Auralic Aries Mini

[The Computer Audiophile]

37 minutes ago, jruser said:

I am heavily considering buying this. Can somebody confirm whether gapless DSD (64 And 128) streaming works via DLNA?

 

ISO files or DSF etc...?

[austinpop]

Having previously owned the Aries Mini, I can answer.

 

Assuming you've got DSF or DFF files, then yes, gapless DSD (64 And 128) streaming works via DLNA.

 

Note - my only experience is with MinimServer as the DLNA server, although I think it works gapless with other alternatives like Lightning, or JRMC.

[jruser]

Thanks guys. I have DSF files, so sounds like that isn't a concern.

 

I'm trying to decide between buying Roon and a USB DAC (hooked to HTPC) vs getting an Aries Mini and using DLNA. I use both local files on the HTPC and Tidal.

[austinpop]

22 minutes ago, jruser said:

Thanks guys. I have DSF files, so sounds like that isn't a concern.

 

I'm trying to decide between buying Roon and a USB DAC (hooked to HTPC) vs getting an Aries Mini and using DLNA. I use both local files on the HTPC and Tidal.

 

Not sure why you framed your choices that way. You can use Roon regardless of which approach you decide. Roon works with both direct attached DACs AND with renderer/endpoints like the Aries Mini. 

 

In the remote scenario, the endpoint implements a standard called Roon Ready, and communicates with the Core on your server using Roon's own RAAT protocol.

 

As of firmware version 5.0, the Aries Mini supports Roon Ready, and can be used as a Roon endpoint.

[Enrok]

Well, I got it! the aries mini arrived on thursday! So quick impressions:

nice little black box.

Installation  with LDS was not instant! I had to do it at least 5 time before it took the configuration ok.

Than I had to try which DAC I want to use. So either connect though RCA cable the aries or with a coaxial cable to my DAC (an Atoll HD 100) and compare.

The result was obvious, the sound obtained with the atoll DAC was much more clearer, the spacialization was greater, it must be due to the fact that the alimentation of the DAC is better than the aries mini and compares to an aries mini with a linear power supply.

Last question how much space occupies Lightning DS on your iphone (here it take 2,5 Go), it is a problem my iphone is full oand LDS seems to increase size with time.

Thanks to this forum for all the precious informations.

 

[mjb]

3 hours ago, Enrok said:

Last question how much space occupies Lightning DS on your iphone (here it take 2,5 Go), it is a problem my iphone is full oand LDS seems to increase size with time.

I have around 35k files, and Lightning DS uses about 600MB on my iPhone. I know the database can bloat, so its perhaps a good idea to start over every now and then. Perhaps now that you've got a feeling for all the settings, a rescan will tidy it up.

 

Congratulations on your purchase 

[Frankie61]

7 hours ago, Enrok said:

Well, I got it! the aries mini arrived on thursday! So quick impressions:

nice little black box.

Installation  with LDS was not instant! I had to do it at least 5 time before it took the configuration ok.

Than I had to try which DAC I want to use. So either connect though RCA cable the aries or with a coaxial cable to my DAC (an Atoll HD 100) and compare.

The result was obvious, the sound obtained with the atoll DAC was much more clearer, the spacialization was greater, it must be due to the fact that the alimentation of the DAC is better than the aries mini and compares to an aries mini with a linear power supply.

Last question how much space occupies Lightning DS on your iphone (here it take 2,5 Go), it is a problem my iphone is full oand LDS seems to increase size with time.

Thanks to this forum for all the precious informations.

 

Space occupies : Depends .... are you using Tidal and then the size of your covers .... keep them at max 50KB each ! 

[Enrok]

1 hour ago, Frankie61 said:

Space occupies : Depends .... are you using Tidal and then the size of your covers .... keep them at max 50KB each ! 

I am using Qobuz and I don't have music on hard drive, so there is no size of covers?

 

5 hours ago, mjb said:

I have around 35k files, and Lightning DS uses about 600MB on my iPhone. I know the database can bloat, so its perhaps a good idea to start over every now and then. Perhaps now that you've got a feeling for all the settings, a rescan will tidy it up.

 

Congratulations on your purchase 

That's a good suggestion I will try to rescan.

Thank you for the answers

[Frankie61]

1 hour ago, Enrok said:

I am using Qobuz and I don't have music on hard drive, so there is no size of covers?

 

That's a good suggestion I will try to rescan.

Thank you for the answers

If you don't have Music on hdd .... there is nothing else you can do ! 

[Wang Xuanqian]

On 7/24/2017 at 3:38 PM, Enrok said:

Well, I got it! the aries mini arrived on thursday! So quick impressions:

nice little black box.

Installation  with LDS was not instant! I had to do it at least 5 time before it took the configuration ok.

Than I had to try which DAC I want to use. So either connect though RCA cable the aries or with a coaxial cable to my DAC (an Atoll HD 100) and compare.

The result was obvious, the sound obtained with the atoll DAC was much more clearer, the spacialization was greater, it must be due to the fact that the alimentation of the DAC is better than the aries mini and compares to an aries mini with a linear power supply.

Last question how much space occupies Lightning DS on your iphone (here it take 2,5 Go), it is a problem my iphone is full oand LDS seems to increase size with time.

Thanks to this forum for all the precious informations.

 

 

Mostly the caches of the album cover. If you use TIDAL/Qobuz a lot, you should consider to clear the cache regularly. The option is under 'Streaming Account' menu.  Another cache take size is the cove art of your local music, which we can not do anything. It just take a lot

[Enrok]

8 hours ago, Wang Xuanqian said:

 

Mostly the caches of the album cover. If you use TIDAL/Qobuz a lot, you should consider to clear the cache regularly. The option is under 'Streaming Account' menu.  Another cache take size is the cove art of your local music, which we can not do anything. It just take a lot

That' s it ! I knew where to find it in the Qobuz app but not in lightning ds. Thank's!

