Over the course of the last twenty-five-years, I've carved out a fairly satisfying niche in audio journalism. One that finds me most often focused on reasonably priced gear that frequently performs beyond its price point—while also playing nicely in more pedigreed audio systems. Many of the companies I deal with focus exclusively on that segment of the market, but most high-end manufacturers also offer models that are significantly less spendy. And benefit considerably from the technology employed in their more exotic flagship designs. One such company is digital source component innovator Aurender, whose music servers, streamers, and network players are designed in California, but manufactured in South Korea. In only a decade and a half, they've prominently positioned themselves in the world of high-end digital music playback. That said, most of my exposure to the company's products has usually involved lavish audio systems featuring digital playback streamed from Aurender's top-line devices.
I first became aware of Aurender while roaming through high-end audio shows, where exhibitors sought to take advantage of the emerging prevalence of digital streaming with services like Qobuz and Tidal. Early on, it became fairly obvious to me that the network connections at those shows often struggled to meet the needs of exhibitors. And I've witnessed countless streaming attempts that resulted in problematic connections—or no sound at all, endlessly frustrating show attendees and manufacturer representatives alike. That said, there were always rooms that featured digital servers that allowed exhibitors to curate their own music libraries, as well as providing access to streaming services. At least, as long as the show's network cooperated. The music servers that consistently provided fail-safe operation in those rooms were frequently from Aurender.
A glance at each room's detailed equipment list often revealed those Aurender music servers to be prohibitively expensive—at least in my usual frame of reference. Anything that retailed for five figures was definitely outside my comfort zone, but I nonetheless admired the Aurender equipment from afar. In addition to their outstanding sound quality, their beautiful, full-color displays (that also featured the album artwork!) were distinctively dazzling!
An unsettling change in my home system's status quo.
I run dual audio systems at my home near Charleston, South Carolina; one that features digital source equipment, while another focuses on all-analog playback—you can see their full complements of equipment by clicking on my name in the header. Anyway, I've had a long-term relationship with Euphony Audio; they're located in the EU, in Croatia, and manufacture a range of digital source equipment that features their own superb Stylus operating system. Euphony's Summus and Endpoint devices have handled my library management, music playback, and streaming for many years now, and their recently upgraded OS even converts all PCM to DSD for playback. It's a truly elegant digital source solution, and exciting news from them of upcoming product introductions always boded well for the digital future.
That is, until this past March, when they reached out to me via WhatsApp to detail dramatic changes to Euphony's focus. Later this year, they'll abandon support for their music server, choosing to concentrate on the development of their new statement hardware system. The single-box solution will include a DAC of their own design, an upgraded music player with enhanced DSD conversion capabilities, and state-of-the-art streaming. The only thing necessary to complete the system would be a music server; they didn't offer any recommendations, but were looking at viable options and would get back to me. The bottom line: within a year, my current system—which has offered countless musical thrills—will essentially become non-functional. For the first time in nearly five years, sheer panic and an impending sense of doom clouded my digital music world!
Prior to the arrival of the Euphony system, my digital playback was cobbled together from unintuitive, open-source software and buggy apps that barely worked. And I'd had to seriously step-up my digital game, learning how to force those uncooperative software programs to fulfill my streaming music dreams. DLNA, UPnP—been there, done that, and those experiences were often frustratingly less than fulfilling. Euphony solved all that with a user friendly and cutting edge server/player/streaming system; following that worst WhatsApp call of my entire digital lifetime, I had no clue what was next on the horizon.
Aurender to the rescue!
I started furiously surfing the 'net in search of music server/player solutions that were practical, but more importantly, affordable. And world-class performance would also be nice! Such devices seemed non-existent, and following years of effortless, flawless music playback, the thought of having to build my own server seemed more daunting than ever. And all the open source software that had previously been freeware was now pay-for-play—my brain ached trying to remember how so much of it even worked. What to do?
