Dilettanteque

I'll file that for next upgradeitis and add Naim to the list - thanks for suggestion. I am enjoying the current purchase at the moment. And I will defer the domestic tension of looking for replacement just at the moment, which will be exacerbated by contemplating replacements within 90 days of the Antipodes acquisition. And nothing wirth when one is happy with new purchase than heading out looking for a new itch that can only be scratched but one way

There is an irony in that - i excluded from consideration due to price point (though i was very tempted by a couple of preloved items that came up in SNA classifieds). My end choices were ironically starting to be well in the territory where they should have been seriously added to the mix. But my initial cull created a blind spot. The ND5 XS was well within pricepoints I crept up to. Though the one benefit of the EX is that it partly insulates the owner from the vagaries of choices by component makers re the control software (e.g. Musical Fidelity released new iOS apps that were not backwardly compatible with 6-7 yo components, for which apps were no longer available and did not work with new iOS versions). Antipodes gives you MPD, Squeezebox and Roon options, so if my chosen one (roon) goes belly up I have somewhere else to go. I tend to keep components, and found it VERY frustrating that software made the component a boat anchor. Unless somebody wants to use clunkier Pro Ject Box app.

Led by your suggestion I am loving this! A super cool accompaniment over last couple of weeks.

Oh my 😮

I have a hunch that if I stood closer I would be guilty of coveting your shelves and all they contain.😳

Certainly more "produced"

I will let them know, on the slim chance this will encourage them in the objective good they will be doing. 😊

I have indeed tried this many a time, but teh ripped stuff is not the issue it seems....and harder to do when buying downloaded files (though i could "convert" through DB poweramp???? to see if this cleans it up somehow...hmmmm). For some reason a Node 2 has a deep inability to accomodate Courtney Barnett's latest album downloaded from Bandcamp. It has the flat arm but the round one is tucked away in cupboard. The 5120 is used once a year to play - family Xmas tunes from 1950s World Record Club and Goodyear - Maurice Chevalier, Bing Crosby, etc. I am the original purchaser in early 80s from when I built my first system ( inc. NAD 3020b, and the B&W DM110s which i still use and love). Given an overly flexible timber floor at my home at that time my vinyl purchases ceased with advent of CD and my purchase of the Yamaha CD-X2. Strangely floor in current abode is also a little drummy and poses vinyl issues. The 5120 prefers to run backwards at times so a little deft flicking of on/off helps it go in right direction when thius happens. So the motor needs at least a look. Belt drops off regularly when records changed (just needs replacing i am sure as it is original as bits of me probably need replacing after 35 years. Has a cheap Goldring cart in as a replacement for whatever was there before after an incident when it was playing backward and my daughter didn't notice the anti clockwise motion. Just so I can play those records at Xmas - not employed as a hi fi compont really - it is largely used to gather dust on its lid and CD cases from what I am listening to mostly. The interesting thing is my wife and daughter have decided that a turntable may be a good gift for me next year. I am not sure my wife understands what ongoing expenses that may lead to.

After navigating sensitivity of building a study system (something like "that is costing a lot of $, and you will NEVER come out now", and now sensitivity of moving from one iOS music thing to Roon (which she hasn't asked about cost wise but does look at credit card), i am a little nervous about strategy "hey dear, i've been thinking about it and because of all the digital techno mumbo I think I may make a shift to vinyl". 😉 I could avoid using term "I think i will just start replicating all my files with vinyl versions". 🙂

I was surprised by Bluseound advice - it was "look through this haystack, but I can't/won't tell you exactly what you are looking for. But when you find it you may know."

Hmmm - i have the whole lot duplicated in SSDs in the Antipodes server SSDs anyway - so maybe i just need to make the jump and see the Node 2 as simply a box. Will need to navigate sensitivity of other house dwellers who have become accustomed to BluOS. I will talk about Roon having nice pictures.

Have any of you Node 2 users experienced this problem, and if so how did you resolve. I have a library of about 40k FLAC files sitting on a NAS share. At one point after loading a new Bandcamp purchase the index process stopped working and it seemed that any new files added would not be incoporated through either reindexing or rebuilding options. Using the diagnostic log it shows that the process seems to fall over when I get a "broken pipe" issue. After attempting to rerun multiple times sometimes the log will show a last file processed - often the same one. I renoved offending album but teh problem just reemegerd later. Advice from Bluesound support is that it may be a problem with a file's metadata (though they did not describe what "bad" may look like and therefore i can't easily serach for issues). They recommended removing whole directory structure from the NAS share and do a reload then reindex process about 5-10 albums at a tim. Ii have 1428 artist folders and many probably around 4500 albums...I have not done the math diectly but I know what it will tell me, and it may measure in doulel digit percentages of my remaining waking hours before passing from the face of this planet. So my primary question - has anybody have a persistent indexing issue and if so what have you found useful to solve it? Or should i just train whole family to use Roon and keep my Roon server on 24/7 to use Node 2s as Roon end points and just presume that Node 2 doesn't like bigger libraries. Thanks all

I did, as I have been most happy with my 840CD and have previously used the DACMagic and the Sonata streamer. But I went another way and landed with Antipodes after my circling around Auralic, Lumin and Aurender for some time

For any interested a few additional thoughts that became part of my decision process, now returning to this after some time and having chosen a product that is not here: it is worth looking at the Lumin U1 Mini as a more direct comparison to Aries G1 - no storage, no DAC. And reviews are very positive re SQ the issue of "closed vs open" control software was, for me, important - the three suppliers here all have their own software (you can find reviews of this elsewhere). But in 5-10 years time (unless you recycle hardware more frquently than I do) there could possibly be version/support/availability issues (what happens when you are on a 2024 IPAD and the software is no longer available). If hardware bits are disposable, or you are on a relatively high frequency upgrade/downgrade/sidewaysgrade kinda person, this will be less an issue. I think a couple can also be accessed by other iOS or Android based management systems so they were more appealing. Same with Roon - as I tend to buy and keep components I wanted to be pretty sure a few alternatives were available if teh OEM and another vendor changed tack or evaporated I ended up getting an Antipodes EX, which runs Roon on it now as a Core and can stream to my Bluesound Node 2 fleet (a grand way of saying "both"). Arrived at this through a circuitous route of bothering vendors and retailers, all of whom were very helpful in helping me refine my buying criteria and end up making a choice. I didn't really explore the issue of MQA - sensing since I largely buy music (i do not use Tidal) this would not be an issue. My eventual decision to buy Roon (wasn''t made until after buying the EX) has probably helped insulate me from that being a shortsighted choice to some extent (but recognise i may not get most out of it if MQA sticks as a "thing". Whatever your choice i assume you will be very happy! All had great features and reviews and i am sure I would have been most satisfied with any of them (within the bounds of pros and cons which are always part of the trade offs one accepts)

I will be really keen to hear of how it goes for you. The Aries G1 was, after a bunch of research, where i thought i would land. It is a great looking component technically and in its presentation. I trust it will be a great addition to your rig and would love to hear your thoughts! I must say, 16k albums is quite a collection. 😊 I can't find a "jealous" emoji