NachoUser

in regards to the above mention of metadata can someone explain why this is important to manage accurately for a media player like the Aries? I assume because it includes things like genres etc. that will allow you to filter through your music in different ways than simply artist/track/album? If anyone can shed some light on why it is important and how it makes it easier to playback music than without? as for playback from a mac, are you saying I would not use the lightning ds app but use Linn Kinsky or similar to playback music from the aires? if so what method would i use? Is it fairly plug n play and I will see the option of the Aries in the volume bar of the mac or within the player itself if connected to my network? Sorry if these are fairly basic questions but I have been able to use airplay streaming spotify, iTunes without the use of my ipad or the ds app but I cannot get Tidal to do this. Also I am still getting crashes when following the standard procedures of playback over network from my NAS or streaming tidal using lightning ds. It still crashes (always giving it plenty of time to boot up and read disks and have tired restarts, etc.) from time to time and exits out of the OR I get noise and distortion such as described as another user above during playback. it is a bit concerning so if anyone has a good guess as to why the noise would be occurring let me know what to try because that sounds like potentially equipment damaging. I assume it is most likely due to my network being somewhat custom config without much advanced networking tweaks - I ahve Fios Quantum with enough bandwidth to supply a small apartment building so that should not be an issue. however, if anyone is familiar with fios they have a hard on for making people use their routers to try and shove their streaming and other network services down your throat to curb people from using netflix and the like. i circumvented my fios router successfully (was not as easy I thought it would be!) and use my asus ac68u as primary and right now i have a airport time capsule in bridge mode hard wired to the asus via cat 6 cable with the aires downstream from the ABS via cat 6 cable as well. I have also used the aries in front of the airport base station and hardwired to my asus router. both ways i get similar results. perhaps there are settings in my router that would help with LAN playback? Majority of what i listen to doesn't come from outside my LAN so I have tried using static ip addresses or adaptive QoS type features with no avail. I am far from a network guru but I think I understand more of it than the average person. I just want to playback music from local hard drives via the network OR via usb connection without noise, freezing and wiht the best possible playback quality. what would give me that ability? I am happy to switch things around to achieve it. thanks in advance !!! Tim

Hi all - thanks for the feedback and I appreciate the helpful tips. To answer your questions - - I have an iPad mini retina and my wireless network is dual band 2.4/5 with AC supplied by fios quantum 150/150 (in theory) through my Asus AC68U as primary and downstream via ethernet cable is the fios supplied router (wifi off) and airport base station. My NAS setup is a QNAP and a WD MyCloud (the latter works pretty flawlessly with no issues on any devices (including aries) but the QNAP is not as PnP as the WD mycloud and most likely is not quite as consistent due to the fact that I am new to NAS in general and there are so many services and settings within the device that I have not gotten around to fully configuring it. my aries ia hardwired to my asus an so is my nas. Regardless, I think that it is possible given the plethora of ethernet connected and a few wireless devices all sharing a network without a managed switch and some "i still rent, therefore my ethernet is ghetto" cable runs in various places that the Aries may take a bit more time to load my library or switch between libraries/streaming etc. I have found that when using playback from one library and without switching modes so to speak it is pretty flawless in operation. Not to mention it sounds great too supplying both my benchmark dac2x or parasound halo 2.1 via wyrewold starlight usb cable. One thing I believe I may have figured out is that I have many tracks that show up in my library (it is admittedly badly organized) and not tagged (?) in anyway so I do not know what file type I might be attempting playback of unless I remember what it is, That can cause the benchmark to give me a "no go" signal and perhaps some files the Aries has issues with distributing in one mode or another. Another thing I figured out is that in uPNP mode and this was not glaringly clear to me in the instructions (probably just didnt catch it) that only my library is available from network attached devices and it has to be manually switched over the openhome ds in order to utilize tidal, airplay etc. once I realized that things were going a bit smoother. i do find that when switching services (streaming vs file playback) it can take a few seconds and does sometimes require restart on the ipad app due to freeze but it is not a common occurrence and considering the job it is doing I would say better than expected compared to other media players I have used. I think I could benefit greatly and the aries would be much happier (as well as the rest of my setup) if I had a more organized folder setup in my various libraries and had things a bit cleaner so to speak in terms of DSD vs FLAC etc. that is a priority on my "to do list" that I just have not been able to spend much time on. One reason I picked the aries is while demoing it I liked the ease of use factor and multitude of options in terms of what can be played back. While I do wish it was not limited to the iOS application for the capabilities limited to lightning DS I am also realizing (thanks to folks in this thread and around the site BTW) that once set up it is fairly easy to control somewhat during normal playback from itunes or other music supported player. I have historically not liked iTunes due to restrictions on file playback and other reasons after years of experience in that ecosystem but I have not yet found a universal media playing application that is easy enough to use without a boat load of configurations for the average non technical/stupidly busy with work all the time type of person like myself. and rather stupid when it comes to mastering various technologies that I am currently using and expecting to work out of the box when I hit play I don't want anyone to think for a second that I would give the device a negative review as it has been a great addition to my setup that filled a "hole" which was bothering me for quite some time. That hole being a network player where I do not have to grab my computer or by physically conencted to my setup while playing hi res music from NAS or other source on my two channel setup. THe only device I had before to accomplish this (with somewhat limited file playback) was my UD7007 which by far outplays anything I have hooked up to my system when it comes to a hard disk or supported file type but the GUI is a bit of a PITA and it is not really geared for playback of network files in my opinion. I am not a common user of forums at least not until recently and I really have had a great experience at AVS and I find this site to be equally as helpful and users just as happy to help out people that could use it like myself. Point being, if i am breaking forum etiquette so to speak please let me know as although I read the guidelines and try to post appropriately I am sure there may be things I miss. for example if the "hyperbole of" my "title is a tad strong" i would be happy to change it - I was not under the impression it would be viewed as a review or anything close to it but as a constant user of online forums and other sources like this site which hold a wealth of information once you spend a little time digging, I can certainly appreciate that it could paint a rather negative impression by title, and interpreted that way by some passerby who are evaluating their next hi fi purchase. Long story short i am still figuring it out in terms of how best get the music from hard drives/streamers to speakers in the most efficient and pleasant way possible which has been a bit trickier than I remember in the two channel arena when all your sources are digital.....not that i miss my avr as i haven't even plugged the thing in for days (once or twice for a movie with the wife). It has been since college (over ten years) since I had a two channel setup with no AVR as the central control so to speak and while the times have changed and technology too, overall it is certainly improved to say the least. although I still think I had it "good" with my old marantz integrated amp infinity alpha 50 towers in college when everyone else was moving to surround sound for their music (my setup was deemed superior even for movies!) Sorry for the length of the post but I hope that clears this thread up a bit and please feel free to let me know if I should clean up the title or anyone has any tips about how to get my setup more easily available to the aries or in my music libraries in general as I know it is not optimal. the golden age...all things considered, it sure is thanks - TP

