Playing hires files on Auralic Aries mini

I’m on the 14 day trial. Everything works fine, except for one thing: playing hires files on the Auralic Aries mini.

This is my audio “chain”

-96Khz/24 bit file on local computer disk

  • Macbook Pro 2012 running latest version of MacOS
  • Wired cat5e to Netgear switch
  • Wired cat5e to a second Netgear switch
  • Auralic Aries mini, with latest firmware
  • Chord Mojo dac.
  • Naim stereo etc.

The Mojo indicates 44.1 khz playback.

If I connect the Mojo to the Macbook, I still get 44.1 Khz. Roon doesn’t seem to be able to change the playback frequency in Audio Midi Setup. JRiver does this perfectly.

How do I solve this problem?

The limiting factor is the airplay connection to the Aries Mini which is restricted to a max 44.1 KHz.

Are you absolutely sure?

As far as I understand the Aries Mini is Roon Ready and this means it uses RAAT up to 384 KHz (see: https://kb.roonlabs.com/Roon_partner_programs)

If it works over Airplay I could as well use my Chromecast Audio

I am not a Mac user so I can’t be sure of specifics but in Setup-Audio you need to ensure exclusive mode in Roon? It would be interesting to see what Roon is or isn’t doing. What colour is the indicator when you play something and what does it show when you click on it?

While the Auralic Aries and Altair are RoonReady, Auralic has not blessed the Mini with RoonReadiness. I have no idea whether this is for technical or commercial reasons – you should inquire Auralic for that, I guess.

The Mojo, when connected to your Mac, should play all bitrates supported by Roon, up to PCM384/DSD256. As @Henry_McLeod indicates, you will need to set exclusive mode in audio settings to avoid interference by your OS Mixer.

The indicator on my Mojo is always red when playing back with Roon, indicating 44.1 KHz. It doesn’t matter if the Mojo is connected to the Aries Mini or my Macbook pro

Rene, do you mean Roon is actually using Airplay to connect to the Aries Mini? This would be shocking to me, completely defeating the design philosophy of Roon RAAT. Roon should not have allowed it.

Outside of RAAT, Roon offers a few other protocols (Airplay, Squeezebox, Sonos, Meridian), mainly for convenience reasons: lots of people have hardware around that they use in less critical zones. It would be weird not to support Airplay on the device where it is present.

As for why your Mini not being RoonReady – that is really for Auralic to answer.

Xuanqian Wang of AURALiC has stated categorically that the Aries Mini will never be Roon ready, as in supporting RAAT. This is a great shame, but it is what it is.

If anyone wants to dig around for the reference, it’s most likely in one of John Darko’s pieces on the mini from the past year or so.

Before anyone starts holding their breath for a change of heart, consider that the long promised HTML5 version of their lightning software has yet to emerge and Auralic customers remain in IOS solitary confinement.

Here’s an Aurlalic explanation of the differences

Both ARIES and ARIES LE are sharing exactly same software structure with same DSP engine and Roon Endpoint support. They will have DSD upsampling, room correction functions available coming in the future. The ARIES MINI, due to hardware limitation, will not coming with those audiophile features.

Well, then I have been misled. I fully expected to be able to play hires audio via the Aries Mini.

I’m returning my Aries Mini. No reason to keep it. Qobuz and Tidal integration in Lightning DS looks nice, but I often have to wait for 20 seconds or more for a track to start.

Does anyone know if the Bluesound Node 2 is fully RoonReady, or is it AirPlay only, too?

Roon is down sampling if the indicator is red. That is to do with how the MacBook is dealing with Roon. Someone using a similar setup needs to tell you what settings to use on the MacBook to ensure bit perfect pass through.

RoonReady since end of january. MQA streaming and the Pulse devices appear to be having a few teething problems, but the Node 2 is fully functional.

So the Bluesound Node 2 supports playback of hires files?

Yes, over RAAT, up to 192kHz.

What are you trying to achieve here? The Node2 has its own internal DAC and offers the following audio outputs:

  • Analog RCA Stereo with FIXED option
  • Coaxial RCA
  • TOSLINK digital optical
  • Headphone 3.5mm Stereo
  • Subwoofer RCA

If you are looking to stream over RAAT to your Mojo or a different (USB) DAC, you may be better served by a something like a Microrendu. If you don’t mind a little bit of DIY, even a Raspberry Pi or other SBC of choice will get you what you want.

Well, then I have been misled. I fully expected to be able to play hires audio via the Aries Mini.

The Mini plays High Res just fine, it’s an incredible piece of equipment and tremendous value. The only way in which you may have been mislead could be if you were told that the Mini would function as a Roon endpoint, supporting RAAT. That statement would not be true, however in every other respect the Mini fully supports high res audio.

As i understand (from Rene) the mini is now in beta to get ROON-ready, see the link below. I use the Blous module in a NAD C390DDv2 (i gues the specs are approximately equal to the node2 you ask). This can do 192/24, MQA and is a ROON-endpoint. Played an MQA (Mozart) through ROON with it myself.

Best regards,
Leon

Yesterday played native DSD256 through Aries mini as ROON Endpoint (beta 5.0)
Everything is working fine.:slight_smile: (purple signal path icon)

Hi Leon-Jehae, could you describe what steps you took in Roon to get the Aries Mini running as an Endpoint? (I am on Beta 5 as well, Roon running on an iMac)

From memory you have to select Roon in the settings somewhere in the Lightning DS app.

Thanks, that was not the problem. Restarting the Phone did the job.

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