[rodge827]

A very timely thread for me. My wife asked about a month ago if we could rip all of our music to one location and pack up all of the cd's. So I did what any good husband would do...a lot of research and came up with either the Small Green Computer micro Jukebox or the Sonic Transporter AP 8T. The STAP8T costs the same as a Jukebox with a 2TB SS Drive but is Roon Ready where the Jukebox is not.  I have a USB DAC so integration would be a snap...all good right? Then I began to explain in some detail about how to do this and I got the LOOK! With the statement "there you go taking something simple like ripping cd's to a hard drive and turn it into a big confusing and expensive project!"    but! you! but... 

Stupid audio hobby gets me in trouble all the time...

https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/collections/audio-server/products/micro-jukebox

https://www.smallgreencomputer.com/collections/audio-server/products/sonictransporter-ap-8tb-roon-server

BTW I think the Bluesound Vault 2 has what your looking for or look into Cocktail Audio...http://www.cocktailaudio.com/home.html

Chris

 

[James Romeyn]

...We've been burning in an Aurender A10 at the shop & it's quite impressive as a DAC, competing neck & neck w/ a highly rated stand alone DAC at close to $5K.  The A10 is $5,500, but when you consider it has a $3K A100H / 4TB in it, the $2.5K you're paying for the DAC portion is more than made up for by the quality of the DAC.  It is by anyone's standard an above $2.5K DAC.

The Aurender A10 looks sharp, needing only a power amplifier.  In 2016 HeadFi's server comparison, the author was surprised to find he'd prefer the best $7700 server > best entry/mid price DAC/phone amp > best entry/mid price phones vs. standard Mac Mini server > best possible DAC/phone amp >  best phones.  Posters were surprised to see their "any server" meme smashed.

In direct AB test a friend said the Aurender $8k N10 handily outperformed Aurender's $2500 N100.   He did not want to spent the money, but had to after that test.   

I thought I read the A10 was $5k SRP, but possibly the price increased since that quote.  What month was the A10 released in the US?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on AB test, the A10's internal DAC vs. Resonessence's latest $2850 Veritas DAC (<8 weeks old) w/ESS' best and latest Sabre ESS9028PRO chips.  Res. says Veritas about equals their $5k Invicta Mirus w/original 9018 chips (Mirus accepts 9028 chip upgrade).  By large margin original Mirus was the best DAC I've heard.       

[martinr]

And finally the HAL 3 music server......http://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=98467.0

Doesn't require a network but does require a display device......

[bummrush]

My 2 cents is ive been very content with Atoll. But my guess is its relitively unknown. But very solid player.

[jarcher]

The Aurender A10 looks sharp, needing only a power amplifier.  In 2016 HeadFi's server comparison, the author was surprised to find he'd prefer the best $7700 server > best entry/mid price DAC/phone amp > best entry/mid price phones vs. standard Mac Mini server > best possible DAC/phone amp >  best phones.  Posters were surprised to see their "any server" meme smashed.

In direct AB test a friend said the Aurender $8k N10 handily outperformed Aurender's $2500 N100.   He did not want to spent the money, but had to after that test.   

I thought I read the A10 was $5k SRP, but possibly the price increased since that quote.  What month was the A10 released in the US?

I'd love to hear your thoughts on AB test, the A10's internal DAC vs. Resonessence's latest $2850 Veritas DAC (<8 weeks old) w/ESS' best and latest Sabre ESS9028PRO chips.  Res. says Veritas about equals their $5k Invicta Mirus w/original 9018 chips (Mirus accepts 9028 chip upgrade). D By large margin original Mirus was the best DAC I've heard.     

The A10 just shipped this month. Retail price according to my dealer price sheet is $5500. Still a great deal!

We don't carry Resonessence, though I've heard good things about the brand. Though they do have 8 US dealers, I imagine their selling directly limits their appeal to dealers.

We have recently signed up for Ayre and recently received the QX-5 featuring the new ESS9038pro chip. Sounds very good so far but we haven't finished breaking it in. Don't know if we'll AB vs the aurender a10 though as they are quite different price points (almost twice as expensive). And as I'm sure you agree it's not all about clash of the SOTA dac chips - implementation plays just as big a part.

[JackD]

Johnathon

This review should answer your questions.   The alternatives start at multiples of this outlay more.  I own the same set-up in a second system except for a different brand of SSD and his experiences mirror mine.

http://www.computeraudiophile.com/content/721-auralic-aries-mini-and-lightning-ds-review/