Why the distinction with Vivaldi and below, Richard?
For what it’s worth I haven’t tried an Aurender of any type with my Bartók, and would be unlikely to because I don’t see what it would add to my system — the simplicity and performance of the dCS Ethernet streamer has been just 
for me.
Like Ben, I am curious about the distinction. The Aurender is just serving bits, and while more expensive than it should be, it does it competently in a manner that should be suitable for anything in the dCS lineup.
I used to stream from a nas, and still do! I was attempting to get a more direct approach to the DCS Vivaldi Upsampler to reduce length of cables etc etc. Very long story indeed. I moved up the range from various Melco units, Innuos Statement, Aurender w20 and Taiko Extreme. The more money I spent the closer it got to the Vivaldi Upsampler (hours of A-B comparisons). The connections/interface and app of the Aurender were superb options (Aes, coax, ethernet) but the sound quality was always less than the nas to upsampler. Various reasons
Richard,
Interesting. In this scenario, using a NAS only, are you using Mosaic or is your NAS up to the task of running ROON?
When I ran Roon, I had the “app” running with an ssd due to the resource issue. I hate the Roon app and also decided the sound was being interfered with by Roon. My hearing has been confirmed that it is being affected. All listeners have different tastes but I demand air and kick in my system. After a LOT of trying options with the input of my dealer (Steve at Martins) I conclude Roon is not as good an idea as most think and I have happily let it go. I do not use Mosaic but the normal DCS app which suits my needs fine. What I have done is to play around with ethernet cables and router power supplies. I have concluded that normal cables are pretty poor. A great benefit was the entreq router power supply. The electricity at home is absolute rubbish so I need all the help I can get to drag out rubbish. The entreq router power supply failed which put me back a bit but Steve and I have worked on options, I now have my Synology 720 nas next to the upsampler via an entreq olympus ethernet cable (yes - they are bloody good!), having tried various alterative cables and lower level entreq. The short run assists greatly and AVOIDS THE ROUTER which of course is a source of contamination. I am pleased and anything less is not now acceptable. Steve and I now have plans for the next move forward!
That’s interesting.