Aruarlic Mini
afterburnt
Posts: 7,892
I must say that this is quite a piece of kit and I am most pleased with the sound quality. I have only listened to the internal SSD and Tidal and it executes both flawlessly! I have to compliment Dskip, aka the proprietor of Audio Thesis for the smashing job that he has done serving all of my audiophile needs since 2016, I give him the highest recommendation. Fo shizzle my nizzle! Big up baby!!
Comments
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It's the best I've heard digital sound in my setup. Combined with the extremely smooth Dynaudio tweeter I don't cringe at the thought of feeling too lazy to mess with records anymore. Zero harsh digital glare. I'd say it's much warmer than Oppo and connecting my laptop to my Yamaha Aventage via HDMI but I'm not certain it's warm compared to what's out there. I have a feeling it's more on the neutral side of things. Very good source and really at the top of the list for bang for buck. This is all with the switching wall wart PSU too, the linear PSU is supposed to take things up another notch yet.
Very highly recommended FWIW.
afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
I did snatch that Linear so I have no idea what it's like with the wart. This piece is so small as to make it portable. It's going in my backpack to my other place with the wart. I dont have much of a need to try to stream, I can only imagine that it will not stand up to the internal SSD. It did open another money black hole, I want a 2TB SSD now.
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afterburnt wrote: »I dont have much of a need to try to stream, I can only imagine that it will not stand up to the internal SSD.
I compared the same album on Tidal and 16/44 FLAC off a USB HDD and I couldn't hear a difference.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
The only thing i don't like bout streaming audio is that you spend too much time in the comfy chair...My New Year's resolution is 3840 × 2160
Family Room| Marantz AV7704| Usher Dancer Mini - 2 DMD Mains |Usher Dancer Mini-x DMD's Surrounds | Usher BE-616 DMD Center | SVS Ultra Rear Surrounds | Parasound Halo A21 | Parsound Halo A52+ | MIT Shotgun S3's | Dual SVS SB 4000 Ultras | Oppo UDP 203 | Directv Genie HD DVR | Samsung 75" Q8 QLED | PSAudio Stellar GCD | Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ | Lumin U1 Mini | HP Elite Slice PC | ROON'd for life |
ManCave: HT:Polk LSiM 706VR3 LSiM 703's LSiM 702's|| Marantz AV7002 AV PrePro Sunfire TGA-7401| Sony PS4 Pro| Sony PS4 Pro|SVS PB13 Ultra| Oppo UDP 203 | Music Hall MMF 5.3se TT w/ Soundsmith Carmen | Samsung 55" SUHD TV | Sony PS4
Patio | Polk Atrium 8's | Yamaha R-N303BL |
Office BlueSound Node| KEF LS50 | Peactree Nova 125SE |
Bedroom | Focal 905's | Chromecast Audio |
Garage | Polk Monitor 5B's
Closet Yamaha M80 | 2 Polk MP3K subs| Yaqin MC100B with Shuguang Treasures KT 88's & CV181Z's | Tesla E83CC's | Marantz 2252B | Marantz 2385 |Polk SDA SRS 2.3 | LSiM 705's | -
Forum brain wash made me try one of these. Turns out a shop in town sells them. They even cut me a nice deal with an audioquest carbon USB.
Haven't tried the onboard dac, but this is one very cool unit, that does leave room for upgrades later on down the road. Only using tidal at the moment. But may upgrade the internal hard drive later on down the road.2 channel:
Bryston 4B3, Bryston BDA3, Cary SLP05, Shanling CDT1000SE with parts conneXion level 2 mods, Nottingham analogue ace space 294, soundsmith Carmen MKii, Zu DL103 MKii, Ortofon MC 20 MKii, Dynavector XX2 MKii, Rogue Audio Ares, Core power technologies balanced power conditioner, Akiko Corelli power conditioner with Akiko Audio HQ power cable, Nordost heimdall 2, Frey 2, interconnects, speaker and power cables, Focal Electra 1028 BE 2, Auralic Aries Femto, Black diamond racing cones, ingress audio level 1 roller blocks, JL Audio E110 with Auralic subdude, Primacoustics room treatments.
