The playback
Contents
It is important to give the Auralic Aries G1.1 some time if you have just installed it. Cold and ‘newly’ installed, it needs a week or two to really shine and show it’s full potential. We had a new unit and after two weeks the sound cleared up. And that difference is not subtle.
Under the skin
Primarily, the Auralic Aries G1.1 feels very neutral. We hear no extra, or abundant warmth, freshness or overdetail. There is a fine balance struck between fluidity, richness and detail. That’s important, because if we start pouring sauce on the music at this point, it won’t come out right. Unless you like a lot of sauce of course…. to each his own!
If we make a comparison with a source familiar to us – the AlphaPC with Mutec MC3+ USB – we clearly hear more space in the imaging and “see” a slightly higher stereo image (how that is possible remains a mystery).
That extra space, may be the result of the very subtle extra mid-bass – a pleasant richness – which the Auralic imparts compared to the AlphaPC with Mutec MC3+. However, it varies per track whether this is noticeable/audible, but those who take their time will notice that the Auralic gives a little more warmth to the mid/bass. Not unpleasant, we must say.
The Auralic gets under your skin after a while, we notice. At first hearing it doesn’t do much of anything special, but after a few hours of playing – and switching back and forth – we find that the Auralic does play very pleasant – and especially very nice spatially. This Aries G1.1 simply doesn’t do anything wrong and is very well balanced, presenting all genres and music very nicely. It lets the recording speak for itself and does not interfere with coloring and own interpretations. A strength that by no means all streamers have. It gives your author the urge to listen more and more and it makes it impossible to cut tracks off…. sometimes a review takes extra time and lunch just has to wait. Doesn’t it?
it’s especially streamers that “try to impress” become tiresome after a while. This Auralic certainly isn’t! It lets the recording speak … as it should .
Subtle differences…?
If we put the AlphaPC, Auralic Aries G1.1 and a now somewhat older Metrum Acoustics Ambre side by side, there are of course audible differences. However, if we are very honest, they are subtle. A dac, for example, does more in the complete musical presentation. And if we then put our famous Mutec MC3+ between all sources and dac, the differences become even smaller…. After all: everything is reclocked, smoothing out differences. That Mutec is and remains a miracle box.
Anyway: isn’t such a streaming bridge a good investment? Should we just all go out and buy a standard Rasberry Pi and attach a Mutec to reclock the signal? Well… no. Of course not. With a streaming bridge, the selection criteria are just slightly different. What you should choose a bridge for – in our opinion – is not only the playback quality. It is also the ease of use, supported features (online services, ripping, connectivity), support (firmware updates) and of course the sound. Because no: a standard rasberry pi with a Mutec does not reach the level of the Auralic Aries G1.1. Although some users will claim it is not audible in a blind test…. your author dares to accept that challenge.
CD? Yes!
Speaking of features, what is worth mentioning is that the Auralic can also rip CDs from an external CD drive to the internal storage. It is also possible to play CDs this way. Surely that is a very nice bonus.(Check out how that works here).