About that time, an email from high-end retailer Upscale Audio arrived in my inbox with a selection of scratch-n-dent equipment, with one item in particular that totally got my attention—an Aurender N150 Digital music server/streamer. And it was marked down to only $1500—could that possibly be a misprint? I'd been seeing Aurender equipment at shows for several years, and the units in those systems always retailed for between $10,000-$20,000, so $1500 didn't seem even remotely possible. And the thought of having to learn a new server system definitely intimidated me. Despite my extensive experience with digital source systems over a ten-year period, I wasn't completely ready for what was sure to be a steep learning curve. And I knew nothing about how Aurender units worked, only that they played impressively at shows—and looked fabulous while doing it!
After thoroughly exploring Aurender's website, I filled out the contact form and fired off an email. Which is generally about a 50/50 proposition in high-end audio; either the company is incredibly enthusiastic regarding your request, or they seemingly can't be bothered. Shockingly, a day later, Kelly Scheidt, Aurender's North American Director of Sales, reached out to me to assess my needs; I'd mentioned my interest in an Aurender N150, but he had a different unit in mind. Their new A1000, which was priced identically to the N150, but in comparison offered an enhanced array of features. Including a built-in AKM DAC, both digital and analog outputs, fully-functional volume control, as well as upgraded wireless streaming capabilities. And Aurender had their own app, the Conductor, that allowed for easy server management and file playback from both Android and iDevices. All Kelly needed to know was what color I preferred, and in less than two weeks, the Aurender A1000 had arrived.
The A1000 takes its place in the digital source system.
The Aurender A1000 isn't a typical full rack-sized component, but I was still surprised by the 18.5 lb heft of its substantial case. Its front panel features a 6.9 inch full color display that not only shows the album art, but also clearly identifies the sample and bit-rate of the files playing. The A1000 is controlled by a quad-core 2 GHz ARM Cortex-A55 CPU that runs a highly customized version of Linux, and also features the exceptional AKM 4490REQ dual-mono DAC chip. Both the CPU and DAC are powered by separate linear power supplies, and a 2.5 inch slot is provided for insertion of an HDD or SSD for storage of your personal music library. The size of an HDD may be limited (depending on the dimensions of the drive), but an 8TB SSD can easily be accommodated. The A1000 features single-ended RCA analog outputs, as well as coax, optical, and USB digital audio inputs. There are coax and USB digital audio outputs, as well as a USB 3.0 port for connection of an outboard HDD or SSD. And there's the essential LAN input for connection to your network.
The A1000 can be utilized as a preamp; it offers fixed and variable volume output, which allows direct connection to an amplifier if so desired. Kelly reached out to me concerning the A1000's lack of balanced outputs; he'd read one of my recent reviews, and noted that my digital source system was fully balanced. I let him know that wasn't a problem, that I'd most likely continue to use my current S.M.S.L. VMV D2R DAC in tandem with the A1000. I'd use the S.M.S.L.'s balanced outputs, with the A1000 configured to feed it via its USB digital output. The A1000 also features an HDMI ARC input for connection to a video source, with its volume control functionality available in those situations as well. A full-function Bluetooth remote control is also included; the remote required a minimum of setup prior to use, but proved perfectly functional afterwards.
Connectability for multiple online streaming services is fairly seamless, and includes Qobuz, Tidal, Spotify, and Airplay, as well as the "Connect" Versions of those as well—it only took seconds to add my existing Qobuz account to playback. Google Cast Audio capability allows you to cast from additional services, including YouTube and Deezer among others. The A1000's analog outputs will support PCM playback up to 32-bit/768kHz, as well as DSD512; those same sample and bit-rates are also available through the USB audio output.
Initial setup and a few hiccups.
I've been playing with computer-based digital audio for well over a decade now, and I'm fairly confident in my abilities to will any particular device into functionality. That said, operating systems running the Linux-based OS can be a tad tricky, but it's perfect for audio applications. The no-frills, barebones Linux OS minimizes background processes that interfere with music playback, and also runs fanless, eliminating a potentially vexing source of system noise. After looking through the quick-start information, I connected the A1000 to my home network, set the volume control to fixed output, and made the connection to my S.M.S.L. DAC. The S.M.S.L. VMV D2R utilizes a Japanese-made Rohm BD34301EKV chipset; the Rohm chips are some of the most impressively musical on the market, and this DAC came highly recommended to me by the folks at Euphony Audio.
