Aurender + Roon

Audio Gear Talk
1

I’ve been looking at streamers to add to my systems, but have also been looking at adding a core. One of the brands I looked at about a month or so ago was Aurender and was interested in whether their servers could run Roon Core. The information that I saw was that Aurender was a closed system and that it could not run as a Roon Core service and it was not Roon Read or Tested.

However, I saw on their website that some of the Aurender N-series and ACS-series devices are now Roon Ready. In other parts of the website they still tout being a closed system. I have two questions. What does it mean to be a closed system AND be Roon Ready? That sounds contradictory to my uneducated ears. Am I missing something? Also, if those Aurender devices can’t function as a Roon Core, is there any advantage to having on-board storage on those devices or is that something that you’re paying for and not going to be able to use?

2
  1. No Aurender model can serve as a core.
  2. You can use the storage that you may have on the Aurender as a music library, but that is unusual and not wise because you want it as close to the core as possible.
  3. You can use an Aurender on its own with music storage and as a RoonReady device. But also unusual because then you have two music libraries.

I will tell you how I did it after a lot of testing.

  1. Bought an Aurender N20 because it sounds very good.
    It was just RoonReady at the time, which was/is also a must for me.
  2. The own storage with its own app sounds fine, but I find the Aurender app less than Roon.
  3. So now I have a handmade fanless W11 PC with Roon core in use and use the Aurender WITHOUT storage only as a player.
  4. I have set Roon to upsample all music to DSD.
  5. Result: I really enjoy the beautiful sound and use of Roon.
    Of course it also depends on which DAC you use/have. Of course all this only applies to an N20 without a DAC. Mine is a dCS and separate clock where you can also use the clock input of the N20. That gives an even better sound.
    afbeelding
3

@Roony It sounds like you have a great system. :headphones:

Thanks for the information. So, it sounds like no Aurender model can serve as a core, but you can still use the local storage on the device. However, there is no advantage to using the local storage. It sounds like potential Aurender customers that plan on using Roon could benefit from Aurender releasing newer models that are streamers only, or streamers with DACs, without the server capability. I, for one, wouldn’t want to pay for a major feature that I wasn’t going to use. Maybe Aurender will do that in a year or two. They could even go the core route, but somehow I don’t envision that happening. :laughing:

This new Roon acceptance still doesn’t jive with this closed system that Aurender says they have. It doesn’t sound closed to me. I think Aurender went into the Roon ecosystem begrudgingly due to market demands. It seems like they have one foot in, if that, and one foot out. I don’t think they have totally embraced Roon. :grin:

4

I went for the best sounding streamer in my combination that also works with Roon. That a device has functions that you do not (want to) use is something you will always experience. The N20 is expensive but very good for its money.