Auralic Aries Mini

[vidya46]

53 minutes ago, rhern213 said:

 

Out of curiosity, why are you using a Mac mini in front of the Aries? It's just as a server hosting all your downloaded MP3's?

 

As a tip, I have all my downloaded music in the Aries Mini's SSD slot. This eliminates an entire chain of hardware for you and potential quality loss coming from the MAC mini ports/extra cables, etc..

I do have a Samsung SSD in the aries  mini..somehow the sound quality from SSD sounded way off when compared to playing from mac Mini..But that was 2 weeks ago..I will try this idea again tonight and see ..Thanks

[davide256]

2 hours ago, vidya46 said:

I do have a Samsung SSD in the aries  mini..somehow the sound quality from SSD sounded way off when compared to playing from mac Mini..But that was 2 weeks ago..I will try this idea again tonight and see ..Thanks

I agree with what you originally heard, SSD sounded harsh compared to NAS sourced  music using stock SMPS. Its costly for the electrical isolation needed to use a media drive and renderer  in same chassis, haven't heard anything cheaper than $2500 do it well. But an A/B comparison  with SBooster vs stock SMPS might be useful, may help mitigate some of the issues I heard using internal SSD with stock SMPS.

 

[Cornan]

4 hours ago, davide256 said:

I agree with what you originally heard, SSD sounded harsh compared to NAS sourced  music using stock SMPS. Its costly for the electrical isolation needed to use a media drive and renderer  in same chassis, haven't heard anything cheaper than $2500 do it well. But an A/B comparison  with SBooster vs stock SMPS might be useful, may help mitigate some of the issues I heard using internal SSD with stock SMPS.

 

I still use the Aries Mini and can ecco the impprtance of a good LPSU. It makes a huge difference. When using a SSD it is also important to use a seperate LPSU for it. Other things that improves the Aries Mini is an audio ethernet switch and a wireless bridge.

[misterdog]

11 hours ago, Cornan said:

When using a SSD it is also important to use a seperate LPSU for it.

 

For an internal SSD or are you saying mount the drive externally, if the drive is internal how do you power it seperately  ?

 

11 hours ago, Cornan said:

Other things that improves the Aries Mini is an audio ethernet switch and a wireless bridge.

 

Does the wireless bridge improve it by removing the WIFI  from the  Aries ?

[vidya46]

According to the designer https://community.auralic.com/t/sq-nas-vs-internal-hdd-and-usb-hdd/803..

 

"

You are absolutely correct on sound quality impact of those storage options, that’s why we always recommend NAS drive (particularly let streamer on WiFi).

The storage components can drain power from ARIES MINI and introduce EMI noise which affect sound quality, if connected by a physical connection. The USB should be the worst with SSD slightly better."

 

[Cornan]

5 hours ago, misterdog said:

 

For an internal SSD or are you saying mount the drive externally, if the drive is internal how do you power it seperately  ?

 

 

Does the wireless bridge improve it by removing the WIFI  from the  Aries ?

 

Yes, it is important to power the SSD with its own LPSU so it does’nt interfear with Aries Mini you can use a NAS or you can just buy something like this one so you can have it external with its own PSU. https://www.banggood.com/ORICO-6518SUS3-2_5-3_5-Inch-Super-Speed-USB3_0-ESATA-Dual-Interface-HDD-SSD-External-Enclosure-p-1118066.html?

The wireless bridge is the same story as the SSD really. Isolation. A wireless bridge will have its own PSU. It will also have a much stronger and faster wifi connection (if you choose wisely). Adding a dedicated ethernet switch between the wireless bridge and Aries Mini will improve SQ further.

 

[Luvdac]

The best isolation that worked for me with the aries mini and now the sonictransporter is the intona galvanic isolator. This is one magic box that is a must between any usb dac and the usb output of the source device. Optical connections never delivered for me, I find the sound always a bit thin. The next upgrade should be cables. I am now using hidiamond usb cables on either side of the intona, upgraded from pangaea audio silver cables. These cables were a huge improvement for the mids and highs. I've had mixed results with a wireless bridge, the allo usbridge. I found that it actually added a veil to the sound of the sonictransporter. I haven't had a chance to try it with the aries mini tho. My understanding is that usb bridges like the allo ( and yes, it has a galvanically isolated usb output) are more prone to artifacts because of the router/ switch being in the direct path to the dac. Ofcourse the allo is a cheapo bridge and you can spend up to a 1000$ or more on something like sotm sms  ultra.My advice is to keep it simple.

So to recap, my upgrade suggestions are:

1) intona  galvanic usb isolator.( around 300 euros, and you can always send it back if it doesn't work for you).

2) 2 good usb cables on either side of the intona. ( hidiamonds are 90 euros each)

3) isolated power supplies and power cords. Keep your music system on a power point which is not shared by switching dc adapters.

Best of all, enjoy the musical journey!

[nnck]

Hi I'm hoping someone can help me figure out how to setup a network shared folder for my Aries Mini...

 

I have been using the Aries Mini with an external drive connected via USB to the back of the Mini for several months now without too much issue. But now, I'd like to try to use it with a network shared folder. Eventually I'd like to have an external drive connected to my MacBook Air to use as my network shared folder. But to simply things for now, I cant even get any folder on my macbook air to work as a network shared folder.

 

I'm following the instructions here: https://support.auralic.com/hc/en-us/articles/206855007-Create-network-shared-folder-on-Mac-OS-X

I've gone over them a few times and it seems I am doing everything right. Created a new user for 'aries' on the laptop, set up a little 'music-test' folder containing a few music files and tried putting it in multiple locations on the computer. Each time, I made sure to turn file sharing on for the folder, added the new user 'aries' to the folder with Read & Write access. I set up the network path like smb://'IP Address'/music-test (or wherever it's located). Each time I save the path it comes back and says the IP address for the path is incorrect.

 

Am I having any issue because the external USB drive is still connected as well? Can a USB drive and a network drive both be connected? I cant understand what else might be wrong. Thanks