I couldn't quickly locate a spare solid state drive for insertion into the A1000's internal slot, so I initially connected my existing music library (on a pair of 2TB Samsung EVO SSD's) to the USB 3.0 port. I then downloaded the Aurender Conductor app to both my smart phone and an Android tablet I used with the Euphony setup. A tablet-specific Conductor version is available, and provides a better interface for the size format, but my tablet wasn't running the correct version of the Android OS. Regardless, the standard Conductor app worked surprisingly well on the tablet, and once I'd figured out its functionality, I had no complaints—at least until I attempted to play music.
For starters, Conductor showed the contents of the SSDs attached to the A1000, but the album artwork wouldn't display, either on the tablet or the unit's front panel during playback. As the selected file played, the display featured a generic icon along with incorrect bit and sample rate information. After re-reading all the help info and trying a number of different approaches, nothing seemed to work, so I caved and sent in a service request to Aurender. While waiting for a response, I had a bit of an epiphany, and started digging through a storage box of excess computer gear. Surprisingly, I located a Samsung EVO 960 500GB SSD and immediately inserted it into the A1000's internal storage slot. Once properly formatted, I began populating it with frequently played albums using the Conductor app on my smart phone as I continued working on my laptop.
Adding files to the library was a fairly effortless process, and I quickly noticed that the album artwork had also appeared. I immediately went to check out the status of the A1000's display, which now showed the complete playback information, including album art and the correct bit and sample rate. My hunch turned out to be correct; the A1000 would only display information from files loaded to its internal drive; Aurender support confirmed that the following day.
Once I'd broken through the barrier to achieving normal operation, I really started putting the A1000 through its paces. And I also ordered a 2TB Samsung QVO SSD to replace the smaller one I'd been using—even by only adding files that were either in constant rotation or frequently used for evaluation, the 500 GB SSD started filling up fairly quickly. Once you start adding in countless DSD64, 128, 256, and especially DSD512 files, that's a ton of gigabytes! And that's not even counting the array of 32-bit/384.1 DXD PCM files I also regularly use in reviews. To facilitate the transfer process, I used network discovery on my Windows laptop to load the A1000's new internal drive on my desktop, then started transferring the files from the 500 GB SSD. Then continued adding either new files or essential existing library files over a period of a couple of months.
I'm really smitten with the A1000's full color display, and I love the large album art and clearly readable information. With the S.M.S.L. DAC confirming the bit and sample rates, I have no doubt that my multitude of high resolution digital files are being correctly decoded. And believe it or not, following the initial wow factor of the display, I took the next step and enabled Aurender's critical listening mode, where the display isn't even active for most of my listening. I've always been one who used the "direct" setting or otherwise defeated the display on BD, CD, and SACD players anyway, and this isn't really any different. Of course, I reactivate the display for the wow factor whenever anyone comes over, but otherwise, I'm perfectly copacetic with the current setup.
Aurender's Conductor app is also pretty fabulous; prior to the A1000's arrival, I read a number of online comments that lambasted the app, but I find it to be functionally perfect. I'd love to be able to try the tablet app; that would ameliorate my main problem, which is the standard app's less than perfect appearance in the album art mode. The tablet app requires Android 13, and several attempts to flash my Android 12 tablet to 13 failed, leaving me stuck as is for the moment. Regardless, I still find the standard Conductor app's functionality intuitive and fairly elegant, and using it to transition between my library, Qobuz, and settings functions is relatively seamless.
The sound of music through the Aurender A1000.
After about 24 hours of use, the A1000 had gotten sufficiently burned-in and acclimated to the digital source system. It ended up getting used with multiple combinations of amplifiers and loudspeakers that either just lurk about the premises or were in for review. My usual setup had the A1000 streaming via USB into the S.M.S.L. VMV D2R DAC, with the DAC's balanced outputs connected to my PS Audio Stellar preamplifier. Which was then connected via its balanced outputs to my Naiu Labs Ella stereo power amplifier. All of which played through a pair of new production KLH Model Five loudspeakers (90 dB/watt efficiency), running in tandem with a pair of Caldera 10 subwoofers. The Naiu Ella is a brute of a solid-state amp (250-watts/8 ohms, 500-watts/4 ohms, 1kw/2 ohms) that's a Class AB design with a power supply that's more closely akin to what you typically see in a Class D design. Its transfer function and voicing gives it a sonic signature similar to that of a single-ended triode amp, so it's very revealing of the source that's providing playback.
