I have been using Aurender renderers fron n150, n10, n200, n20, n30 for their clarity and high definition sound until I swithed to Rossini apex+ pass x32+x600.8+Sonja 2.2i ,all of which produce very clear and high definition sound. Then N30 started to sound too fitigue and I was looking for a warmer sounging streamer/ dac such as Lampizator Pacific, Grim mu1, palyback systems. Voodoo etc (Rossini apex internal renderer was very good but I wanted to a little more wider stage and more headroom in highs).
My the other system of Bartok apex+ mastersound 845 mono blocks+ yg Vantage sounds quite different; warm, relaxing even more analogue sounding. I was and am very happy listening this system for casual relexation.(mainly witj chamber music)
Then my dealer recommended Aurrender W20se and he said it was very different sound from Aurender N series; warm, less dynamic and softer sound like LP.
Also, I did not have to use Roon which I haven’t used and as W20se is nearing the end of production he could give me a good discount for a brand new one.
I demoed the W20se and I bought it after the demo. It was that good.
I recommend any dCS users who wants more ambience in highs and wider stage give W20se a listening!
this is interesting…so you prefer Aurender over internal Rossini streaming capabilities?
tx!
add on: I demo’ed the N10 and it couldn’t touch the internal Rossini streaming SQ wise…much too limited scale and too warm imho. (connected via USB)
I had the Aurender n10 and n20 on home loan for a period of 3 months . I used an audience usb cable (£1k) and both Aurenders sounded dull and lifeless and were indistinguishable from sticking a usb thumb drive directly into the back of the dCS dac . I turned to melco where a melco N1A from 2017 sounded better than the aurenders . I’ve gone through the Melco range and have the current flagship n1s38 which is excellent . This seems to confirm that dCS DACs prefer streaming over Ethernet v connecting Streamer over usb .
Had Melco’s former flagship N1ZS10 with Vivaldi Apex and was not overwhelmed. The Aurender W20se, dual aes/ebu into Vivaldi, immediately turned out to be a great solution. Love this combo!
With Rossini apex I used n20,n30 w20se.
They all sounded different from Rossini internal renderer.
Compared to Rossini, n20 and n30 sounded more clear and dynamic. On the contrary W20se sounded more ambience of air, backed up voval, less dynamaic bass.
At least if you cannot hear the difference of n20 , it is not for your system. Aurender N
20, n30 sounded never dull, on the contrary most dynamic and detailed I have tested. ( in my current system, it is too much so i switched to “softer” w20se) . From my case Aurender sounded best with aes connection
I have been using the N20 for almost a year now with the Vivaldi DAC/CLOCK and I am super satisfied. I have removed the SDD from the N20 and only use Roon. All this with Shunyata Omega AES, Clock and Alpha power cables. Everything upsampled to DSD64.