[jarcher]

Just announced at the Munich show :

http://www.audiostream.com/content/auralic-ariesmini

See Auralic Facebook page as well for further details.

At $399 Im very impressed & will get one (or more) for secondary systems.

[ted_b]

As I review more and more DACs it becomes clear that the vast majority of them favor one format vs the other (great DSD, average PCM...or vice versa).  This $399 box gives you the ability to have a very nice DSD DAC (good PCM but not at the level of higher end DACs) sit in the same system as a great PCM DAC.  How?  USB to your PCM DAC from you music server, takes input one of your preamp.  Add a $100 2TB 2.5" hdd to the Aries Mini and fill it with 2 TB of DSF files.  Then connect it to the second input of your preamp.  Done.  Use Lightning app to control DSD, use whatever player app for PCM.

[abernardi]

I already have the regular Aries... I guess it would be redundant to get this too, just for the DAC functions... But I could see using the "grown-up" Aries feeding to my PCM DAC and then changing libraries in LDS to the Aries Mini for the DSD... ted_b, did you hear that this has a good DSD dac section, or are you just in an audiophile daydream as I often am, lol?

[firedog]

This would have been perfect for me a few years ago. But now I'm planning on a much more high end solution. Separates. Something even better than an Aries Sr. that doesn't lock me into using Lightning DS. (I tried it on my iPad and wasn't impressed). And a very good DAC.

Sounds like a killer item for Auralic, though. Bet they can sell a bunch of them if they market it right.

[lokie]

Add a $100 2TB 2.5" hdd to the Aries Mini and fill it with 2 TB of DSF files. 

Hey Ted-  Can you give a specific  example of a price/performance appropriate DSF/PCM(?) DAC you would pair w the Aries Mini?

Jeeesh?!!?... I feel like a an idiot when you talk about DSF, PCM, LDS.

 

[ted_b]

... ted_b, did you hear that this has a good DSD dac section, or are you just in an audiophile daydream as I often am, lol?

No, just speculating since Auralic seems to know how to tame and control the Sabre chip with their Vega.  My counterpart at Audiostream, Michael Lavorgna,, heard it quickly and was quite impressed vs Vega.  Says the dropoff was minimal (classic case of that last few percent costing much more).

Dacs that shine in PCM that I would look at include Chord (Hugo, Qute series), Berkeley Alpha (used for decent price), Antelope, etc.

[asliarun]

It is now being sold on this website: http://www.tweekgeek.com/auralic-aries-mini/

There are still very few reviews of this streamer. Would love to know more about how well it handles PCM along with high res.

[ted_b]

It is now being sold on this website: http://www.tweekgeek.com/auralic-aries-mini/

There are still very few reviews of this streamer. Would love to know more about how well it handles PCM along with high res.

Good reason for that.  It is still in development!  If you read Michael's page (the link you provided to TweekGeek) you will see it is still one month away from release.  BTW, PCM and hires are not mutually exclusive.  In fact, most (greater than 50%) hires is PCM.

[asliarun]

By the way, there's a kickstarter going on for the Popcorn Hour A-500 Pro. It seems to have the same DAC chip as the Aries Mini and also does XLR out and headphone out. And does 4k video. It will eventually sell for $600 but can now be had for $400.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1561203377/popcorn-hour-a-500-pro-a-jukebox-for-music-and-mov

[jarcher]

No, just speculating since Auralic seems to know how to tame and control the Sabre chip with their Vega.  My counterpart at Audiostream, Michael Lavorgna,, heard it quickly and was quite impressed vs Vega.  Says the dropoff was minimal (classic case of that last few percent costing much more).

Dacs that shine in PCM that I would look at include Chord (Hugo, Qute series), Berkeley Alpha (used for decent price), Antelope, etc.

If Michael said that, he should know better. I think the Aurallc Aries Mini will be like the original  Cambridge Audio Dac Magic where people try to claim its some kind of giant killer when in fact it's just a decent product at a decent price. I'm considering it for secondary systems but have zero illusion that it will be close to full on Aries and Vega. Not just a few percent either. And Michael should know that as well owning a Vega himself. Listening to an Aries Mini for a few minutes in a show environment is meaningless. And Michael knows that more than anyone else having stated until he's blue in the face that real evaluations need to take place over days or even weeks of listening and particularly not in some rapid A/B, double blind or not.

For all those reasons I don't think Michael really believes that the the Aries Mini is close to the Aries + Vega at close to ten times the price. And it seems like people read his brief Munich show review and keep throwing that around.