Also employed at various stages of the evaluation was an Advance Paris Classic A12 hybrid integrated amplifier (190-watts/8 ohms, 28-watts/4 ohms), which is a Class A/AB solid-state design with a tube preamp stage. It played interchangeably into the KLH Model Fives and a new pair of ONO Tone Labs A3 standmount loudspeakers (86 dB/watt). And a recent newcomer, the Reisong Boyuurange A50 Mk III SET 300B tube integrated amplifier (7.5-watts/4 ohms), also saw serious action—it played into a very efficient pair of Klipsch Reference RB3 standmount monitors (94 dB/watt). Regardless of the amp or loudspeakers, the sound from the Aurender A1000 simply sparkled, whether in combination with the S.M.S.L. DAC, or using its internal AKM DAC through its single-ended analog outputs.
I mentioned earlier that with Euphony's latest OS, I'd been converting all my digital playback to DSD, and I definitely prefer DSD to PCM: I feel the sound is much closer to that of good analog. And I've also been experimenting with delta-sigma DACs that use ESS Sabre, AKM, and Rohm chipsets for some time now, with particular interest in how they process DSD signals. The guys at Euphony Audio have a $30000 Master Fidelity NADAC D DAC in their reference system, and have been making serious comparisons between it and more affordable DACs for well over a year. The S.M.S.L. VMV D2R with its Rohm chipset was the clear winner, coming very close in their eyes (and ears!) to nearly replicating the sound of the crazy-expensive NADAC D DAC, and the S.M.S.L. has been my reference for nine months now.
In their standard configuration, ESS, AKM, and Rohm chipsets send DSD signals through delta-sigma processing; their default configuration combines DSD with PCM, tainting the analog output. But with the AKM and Rohm chipsets, defeating the DAC's volume control routes the DSD signal directly to the analog outputs, bypassing delta-sigma processing. There's a definite difference in sound quality, with properly configured AKM and Rohm chips clearly superior to the ESS chips during DSD playback. By rule, I always configure playback to achieve a direct DSD output.
Most of my recent listening has been through the Reisong Boyuurange A50 SET tube amp, and whether through the A1000's internal AKM DAC or the S.M.S.L., the sound quality has been seriously compelling. It's truly shocking how a paltry 7.5-watts can create such astonishing and magnificent music through those 300B tubes! To evaluate the sound of the A1000's AKM DAC through the SET amp, its single-ended outputs were connected to those of the A50. And the S.M.S.L. DAC was connected to the USB audio output of the A1000, also using a single-ended connection to the A50. Both DACs replayed the native DSD files of Harry Connick Jr's We Are In Love—which sounds incredible, by the way—with the kind of warmth and midrange clarity one usually only associates with LP playback. And the A50 playing through the small Klipsch standmounts presented a level of realism and scale of sound that seemed impossible. The A1000 passed the SET segment of the evaluation with flying colors!
But shoving DSD aside, both DACs also offered replay of my PCM rips with stunning accuracy and believability. Listening to John Klemmer's classic Touch, the sparkle of the album's ever-present percussion was so analog-like, I ran next door to pop on the LP for a quick comparison. All the spatial cues of the LP were perfectly preserved by the PCM files—the two very different playback methods were eerily similar! Despite having gotten fairly spoiled by the Euphony system's conversion of everything to DSD, I never at any point felt the sound presented by the A1000 was substandard or lacking in any way. And whether the A1000 was supplying my library to the S.M.S.L. via USB or sending the AKM decoded files to the SET amp's single-ended inputs, there was no appreciable difference in the overall sound quality. Both sounded unequivocally superb, and this was definitely demonstration quality playback!
