers and the dual layer steel plate on the bottom.
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I found a picture of it s innards. The two transformers are not huge, but big enough to add to the weight. I was unaware of the steel plate on the bottom. That would do it.
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My Esoteric E-02 phono stage is the same size case, but has smaller duel transformers and weights only 28 lbs. Most important is the performance though. The N-03T with the DS completely has no digital fingerprint at all. Sounds so much like the best vinyl it hard to believe.
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Congratulations! You have one of the better digital transports on the market with an amazing clock inside.
Thanks @Serhan, I did some comparison with and without Matrix. Definitely better with Matrix. Much clearer and more air. A little dirtier sounding without Matrix. It’s staying for sure. It’s probably not just the Matrix, but the I2s connection is a superior interface as well.
Back to the saga with the Aurender N10. After fixing they returned a black unit instead of silver and they finally call for the exchange, and they chew out my brother for erasing all the Mp3 files that was on the black unit. I just can’t understand anyone that would spend $8000 to play Mp3 files. Anyway, they’re sending the silver unit to him for the exchange. He’s lucky, I believe all the original files in the silver unit is still intact.
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Thank you @waymanchen11 for sharing your experience with the N-03T, and very interesting news from Aurender . The other poor customer had his MP3s wiped out.
I would appreciate your thoughts on sound quality using AES connection with PCM files in particular.
I plan on doing that a little later on. After burning in the Esoteric all day with music, it’s open up with even more resolution, especially image dimensionality, but I’m also listening to more music and hearing more differences.
I remember with the N10, going with XLR from the Matrix is not that much difference than I2S, with I2S slightly better, but really close. I would still choose I2S because it can do higher rate DSD, and I do have many double rate DSD files.
I was referring to AES direct into thenDS DAC. My understanding is that it is Esoteric’s best connection for PCM, and was curious to hear your experience.
Today I compared streaming files from my Synology NAS against the memory stick and it’s a really close call. Maybe the NAS very slightly warmer but very hard to tell, and that’s with the EtherREGEN installed. Without the EtherREGEN, the sound is duller and more veiled. The EtherREGEN makes a considerable difference!! That’s another keeper!!
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WOW!!! This Esoteric N-03T is really breaking in. Along with my transformer modified DS Sr., I believe the excitement from this digital approaches my analog rig and maybe even surpasses it!! So much music is coming out it’s unbelievable. The sound definitely holds your attention!!
Only one problem. The Sound Stream app works fine except it doesn’t recover all the album covers and I check the files, they all have the jpg art in it. That’s with the NAS streaming. The memory stick files has no problems with the art though.
Try the regular Lumin app instead of Sound Stream as it is more current and updated regularly.
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Part of the fee we pay to Roon goes into what they pay to editors and databases of music info and cover art. I have bought a lifetime license I. October, and I’m happy I did.
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I just tried the Lumin app and most of the artwork is popping up!! The app looks identical to Sound Stream. Thank you Jack!!
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The Esoteric is Roon ready. Maybe I should try that next.
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Same app engineers for the Lumin, Teac and Esoteric app but the Teac and Esoteric versions are “contract” work with different color schemes and very infrequently updated. Teac is paying Lumin for the rights to use the app as their own. Peter Lie of Lumin can answer any question you have about any Lumin or Esoteric/Teac streamer.
Make sure you have the latest firmware updates or Roon may not work. They are on the Esoteric Japan website. Depending on how long that unit was in a warehouse it may not have been updated.
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