Theater:
Focal Aria 926,905,CC900, SVS PB ultra x2. Pioneer Elite SC85, Oppo BDP93, Panamax M5400PM, Minix neox6, Nordost Blue heaven LS power cables. -
I have the Linear Power supply also and like Bruce i never really tried to test the difference between it and the Wall/Wart.
but I have to stay the mini has cut into my Vinyl playing a little bit
I'm growing old & lazy! 2 ch- Polk CRS+ * Vincent SA-31MK Preamp * Vincent Sp-331 Amp * Marantz SA8005 SACD * Project Xperience Classic TT * Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge
HT - Polk 703's * NAD T-758 * Adcom 5503 * Oppo 103 * Samsung 60" series 8 LCD -
but I have to stay the mini has cut into my Vinyl playing a little bit I'm growing old & lazy!
Same here. Except the old part
afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
Forum brain wash made me try one of these. Turns out a shop in town sells them. They even cut me a nice deal with an audioquest carbon USB.
Haven't tried the onboard dac, but this is one very cool unit, that does leave room for upgrades later on down the road. Only using tidal at the moment. But may upgrade the internal hard drive later on down the road.
What do you think of it aside from it's cool?
Is Tidal weird on it for you sometimes? Like picking a track and it starts playing after 10+ seconds or tells you the track doesn't exist and you have to hit dismiss?afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
Josh that has never happened yet to me. Tidal has not acted up and I'm starting to like the fact it has a lot of stuff I like or wanted to try.2 ch- Polk CRS+ * Vincent SA-31MK Preamp * Vincent Sp-331 Amp * Marantz SA8005 SACD * Project Xperience Classic TT * Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge
HT - Polk 703's * NAD T-758 * Adcom 5503 * Oppo 103 * Samsung 60" series 8 LCD -
Josh that has never happened yet to me. Tidal has not acted up and I'm starting to like the fact it has a lot of stuff I like or wanted to try.
Are you on 2.4GHz wifi, 5GHz wifi, or wired?afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
All of the above including plain ole' 4g with only 1 bar at the ranch2-channel: Modwright KWI-200 Integrated, Dynaudio C1-II Signatures
Desktop rig: LSi7, Polk 110sub, Dayens Ampino amp, W4S DAC/pre, Sonos, JRiver
Gear on standby: Melody 101 tube pre, Unison Research Simply Italy Integrated
Gone to new homes: (Matt Polk's)Threshold Stasis SA12e monoblocks, Pass XA30.5 amp, Usher MD2 speakers, Dynaudio C4 platinum speakers, Modwright LS100 (voltz), Simaudio 780D DAC
erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a -
I'm 5g I think and it is wireless when streaming to tidal, or internal SSD drive2 ch- Polk CRS+ * Vincent SA-31MK Preamp * Vincent Sp-331 Amp * Marantz SA8005 SACD * Project Xperience Classic TT * Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge
HT - Polk 703's * NAD T-758 * Adcom 5503 * Oppo 103 * Samsung 60" series 8 LCD -
I've had that happen before via the Tidal app or website.
I'm glad you guys are digging them. Luther's love for his and then Voltz's love soon after really got me going after AURALiC. If not for them, I don't know that I'd be dealing their gear.
AURALiC recently released the Altair, which I have a demo unit of, and its a keeper. I went down to Luther's house yesterday and it was the spotlighted unit for the guys who came over. It's about four times the cost of the Mini ($1900), but it is a big step up as well. It also has that beautiful screen they build into the higher end units. The Altair quickly became my favorite product from them.
that speaks volumes to me Skips, thanks...future upgrade gentlemen?
2 ch- Polk CRS+ * Vincent SA-31MK Preamp * Vincent Sp-331 Amp * Marantz SA8005 SACD * Project Xperience Classic TT * Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge
HT - Polk 703's * NAD T-758 * Adcom 5503 * Oppo 103 * Samsung 60" series 8 LCD -
Tidal is my main use and it is flawless on my wireless network. The unit is a very good buy. Make sure you read the drive recommendations to make sure it will work.
