kayelefkay

For the benefit of those who trade on Audiogon, you may be interested in this thread on Audioasylum about phishing on Audiogon: General Asylum I was the victim of a fraudster who had hijacked some hapless seller's account (apparently through phishing according to Audiogon). I am posting my experience here because Audiogon's moderators refused to post my comments on their forums but it is important that users be aware of the prevalence of fraud on the "new" Audiogon. I have been trading for a number of years on Audiogon now and had been extremely happy with them until my recent brush with fraud on Audiogon. The "seller" in question had 100+ positive feedback posts and so I felt safe transacting with him. However, it turns out that the seller's account had been hijacked and Audiogon eventually admitted that they did not even require confirmation from the original registered e-mail address for a change of e-mail, which one would have thought was quite basic. To make matters worse, when they discovered the fraud, they did not even bother contacting me as buyer. They simply suspended the seller's account. If not for the fact that I coincidentally grew suspicious because of a different, identical listing, I would not have found out till days later. In fact, I had to e-mail Audiogon to check what had gone wrong with my transaction because I could not access it suddenly. When I asked them why they did not contact me immediately, they simply said they could not even though both my e-mail and mobile are listed under my account. Finally, to rub salt into the wound, when I tried to share my experience with other Audiogoners, their moderators refused to post my comment on their forums. They claim to have resolved the phishing problem and issues surrounding hijacked account in my correspondence with them but just today, I found an exact same advertisement as the one posted by the seller who defrauded me, except using a different username, again with multiple positive feedback. These feedback stretch from 2008 to last month so ordinarily one would not be suspicious. As such, unless there is an extreme coincidence, I can only conclude that they have not sorted out problems of fraud. In this context, please be aware that Audiogon offers zero fraud protection. This was fine on the "old" Audiogon when accounts were not hijacked left, right and centre but until they sort out current problems, it is caveat emptor.

I auditioned both the SOtM and the Aurender recently. Whilst both were very good, I thought the Aurender was smoother whereas the SOtM was livelier (both on USB out). As far as I can tell, if one wants USB output only, then there is no need to go for the S10 over the A10 as most of the "enhancements" are not relevant to the USB output. Precisely because my preference lies with the Aurender, I'm waiting for news on the USB output Aurender model that has been mentioned on this forum.

Am I the only one who would like Chris to properly review the USB output of the Aurender? Is there going to be a follow-up to this review?<br /> <br /> As far as I can tell, the differences between the A10 and the S10 are largely irrelevant so far as USB output is concerned so that would make the Aurender (the A10 model) a tad easier to swallow. <br /> <br /> That said, it does seem disappointing that there is no dedicated USB only model, with more attention placed on the USB output, for Aurender. As far as I can tell, if one can marry the SoTM's attention to the USB output with the Aurender's superior app interface and fit and finish, there would be very many enthusiastic audiophiles who would be keen to audition such a product. I know I would.

I have 2 questions for Chris (or anyone who may know the answer for that matter):<br /> <br /> First, since you mentioned that the HDD can be custom ordered in a larger capacity, do you know if it is possible for it to be replaced by an SSD altogether since large capacity SSDs are beginning to appear in the market?<br /> <br /> Secondly, is there any reason you used the MPad app as opposed to the Squeezebox app that appears to be recommended in the SoTM manual? I assume the MPad is superior?