Anil, I am glad I could be of some help to you and others.
The community here has been exceptionally helpful and friendly when I needed help,
so was just trying to help someone out in kind … though I do not post often (very slow typer).
My Aries is still fairly new, so I am not an expert on it, though I also noticed that it improved over the first 100 hours (maybe burn-in ???) though did not notice any further improvement after that. I used a kill-a-watt device to measure the wattage and it is just drawing 8 to 9 watts when turned on … so I just leave it on all the time.
Anyway, the Aries is a purchase that I do not regret … just like I do not regret subscribing to Roon. I find it a wonderful combination … and one that will only get better once Roonspeakers is released.
Aries owner here hanging out for RoonSpeakers. I’m using USB direct to my (Vega) DAC atm because I found Airplay just a bit too laggy and wanted to have a hi res option.
Anyhoo, reason for my post is that I was in touch with Mr. Wang of Auralic in August regarding a bug (incompatibility with SMB as implemented on Asus routers; fixed in recent Lightning DS build). I took the opportunity to ask how Roon support was coming along. He said it would take Auralic about two months from release of code by Roon (which so far as I’m aware has not yet occurred).
I didn’t ask what additional features might be implemented. I just want to get a functional network connection from the Roon Core to the Aries and additional features can introduce themselves in due course.
At this stage it might still be possible before Christmas, but the window is narrowing.
@andybob Thank you for your post … I actually logged into Roon Support forums tonight to check if there was any updates on Aries/Roon integration… so your information is appreciated. I am also very keen to see this integration happen.
I am considering an Aries Mini: small, integrated hard drive, single box utility solution for a secondary system.
Assuming (I will wait to see) that this will be able to run as a Roon endpoint, I am curious how Roon will stream data from the local drive to the local Roon endpoint. Does this mean a complete round-trip of Aries Mini to Roon server to Aries Mini or does Roon server direct Roon endpoint to pull the stream from the local disk. If the former then it is still one box less than having a NAS. If the latter then a clear benefit vis a vis network traffic (and potential problems).
Does anyone have any insight into this?
There is no benefit for an end point to have local storage as the data stream would be pulled to the Roon Core first, processed and then sent back to the the Remote. I think this is undue network traffic. Now, there is a ton of benefit if you keep your music local to the Roon Core.
IMHO, the best configuration is for the Roon Core and Music files to live together far away from the stereo. And you have a Roon Remote receiving the data via ethernet and the whole thing managed by a Roon control point, aka, tablet.
Thank you - you confirmed my suspicion regarding the Auralic Mini disk option. Yes, right now I have a NAS with double Ethernet into a switch shared with the server. I gave up on Roon server until Roon endpoints become available and the metadata solution evolves another generation. The Aries Mini looks like a compelling value for a Roon endpoint, if that materialises and regardless of the utility of a local disk. Now we wait…
Well I suspect they have not yet published out the firmware update…my comment was more along the lines of “cannot wait to load this up at home when it becomes available…”
I hoped the picture was from an “end user”.