mbw817

It's been a few years since the original thread. I've narrowed my choice for a USB conversion device to the Berkeley Alpha USB or the Soulution 590 based on some feedback from others. Does anyone have any preferences between these two based on comparisons that you've actually heard in someone's system? Thanks Marty

This my first time posting on this forum. I am trying out an Auralic Aries. What I was hoping to learn is that is can do 4 specific things well. I'm not quite there yet and am wondering if anyone else has encountered my similar frustrations. 1) I wanted a streaming device that has a user interface that was simple and easy to use. No problem there. The Lightening App for the iPad seems to work quite well. The remaining issues are not the user interface, but rather, what information sources the Aries can pass through. 2) The first source is obviously Tidal. Again, no problem here. It comes with built in Tidal support. Piece of cake. The rub is the next two. 3) How can I get Pandora to play through the Aries? Yes, I know Pandora playback is not the same audio caliber as Redbook CD, but let's not discuss playback quality here (which, for late night and background listening, works just fine for me). Rather, Pandora does some things that are so superior to all other streaming programs, that I cannot live without it. Pandora's strength is the algorithm it uses to understand the musical "DNA" footprint of the selection you enter to create a station, and generate a playlist that is absolutely spot on in selecting entries that have the same musical footprint as the selection you originally requested. What is more, it does this so flawlessly for such a wide array of genres, that I am constantly impressed by how good a job it does in this regard. I can tell it to create a radio station with entries from straight vanilla such as "Billy Joel", Fleetwood Mac", "Motown" or "Elton John", to moderately different entries such as "Robert Schuman", "Thievery Corporation" and "Zakir Hussain" to really really weird stuff such as "Gaudi", Vilambit Laya" and Karunesh". Pandora just nails it every time, giving me playlist after playlist that is inspired and absolutely mimics the musical "DNA" of my original request. In my view, no other program even comes close to being able to do this with the same success. Spotify? Fuggetaboutit. Tidal? Probably the worst of all. Its playlists seem to be created by morons who don't seem to have passed music appreciation 101, except in the most rudimentary cases (i.e. Beatles, Stones). Their jazz and world music playlists are just horrible. Although one may disagree with my characterization of their playlist capabilities, can we dismiss that for a moment in order to help me with my original request? How the heck can I play Pandora through the Aries? I went on line and found out I can use this using something called "soundcast" but I am not sure what that is, and certainly don't want to pay for another program if I can avoid it. I am hoping Tidal will someday include Pandora support the same way that Tidal is supported, but in the meantime, what can I do? 4) The last feature request may be the hardest. I know that the Aries will allow me to hook up a NAS drive. But I want to be able to access my iTunes playlists since that's the way I use iTunes. I often generate playlists that include many albums under playlist titles such as "Classical Guitar" or "BeBop Jazz" or "Gypsy Jazz Guitar". Sure, the musical files are all on my computer in an iTunes music library folder somewhere but I need to be able to play the playlists through the Aries, and I admit I am a technical idiot when it comes to things like this. Does anybody know how to do this and if so, can you provide explicit instructions so even a 5 year old can do it? (That way, I will have a fighting chance). Thanks in advance Marty