Newbie or just confused or both

[Peter Bomberg]

I can't test since I dont have the equipment so I am relying on you to steer me in the right direction, my wife is not interested in the best sound but the most conveinint good sounding setup. I on the other hand love amazing SQ and will accept some inconvenince so we compromised.

Cascade DAC with Renderer (Roon) for me and she will have a Bluesound Node via Toslink (Spotify) but I am hoping to find a better solution (ignoring the cost aspect). I really like Aurender so I am thinking a N20 or N30SA but they are only options if she can do everything from the Aurender Conductor application including volume control, basically it has to be as easy to use as Spotify is.

1st question is does anyone have a combo Aurender and MSB DAC via the Renderer running, I don't currently have any other inputs. If so can you do everything from the Conductor App?
2nd question, does anyone have the Taiko Extreme running trough the ProISL interface and if so can you control the volume using the Taiko (again 1 remote/app is all I can sell)?
3rd question, if I can't control everything via the ProISL how about via the ProUSB?
4th question. if not ProUSB or ProISL then which is better SPDIF or AES/EBU

Advice and help welcome

 

[Peter Bomberg]

Ok turns out I am more lost that I realized, while you can control the volume using Roon, it appears you can't at all using a Aurender N series device so I guess Roon it is until MSB supports Tidal or maybe even Spotify directly on the renderer

 

[J007B]

Hello Peter, sorry I can't be of any help, no experience with either Aurender or MSB, but I can welcome you to WBF. I'm sure someone on here can provide you some answers....

 

[Peter Bomberg]

Thank you J007B, agree usually the people here will lead me down the right path. I spoke with Kelly from Aurender briefly today and it sounds like my concept that all Aurender players had volume control capabilities is where I went wrong, that is only on the A series so Aurender might be out, I can feed the digital signal to the DAC but without volume control I am better of with Roon.

 

[Daniel Gullman]

@Peter Bomberg, I fear I lead you astray. The Aurender is not compatible with the Renderer and will not control the volume through the app... sorry. I have had so many servers and transport come through the office recently I fear I just got mixed up :/

My recommendation for your setup would still be to use the Renderer for your wife's playback. You can use the service JPLAY connected to Qobuz which would give her a single app to find and stream music with in app volume control. This is actually the solution I use at home and my wife has found it really simple to pick up and use.

Now, if you wanted to add an Aurender for the best performance playback, you could connect it with the Pro ISL and have the library downloaded etc. This would not rely on constant streaming and have offline capability. Our inputs can be arranged to prioritize the input of your choice, i.e. the Aurender could take over the Network Renderer if you sit down to listen. When you are done, it would switch back to JPlay for your wife to use at will.

Again, this is my personal home solution and it works quite seamlessly!

 

[Peter Bomberg]

@Peter Bomberg, I fear I lead you astray. The Aurender is not compatible with the Renderer and will not control the volume through the app... sorry. I have had so many servers and transport come through the office recently I fear I just got mixed up :/

My recommendation for your setup would still be to use the Renderer for your wife's playback. You can use the service JPLAY connected to Qobuz which would give her a single app to find and stream music with in app volume control. This is actually the solution I use at home and my wife has found it really simple to pick up and use.

Now, if you wanted to add an Aurender for the best performance playback, you could connect it with the Pro ISL and have the library downloaded etc. This would not rely on constant streaming and have offline capability. Our inputs can be arranged to prioritize the input of your choice, i.e. the Aurender could take over the Network Renderer if you sit down to listen. When you are done, it would switch back to JPlay for your wife to use at will.

Again, this is my personal home solution and it works quite seamlessly!

@Daniel Gullman, sadly Jplay is a IOS only solution and we are a mixed household PC, Android, IOS sooo the search continues.

The good news is she seems happy with the Bluesound Node X I got her (matches the Cascade and M205 finish) the only issue I haven't solved yet is how to level the volume, Roon starts loud andthe Node wont' get loud.

 

[Daniel Gullman]

Alas, best of luck! Keep us posted if you work out the kinks. Would be great to have a solution to recommend to others.

 

[Peter Bomberg]

Alas, best of luck! Keep us posted if you work out the kinks. Would be great to have a solution to recommend to others.

@Daniel Gullman with pleasure and a bit more tweaking with the X Diamond's the sound is improving. The M205's are perfect compliments' to the Estelon X Diamonds. I listened to the S202 when deciding (thank you @Vince Galbo for arranging for the demo together with Jamie) and the M205 was simply better, and the demo sounded good, but having upgraded the interconnects and power cables to Dragon has made the system even better. It's .... good and getting better as I tweak and the gear burns in.

The GIAI's made a big difference

 

[Daniel Gullman]

Wonderful!