Connect the Aurender AES output to one of Vivaldi’s AES inputs. Set the Vivaldi AES input to single.
Connect the Vivaldi word clock output to the Aurender word clock input.
On the Vivaldi select sync mode Master.
Set the Aurender to sync to word clock.
As mentioned before, the Ideon Absolute Time is obsolete.
Please see also my post above.
I think this way it will work.
Sale of Ideon Absolute Time gets you 38.4% to Upsampler price (both at retail)!
; )
A streamer for sure can benefit the sound quality (using the same external DAC), even better power supplies in your network (where it is also not a music signal) can improve the sound. (the same will be the case for streamers) I don’t fully understand your mind set that a streamer cannot influence the sound quality.
Anyway at my dealer (and also in my own system) I have used different streamers and all brought their own differences in (perceived) sound quality. In my system I keep my options open and stream with dCS Rossini and Aurender N10.
I am not saying Roon in combination with Vivaldi upsampler/DAC will not get great results, for sure it will sound great.
Again, I’m not the resident expert on this and invite @Anupc and others to chime in.
First, there should definitely be differences over network protocol, e.g., streaming over USB versus Ethernet, which dCS has explained. Maybe that is what most are hearing.
Second, if the comparison set are both over Ethernet, I believe the exact path (from any streamer) is:
Source 0/1s (e.g., Qobuz)–>Global network
Global network–>Local network, i.e. your home router
Local network–>Streamer
Streamer–>Local network
Local network–>Rossini/Vivaldi buffer
R/V buffer–>Ring DAC
If network delays exceed dCS’s buffer time, and these are corrected by a longer buffer inside the streamer, perhaps this boosts sound quality, I just don’t see how the 0/1s are presented differently to the buffer, and therefore the Ring DAC.
I’m happy to be wrong on this and learn from others.
The Rossini has an integrated streamer. The Vivaldi requires a separate streamer; either Vivaldi Upsampler or Network Bridge or other brand (e.g. Aurender) or PC.
A Streamer connects to the source server (e.g. Quobuz) via modem and local LAN cable.
Rossini (Bartok, Lina): the streamed and decoded signal is internally passed on to the Upsampler / DAC.
Vivaldi Upsampler: the streamed and decoded signal is internally passed on to the Upsampler and then output to a DAC via (double) AES, SPDIF, SDIF-2.
Network Bridge: the streamed and decoded signal is output to (an optional Upsampler) and a DAC via (double) AES, SPDIF or SDIF-2.
Storage with the above units requires a NAS connected via modem via LAN cable.
The NAS can be controlled by dCS Mosaic or other apps.
Aurende N30SA: the stored or the streamed and decoded signal is output to (an optional Upsampler) and a DAC via (single) AES or SPDIF.
PC: the stored or the streamed and decoded signal is output to (an optional Upsampler) and a DAC via USB.
Thanks for the advice. Along with Aurender, I also connect Esoteric CD/SACD player to Vivaldi dac via spdif to play CD. Since dac only has one word clock output and it is connected to Aurender already, does it mean I need to unplug it if I wanted to connect the word clock with CD player? What an inconvenience or may force me to get an Vivaldi clock.
Aurender with word clock: The Vivaldi DAC (sync set to Master) is the clock master in the system.
Esoteric CD/SACD: I’d run it without word clock. The Esoteric is then the clock master in the system and for the corresponding input on the Vivaldi DAC you need to set sync to Audio.
Which Esoteric CD/SACD model do you own?
With my Rossini I stream over the network connection and for my Aurender I use an AES/EBU connection to the Rossini. Common “conclusion” on this forum is that streaming over the network connection is preferred, but that does not mean the AES input on the Rossini is a bad input.
I have tried the Aurender N100 vs the N10 I own now, same DAC, same AES XLR cable, same power cable, same position on my rack. The N10 was a massive improvement over the N100, that tells me that streamers can definitly influence the sound quality in a system.
