Aurender users can run Aurender Condutor app on M1 Macs

[Puma Cat]

One of the things I like about Roon was you can run it as an app from your Macbook/Macbook Pro. Personally, I do not like using smartphones and even tablets to control my streaming content. Some folks may disagree and that's fine...I taught Voice of the Customer for product development for 10 years and key principle is that all customers' needs are equally valid.

Personally, I REALLY prefer using my Macbook Pro. And if I were to put forth a hypothesis, I'm not alone in that preference.

Anyhoo, moving to the main point...

Well, it turns out if you have an Macbook Pro, Mac Mini, or iMac with M1 silicon...you can run the Aurender Conductor app from your M1 Mac!...

Just download the iPad app, for example, from the iOS app store, install it, and...it runs!

Here's a screenshot directly from my 2021 Macbook Pro M1 Pro running the Aurender Conductor app.



Another feature I personally just discovered the other day is...if you click on the album art in the upper left corner of the app (which manages the playback Queue), you get a full size pic of the album with controls that let you start, stop and reset playback as well as the track name, and other pertinent info.


And...if you click on the small icon with three lines at bottom right, it brings up the entire album tracks, overlaid on the album art.



Now...that is cool...

Some Aurender owners already likely already know about this feature, but I just found out about it recently, and as I'm very much an "album-oriented" music-listening kinda guy, this makes the experience, for me, more Roon-like in terms of interface and overall experience.

Pretty cool...

[JoeN]

We really are enjoying our Aurender N30SA and ACS10. The app is awesome. IMO, control of your streaming (ripped CDs and Qobuz, etc) has never been easier. You can also use TestFlight and see what new things Aurender is working on.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by JoeN

We really are enjoying our Aurender N30SA and ACS10. The app is awesome. IMO, control of your streaming (ripped CDs and Qobuz, etc) has never been easier. You can also use TestFlight and see what new things Aurender is working on.

I agree, Joe. I am super, super impressed. As I'm much more of the type of guy who listens to an entire album thank flipping around from one track to the next on different albums, I find that if I select an album, either on that is on the internal hard drive, or on Qobuz and simply select "Replace Queue" it populates the Queue and immediately starts playing.

Plus, if you're listening in Critical Listening Mode, the soundstaging, imaging and spatial cues are notably improved and pretty spectacular. Really a fabulous line of products.

I'm finishing up my review of the N20 today for publication in TAS, and then I'll have to send this unit back...sniff.

I may buy the new N200, though....

[JoeN]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

I agree, Joe. I am super, super impressed. As I'm much more of the type of guy who listens to an entire album thank flipping around from one track to the next on different albums, I find that if I select an album, either on that is on the internal hard drive, or on Qobuz and simply select "Replace Queue" it populates the Queue and immediately starts playing.

Plus, if you're listening in Critical Listening Mode, the soundstaging, imaging and spatial cues are notably improved and pretty spectacular. Really a fabulous line of products.

I'm finishing up my review of the N20 today for publication in TAS, and then I'll have to send this unit back...sniff.

I may buy the new N200, though....

Let us know when your review goes live, I and I’m sure many others, would love to read it. IMO you can’t go wrong with an Aurender. I had the N100H prior to the N30. While not on the same level, it was still good.

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by JoeN

Let us know when your review goes live, I and I’m sure many others, would love to read it. IMO you can’t go wrong with an Aurender. I had the N100H prior to the N30. While not on the same level, it was still good.

Yeah, it'll be some months from now, Joe. I have 99% of the review written, only one final paragraph to add, and it'll be complete. I wanted to have it done by New Year's Day, but my Editor said submitting any time this coming week will be fine...so I got out of the house yesterday and went for a sporting romp through the twisty bits of the Napa Valley and Wooden Valley Rd. yesterday afternoon in my Acura TL Type-S.

[Blackfield]

How good is the Aurender app in comparison to Roon?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Blackfield

How good is the Aurender app in comparison to Roon?

Depends. What specific functional or qualty attributes are you referring to, specifically?

BTW, let's not forget that using one foregoes the use of the other. You can still use Roon with a good network bridge if you like, and then just select a different input on your DAC when you want to listen to the Aurender. That's what I'll do if I end up getting an Aurender N200. All I have to do with my Lampizataor is press a button on the front panel to switch from Roon using a network bridge to using the Aurender with a S/PDIF input, for example. Easy-peasy.

[Blackfield]

Originally Posted by Puma Cat

Depends. What specific functional or qualty attributes are you referring to, specifically?

BTW, let's not forget that using one foregoes the use of the other. You can still use Roon with a good network bridge if you like, and then just select a different input on your DAC when you want to listen to the Aurender. That's what I'll do if I end up getting an Aurender N200. All I have to do with my Lampizataor is press a button on the front panel to switch from Roon using a network bridge to using the Aurender with a S/PDIF input, for example. Easy-peasy.

Hi Stephen,

First of all, thank you for your articles in TAS and your posts here at AA on digital and streaming subjects.
I recently followed your recommendation to add Roon core running on my PC -> ethernet->fiber->opticalRendu->usb as source. I just recently picked up a used Shunyata Research Alpha USB cable from this forum, again, due to your recommendation.


I decided to take Roon route recently as I got the impression that Roon has much higher adoption vs. Aurender.
I am concerned if Aurender has sustain ability to do high quality application development - however this is just a conjecture on my part, not my own experience since I never own Aurender. Still, Aurender is attractive since it does not charge monthly subscription.

