Looking to upgrade my Lumin U1 Mini which has served me very well however upgraded both my speakers and DAC to a MSB Descrete and looking to upgrade, I have the Innuos Zenith MK3 on loan shortly however both Auralic Aries G2, 2.1 and of course the other Lumin all look to offer similar performance depending on which option I go for.
My understanding is the new Innuos Sense 2.0 is apparently very good having had a major overhaul.
I returned in the Innous Zenith, and bought an Aries G2. Both are great streamers without a doubt, the Zenith was ‘to much of a good thing’ in my system. The G2 suited it more.
I have always disliked Lumin after having owned a couple, and will state that for me, both the Auralic and Innuos are much better.
The problem with Auralic is they ‘lock’ their units to the owner. So if you want to sell it on, and cant remember the email address login you used to register it, its a right pain. If you die, and your family want to sell it on, they can’t, or they will have the new owner coming back saying it cant be used without the dead person ‘releasing’ ownership.You essentially don’t own the unit as Auralic can brick it remotely. They claim its like an Iphone lock, but it isn’t , as that is user recoverable through a pincode, the Auralic isn’t.
That is an interesting and disturbing practice. I have the G2 as well.
1 Like
Quite. I only found this out after I had purchased it, if I had known beforehand, I definitely wouldn’t have.
I queried this with Auralic and used the ‘dead owner’ context, they said the person who is handling the estate of the deceased must contact them to fill out the relevant paperwork so they can release the unit! Actual insanity.
Unless we signed an agreement to this effect, I question the legality. This stipulation makes it not a purchase but a limited lease.
2 Likes
I am sure they have it entwined in their TC’s somewhere, but its the fact we dont get to see them before purchase. I suppose it gives a valid reason for return/rejection of product, but it could be much later when you find this out, as in my case.
Yes, it is a lease entirely. You are leasing a device after spending what could be £4k upwards.
I do not recall ever providing them with an email address/password. Poor recall perhaps, but my recall is that the unit arrived, and we dropped it into place and connected cables.
When you open Lightning DS, you need to register, this then assigns the unit to your email address.
I did notice that they work without signing to to Lightning DS, as I was using Roon, but it does mean you don’t get updates or a warranty until you do.
Auralics exact response was that if the unit was not ‘released’ from the previous owner, then I should sent it back as a ‘non functional item’. Sounds pretty severe.
I bought a second-hand Aries G1 still registered to its former owner. He was able to unregister it through Auralic support and it is now registered to me. You don’t have to register the unit for it to work with Roon (I don’t use Lightning DS), but, as you say, you won’t get OTA firmware updates or warranty support if you don’t.
…and they can ‘brick’ it anytime they would like, as it’s essentially a ‘lease’. Thats where my concern is.
I imagine they do this to try to reduce the used market to enable more sales of a new one. Thats a very ‘Chinese’ business sentiment.
I do not use Lightning DS. I just not recall being asked to register the unit. I have the firmware updates so I must have done so.
If I registered our G2, I know the email address I would have used. Is there an email address at Auralic where I can get that confirmed. I concur with @Mikey that I would not have bought the unit with that being a stipulation.
YOu can email support@auralic.com for confirmation.
Here is there response to us
"Hello:
*Our device, like an iPhone, has activation lock. The previous owner need to deactivate the unit before selling it or pass to the next owner. If you bought a machine with previous owner still registered, you need to contact the seller to let them deactivate the machine. If he or she is not able to do so then you need to return it as you have bought a non-functioning unit. *
For your case if the previous owner has passed away, the people handling owner’s asset need to finish some paperwork with us so we can deactivate the machine and he or she can sell the unit.
I bought mine in California, and I believe they broke the law when they required that I fill out a form for the warranty to be valid. Calif. warranty law
Law says the warranty form must:
“(B) Informs the consumer that failure to complete and return the card or form does not diminish his or her warranty rights.” and they did not do that.
1 Like