It’s not just the signal, power supply, filtering, components, design, quality of the housing (vibrations), etc, all can influence the end result. (even a network cable can intruduce distortion over the screen coming from routers/switches, if the screen is not floating)
Interesting. Why set Esoteric as master clock? Esoteric K-01XD.
In my previous post I changed the term ‘master clock’ into ‘clock master’.
In a digital system there is only one clock master. All other units are slaved.
In HiFi the clock master is normally the source (e.g. CD/SACD transport).
With dCS you have a number of clocking options (e.g. Vivaldi as clock master, external word clock unit), which may make things better but definitely not easier.
The clock input of the Esoteric is a 10MHz input, not a word clock input for 44.1kHz/48kHz.
The word clock output of the Vivaldi DAC, Vivaldi Clock or any other word clock generator cannot be used on the Esoteric clock input (wrong signal).
The Esoteric simply becomes the clock master and the Vivaldi DAC slaves to it.
Use the digital AES output of the Esoteric to connect to a Vivaldi AES input.
(I prefer AES, because it has a higher voltage level, is symmetrical, galvanically separated and cable lenghts are less critical than SPDIF.)
May be because streamers decode streams differently.
Did you compare streaming via Rossini and streaming via Aurender with Rossini as DAC, or do you just use Aurender as storage?
I use both, it’s not a great difference SQ wise, the aurender is a bit “warmer”
The Aurender is setup for both steaming network and from internal storage.
Streaming over Ethernet directly to the dCS unit is essentially bit-perfect; there’s no way to “improve” what is already bit-perfect delivery mechanism. As Ethernet is asynchronous, re-clocking and whatnot will also have no effect.
Any other connectivity to the dCS unit - AES, SPDIF, or USB - can contribute to some form of colourisation; meaning there’s a chance of it not being bit-perfect.
Some people may subjectively prefer the latter versus the former, but that’s a matter of taste, not actual improvement.
Your detailed explanation is more correct, however I was trying to make a different, simpler point: since the bit stream is buffered (with, or without upsampling) in the Rossini or Vivaldi, before it is passed to the Ring DAC, it seems odd that two music servers sending the same file using Ethernet would have a sonic difference.
An analogy: let’s say that FedEx has a much better distribution network than DHL. If I can confirm that the arriving package is identical, then why would I care which company sent it?
I concur with @Anupc’s explanation:
That might be the case, but there are still influences in the network side, type of routers/switches/ethernet cables and power supplies also influence the ethernet input SQ (in my case Rossini).
So it cannot be just about bit-perfect delivery IMHO.
No actually. But no doubt it’s a contentious discussion - one side can prove objectively there’s no difference. The other side insist they hear a difference but can’t prove it by any means known to man 
I am in the last group, if I take out all the network “goodies”, streaming cannot compete with playing a CD in my Rossini player. With all the goodies installed it gets very close to CD performance.
I live in an apartment block, about a decade old, with a decent power grid supply, but the SQ varies over the time off the day, when it sounds great I measure very low distortion on a power socket (with a cheap probably controversial chinese device), when the system does not capture my interest, the distortion measured at a power socket is multiple times higher (probably many washingmachines running in the building 
). I have been checking this over a year now and it never fails.
I have absolutely no idea what this chinese device is measuring, but the measurements comply with what I am experiencing from my system.
Therefor I keep thinking that streamers or any other network devices can make a SQ difference, if they can “cope” better with outside influences.
Sorry for going off topic this much
None of this has anything to do with Ethernet though - by design, Ethernet streaming is not affected by noise like analog systems are; there’s layers of abstraction (error-detection/correction packet frames) to eliminate impact from the physical layer.
In any case, there’re multiple long threads covering all this elsewhere 
The bit stream is buffered in the streamer (Lina, Bartok, Rossini, Vivaldi Upsampler, Network Bridge or any other brand streamer).
The buffer inside the Vivaldi DAC has nothing to do with streaming.
