Gary Pearce

Sadly (or maybe not) I have around 2.5TB on the drive, in hi-res or redbook. I'll have another crack at it, but it should be pretty much plug and play once it's connected on the network. No point exceeding 1TB a portable USB drive either, they usually draw over 500ma from a USB port (Aries Mini has this output spec). I can't figure out why this powered drive won't spin up and mount. It could very well be a faulty unit.

Well, it was too good to last. For 6 weeks out at sea (I work on a ship) me and the Mini got along just fine, firstly streaming from my WD Elements 5tb drive on my MacBook Air using Plex. Then after a bit of coaxing, I configured the drive directly into the USB HDD port on the Mini - voila, music without the complication of the laptop. So far so good, but the addition of my iFi iDSD Nano resulted in audible 'ticks and pops'. Not so good, but I figured in my relatively noisy environment the external DAC wasn't really necessary - and wouldn't improve too much on the internal DAC anyway. So I've been at home for 5 weeks and will ship out again next Friday. I've bought a few albums, so decided to add 'em to the WD drive, connect the whole shebang up again to rescan and do a final check before resuming my aquatic shenanigans. I've been at it for most of the day now, the Mini will not recognise or mount my powered HDD - specs are here Western Digital Europe Online Store - WD Elements Desktop 5TB I've been able to connect to my home network and stream wirelessly from my NAS, but even my 2tb Toshiba USB powered drive connected to the Mini didn't work reliably. It spun up, started to read the music files then mysteriously clicked off. I've no idea what's up with the Auralic, 6 weeks of bliss and now this. I've resisted grabbing my 10lb pickaxe from the garage and putting it out of its misery, but it is tempting. Reminds me of the mental cruelty I suffered when I had my dear old schizophrenic Squeezebox Duet. It's just not fair! Any ideas guys? It's driving me nuts!! I'll try the MacBook Air/Plex solution again, but really I wanted a lightweight headless quality music solution while on the go - lugging a laptop around with me kind of defeats the purpose. Thanking you all in anticipation, Gazza P.S. I'm not discounting the possibility I may have a lemon on my hands here.

Just installed on the rack, the latest from Audiolab. DSD/383KHZ 24 bit etc etc. It's just warming up, but I'm hearing subtle differences (improvements) over my much-loved and now replaced 8200CDQ.

I'm doing just that Tim, and it's working perfectly well.

But here its is, 38000 tons of coastal tanker. I'm a bit constrained regarding speaker placement etc, but considering I'm on a bloody ship the Aries Mini sounds really nice with these little Danish Tangent E4i active bookshelves. I'm using my MacBook Air with Plex/Lightning DS and a 5TB ext WD drive. It's quite flawless both in terms of reliability and SQ. Once I get off this crate I'll eagerly pit the Mini against my Squeezebox Touch and Antipodes DS server. Really though, AURALiC have quite the audio streamer here!

Thanks Barr, that looks like the culprit then. An easy fix! Cheers, Gary

Yep, nice and warm for sure! I'd probably win the 'most unusual Aries Mini listening environment' award, I have to have quality wherever I am when it comes to music listening. This little box is quite a find, airplay/Bluetooth, network streaming and local library replay all in one. One thing though, my WD drive is NTFS formatted - should it be fat32? This maybe why the Mini doesn't recognize it. Any ideas people?

In my cabin onboard the oil tanker I work on! I'm using Plex as a server on my MacBook Air, then BubbleuPnP as the controller. Aries Mini connected to my wireless network. I couldn't get the Mini to work with my 5TB WD drive straight to USB though, I'll investigate but it's doing its thing nicely in this configuration. Sounding very very nice in this environment, certainly value for money in SQ terms.

I'm awaiting a reply as well, bought my Mini a couple of days ago and I'm patiently waiting. I'm toying with the idea of buying an iPad Mini, an expensive exercise considering the iPhone app is imminent. Auralic seems a bit reticent on the 'reply to customer' email front, quite a contrast from most consumer product companies. Waiting...

Thanks mjb, Is acceptance guaranteed? I'd definitely grab a Mini if that's the case. It's a perfect solution for my aquatic environment!

I can't be bothered buying an iPad just to use as a remote for initial setup. I'll sit tight until the iPhone app shows up, hopefully it'll be good to go on my 5th gen Touch. Hopefully...

I was about to rush out and buy a Mini, bummer about LDS not being supported on Android I thought - but I still have my trusty iPod Touch (I thought, patting myself on the back). But wait - it's an iPad only app! So I'm stymied. It was going to be used on a ship (I'm a seafarer) as a headless solution with my 5TB WD powered external drive, but I don't feel like investing $$ on another IOS device tied into the world of iTunes pain. So back to my MacBook Air and Audirvana I go, even though I'm getting the dreaded muting (and my iFi Nano DSD DAC mystifyingly dropping off the system under Audio Midi setup). Shame!

2.2 & remote app installed on my MacBook Air & iPod Touch and working beautifully. I've been looking for a portable, non internet connected quality audio solution for ages (I work on a container ship) and this is better than perfect. Rotel RDD-06 DAC & NuForce active monitors + my 50,000+ track music library (and no more iTunes) on the high seas. Hell yeah, thanks Damien