feelingears

"Tuning your network..." love it, and hate it! 😃 I appreciate this conversation if only because it parallels my current situation, attempting to "regain" "lost" sound quality due to an unexpected change in gear that results in potential changes in the signal path that in turn result in additional component, cabling, power supply, and ultimately financial choices... This is indeed a bit frustrating, less because I feel the need to have the best gear, but that I had a sound I had tuned and cultivated carefully w/ complimentary gear selection, and now I've lost that fine balance. For myself, I don't think it's fair to expect manufacturers to account for all configuration possibilities when those are infinite just in the network dimension alone, let alone additional dimensions such as the subjective values people favor in their reproduced sound. So again I appreciate this thread in part because it helps me understand where the most leverage is in digital choices/signal path, and thus where I want to focus my effort and my $$$ considering I need to reestablish my sonic north star. Time to push off and sail to a different shore, I guess, but that's my point: The quality of reproduced digital sound is now very high for very low spend. So beware the tail wagging the dog! The diminishing returns curve is very steep and rises very high, very very fast. The way I've navigated this is by knowing what I'm seeking to change, and only buying what is needed to gain a quality without sacrificing or trading off another essential quality. If the XACT is within your capabilities - congrats and enjoy the music! I'll be trying to figure out if JPlay is the closest I'll get. (And JPlay is outstanding to my ear.) First world problems - hope this helps and good luck y'allz!

Found the hard drive recs: https://ask.aurender.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045605693-SSD-HDD-Recommendations-Installation-Guide Interestingly, Conductor is v4 now and has it's own URL (but only found via dedicated search, vs. obvious links from the KB): https://aurender.com/home/conductor_v4/

@JoeWhip This hobby is weirdly subjective and personal, but that's what makes the exploration fun. I appreciate your article prompting me to try the MiB. So, after much burn-in (over a week*, 24x7), listening, and adjusting and listening more, I agree that MiB. I have some nature recordings that truly have a lifelike sense of being outdoors in a forest when heard over MiB in my system. But...all MiB's superior things fall short without dynamics, and in my speaker system, the dynamics went "mellow," which turns out to be a deal killer for me. The MiB dynamics are just a touch too flat for (many of) my musical taste/recordings. Despite the extra resolution and beautiful high end of the treble (I will miss that extra bit of sparkle/openness), I kept wanting to turn up the volume to hear dynamics. With LiM, I am happy wherever the volume is, even at low levels such as with nighttime listening. I put the old LiM boards back in (as you noted), and ahhh....immediately I could hear what I'd been missing: there's the splash of the cymbals, the crash, the thump, the pluck...things MiB smooths over a touch too much for me. Mi indeed B but for me, LiM music, more emotion, more energy. "Flavors," as Stoddard and company say. Anyway, people should try this for themselves. This is a great reference point of what digital can sound like, so no regrets and lots learned. Thanks again, Joe! *Yeah, over a week - it was truly needed because the bass was simply wrong for the first five days. My new-from-factory speakers were that way too, way back when.

Hi, @AurenderAmerica - Sorry if this question has been answered elsewhere, I couldn't find an answer based on my generic search: I have a new-to-me N150, and it came with music pre-loaded. Of course, I want to add and remove music on the N150's internal drive. At the moment, I have three questions I've not found the answers to: I can access the folders on the N150 via my Mac, and I see some albums and songs that do not appear in the iOS Conductor app. I added some albums (folder-based, meaning the folder holds all of the album's related music and album art files) and again some albums appear, some do not. But Any suggestions on how to resolve what is going on? Is it metadata related? Some albums are at the folder (artist) level and some albums show up as the artist (at the folder level other artists are represented at). There's also a folder for "Various" and again, some bands are within this folder but they "should be" at the artist level of organization, I think. Maybe I have a misconception of how to organize music on the server? Finally, what kind of internal SSD is recommended for an N150? NVMe SSD, or other? Does Aurender Conductor tell me what type is installed? Thank you, Laurence

