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GO TO: Contents | On the Horizon | Features | DACs | Portable | CD Players | Music Servers | Integrated Amps with DACs | Top Picks BUYER'S GUIDE TO DIGITAL SOURCE COMPONENTS GO TO: Contents | On the Horizon | Features | DACs | Portable | CD Players | Music Servers | Integrated Amps with DACs | Top Picks Contents On the Horizon DACs • Read about 13 of the • Wyred 4 Sound DAC-2 best, brand-new digital DSDse source components • AURALiC Vega • Berkeley Audio Alpha DAC Reference Series 2 Features • Antelope Audio Zodiac • Understanding Digital • Exogal Comet Music Systems • LH Labs Geek Out V2 • MQA: Beyond High • Monarchy NM24 Resolution SPONSORED BY CD Players • Moon Neo 260D Portable • Modwright-Oppo BDP-105 • Astell&Kern AK100, • Ayon CD-3sx AK120 • Sony NW-ZX2 Integrated Amps • Aurender Flow with DACs SPONSORED BY • NAD D 3020 Music • Devialet 200/400 • Micromega MyAmp Servers • Lyngdorf Audio TDA-2170 • Bluesound Vault • Hegel H160 • Sony HAP-Z1ES • Denon PMA-50 • Lumin A-1 • NuPrime DAC-10H, ST-10 • Astell&Kern AK500N • NAD Masters Series M12, M22 Top Picks • Aurender W20 and N100H • See more of our favorite digital sources 3 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source Components 2015 www.theabsolutesound.com PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE GO TO: Contents | On the Horizon | Features | DACs | Portable | CD Players | Music Servers | Integrated Amps with DACs | Top Picks Auralic Aries Mini Aurender N10 The Aries Mini offers advanced wireless Designed to be used with high-performance digital-to-analog converters, the Aurender streaming, including quad-rate DSD/ N10 is the only music player to support on-the-fly DSD-to-PCM on SPDIF and AES/EBU DXD, a built-in DAC, plus effortless con- outputs with user-selectable choice of an 88.2 or 176.4 output sampling rate. You can nectivity to a much broader market of thus play DSD files even if your DAC isn’t capable of native DSD playback. With 4TB (2TB consumers, not just audiophiles. The x 2) of internal hard disk drives and one 240GB solid-state drive cache for playback, the highly compact unit, with its built-in DAC N10 is a great solution for even the most extensive high-resolution music collections. The and analog/digital outputs, shares most Aurender N10 is equipped with various SPDIF outputs (BNC, AES/EBU, coaxial, optical) software and hardware functions with and one dedicated USB Audio Class 2.0 output. For network connectivity and file transfers, the original Aries—plus the addition of the N10 comes with a Gigabyte Ethernet port and two USB 2.0 data ports. Aurender’s Bluetooth—at a fraction of the previous award-winning Conductor app turns an iPad or Android (Lite Version) into a versatile user model’s cost. Setup is uncomplicated, interface for Aurender Music Server/Players and the Aurender app comes with extensive and with its built-in ESS Sabre DAC chip, features to make managing, viewing, and playing high-resolution music collections— analog and digital outputs, and optional including Tidal—a breeze. Available in silver or black. 2.5" hard-drive slot (for the NAS averse), Price: $7999. aurender.com it represents a simple way of adding high-resolution music to a system, ac- cessing one’s own music library (for users of existing stereo and AV-receiver- based audio systems), or using it with Simaudio Moon 780D high-quality powered speakers. The Ar- The Moon 780D is the company’s most lifelike sounding ies Mini also comes with a free one-year and technologically advanced digital audio product to date. subscription to Tidal HiFi’s lossless music This achievement is realized through the use of a fully bal- library of 35 million tracks, a $240 value. anced differential dual-mono design using two DAC chips, (U.S. and Canada only) each with 16 unique DAC circuits, that can decode virtu- Price: $549. auralic.com ally all digital audio formats (up to DSD quad and PCM 32-bit/384kHz). Amongst the various digital inputs is the MiND (Moon intelligent Network Device) network player Questyle Audio QP1 & QPR1 that allows for DSD streaming over Ethernet, and access Questyle Audio’s QP1 and QP1R up the ante for portable music servers with its patented to the Tidal music service—a gateway to the largest online Current Mode amplification technology incorporated into a built-in, high-end headphone library of uncompressed music. There’s connectivity for amplifier. The player offers two Micro SD Card storage expansion slots that support up nine digital inputs include USB (for hi-res audio), AES/EBU, to 128GB each for a potential 256GB over the stock internal memory (16GB for the QP1 SPDIF, Optical, aptX Bluetooth, Ethernet, and Wi-Fi. Like all and 32GB for the QP1R). Both players are presented in elegant machined-aluminum and Evolution products, the 780D’s chassis is made of aircraft- glass casings, available in