In my usual system setup (as described above), the sound quality was expectedly superb; I played Patricia Barber's DSD512 download of Modern Cool from Native DSD Music, which is one of my go-to albums for system evaluations. The sound of the two DACs was so very close, I doubt that anyone in a blind listening test could properly distinguish between them. The KLH Model Fives image like no other traditional speaker I've ever heard, and the Naiu Ella controls them precisely; in this setup with the A1000, Patricia Barber and her group are physically live and in your room. Barber's soulfully dynamic take on jazz standards and her own eclectic originals are presented with intense realism, and the DSD512 album is perhaps the best-sounding digital file in my entire collection! Again, the A1000's playback as both server or turnkey solution thrilled me to no end.
The Advance Paris A12 Classic integrated amp has a staggering array of features, including a built-in Burr-Brown DAC. In this configuration, the Aurender A1000 acted only as the server, feeding the A12 Classic directly through its USB audio input. The A12 Classic's DAC is limited to 24/192 PCM and DSD128, and that limited the file sizes I could use for this segment of the evaluation. My Yamaha universal player uses the same DAC chip, and despite its limited capabilities, I've never found its sound to be lacking. Likewise, the sound quality of the A12 Classic's internal DAC was never less than superb. However, connecting the A1000's analog outputs to the A12 Classic or playing through the S.M.S.L. DAC stepped up the game significantly, allowing me to play files of whatever provenance I preferred. And the sound quality was superlative regardless of which loudspeaker happened to be connected.
Late Breaking News: the Conductor Tablet App is a major upgrade!
As I previously mentioned, the only real problem I had with Aurender's Conductor app was with its relatively spartan appearance, especially in the Album mode. And my then inability to install the improved tablet mode of Conductor. Well, a new Android 15 tablet just arrived, and with the installation of the tablet version of the Conductor app, it completely solves any problems I had with the standard app! And greatly enhances the already good functionality of Conductor. As you can see from the screenshots, the layout of the tablet version is dramatically improved, with a much nicer GUI and page layout. I was even able to figure out how everything worked in only a few minutes—the functionality is still the same, only the buttons are in slightly different places.
I really loooooove the tablet version of Conductor, and it even solved another minor issue—the app information now automatically rotates from portrait to landscape, which allows you to see more rows of album art icons and album listings. That's really sweet, and gives the GUI the kind of world-class look you'd expect from an Aurender source component!
Final Thoughts
While formatting this review, I frequently looked at email exchanges between Kelly Scheidt and myself, and inadvertently stumbled onto a much older email from Aurender in 2023, gauging my interest in their products. My first response was a Homer Simpson "D'Oh!" moment, followed by "What could I possibly have been thinking?" I quickly realized that what I was probably thinking was "Aurender? Who can possibly afford them?" To Kelly Scheidt and everyone at Aurender: my experiences with the A1000 has helped me fully embrace the error of my ways, and my critical thinking with regard to Aurender and their product offerings has done a complete 180!
The A1000 is an astonishingly good music server/streamer/DAC, and a complete turnkey solution—especially for $3500. Here's the best part: it works, plain and simple. You turn it off, you turn it on, its start-up is effortless, its operation is always error- and glitch-free, and it performs perfectly. Every. Single. Time. I could write a Stephen King-length novel (and probably with much of the horrific slant of his work) detailing the overwhelming sense of dread connected to attempting to build your own music server. Especially one that actually works: the horrors are limitless, and every time you experience data lags, stuttering, and other assorted hiccups, it's tantamount to the shower scene from Psycho, replete with shrieking violins. The A1000 quietly goes about its job, rarely calls attention to itself, and is accompanied by an intuitively great control app with a shockingly nice GUI.
All I was looking for was a music server to supply a signal to my DAC, and potentially to the new single-box solution from Euphony, whenever it arrives. The A1000 rolls additional capabilities into the equation, like a really superior AKM DAC, multiple digital inputs and outputs, preamplifier capabilities with volume control, enhanced BT and streaming capabilities, and HDMI ARC for connection to a high-end AV setup. The possibilities are limitless, and while my review only essentially covered its use as a high-end music server/streamer/DAC, that really only touches part of what you get for only $3500. Color me very impressed! Thanks again to Kelly Scheidt and everyone at Aurender for their assistance in making this evaluation happen. The A1000 is definitely a keeper, and comes very highly recommended!
A1000 Network Server/Streamer/DAC
Retail: $3500
Aurender
All images courtesy of Aurender and the author.
