2. home-theater
  3. 143063-115375

Aurender vs. Roon

I would greatly appreciiate any input on something I was told yesterday by a learned audiophile. A) that aurenders conductor app is inferior to roon. That is probably a given. However, I thought Roon will interact with the conductor app. so if that is the case then you can have the best of both worlds.  Also, Roon has better audio quality the Aurender? Aside from that, is the landscape moving toward Roon? Reason I ask is I have been looking at Aurender streamers to purchase and there seems to be more and more of them for sale on Audiogon and US Audio Mart etc. Is it possible Roon Ready devices are going to be the newest frontier so why bother with Aurender if they are not going to support it? Thanks in advance for any insight or suggestions.
mrdon
mrdon OP
51 posts
 
So far i have seen quite a bit of discussion, some with an aim to resolve the original question/s and others maybe not. Never the less, i am getting something out of every post and greatly appreciate the bigger picture some of you are painting.. Keep-em coming (suggestions)..  
docknow
85 posts
 
@audiotroy My Nucleus was $1,400, not $2,500.  I don't need DSP.  This is a completely different price point than the $2,600 Innuous Zen server.  Bring one over the Hudson to my apartment in FiDi and we can compare the SQ :).

Linear power supply is coming from Roon, or one can purchase various LPSs from ~$150-$500.

One can build/buy and Intel NUC for less (half?), but I wanted something very turnkey.
audiotroy's avatar
audiotroy
1,621 posts
 
.docknow many people purchase the more expensive version which is $2500 
If you add a linear power supply you are approaching the Zen.

We would love to do that shootout.
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
I was not asking you thyname. I was asking the dealer who is posting here.  
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
1,105 posts
 
+1, mattmiller.  

IMHO, Aurender is not missing on anything by not having ROON compatibility. The conductor app is second to none and it’s ease of use easily trumps anything else out there. I have owned N10 for 4 plus years, it’s outstanding sound quality has no peer (other than W20). The customer service is top notch and they are very receptive to customer feedback. The brand has stood tall and remained unshaken despite of stiff competition from Antipodes and Lumin.

I am currently subscribed to Qobuz and many of my favorites tracks in 24bit/192kHz sounds outstanding through my N10 > DA2 DAC. I have some experience with upsampling files. You can certainly take a 16 bit/44.1kHz file and try to upsample it and decide for yourself if it floats your boat. Upsampling is like compensating for other shortcomings in your system or components, you can’t possibly extract any more information if it’s not there to begin with....it’s like taking a 480p video and upscaling it to 4K 😉

I can only suggest OP to spend some time with Conductor and Roon based hardware at a local dealer and then decide. 


More to discover