champagne gold or space gray. With a simple and intuitive grade aluminum, with careful attention paid to minimizing GUI interface the QP1 and QP1R offer high-resolution music on the go. Playing time is vibrations. approximately 8-10 hours. Charge time is only about three hours with the 5V/2A adapter. Price: $15,000. simaudio.com Price: QP1, $599; QP1R, $899. questyleaudio.com 10 Buyer's Guide to Digital Source Components 2015 www.theabsolutesound.com PREVIOUS PAGE NEXT PAGE GO TO: Contents | On the Horizon | Features | DACs | Portable | CD Players | Music Servers | Integrated Amps with DACs | Top Picks UNDERSTANDING DIGITAL MUSIC SYSTEMS for products whose sole purpose is to play media from should ask themselves whether their websites present Table 2 (a more complete version of Table 2 is available on-line at theabsolutesound.com) the Internet. information as clearly as they could. For any bona fide The naming scheme in Table 1 has elegant symmetries. mistakes, I apologize. I do have an ax to grind, but I am 3beez Wax Box 2 Music Management System player (direct) They are also evident in the block diagram (Fig. 2). If not grinding it in this article. Antipodes DX Music Server bridge (direct) there is a DAC, then the system is a player; otherwise it DXe Music Server bridge (direct) DS Music Server player (direct) is a bridge. If samples come from the network, then we One More Term Auralic ARIES Wireless Streaming use the qualifier “network”; if they come from a directly- I wasn’t sure what to name this article because we don’t Bridge bridge (network) attached disk, then we use the qualifier “direct.” even have a good term for the product category. Many Auraliti L1000 Music File Player bridge (network) PK100 PCM and DSD File There is, alas, a small ambiguity in the naming scheme. people use “computer audio.” The products that we are Player bridge (network) A bridge has digital outputs; encapsulate it with a DAC discussing are basically computers, but I feel that the term Aurender S10 Music Player bridge (combo) and it becomes a player. Does the player still have digital “computer audio” triggers inappropriate associations with W20 Music Player bridge (combo) X100S Music Player bridge (combo) outputs? If you look through Table 2, you will see that desktop or laptop systems. Prior to the advent of computer- X100L Music Player bridge (combo) almost every player does still have digital outputs, but based systems purpose-built for audio, “computer audio” Ayon Audio S-3 Network Player player (network) there are exceptions. If this issue is important to you, actually did refer to computers with keyboard and monitor S-5 Network Player player (network) check the specifications. attached. Sometimes it still does: Some audiophiles use NW-T Network Transport bridge (network) Baetis Audio Reference Media Server bridge (combo) a desktop system or laptop in their audio system; some Reference NAS/Ripper server (network) The Terminology Data computer users—especially gamers—have computer XR2 Media Server bridge (combo) The full version of Table 2 (available on TAS’s website) systems with surround sound and a subwoofer. Does it Bryston BDP-2 Digital Player bridge (network) Cambridge Audio Stream Magic 6 v2 summarizes the salient features of every digital music make sense to extend the term now to products that look Upsampling Network Music system I could find. In the print version to the left, I've and feel like audio products? Computers are present in Player & Preamplifier player (network) listed 36 manufacturers (and 79 products) in alphabetical other audio products—portable media players, portable Minx Xi Digital Music System player (network) NP30 Network Music Player player (network) order, even though doing so suspiciously places my digital recorders, and even CD players—that are not called Cocktail Audio company first. The table demonstrates that the proposed computer audio. I find the term atavistic. (Novatron) X40 Music Server player (network) terminology is necessary and sufficient: Every product I thought “digital music system” was a better choice. X30 Music Server/Network category has at least a few products assigned and every “Music systems” are what we listen to at home, so I Streamer player (network) X12 Music Server/Network product has a suitable assignment. There are 28 products figured that we are talking about a digital one of those. Streamer player (network) that already use the correct term in the product name, so Well, no. That term is not quite right either. “Music X10 Music Server/Music the proposed terminology is well short of radical. system” is the whole of many components that we use Streamer player (network) Core Audio Technology Kryptos SE Music Server bridge (direct) Extensive research went into the preparation of Table to play music, most of which are analog. We want to refer Cyrus Lyric 05 All In One System player (network) 2.