Deyorew

I actually never cared for the term lossless. You could take a 320kb file and copy it as “lossless” right? Which adds just enough compression to be able to decode back to 320kb. this is all about where you draw the line of what is considered original source. So I would view lossless just as to what you as the copier is doing. And calling the source what ever source you are given before making the copy. so again lossless to me is more the process or a verb, less so to describe a file. But I always went for aiff and wav as the files I wanted in my library. I would love to see an article about the best file formats today. Is FLAC still the gold standard for compatibility? I’m tired of my aiff and alac files not playing gapless on some devices like my car and oppo players. I’m considering converting to FLAC or WAV just not sure which is best. But I don’t like the term lossless so I tend to lean towards WAV which doesn’t use compression at all right? you could also talk about “lossy” which the the bad word. But today, a cd is lossy if there is a higher resolution file available. Slippery slope if you ask me on where you draw these lines. There is enough to worry about in this hobby as it is.

So you replaced your 3 year old speakers with the same model revision for $80,000? That’s a bit of a head scratcher to me. this website continues to go into the stratosphere of equipment choices. Are people with your scenario really thinking.. oh yeah I should make the upgrade too? $80,000 could have been a nice analogue rig addition and a whole collection of media bringing you a lot more choices around mastering of albums. I think this website is not for me anymore, I’m still back in the computer audiophile world of a computer in my listening room with usb to a simple dac all for under $2,000 and it sounds fantastic. we are in super mega yacht territory these days. as a long time follower it’s hard to get excited about these articles Chris.

The fit and finish look amazing. I’m sure they sound amazing as well. Too bad they are so strange looking. I know the look is controversial, but I always felt they were hideous architecturally. Still waiting to see a room that they really feel at home. Certainly never a look I would spend my money on. Wish they made some different cabinets.

I was also a high school freshman in 1991. All the same memories. My Sony headphones were the mdr-v6. They were a perfect match for my discman. My 1991 ended with the Beatles Collection black bread box for Christmas from my parents. Unforgettable. I remember hearing about Pearl Jam in English class right before Ten came out.

Great conversation! Thanks for putting this together. Gives me a lot to think about!

Thanks for answering my questions! Glad to hear my music library OCD is within the software! I understand some people may not care about this, but for me an Artists work is always catalogs by record of events. Look at Discogs and Musicbrainz main method of view in support of this notion. My large cd and vinyl collections are sorted first by Artist (first name, disregarding A and The) then chronological by record. Don't get me started on my movie collection. Its definitely an acquired taste of cataloging... which is by genre, then by Studio (Sony, Warner, Universal, etc) then alphabetical by title. A part of me catalog Music by label too (all MFSL is together for instance). Looking forward to demoing the ACS10 soon!

The feature hasn’t kept me from getting an Aurender... I actually ended up spending my budget at the time on a new analog turntable rig that I have really enjoyed. Fast forward a couple years and now have the budget again to update the music server side so I was back to looking at Aurender as my preferred upgrade option. 11 years with iTunes which is still not too bad of a browsing software if you ask me. Just wish it checked the audiophile boxes. I’m really digging the idea of an ACS10 since I have so much more music to rip. I understand it can sort by year but I didn’t think that was by artist by year. Just the whole catalog by year. What Chris mentions is more along the lines of my reasoning. An artists work through time chronologically. I believe it would require a secondary sort function.

I have another 2 questions... About 3 and a half years ago I asked a question in this thread about sorting albums by artist chronologically. The responses were all saying Conductor app didn’t have that capability (which really shocked me) but was constantly improving. Well should I assume albums chronological is a way to sort now? In other words Abbey Road (1969) is shown after Sgt Pepper (1967)? Or is it still A-Z? album art.... I know you can search the internet for covers but I have carefully curated all my albums with accurate hi res artwork and in many cases custom scans. Can I use the same files and scans using the aurender manager app? Is there a max resolution or size? I don’t care about taking a photo... yes I still haven't pulled the trigger on a music server yet and have been getting by with iTunes and an Oppo Blu-ray player for far too long.

It seems very little has been said about the ACS100 (the more affordable sibling of ACS10) I saw a post a while back about the spec differences between the two. Mainly around user replaceable HDD, USB/ethernet isolation and power supply. Anyone have real world experience with it? With the ACS100 priced at $1000 more than an N100H, I would tend to think its audio performance is at least as good as that entry level Aurender? The little discussion I have seen shrugs the ACS100 off as a ripper only, but so many folks are happy with their N100 series that I think this downplay is coming from folks that have W20 and DCS type of money in their systems. My big question is around value, I don't have $15,000 to spend on a streamer and network interface and I am still living in the mac mini style server world and ready for a change. Does the ACS100 offer good audiophile value at its price point? the ACS10 at several thousand more seems overkill for my McIntosh/Oppo grade setup. I have currently just had SSD direct in my OPPO 205 for a year or two and am ready for a full hardware/software solution of streamer and eventual DAC. Any feedback or insight to the ACS100 would be greatly appreciated...

Like the tone of the review. I would avoid any amp that takes numerous power chord attempts to finally enjoy it. I would have expected a lot more pleasure out the box for $2500.

Thanks for reviewing something at a high but not astronomical price point. While I love the site I feel it caters to a real high end on average so it's nice to see products in the $500-$1500 range that are not tweaks or "lifestyle" products but actual serious core electronics/gear to an audiophile.

I was curious on the ACS10 how you use the "folder" function. For instance it says it has a "Music 1" as the first folder. If you wanted to use one folder as device ripped cds and a separate once as imported from an HDD and label it "Music 2" is it just in the background how the files or stored? Or when using the App do you have to go between "folders" for your different libraries? Also still curious how it handles dsf files. On the website it looks like it handles them natively without any issues or conversion...

I was hoping to read a bit about DSF/DSD files. I assume it can see those files once loaded into it. Can you change metadata on those? How well does this unit work with dsf files for sending them to a USB Dac? Any conversion to PCM? Great article by the way Chris.

So I have been doing a little research on the Aurender products. Don't think I will like their app though. It does not seem to allow changing meta data, can't use iphone (only ipad), doesn't even seem to sort album by release year. So I think I am not going to go the Aurender route. I started reading up on Roon. It sounds like my 2015 iMac (which is an i7) could easily run Roon in the background. The iMac is in an office. How do I get it to talk to the stereo room if Roon is setup on it. One of those Sonore USB/Ethernet devices? Does that receive native DSD (dsf files)? Does it require much setup? I understand I am looking at a new DAC, but I want to understand the server part first.

" i7 NUC with Audiolinux headless/LXQT OS" That sounds way above my level of computer knowledge.