Aurender N100H Music Server/Streamer - Customer Review

Michael W had been hard at work upgrading his system over the past year. Through his ears and words, Michael shares his experience of making his system more and more resolving but leaving his streamer untouched. After deciding to make the plunge and upgrade to an Aurender N100H, his results were more than he realized. Michael found that "corporeal images truly do exist in reproduced music."

Needless to say, there are a plethora of choices in the music server world these days, and moving up the various chains will almost certainly produce better results in both sound quality and overall function. This is assuredly the case with the Aurender N100H streamer. Now, I am not comparing this to other Aurenders or even other high(er) end streamer brands per se, but to my transition from a more entry-level example and what the Aurender has brought to the party.

My system over the last year has become much more resolving with various upgrades and component changes, but my streamer has remained static. I was remiss in keeping up with the 1's and 0's coming off the internet as the rest of the system grew in quality and resolution. I was essentially happy with my ifi Zen Stream, especially when a friend came over with a Lumin streamer of some type—frankly, I didn't hear enough difference to spend gobs more money—and I didn't. As changes progressed, I finally realized that an upgrade on the internet side was in order, and with the help of TMR, I decided to try the Aurender as it got good reviews and most everyone was reasonably happy with the Conductor app.

Immediately, upon placing the N100 in my signal chain, I realized that corporeal images truly do exist in reproduced music. Spooky, tangible, 3-D reproduction. All of the instruments, vocalists, layering, and placement [had] come alive. I now realize that as good as the Zen Stream is (and in my opinion, it's really quite good, especially in the treble), it is somewhat threadbare in comparison to the N100H. The Aurender is big, robust, dynamic, yet felicitous and articulate. I don't hear quite as much top octave as the ifi but who cares when the midrange is so incredible. There is plenty of treble and top octave air in the Aurender, and the Zen could be overemphasizing it, but I like lots of good treble (not hot, sibilant, or unnaturally bright), and I believe that is the Zen's greatest virtue. The bass underneath the midrange is fabulous—no bloat or boom, just fast and true-to-life-sounding bass. This, of course, supports the luscious midrange.

Layering is exemplary, and the rear of any stage sounds filled and not like a black hole going nowhere. And blackness—notes emerge out of a totally dark background. I'm told this is due to the [unit's] high-quality linear power supply. If so, it most definitely works. Dynamics are BIG, BOLD, and exhilarating. Tonality is spot on. And instruments have both the aura of air around them and sound as if they're illuminated from inside. Totally and utterly cool. I'm smitten and would highly recommend this streamer to just about anyone looking for a music server in its price range and probably far, far above.

I have had a few nitpicks with the Conductor app. I find it wanting to shuffle songs on albums when not asked to do so. Operator error—perhaps. I'm also using an Android phone as a controller, so that may be part of the problem as well. I'm told that Conductor was designed for Apple iOS and works best with this system (an iPad is coming). No dropouts, and it's much better than the Zen Stream app. I do like that the Zen app attaches directly to Tidal, so one gets their Daily Discovery recommendations and "chosen for you" album choices. If this is available on Conductor, I haven't found either of these features available—at least on Android.