I'm very curious to get the Aries Mini units here and see just how much of the performance of the big brother Aries got retained... the app is the main selling point from user experience perspective... i'm hoping the aries mini is finally a true squeezebox replacement.... it's different tech than the SlimServer derived squeezeboxes, but supports every possible file format you'd need for the next number of years.... the price is very very appealing at $399 MSRP.... we are supposed to have stock in a couple more weeks... i've got quite a few folks itching for this one and wanting to get a demo.... they love the user experience of the AURALiC Lightning DS app and how they can control it and interact with their music libraries, as well as Tidal integration and other internet radio, etc.....
The AURALiC products do not have storage built in... nor do the Lumin network players, which is one of the counter-programming alternative products I settled on after trying out a bunch of servers and players... both have USB ports dedicated to you plugging in a USB memory stick or external hard drive... the units then index and serve up the files in their apps to be played and effectively turn the units from a DNLA rendering device/network streamer into DNLA servers and renderers all in one box... it works quite well... I've gotten a Lumin up and playing music out of the box in under 5 minutes with an external hard drive plugged into the back... most of the time was spent downloading and configuring the iPAD app to the customer's preferences... they've added some easy to follow wizards to the AURALiC stuff as well and it can be up and going very, very quickly as well... the only extra wrinkle on AURALiC is wireless setup versus wired ethernet... Lumin only does wired ethernet whereas you have the option of either on auralic aries devices....
So your $1200 budget gets you the base Aries and room for an aftermarket linear power supply if so inclined and paying MSRP (the Aries with AURALiC built linear power supply is $1599 MSRP)... or save cash and try the aries mini first and use the left over cash for linear power supply or some other fun upgrade in your system...
one other option that falls into familiar territory if you are used to SlimServer style interaction is the stuff from SOtM... they make some of the recommended parts that audio pc and audio server builders rely on (their USB cards are the defacto standard for most to get the best possible USB signal out of the computer)... their finished products seem quite good so far in the evaluation under way here... not as polished and refined as the Lumin stuff (I'm a huge fan of the Lumin players... they are pricey though as they are intended to be the complete source solution including DAC built in... think of them as a high end stand alone cd player whereas the auralic aries is the high end cd transport and you have to supply your own DAC.... although the Lumin players do have RCA SPDIF out up to 24/192 if you really want to experiment with other DACs...kind of a waste of the nice DAC and analog board built into the unit though if you know up front you are planning to use your own DAC... and it's a very pricey throwaway for the upper end models especially with their lundahl output transformers, etc. etc...... the auralic is more geared for folks that want to roll their own DACs with only the new aries mini coming with a dac built in (it's a fairly stock implementation of an ESS Sabre chip so not going to bowl you over with performance, but a nice bonus in the mini)...... the aries is just a dnla player/streamer....anyways, rambling again
the SOtM server/renderers run on linux or windows and use slimserver software for playback... so you could continue to use all your trusty options to control playback off phone, tablet, laptop, etc. that you are currently using with your Squeezebox unit..... it's not like the others require a lot of training to use... my 3 year old can and does run the Lumin app himself to switch to his favorite tunes... seriously, it definitely surprised me when he did it the first time... but it's a very intuitive experience... the wife really likes it over having to use audio PCs and remember where I put stuff on the network
hahaha....
I've been doing computer based audio for more than 20 years, first with pro sound cards both internal and external to get the signal converted into something a consumer DAC could interpret, then on to USB to SPDIF and or AES/EBU converters... then trying to make USB sound audiophile approved... I've built so many PCs for customers and tried to help guide and tutor folks on how to do it that it boggles my mind to think about it.... a couple nightmare tech support situations recently finally got me to evaluating the best options for network players that were more customer friendly to setup and maintain... things that were stable and offered something truly worthwhile for the price being asked, rather than slightly tweaking a desktop computer and trying to charge 3000% markup... something secured so that the customer couldn't go in and repeatedly delete system files and need me to visit their place to fix the problem 8 times in just three weeks time..... I tried to do the same thing a couple years ago and left unimpressed with the options. There's a ton of new stuff out there now that is very worthwhile.... the biggest key is the user interface and user experience... folks like AURALiC and Lumin have spent millions on their apps to get the overall system very stable, sounding great, and user friendly to use..... in many respects it was amazing how far ahead of the time the squeezebox stuff was... but there are now options that are affordable that do definitely offer significant improvements in features, file formats and resolutions supported, and sound quality that don't blow the budget too bad....