Digital Processor Reviews

I have an Aries Mini, and had the same kind of connect/disconnect, can't find a network/here's the network, scan/forget issues. I have a Windows based music server that serves all the devices in my home and studio. Some are computers that use the server as a network library, others are just UPnP endpoints. All run with JRiver. But I could never get the Mini to successfully work with the remote library. Many hours of trying, entering path, ID and passwords. Lots of back and forth with tech support. I'd get a lock on the remote library, the Mini would scan everything, and I'd think I solved things, then the next day it couldn't find the library. Start over. Sometimes it'd fail mid-scan several times, then scan fine. Then lose touch with the library again. Tech support said, Windows is a terrible server, just put music on a USB hard disk and connect it.

Feeling rather grumpy, that's what I did, for awhile. Then I thought, you know, I'll just drop Lightning DS and use it as a passive endpoint. When I went to do that, I noticed I could select a remote DLNA library. And... magic. Connected to the remote server, scanned the library. Hasn't lost it in weeks. I may still change it to a passive endpoint because then I'll only have one UI (JRemote) but my conclusion is that the UPnP implementation isn't great. The DLNA is.

Love the sound on the Mini (with the external power supply.) Punches well above its weight, more than good enough for when I'm working. I was thinking about an Altair for another part of the house where an old Logitech Touch has started showing its age, now that I've got the Mini working well via DLNA.

"sitting on a removable board that includes a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor running at 1GHz, 1GB of DDR3 onboard memory, and 4GB of system storage. Auralic claims that this hardware will make it possible for the Altair to be upgraded for such planned features as DSD upsampling, MQA, and room-optimization software."

MQA-Core like the Blusound Node 2, sure. But this kind of CPU processing is very weak and I doubt it's capable of high quality DSD upsampling or room-optimization at a high quality.

I wish companies would stop making claims like this until they can actually show the ability to do it. And I think reviewers should really think about what companies say and realistically consider if there's any truth before just repeating them. Please show a little more skepticism for the unlikely to reduce the chance that your readers end up disappointed.

I chuckled when I read your article as I had the exact same issues when setting up my Aries LE. You can not even talk to anyone at Auralic for help. You must email them and wait for days for a response. I've never had a problem solved by the Auralic team. I finally gave up on the Lighting software....thank goodness for Roon.

I just purchased an Auralic Altair and have found, what I believe to be, a glaring oversight. It doesn't have a volume control bypass mode. I want to "lock" the output of the RCA jacks and let my pre-amp control volume duties. I contacted Auralic and their suggestion was to leave the Lightning DS app volume pegged at 100% and not to touch it. :-/
Many devices offer something like a "home theater bypass" output to use when connected to an external device with its own volume control.

I feel like this is something of an oversight.