Mies

I was thinking this was the case. I may have to expedite a DAC purchase unless anyone else has a solution...

I've been enjoying my mini for over a year now, but am finally ready to upgrade to a Roon Ready (or NAA) streamer and get away form using airplay. I ordered a microRendu + LPS-1. Next I'll purchase a new DAC and move the mini to my office system, but in the meantime, I'd like to use the MR to stream to the mini's DAC. Has anyone tried this? Do I just use the MR's usb out to to connect to the mini as if it was an external hard drive?

I agree that it generally makes sense to use the branded components with the system, but it's worth asking the question given the $230 price difference. I'd like to hear if anyone as experimented with the two options side-by-side.

I've been using my Aries Mini for about two weeks now, and I'm impressed so far. I'm using the internal DAC and have tried it with both an internal SSD and a NAS running minimserver. I found that the sound qulaity is a bit better using the internal SSD. When streaming from the NAS, my 24 and 16 bit tracks stream from around 600 Kpbs to 1.2 Mbps. With the internal drive I get up to 3.2 Mbps. I'm using an Airport Extreme for the wireless network. Lightning DS works sufficiently well, but before receiving the Mini I was using Roon, and I can't wait for Roon support to be added to the Mini. It's a significantly better user interface. I'm interested in the LPS, but am curious if the ebay power supply below would be of sufficient quality to make a difference. Anyone have first hand experience comparing these Chinese power supplies to the SBooster or Auralic LPSs?

Blake- I spent time learning about your suggestions. Talk about going down the rabbit hole... I think I was secretly hoping to ignore the complexity of cables, signal processors, power conditioners and the like. I do really appreciate the good value suggestions as it was clearly a missing link in my research. The Elac B6 speakers look very impressive. It's hard to get over their low price, and the thought of spending more on speaker stands than on the speakers themselves is tripping me up. The bel canto looks like a significant upgrade over the peachtree integrated amps. I like that it can be a springboard for future upgrades to other system components. Do you have a recommendation for a streamer?

Those Tekton speakers look like they would be a great fit with the low watt Decware amp. Thanks for the suggestion.

Thanks Blake! That's a lot to look up, but I'm on it.

Hello All! I stumbled across this extremely helpful forum as I starting exploring how to put together a new stereo system for my home. I've been able to find a lot of answers by exploring though the posts here, but Id love to get some feedback about the system I'm putting together. If you don't count the 2.1 bose setup I purchased 13 years ago, this will be my first system. Here's the situation: I've got a budget of up to $4,000. I listen to mostly digital files, and recently started upgrading my library of 500 or so albums to all FLAC. I'd like to be able to wirelessly control the music system from either my MBP (OSX 10.10) or an ipad. I listen to a lot of types of music, but chief among them are classical, jazz and electronic. Space is very limited in my living situation, and I need to buy components that are as small as possible (especially the speakers). There's a good chance I'll be moving from the US to Spain in a few years, so I'd like the system to be reasonably transportable. Here's what I'm thinking of buying: iPad → Roon with Tidal Hi-Fi → Auralic Aries mini w/ 1TB SSD → Peachtree Nova 125SE → Anthony Gallo A’Diva SE 2.1 with TR-1D sub. This comes to arox. $4k. I realize that both the Peachtree Nova and Aries mini have DACs, but I suppose I'll just try each one and see which sounds better. Alternatively, I've considered using the Decware Zen SE84UFO with Blumenstein Orca Deluxe 2.1. My concern is that the speakers are still fairly large compared to the A'Diva's, so I'd only change if the sound quality is markedly better. Thoughts? Better devices to pair? Better values to be had? Anyway around it this will be a huge upgrade and I'm excited for the change. Thanks for the input!