Listening to the MiND was pretty much pure pleasure. I connected it to my network switch with a length of AudioQuest Diamond Ethernet cable, and to the Auralic Vega digital audio processor via AES/EBU. The Vega was in turn connected to my Pass INT-30A integrated amp, which powered a pair of DeVore Fidelity The Nines speakers. Compared to my stock MacBook Pro running Pure Music 2 or Audirvana, the MiND appeared to offer a lower noise floor—there were greater senses of microdetail and dynamic contrast in Tom Waits's Alice (CD rip, Anti-). There was a newfound purity to the sound of my NAS-based music that made possible a more musically engaging experience.
When I tried the MiND's WiFi connection, I found that I could play without problem files of resolutions up to 24/88.2, but higher resolutions had frequent dropouts. Because 24/176.4 and 24/192 files are part of my regular playlist, that makes the Simaudio MiND a wired device for my purposes. But WiFi performance is notoriously site specific; your mileage may vary.
The MiND delivered my music with a nice sense of body. Even relatively simple fare, like Muddy Waters's Folk Singer (24/192 from HDtracks, Chess), revealed and reveled in the MiND's greater sense of physicality and detail over the MacBook Pro. There was simply more there there.
Auralic Aries Wireless Streaming Bridge ($1599)
At its debut, at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, the Auralic Aries caused a stir by showing off its ability to stream up to double DSD (DSD128) via WiFi. To stream DSD64 and DSD128 over WiFi, Auralic recommends using a router with 802.11n MIMO support—and if you plan to run multiple Arieses around your home, they recommend bumping up to an high-end router such as the Netgear R6300 or Nighthawk R7000, or the ASUS RT-AC68U. I use an ASUS RT-AT66U, and it worked without a hitch with Aries's most recent firmware update (v.1.6). And because the NAS also must support DSD, I loaded the MinimServer software on my Synology DS412+ NAS.
The Auralic Aries houses a Quad-Core ARM Coretex-A9 processor running at 1GHz with 1GB DDR3 onboard memory and 4GB of internal storage. The Aries supports the OpenHome standard as well as UPnP, the former permitting more ambitious multiroom options, including shared on-device playlists. Inputs include dual-band WiFi, Ethernet, and USB that Auralic says will, with a soon-to-arrive firmware upgrade, accommodate reading from USB storage. The Aries supports PCM formats up to 24/384, DXD, and DSD64 and 128. Supported file formats include AAC, AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WV, and WMA. The Aries also supports gapless playback.
Like the Simaudio MiND, the Aries has no DAC. Its digital outputs are USB, TosLink, coax S/PDIF, and AES/EBU. The Aries's curvaceous body is made of injected-molded plastic, partly because Auralic wanted to do away with WiFi antennas—they're built into the body. Up front is a display that shows limited information, including the number of the track currently playing and the number of tracks in the current playlist. The review sample's display made a slight buzzing sound that was audible only when my ears were within a few inches of it. Auralic reports that this noise will be lessened with a future firmware upgrade. In the meantime, users can disable the display entirely, and thus the noise.
The Aries had no trouble finding my NAS devices. The Aries supports Songcast, which allows you to stream content like Spotify from your computer to the Aries. It also supports the lossless streaming services Qobuz and WiMP/Tidal, and my time with it coincided with my trial subscription to Qobuz. I covered Qobuz in detail in the September 2014 "Audio Streams"; here I'll say only that the notion of buying a hi-fi component and getting immediate access to a multi-million-album library in CD-quality sound lights my fire. Norway's Tidal service, based in Oslo, came to the US at the end of 2014 (for about $20/month)—and while I'm on the subject, Deezer, another lossless-streaming service, announced a deal with Sonos to deliver CD-quality streaming to the Sonos system. I see lossless streaming as a big part of our musical future.
Auralic's app for controlling the Aries, called Lightning DS (v.1.3), is currently available for iOS devices; an Android version is in the works. Lightning DS is playlist-based; you can view your library by Library, Folder, Collection (think Favorites), or Playlist. You can also browse in various sort orders: Album, Artist, Composer, Date, Genre, and Tracks. I stuck with Album in Library view.
To play music, you just touch and hold your finger over the desired album cover or track. A window pops up offering options: you can Add your selection to Collection, Queue, or Playlist. If you just want to play it now, select Queue. Another window opens, with the option to Play Now. You can also add a selection to the current playlist, to be played next (after the current song) or at the end of the playlist.
I used the Aries's USB output to connect it to the Auralic Vega; the rest of my system remained unchanged from the Simaudio MiND setup. I tried wired and wireless connection; in this case, WiFi worked fine for all of my music, even DSD128, so I did most of my listening via WiFi.
The Aries presented a seemingly lower noise floor than my MacBook Pro. There was a sense of greater resolution, and an increase in dynamic snap similar to what I'd heard with the MiND. While I found that the Simaudio offered a slightly fuller-bodied sound, the Aries won in terms of services, I find lossless streaming to be a must-have option for a network player these days, and some people may prefer the Auralic's more straight-ahead and resolute sound.
