I just tried XLR out to DS from Esoteric and the sound is dirtier and more smeared. Cleaner and more high frequency purity with USB>Matrix >I2s>DS. USB cable is Audience FrontRow and RAL HDMI. XLR cable is WW Platinum Eclipse 8. So there you have it, USB>Matrix>I2s to me sounds much better even with Esoteric.
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The N100SC is user replaceable via a door in the rear of the unit. You can install an SSD or an HDD>. Most of the other units come with a HDD. I just ordered a A10. The US Aurender national rep stated the drives were reliable, and user replaceable, but suggested if you ever chose to replace it to contact Aurender support for guidance. The music cache is managed by an SSD.
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I was communicating this week with the US Aurender rep, since I was going to purchase an A10 or a N100SC. The Aurender rep advised me the internal Hard drives were user replaceable, however he suggested if the need ever occurred, I should contact Aurender support for guidance. there were a couple of things to properly prep the drive for installation.
Worst case, I’d fix it and sell it. The N20 is a nice rig.
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Thank you. This pulls the curtain AES vs I2S.
The fact this family of devices doubles up as streamer / network bridge & server at the same time is magnificent.
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I am pretty sure it will outperform Roon in the sound quality department. I’m even more curious of how it performs sound wise versus my Bryston BDP-2 music transport. The BDP-2 transport Manic Moose firmware is clunky. The Aurender looks to offer great sound, and much better firmware.
I just tried the same experiment with my Lumin U1, and aes vs usb-matrix-hdmi was to close to call. Both sounded great.
It shows once again that everything is system dependent.
And probably also cable dependent, because I use a much more expensive aes than the ww platinum.
My system is almost 100% ww, but the chord Sarum T aes clearly outperformed the ww platinum 8 aes.
And it should, at something like twice the price.
PS how are you powering the Matrix?
Intersting
I’m using the tricked out Farad Super 3. The Matrix combo does cost much more than the WW Platinum XLR, so you are right. If I use a WW platinum HDMI and no power supply on the Matrix, there may be a different outcome.
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And to be fair, my Matrix path is not super optimized (detailed description in the Coax vs Matrix thread).
After additional listening, the matrix path is indeed slightly better, using aes from the matrix to the ds.
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Very intersting!