Great product. -
That's actually good news, it means the Mini just doesn't like my network. That can be fixed.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
Forum brain wash made me try one of these. Turns out a shop in town sells them. They even cut me a nice deal with an audioquest carbon USB.
Haven't tried the onboard dac, but this is one very cool unit, that does leave room for upgrades later on down the road. Only using tidal at the moment. But may upgrade the internal hard drive later on down the road.
What do you think of it aside from it's cool?
Is Tidal weird on it for you sometimes? Like picking a track and it starts playing after 10+ seconds or tells you the track doesn't exist and you have to hit dismiss?
I've only had it a few weeks now. My chromecast audio kept dropping the signal, and doing weird things so I moved on to the mini. It took me a bit of fiddling to get it set up, but was relatively easy for a computer dumb dumb like me. I haven't experienced any of the symptoms you are experiencing. My wireless apple airport express is about 20 feet away, so that may help.
Tidal works really nice on the lightning app, it's lightning fast on my iPad.
This may still need some break in, but I don't notice any difference in sound quality versus the chromecast audio. I think the Auralic is a little smoother. I noticed at times the chromecast had some edgy treble, and those times the bit rate leds on my benchmark would flash? Maybe a poor signal, I don't know. So far this Auralic is working flawless. I enjoy the smallness factor, and it tucks away nicely.
Not just cool, so far it's awesome.2 channel:
Bryston 4B3, Bryston BDA3, Cary SLP05, Shanling CDT1000SE with parts conneXion level 2 mods, Nottingham analogue ace space 294, soundsmith Carmen MKii, Zu DL103 MKii, Ortofon MC 20 MKii, Dynavector XX2 MKii, Rogue Audio Ares, Core power technologies balanced power conditioner, Akiko Corelli power conditioner with Akiko Audio HQ power cable, Nordost heimdall 2, Frey 2, interconnects, speaker and power cables, Focal Electra 1028 BE 2, Auralic Aries Femto, Black diamond racing cones, ingress audio level 1 roller blocks, JL Audio E110 with Auralic subdude, Primacoustics room treatments.
Theater:
Focal Aria 926,905,CC900, SVS PB ultra x2. Pioneer Elite SC85, Oppo BDP93, Panamax M5400PM, Minix neox6, Nordost Blue heaven LS power cables. -
Listening tonight and its definitely smoother than the chromecast. I'm guessing it's the audioquest carbon USB vs the energy toslink I was using with the chromecast.2 channel:
Bryston 4B3, Bryston BDA3, Cary SLP05, Shanling CDT1000SE with parts conneXion level 2 mods, Nottingham analogue ace space 294, soundsmith Carmen MKii, Zu DL103 MKii, Ortofon MC 20 MKii, Dynavector XX2 MKii, Rogue Audio Ares, Core power technologies balanced power conditioner, Akiko Corelli power conditioner with Akiko Audio HQ power cable, Nordost heimdall 2, Frey 2, interconnects, speaker and power cables, Focal Electra 1028 BE 2, Auralic Aries Femto, Black diamond racing cones, ingress audio level 1 roller blocks, JL Audio E110 with Auralic subdude, Primacoustics room treatments.
Theater:
Focal Aria 926,905,CC900, SVS PB ultra x2. Pioneer Elite SC85, Oppo BDP93, Panamax M5400PM, Minix neox6, Nordost Blue heaven LS power cables. -
Listening tonight and its definitely smoother than the chromecast. I'm guessing it's the audioquest carbon USB vs the energy toslink I was using with the chromecast.
Are you of the mindset that as long as you're using an external DAC the player wouldn't make a difference?afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
No I wouldn't say that. My experience with streamers is limited. Honestly I would have to A-B them and I've only had the Auralic for a few weeks. I like to give things full break in before I give an honest evaluation.