I am curious if you can contrast Roon vs. Aurender in these areas:
1. Application side - how seamless the application is in browsing local music vs. streaming service e.g. Qobuz, providing recommendations, saving playlist, bookmarking, etc.
2. Sound quality - music server running Roon core + opticalRendu (as Roon endpoint) vs. Aurender N100 or N200 (closer to opticalRendu path as far as pricing vs. N20).
3. How frequent does Aurender update its app? Any experience with Android version as I don't own any Apple device?
4. Many people may not have the luxury to run both, if you have to pick one, , which route would you pick?

[Puma Cat]

Originally Posted by Blackfield

Hi Stephen,
I decided to take Roon route recently as I got the impression that Roon has much higher adoption vs. Aurender.

The two product offerings are very different products addressing different customer segments and respective requirements. One is a sofware solution and is focused on accessing and streaming content and then being able to deliver that content to many different zones and endpoints. The other is an all-out engineering assault on serving up the highest-possible audio quality using very sophisticated integrated hardware engineering and supporting control & content playback software. They're different solutions to meet different sets of customer requirements. And, I'm not sure what "adoption" per se, has to do with it, given they are very different product offerings that constitute different value propositions and address different customer requirements.

Originally Posted by Blackfield

I am concerned if Aurender has sustain ability to do high quality application development - however this is just a conjecture on my part, not my own experience since I never own Aurender. Still, Aurender is attractive since it does not charge monthly subscription.

I would not under-estimate Aurender's ability to execute anything with respect to audio at a very high level. In fact, Linn could take some chapters from Aurender's book on how to execute effectively and efficiently at a very high level. The Aurender guys have got it...goin' on.

I am curious if you can contrast Roon vs. Aurender in these areas:
1. Application side - how seamless the application is in browsing local music vs. streaming service e.g. Qobuz, providing recommendations, saving playlist, bookmarking, etc.
2. Sound quality - music server running Roon core + opticalRendu (as Roon endpoint) vs. Aurender N100 or N200 (closer to opticalRendu path as far as pricing vs. N20).
3. How frequent does Aurender update its app? Any experience with Android version as I don't own any Apple device?
4. Many people may not have the luxury to run both, if you have to pick one, , which route would you pick?

1. I don't know exactly what you mean by seamless, but once you are familiar with the interface and all of the functionality (of which I just discovered more of recently, thanks to John-Paul's excellent guidance) of the Aurender Conductor app, while its not exactly like Roon, the more features and functions of the Aurender app I discover, the more it's Roon-lke in it's ease-of-use in selecting content, making custom playlists, or as I do 95% of the time, play an entire recording.

I find this feature to an easy and compelling way to use the Aurender Conductor app to play an album



And selecting content from files on an internal hard drive or from a streaming service e.g. Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify, etc, is really easy, too. And...you can easily make custom playlists that are a mix of files from files resident on a drive or streamed via Qobuz, for example. The one thing that the Conductor app is missing that Roon has is Radio mode. OTOH, you can always stream music from the online "radio stations" with the Conductor app to discover new content.

2. I can't speak to the N100 or N200 as I have not heard them. The audio quality from the N20 is superb, amongst the very best I have ever heard. Better than my streaming setup with my SOtM SMS-200UltraNeo. And, for it's price...it should be. But, boy, it sure as hell delivers the "audio goods".

3. The Aurender updates it own internal software pretty frequently, seems like the N20s software updates itself every 6-8 weeks. As for the Conductor software, it hasn't changed much in the 4-5 months I've had the N20.

4. Hmmm...if I had to pick one, and if I could afford it...I'd get the Aurender. I used to think differently when I first got the Aurender in for review, but as I've spent more time with it, and discovered more features and functions of the N20 (e.g. the album art with access to tracks overlaid over the album art), and gotten more familiar with the Conductor software and how to use it in a way that works most effectively for me, and the fact I can add all of my ripped content to an internal hard drive and listen to content from that SSD, the audio quality from the Aurender is too superior to ignore.

When I discuss the Aurender with friends who use and like Roon they keep thinking that it's a one "road" or the other "road" decision and...it's not. Not by any stretch. I really think it's possible to both easily and affordably.

Here's a way...
1) Get an N100 or N200 or N20 (whichever is in your budget) and an SSD. Put all your ripped music content on the SSD. Sign up for your favorite streaming service in the Condutor app (which is a piece of cake, BTW).
2) If you want to also use Roon, get subscription to Roon, a Sonore microRendu for $399 (or a Raspberry Pi4 or an IFi Zen streamer for $399) and put together a Roon-ready streamer and NUC that functions as a music server if you want to stream from an HD while in Roon. You can use an exisiting computer or build an NUC for $600 or so. Or forego the NUC entirely, and just use the Radio mode in Roon to discover new music content.
3) Connect from the Aurender to your DAC via S/PDIF, as an example.
4) Connect to your microRendu to your DAC via USB.

When you want to listen to digital music content at the highest level of audio quality, use the Aurender. If you want to enjoy a very good-sounding solution while exploring new content in Roon Radio mode or need to stream to different nodes or zones, use the microRendu, IFI Zen, etc.

You can switch between them easily. In my case, it would simply involve pushing a button on the front panel of the Lampizator. So, why not have both? You can, easily.

Job done.

What's not to like?