so i recently got an Auralic Aries and have it setup to play music from my NAS in another room connected via CAT5/6 cable and I noticed the iOS app on my iPad freezes a lot and seems to be kind of slow/buggy. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there something I am not doing (outside the instructions from Auralic) or should be doing to make it a smoother working playback experience? I keep reading about having to setup Mimiserver or other server player software in order to use the Aries with my NAS (QNAP and wdmycloud BTW) but I have found it works best so far if i leave the stock settings on the app the way they are and it is basically plug and play. I understand the ios App is the only way to control the Aries (i have an ipad but no iphone) does anyone know if they have a web interface or other desktop app to be released anytime soon? seems quite limiting to force app controlled playback to one device for such a high end player. Also thinking of returning my DAC2DX and looking at some higher end DACs. I think I asked this on another thread but what else is out there that is under the 10K mark USD but has more I/O and as good if not better performance than the benchmark DAC2dx?

hmmm, you are probably thinking of someone else, and if I am thinking of the same guy from AVS...man what a rube! it is probably me but i don't recognize you by username, but I will look ya up. I ask the questions because I think I have way too much equipment in one setup and need to slim it down so to speak. I at least wanted to know if others have used something like a DAC2 dx in combination with a preamp like the JC-2 which is all analogue and a home theater setup such as I have now. I really am most interested in how to get my music library digital and disc, all playing from both the reciever for multi channel and my two channel rig and with a media player that is easy to use and doesnt restrict format etc. like iTunes. I downloaded jriver for mac and couldn't get a DSD download to play even after adjusting the dsp/audio output settings to the ones suggested in the wiki. the benchmark rep suggested i get rid of my jc-2 all together for my particular setup as it is redundant with something like the dac2 and that the dac2 should be connected right to my power amp. while i dont disagree with that I think I am going to keep it and would like to know the easiest way to set it all it up if anyone has suggestions.

Hi - I am new to this forum but have recently upgraded a lot of my equipment from speakers to receiver, blu ray player, 2 channel pre and power amp as well as my most recent additions the DAC2 DX from benchmark and the cocktail audio x40. My challenge is that I have music all over the place from my macbook stored locally to a NAS server by QNAP (and WDmycloud) to streaming services and SACD/CD etc. my goal has been lately to have a separate 2 channel system from my marantz sr7009 which was previously my all in one component for music/movies and more. my issue as of late is that I do not like having to plug in my macbook via hard link (usb/optical etc.) to the benchmark or other input (analog on jc-2 preamp) because I find it limiting. I dont think I have any digital outputs on my sr7009 and my BR player while quite capable of these tasks is not the easiest device to sort through NAS media files,etc. The cocktail audio player is a smorgasbord of technology and functionality but I have yet to tame this beast and there is not a lot of information out there right now to help. so my question would be this - (my equipment is listed below for reference) what would be the ideal way to hook up all the components in a way where I do not have to constantly plug/replug and switch wires and speaker cables around but can still watch movies in surround sound (from the sr7009) and use my separate two channel system (jc-2/dac2 dx/A-21 power amp) and ideally have music either played back via a media player (could be macbook pro or could be something else) streamed or playback by disc. I want the best in sound quality and to separate the two types of playback as much as possible as I have experienced an unbelievable clear, clean and eye opening sound from the new 2 channel separates moving from my all in one receiver and i do not want to sacrifice that in anyway. I also want to know what media playback method would work best, using a dedicated media player device like the cocktail audio player or something like an auralec/etc? or USB via my macbook is the best method? would be awesome to have my two subwoofers in the mix too but no one on other forums or anything I can find online seem to support stereo subwoofer setups. this would be ideal to me as i am not a huge fan of audyssey or other EQ when it comes to my tunes. happy to answer more questions as I have way too much equipment and very little know how:) speakers - B&W CM10 mains, CMC2 center, CM5 surrounds Subwoofers - dual SVS SB2000s receiver/BR = marantz sr7009 and ud7007 respectively 2 channel rig - Parasound JC-2 preamp, parasound A21 power amp (both two channel only) Digital - Benchmark dac2dx and macbook pro Cocktail Audio X-40 (DAC/media player/disc ripper/streamer and more) NAS - qnap ts431 and wdmcloud thanks in advance for anyone with enough patience and time to help out.