Sometimes you don't know how good something is until you switch back to what you had before. If that makes sense.2 channel:
Bryston 4B3, Bryston BDA3, Cary SLP05, Shanling CDT1000SE with parts conneXion level 2 mods, Nottingham analogue ace space 294, soundsmith Carmen MKii, Zu DL103 MKii, Ortofon MC 20 MKii, Dynavector XX2 MKii, Rogue Audio Ares, Core power technologies balanced power conditioner, Akiko Corelli power conditioner with Akiko Audio HQ power cable, Nordost heimdall 2, Frey 2, interconnects, speaker and power cables, Focal Electra 1028 BE 2, Auralic Aries Femto, Black diamond racing cones, ingress audio level 1 roller blocks, JL Audio E110 with Auralic subdude, Primacoustics room treatments.
Theater:
Focal Aria 926,905,CC900, SVS PB ultra x2. Pioneer Elite SC85, Oppo BDP93, Panamax M5400PM, Minix neox6, Nordost Blue heaven LS power cables. -
Sometimes you don't know how good something is until you switch back to what you had before. If that makes sense.
Total sense, I actually recommend doing that exact thing with any piece of gear or cables. Sometimes our ears simply just adjust to the new sound and after a few weeks the improvements don't seem as noticeable.
That is, until you swap back in the old stuff and you can't wait long enough to rip it out.
HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
I love mine and have been thinking about upgrading the power supply. I heard the Auralic one is a step up, but also read the SBooster one really takes it up another level.
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I am using a welborne power supply and it does a great job.
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Not a sales pitch, but I do have one extra PSU if someone is interested.
hey what is the voltage? Should I want one for my NAS for the rest of music that won't fit on my SDD? -
Not a sales pitch, but I do have one extra PSU if someone is interested.
Would the Auralic benefit from the psu running an external DAC? (Silly question)2 channel:
Bryston 4B3, Bryston BDA3, Cary SLP05, Shanling CDT1000SE with parts conneXion level 2 mods, Nottingham analogue ace space 294, soundsmith Carmen MKii, Zu DL103 MKii, Ortofon MC 20 MKii, Dynavector XX2 MKii, Rogue Audio Ares, Core power technologies balanced power conditioner, Akiko Corelli power conditioner with Akiko Audio HQ power cable, Nordost heimdall 2, Frey 2, interconnects, speaker and power cables, Focal Electra 1028 BE 2, Auralic Aries Femto, Black diamond racing cones, ingress audio level 1 roller blocks, JL Audio E110 with Auralic subdude, Primacoustics room treatments.
Theater:
Focal Aria 926,905,CC900, SVS PB ultra x2. Pioneer Elite SC85, Oppo BDP93, Panamax M5400PM, Minix neox6, Nordost Blue heaven LS power cables. -
Left some music playing for break in, and after some hours on the Aries mini I'm absolutely delighted! Finally had some time to sit down and give a good listen. My system is sounding fantastic!2 channel:
Bryston 4B3, Bryston BDA3, Cary SLP05, Shanling CDT1000SE with parts conneXion level 2 mods, Nottingham analogue ace space 294, soundsmith Carmen MKii, Zu DL103 MKii, Ortofon MC 20 MKii, Dynavector XX2 MKii, Rogue Audio Ares, Core power technologies balanced power conditioner, Akiko Corelli power conditioner with Akiko Audio HQ power cable, Nordost heimdall 2, Frey 2, interconnects, speaker and power cables, Focal Electra 1028 BE 2, Auralic Aries Femto, Black diamond racing cones, ingress audio level 1 roller blocks, JL Audio E110 with Auralic subdude, Primacoustics room treatments.
Theater:
Focal Aria 926,905,CC900, SVS PB ultra x2. Pioneer Elite SC85, Oppo BDP93, Panamax M5400PM, Minix neox6, Nordost Blue heaven LS power cables. -
Van Helsing uses one of these. Vampires hate Aruarlic.I disabled signatures.