I played all manner of music through the Aries. Something like Miles Davis's Kind of Blue (24/192 mono, Columbia/Legacy/HDtracks) sounded particularly lovely. Each player was given his own space, and the tone and voice of each instrument shone through loud and clear. With more challenging and dense music, such as the electronica of Lucrecia Dalt's Commotus (Human Ear Music), the Auralic's deft unraveling of all of the sounds made for an engaging trip. John Coltrane's A Love Supreme (DSD64, Impulse!/Acoustic Sounds) was pure energy, DSD delivering the dimensionality and natural sense of flow and dynamic swing that it tends to do so well.
Picking a Network Player
Lossless streaming is a must-have item on my personal-network-player checklist, and in this two-player race, the Auralic Aries wins my heart and mind. If you'd be happy playing just PCM data up to 24/192 and streaming from Internet radio, as well as having full control over your entire Moon system via the MiND app, Simaudio's MiND is a great choice. If you want the whole enchilada, with DSD128, the Qobuz and WiMP/Tidal lossless-streaming services, and Internet radio, the Auralic Aries is a greater choice.
At its debut, at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show, the Auralic Aries caused a stir by showing off its ability to stream up to double DSD (DSD128) via WiFi. To stream DSD64 and DSD128 over WiFi, Auralic recommends using a router with 802.11n MIMO support—and if you plan to run multiple Arieses around your home, they recommend bumping up to an high-end router such as the Netgear R6300 or Nighthawk R7000, or the ASUS RT-AC68U. I use an ASUS RT-AT66U, and it worked without a hitch with Aries's most recent firmware update (v.1.6). And because the NAS also must support DSD, I loaded the MinimServer software on my Synology DS412+ NAS.
The Auralic Aries houses a Quad-Core ARM Coretex-A9 processor running at 1GHz with 1GB DDR3 onboard memory and 4GB of internal storage. The Aries supports the OpenHome standard as well as UPnP, the former permitting more ambitious multiroom options, including shared on-device playlists. Inputs include dual-band WiFi, Ethernet, and USB that Auralic says will, with a soon-to-arrive firmware upgrade, accommodate reading from USB storage. The Aries supports PCM formats up to 24/384, DXD, and DSD64 and 128. Supported file formats include AAC, AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, MP3, OGG, WAV, WV, and WMA. The Aries also supports gapless playback.
Like the Simaudio MiND, the Aries has no DAC. Its digital outputs are USB, TosLink, coax S/PDIF, and AES/EBU. The Aries's curvaceous body is made of injected-molded plastic, partly because Auralic wanted to do away with WiFi antennas—they're built into the body. Up front is a display that shows limited information, including the number of the track currently playing and the number of tracks in the current playlist. The review sample's display made a slight buzzing sound that was audible only when my ears were within a few inches of it. Auralic reports that this noise will be lessened with a future firmware upgrade. In the meantime, users can disable the display entirely, and thus the noise.
The Aries had no trouble finding my NAS devices. The Aries supports Songcast, which allows you to stream content like Spotify from your computer to the Aries. It also supports the lossless streaming services Qobuz and WiMP/Tidal, and my time with it coincided with my trial subscription to Qobuz. I covered Qobuz in detail in the September 2014 "Audio Streams"; here I'll say only that the notion of buying a hi-fi component and getting immediate access to a multi-million-album library in CD-quality sound lights my fire. Norway's Tidal service, based in Oslo, came to the US at the end of 2014 (for about $20/month)—and while I'm on the subject, Deezer, another lossless-streaming service, announced a deal with Sonos to deliver CD-quality streaming to the Sonos system. I see lossless streaming as a big part of our musical future.
Auralic's app for controlling the Aries, called Lightning DS (v.1.3), is currently available for iOS devices; an Android version is in the works. Lightning DS is playlist-based; you can view your library by Library, Folder, Collection (think Favorites), or Playlist. You can also browse in various sort orders: Album, Artist, Composer, Date, Genre, and Tracks. I stuck with Album in Library view.
To play music, you just touch and hold your finger over the desired album cover or track. A window pops up offering options: you can Add your selection to Collection, Queue, or Playlist. If you just want to play it now, select Queue. Another window opens, with the option to Play Now. You can also add a selection to the current playlist, to be played next (after the current song) or at the end of the playlist.
Lossless streaming is a must-have item on my personal-network-player checklist, and in this two-player race, the Auralic Aries wins my heart and mind. If you'd be happy playing just PCM data up to 24/192 and streaming from Internet radio, as well as having full control over your entire Moon system via the MiND app, Simaudio's MiND is a great choice. If you want the whole enchilada, with DSD128, the Qobuz and WiMP/Tidal lossless-streaming services, and Internet radio, the Auralic Aries is a greater choice.
