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Top music streamer for 2019? Aurender N10’s?

I will shortly be purchasing a Gryphon Diablo 300 integrated with its internal DAC module.  I’m now wondering what to do about a music streamer, as I’m doubting that my current stock Mac Mini with Audirvana will do justice to the Gryphon.  My budget is < 10k.  After scanning forums this is what I’ve found consistently:  1) Aurender is frequently recommended, seemingly more so than other brands, 2) the Aurender N10 sounds much better than the much less expensive N100H, 3) Any higher end dedicated streamer will elevate sound significantly over my Mac Mini.

So it appears my best option is the Aurender N10 other than the price tag.  My questions are:  1) Do people agree with the statements above?  And, 2) How do the much less expensive Moon Mind 2 and Bluesound products compare with the Aurender N10?  Is the difference large?  And, 3) How big is the sound quality increase going to a N10 from a Mac Mini, and what specifically are the differences I should expect? 

Thanks

nyev
grannyring's avatar
grannyring
4,637 posts
 
I just received my Innuos Zen 3 and it is remarkable.  So meaty and full bodied while serving up the details in a most musical manner.  This unit is only $2500 or so with 1T of memory.  I loaded 1020 CDs and only used 50% of the space. I have heard many players and this one is easily a Best buy at this price. 
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rbstehno
916 posts
 
A few years ago, I evaluated a few music servers and the Auralic Aries was much better than the Aurenders. Since then, I sold the Aries and went back to using a Mac iMac for storing my ripped music and access to Tidal, using Roon on the Mac iMac, and then using a PS Audio DS dac so I could communicate to the dac thru ethernet instead of an inferior USB. Aurender has too many gimmicks like an SSD for caching songs. What a waste of a SSD. The aural ds lightning software was/is much better then the Aurender software but Roon is far superior to anything out there. Also, I want to keep any computer (all music servers are computers) out of my audio room and using the bridge inside of the dac allows me to use ethernet.
mountainsong's avatar
mountainsong
353 posts
 
Buy the New NAD M10. All in one solution. The best piece I ever come across in the streaming all in one solution.
Touch big screen. 

lalitk's avatar
lalitk
1,105 posts
 
Find a Aurender dealer and audition N10 with your Gryphon DAC. Once you hear it, everything else recommended so far simply pales in comparison.

Don’t sweat the MQA compatibility, Aurender does the unfold of MQA files upto 24bit/96khz resolution. Or you can stream full high resolution files (24bit/196khz) through Qobuz.

The Conductor app is excellent too. 
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