You pay for the tasting spoon, and the shipping on that too! I am a little wary of my upgrade to MiB from LiM, but hopeful it's all Joe suggests it is in terms of being better than LiM overall (greater than the sum of the parts). I hope MiB retains most all of LiM's dynamic and musical qualities, but I've read several owner impressions that kept me from doing this earlier... And, the Holo Cyan 2 seems also to be a contender for my taste in sound; hope to try that one too, eventually. Apropos of nothing here, my LiM is en route to Schiit. For fun, I replaced the Yggy LiM with a long unused Halide USB DAC (from 2014, I think) to hold me over because it's very simply plug and play. I have a smaller Schiit DAC, the Modius, in another system but it's not so simply plug and play. And... The Halide DAC is actually pretty damn good, perhaps shockingly good. Bass is definitely looser, a bit out of control, and things are a bit congested, especially for the first hour or so from a cold start, but warmed up it is surprisingly listenable and balanced. The bass does not slam at all (one of Yggy's strong suits) even w/ a sub, so there's that, but the overall sound and presentation is pleasing at least. I might be misremembering but Stereophile rated it A or B way back then, I think. Anyway, Yggy's bass slam and some of the other intangible subjectives it delivers will be very welcome back.

Thanks for posting @yyz as I came here to learn about others' impressions of the MiB. I have been thinking about the Holo Cyan 2 as I have heard how great the Denafrips Pontus sounds in my own system, but for me and my taste, LiM won out over Pontus as well as the Yggy A2 version I owned at the time, and which I believe became "OG" terminology and thus superseded the name A2 in their marketing. Who says FUD isn't a Schiit strategy? I'm kidding, sort of. So I got a LiM upgrade and have been VERY happy. Now you make me want to put my A2 board back in my original Yggy chassis (Olsher or someone at TAS reported the upgraded chassis as better, damn him) and get a MiB to compare. But I mainly am posting here to say that there are some sonic things that words just don't do justice and take too long to explain fairly, so I'm tired of trying, and will simply say and echo that as Chris noted in his original LiM shoot out review, I found the presentation of the LiM to be more "properly" balanced than my A2/OG. I note Chris sort of(?) notes his preference for LiM vs MiB still in a comment up above, but @The Computer Audiophile were you referring to the latest MiB with the latest design/chips/whatevs? I believe the original MiB you heard in the original intro of flavors was redesigned and re-released... (See what I mean about FUD, I can't even be sure I'm keeping up w/ their flavors anymore! Pretty soon it'll be 31 flavors.) And so is what you heard what I will hear? Or will the MiB appeal as Chris notes in his comment above, but not enough to beat the LiM as it has for @JoeWhip? Anyway, I enjoyed the A2 but writing this is my unconscious telling my conscious to just get the MiB upgrade based on the review here, and maybe also the Holo Cyan 2 and go from there. Thanks, JoeWhip! And also just say in case anyone cares to try: I find my Schiit DACs over the years to benefit greatly from Shunyata Delta (or better) XC power cables.

Speculation: One could imagine streaming into memory for the purposes of buffering and reclocking, etc. but then network activity and playback activity would happen simultaneously and that more or less defeats the purpose of memory playback as I understand it. Nobody is going to wait a few minutes for their streams to load first before playback either, I'd guess.

Hi, @HifiVoice I'm curious if you'd share your impressions of what was the better sounding stream, and what the server software was for the stream, please?

Stefano, why would Minimserver have a sound? I don't know but I hear differences in software and others do to. Is it network traffic as JPlay suggests? Someone on a techy forum measured traffic and correlated it with his own impressions: lower traffic, better sound. But really, I am interested in IF things sound different/better, less so "why" because "logic" suggests it shouldn't. I am not interested in getting into logic when most of us are not electrical engineers with specific experience in digital noise, so if you don't hear differences, AWESOME - enjoy! And all the same, thanks for your comments, turns out yes YOU were CORRECT, my LMS active plugins page shows the UPnP checked. And interesting to me that I have not found UPnP Audirvana compelling enough to keep, preferring JPlay+LMS. The other variable here is that I'm mostly Redbook (with some purchased hi-res), having tried local upsampling and not having found the upsampling juice to be worth the squeeze (another controversy, sigh). So I'm with Fourlegs who finds LMS+JPlay better. So maybe in the next few weeks I'll switch back over to Minimserver because I enjoy the exploration as part of my enjoyment of music, assuming the Minimserver config can hold my interest in both attentive and indirect listening. So far I am liking LMS. You asked: My NAS and EtherRegen/LPS-1.2 are wired to an ASUS mesh network. From the Uptone EtherRegen/LPS-1.2, the end point is the Volumio Rivo w/ Uptone JS-2. DAC is downstream. Thanks again, I appreciate you sharing the info to straighten me out.

