The Dark Side; Digital audio equipment recommendations and setup.

jamieanderson1968 said:
I have had mine 2 years in May and use it a lot. I never use the BluOS app other than for set up. When I had Tidal I would either use Roon or Tidal Connect.

If you have an old smartphone lying around you can use that as your remote for the Node and that will give you the nice picture.

Not sure if you are still a 3rd Man Vault member but you get a big discount on Tidal with each quarterly membership. But it is pretty easy to find a trial membership for Tidal as well.
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Thanks @jamieanderson1968 @Hollywood and @Joe Mac . You guys helped clarify pretty much all my questions. Now decisions…
 
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Mather said:
My armor is better quality than both of those, but closest to the one on the left.

That's not what you asked but you brought me here so I take no responsibility for my actions at this point.
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Yeah, the one on the right looks to be a little short for a stromtrooper.
 
Turbo said:
Yeah, the one on the right looks to be a little short for a stromtrooper.
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That's the Rubies armor. It's basically expensive Halloween costume quality. It's horribly sized mishapen and made of fibreglass which means it weighs an absolute TONNE. Chest and belly plates are way too short, helmet is way too small... no bueno.
 
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Joe Mac said:
If the node had DSD compatibility I think I would probably have already bought it. I’d also like a streaming solution that let me connect to my DAC via usb because it has a larger bandwidth. I do sometimes also think I'm overthinking it but equally my little pi box, with its hifi berry reclocker, connected to my DAC with a coax, is 24/192 already and sounds magnificent so maybe it’s not worth going for another device that won’t improve on that.
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This is essentially what I do with my Aries mini. It goes out of my Aries mini via USB into my DAC which does DSD
 
MikeH said:
This is essentially what I do with my Aries mini. It goes out of my Aries mini via USB into my DAC which does DSD
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Yes, your Aries mini would already be in my system if the pigs hadn’t discontinued it before I started getting itchy feet with the pi solution. As it is I keep looking at the Allo USBridge Signature, I’d probably have already bought it if they did it in a silver case, whilst wondering if one of the established companies is going to release something that fits the bill!
 
Joe Mac said:
Yes, your Aries mini would already be in my system if the pigs hadn’t discontinued it before I started getting itchy feet with the pi solution. As it is I keep looking at the Allo USBridge Signature, I’d probably have already bought it if they did it in a silver case, whilst wondering if one of the established companies is going to release something that fits the bill!
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Very much lucked out with mine on eBay. Came with the linear PSU too. They seemed pretty tricky to come by in the US. Thought it was strange they discontinued it and I think it would be extremely popular now. The UI isn’t great (haven’t seen the Node’s UI but assuming it’s better). But with roon it obviously doesn’t matter
 
MikeH said:
Very much lucked out with mine on eBay. Came with the linear PSU too. They seemed pretty tricky to come by in the US. Thought it was strange they discontinued it and I think it would be extremely popular now. The UI isn’t great (haven’t seen the Node’s UI but assuming it’s better). But with roon it obviously doesn’t matter
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The ideal will he when PS Audio release the matching streamer, that’s been in development since the crucifixion, to my DAC. Then I’ll see the price and realise I don’t use digital that much…
 
MikeH said:
Very much lucked out with mine on eBay. Came with the linear PSU too. They seemed pretty tricky to come by in the US. Thought it was strange they discontinued it and I think it would be extremely popular now. The UI isn’t great (haven’t seen the Node’s UI but assuming it’s better). But with roon it obviously doesn’t matter
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After seeing the direction that Auralic and other streamers have gone, I actually think the Aries Mini was designed as a loss leader to get them on the map. It was so highly successful, but had a very short run. Buy if that was the plan, I think it read effective.
 
displayname said:
After seeing the direction that Auralic and other streamers have gone, I actually think the Aries Mini was designed as a loss leader to get them on the map. It was so highly successful, but had a very short run. Buy if that was the plan, I think it read effective.
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Wouldn’t be surprised. It was really good value. I eventually switched to a NUC to store all my music but the Aries mini does have the internal HD. It’s a nice piece of gear and I like how small the footprint is. The case is kind of cheap feeling but…that’s my only real complaint with it.

If these streamers had better UIs I think more people would buy them…
 
MikeH said:
If these streamers had better UIs I think more people would buy them…
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i think the reason is the cost of software development. The only one who have really done it well as an integrated solution are sonos and they sell so much in both range and units. They can kind of afford it.

At the higher end the issue is the cost and time in developing software is going to be prohibitive given that they tend to be expensive units that cost a lot to make and they don’t shift as many units. I can kinda see why they just lean on roon or the protocols from the streaming providers.
 
Joe Mac said:
i think the reason is the cost of software development. The only one who have really done it well as an integrated solution are sonos and they sell so much in both range and units. They can kind of afford it.

At the higher end the issue is the cost and time in developing software is going to be prohibitive given that they tend to be expensive units that cost a lot to make and they don’t shift as many units. I can kinda see why they just lean on roon or the protocols from the streaming providers.
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And Bluesound being their closest competitor 😁
 
Hollywood said:
And Bluesound being their closest competitor 😁
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Yeah I don’t really consider sonos hifi to be honest, I wasn’t at all impressed by their hifi bit, although I do like the tv solution I have. They’re a very slick consumer grade solution so the os is really important and it shows, it’s miles ahead of the rest.
 
Joe Mac said:
Yeah I don’t really consider sonos hifi to be honest, I wasn’t at all impressed by their hifi bit, although I do like the tv solution I have. They’re a very slick consumer grade solution so the os is really important and it shows, it’s miles ahead of the rest.
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Sonos is definitely more geared towards Home Theatre 🎥 systems and surround sound speakers 🔈
 
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