Sorry folks - just the switching power supply and everything dac and streamer crammed altogether in a small plastic case alone will cause the Aries + Vega to blow the mini away.

And while I'm on a rant - just because two dacs share the same dac chip is also meaningless. The reason why the Vega is so awesome among many reasons is the way it implements the Sabre Dac chip - meaning everything before and after it and even the wrapper around it. That's why it sounds so much better than an Oppo 105 with the same Sabre dac chip, and not just by a few percent.

Im excited about the Aries Mini, am seriously considering one or more for my secondary systems, and think it will sell like hot cakes, but let's keep expectations realistic! Sorry to bust the bubble of those bargain seeking audiophiles out there.  Better is more expensive. We may not like that fact, but it's usually true.

Another last piece of advice : don't be giving $ to tweekgeek and others until they actually have stock in hand to deliver. That's just a recipe for frustration. ESTIMATED dealer delivery is sometime in October. Even if that happens, at this point you'll be lucky if you can get your hands on one anytime near that. Let the must have it firsts go first and debug for you! 

Peace out !

[underdog64]

Just an FYI-I Asked Auralic about MQA compliance down the road and received an email  response from Auralic's CEO himself saying Auralic WON'T be supporting MQA cause Auralic isn't on MQA's plan as he put it..

[Nick B]

Regarding that Aries mini, it appears now that the price has gone from $399 to $549 which includes one year of Tidal (which I could care less about). So, if I add an external power supply for let's say $400 from Kenneth Lau in Hong Kong and maybe  2 T of external storage for $150 - $200, it may not be that much of a "giant killer" at all.  I have yet to verify if the mini can handles 2 T of internal storage.

Also, I've been searching for any comments about the mini from the international market as it supposedly has been released, but haven't been able to find anything.

[jarcher]

According to what wang told me at CES, most overseas customers are primarily steaming only, and as sales are beginning overseas, I think this says a lot about where Auralic sees sales growth - ie cheap and Asia. So for that market throwing in a year of tidal at a discount makes a lot of sense.

The mini has no limit on the overall storage size it can handle. The limitation on the INTERNAL storage is the largest capacity 2.5 laptop size hard drive can be made. Which I believe at the moment is 2tb.  You can happily sling off the back of it or via the home network whatever capacity you can buy.

[steve in jersey]

Nope, these mini Portable Hard Drives go to at least 4tb,& I believe I saw one in Best Buy that may hold up to
6tb

[jarcher]

Interesting - looking about the internet I see that Samsung / seagate has in fact just released a 4tb 2.5 inch drive a few months ago though just in external format for now presumably for marketing reasons. I wonder when we'll start to see bare drives. Looks like the height is the same as the 2tb so presumably they will fit in the same places a 2tb would - such as the Aries mini.

[doctorcilantro]

I'd like to pick one up as an alternative to my Adnaco setup, and hear what the Aries the DSD256 can do vs. my V1 Vega at 128.

Something tempting about ditching a lot of stuff, and plugging an Aries via RCA direct into the LIO I'm thinking about. But hard to let a device like the Vega go...

[kbuzz3]

Im looking for a new digital front end and this looks interesting.  On the plus side, as noted above you could use the internal dsd dac and your own pcm dac if you wanted. All in one convenience and small form factor.  You also get Tidal (which I believe is worthwhile but this is not a post on that). I think but not sure you can use roon with it- but that will require and additional purchase. 

So this raises a couple of questions for a newbie in this field

1) Can you stream from an attached usb harddrive and say a nas at the same time? 
2) Will the internals be upgradeable-particularly the dac?
3) Can you play internet radio and or xm?---yes i know its compressed but for convenience
 4) Worth waiting to see what the Elac/Roon streamer will be....although there is no ETA from what i understand

So given this, is there still any reason to go the mac mini route.. In other words would a mini using one of the better software platforms like audivana be "mo better"?

[jtwrace]

So this raises a couple of questions for a newbie in this field

1) Can you stream from an attached usb harddrive and say a nas at the same time? 
2) Will the internals be upgradeable-particularly the dac?
3) Can you play internet radio and or xm?---yes i know its compressed but for convenience

1) No. 
2) Probably not
3) Yes, internet radio is built in. 
 

[kbuzz3]

Thanks for the reply. I should have phrased the first question better. Can you hook up to both a nas wirelessly and external usb hard drive so one can play either or....thanks

[jtwrace]

Thanks for the reply. I should have phrased the first question better. Can you hook up to both a nas wirelessly and external usb hard drive so one can play either or....thanks

Yes, that's no problem.  You choose which library from the app.