I have only done casual comparisons because I’m lazy in this regard (much more methodical with easy tests of things like cables), but I think I find LMS sound better than Minimserver. This impression goes back to when I had a microRendu and now with a Volumio Rivo. JPlay with LMS is better than Volumio too. I use LMS on my Synology and JPlay is also functionally more stable with that than Minimserver. Someone posted about time scrubber being out of sync…I feel like I get this with UPnP all the time (and hate it). Is LMS different than UPnP? And finally, is there some network behavior that might influence sound quality? Less activity perhaps? I just know that in the long run, I find my system emotionally engaging and something I want to listen to when things are working. I can tell when I make a change and I lose interest in sitting down for dedicated listening. JPlay with LMS is engaging. Other set ups have not resulted in engagement for me. Anyway, just suggesting that LMS may be worth trying for sound quality - many thanks to the people keeping LMS alive and reporting their impressions vs other protocols (if that is the correct term).

Sorry, there was so little interest I forgot to mark this as sold. Shame these guys didn’t make it thru the pandemic disruption.

[EDIT]: I get a similar error about "renderer busy" or something, using NAS/LMS and a Rivo streamer. I find that I just need to tap the song I wish to play a second time and things sort themselves out. A similar situation is when I change my mind and start another track, the previous track or next track begins playing and I have to stop that track then start the new track again. UPnP is funny stuff! LOL What is more annoying is when playback somehow continues after I stop it, and I effectively lose control of the playback. I can't see what's playing, and I can't stop it until I stumble upon the taps that cause playback to stop. Whatevs. Not sure if it's Jplay or UPnP but in general UPnP is less usable than iTunes (seriously) which largely just works (I stop, start, change my mind, whatever, it responds). But, Jplay does sound better so I use it. I appreciate the effort since I don't have an Aurender yet! Anyway, hope this might help - I just tap the song again after the error message goes away, and then playback begins.

I get this error as well using NAS/LMS and a Rivo streamer. I find that I just need to tap the song I wish to play a second time and things sort themselves out. A similar situation is when I change my mind and start another track, the previous track or next track begins playing and I have to stop that track then start the new track again. UPnP is funny stuff! LOL What is more annoying is when playback somehow continues after I stop it, and I effectively lose control of the playback. I can't see what's playing, and I can't stop it until I stumble upon the taps that cause playback to stop. Whatevs. Not sure if it's Jplay or UPnP but in general UPnP is less usable than iTunes (seriously) which largely just works (I stop, start, change my mind, whatever, it responds). But, Jplay does sound better so I use it. I appreciate the effort since I don't have an Aurender yet! Anyway, hope this might help - I just tap the song again after the error message goes away.

I will just say I have Gaia IIIs on hardwood floors and I consider them essential to getting the best from my speakers for my ears. Tested them against spikes, etc. and all that. But I am really posting here to say they are not designed to work at an angle: The bottoms are suction cup-ish so if they're not flat, they're not set up as designed. Additionally, and I don't know why (nor do I really care to be honest), they instruct you to position the Gaias with the logos of each foot facing the same direction together Could they "work" at an angle? Sure, why not? And even sub-optimally they might be great. I can see why people might like or need spikes but in my room/floor/gear, that sound is not for me; I find it technically interesting but musically uninvolving. Anyway, just sharing my bias on how this crazy phenomenon called the sound of music affects me, myself, and I. (Fortunately in this industry, n > 1) Good luck! 😀

I have this same issue with the Rivo streamer (by Volumio). I think the answer really is buck up and buy a "real" kilo-buck streamer; aka, Aurender, Auralic, Antipodes, Innuos, etc. At least the former come w/ in-house software, but as one who worked in software, I am both impressed and unsure those companies can continue to deliver both high quality hardware and software in today's marketplace. (OTOH, AI should begin to help with driving the cost and maintenance of the software down if it hasn't already, giving them some useful margin.) Maybe one more try with the new Denafrips Arce streamer, but I wish JPLAY well because I'm not a fan of Volumio either, and hope there is a solution to this syncing issue. This out of sync thing seems to be a kind of UPnP attribute. iTunes has spoiled me - it mostly just works (and actually sounds damn good for Red Book) and is thus more family friendly. I also got Logitech Media Server (LMS) running again on my NAS and will test JPLAY with that.