[soxr]

I own a mini, to which I want to add a 1 TB Hitachi Travelstar 5K1000.
 

The mini seems to be stuck on "Initializing Disk" while the disk formats correctly under windows 7, as this is an advanced format HDD. As I can't login as root on the mini, I can't see the output of dmesg which will show if something is wrong with the disk, or this just takes very long?

So is this supposed to take long? I also have some 2 TB laptop drives and SSHD's to play with, but I have this laptop 1 TB which I replaced with an SSD which I want to recycle for my mini.
 

[davide256]

2 hours ago, soxr said:

I own a mini, to which I want to add a 1 TB Hitachi Travelstar 5K1000.
 

The mini seems to be stuck on "Initializing Disk" while the disk formats correctly under windows 7, as this is an advanced format HDD. As I can't login as root on the mini, I can't see the output of dmesg which will show if something is wrong with the disk, or this just takes very long?

So is this supposed to take long? I also have some 2 TB laptop drives and SSHD's to play with, but I have this laptop 1 TB which I replaced with an SSD which I want to recycle for my mini.
 

. Did you go through this screen first to get the drive formatted?

 

http://support.auralic.com/hc/en-us/articles/206143728-How-to-use-internal-storage

 

[soxr]

2 hours ago, davide256 said:

. Did you go through this screen first to get the drive formatted?

 

http://support.auralic.com/hc/en-us/articles/206143728-How-to-use-internal-storage

 

 

yes using the webinterface, and it's stuck on " Initializing Disk"
the drive works perfect in other systems, very strange

[The Computer Audiophile]

11 minutes ago, soxr said:

 

yes using the webinterface, and it's stuck on " Initializing Disk"
the drive works perfect in other systems, very strange

 

Was the drive ever formatted in Linux? I've run into issues when using a drive that I had previously formatted for a booting Linux config, and stuck it into a HiFi component. 

[soxr]

43 minutes ago, The Computer Audiophile said:

 

Was the drive ever formatted in Linux? I've run into issues when using a drive that I had previously formatted for a booting Linux config, and stuck it into a HiFi component. 

 

Going to blank it with

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx

to see if the complete disk is writable.

Disk could be bad but I could run or PXE installer on it without a prob.

[soxr]

I blanked the 1 TB drive, no difference.

The drive is connected according to the webif:

Clicking on "Initialize internal storage" this popup appears:
 

 

Clicking on OK, something starts but never finishes:
 

 

You can hear the HDD do activity. The status remains "Initializing Disk" even after hours. This is not normal.

An even more serious problem is that the 1T HGST and a brand new Seagate 2TB ST2000LM015 5400RPM drive get so hot, you can no longer touch it.

There is no mentioning the drive may get very hot inside the mini:

http://support.auralic.com/hc/en-us/articles/206620027-What-kind-of-HDD-SSD-Can-I-Use-in-ARIES-MINI-

 

 

There are no ventilation holes in the mini, so anything that is not an SSD will start to heat up.

Mounting the same drive via USB, in a laptop HDD enclosure, works immediately:
 

[soxr]

Screenshots do not copy paste well, 2e try.

5k1000 drive via USB = recognized immediately:

 

Same drive via USB is recognized immediately and I don't need to initialize anything.
Maybe the Auralic firmware does not work well with advanced format drives directly connected to the SATA port instead via a USB -> SATA bridge.

The main issue is that I can't look under the hood, as auralic told me they set random passwords for SSH on each firmware. So I can't see why the formatting via SATA never finishes.

The reason will be logged in the kernel's log, via dmesg.

Both of these drives work perfect on my own linux systems, as I can stage them both with our PXE based installer. So it is strange that the MINI does not work well with drives that are pretty standard. The 5K1000 comes from an Asus laptop which was replaced by an SSD. A reliable drive.

[soxr]

Both 2TB seagate and 1 TB HGST were hanging on this error in the main screen of the firmware:

After hours, the status would remain unchanged. The drive was making some seek / activity noise. But it never finished. Creating a 1 TB filesystem on linux does not take hours.

[misterdog]

My Samsung 1TB SSD did like wise after an hour I rebooted the Aries and it worked fine.

[Enrok]

Has anyone tried the beta version of Lightning DS (5.2) on the aries mini, and if yes, what are the modifications.

 

[misterdog]

https://support.auralic.com/hc/en-us/articles/221252547-Beta-Firmware-Release-Notice

[Enrok]

just today a new version is coming out the 4.5 see on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/auralic.ltd/?hc_ref=ARQE5dawM7Y__eIYQFrapvb1Rgf21GMIDz7uIUWQaIhwl4GBWAaZf-bowfep1_JK_rE&fref=nf

[unclepuncle]

I only use my Mini to play Tidal through the app but I am having some speaker issues and I need to try a few test tracks from an XLO test CD I have.

I have copied the CD to Flac in dbpoweramp and copied it to a USB stick which I have then plugged into the USB port on the back (the first USB port next to the ethernet port). However I can't seem to see it in the app?

How do I get this recognised by the app so I can play this file? Do I have to go through the set up music folder thing?

[mjb]

4 hours ago, unclepuncle said:

I have copied the CD to Flac in dbpoweramp and copied it to a USB stick which I have then plugged into the USB port on the back (the first USB port next to the ethernet port). However I can't seem to see it in the app? How do I get this recognised by the app so I can play this file? 

 

Try following this: https://support.auralic.com/hc/en-us/articles/206083668-How-can-I-play-music-files-on-USB-drive-