A Video Review of the Auralic Aries G2.1 Wireless Streaming Transporter

Today I’m bringing you my assessment of the Auralic Aries G2.1 Wireless Streaming Transporter, via the magic of video.

Introduction

It’s no secret that music lovers have embraced streaming in the biggest of ways. Audiophiles have been an integral part of this trend, both as consumers and as vocal advocates of higher-quality audio transmission. This also extends to the hardware side of things because audiophiles, as they are wont to do, are constantly looking for the “best” way to get their streaming audio content through to their home systems. Companies like Auralic have been working diligently over the last few years to meet the needs of the slightly more obsessive of us out there who are looking for the very best. This brings us to the new Aries G2.1 Wireless Streaming Transporter, Auralic’s top-shelf digital front end. The company aim’s for this to be the centerpiece of your digital audio eco-system, being able to access music files from a variety of locations and sources and at almost every conceivable bit-depth and format. Connect it to a DAC of commensurate quality (Auralic hopes that you will pick one of theirs) and you will be ensured of a superior digital music experience through your audio system.

I hope that you enjoy my impressions and observations of the Auralic Aries G2.1 in my full video review presented below. One thing to note is that the antennas that you will see attached to Aries in the video review are not the correct ones that Auralic ships with the product. They were shipped by mistake with the review unit and I simply attached them “for show” in the video. Auralic would like it noted that using Wi-Fi antennas that were not originally designed for the Aries can cause poor operation and possible internal damage to the unit. For my review, the Aries G2.1 was connected to my network via Ethernet. I never used Wi-Fi at all in the review and when not shooting the video the antennas remained in the box. As such the antennas had no bearing on my overall impressions of the review unit’s functionality or sound quality.

A Video Review of the Auralic Aries G2.1 Wireless Streaming Transporter SPECIFICATIONS

Design:

Digital Audio Streamer/Processor. DAC not Included

Streaming File Formats:

Lossless: AIFF, ALAC, APE, DIFF, DSF, FLAC, OGG, WAV, and WV
Lossy: AAC, MP3, MQA, and WMA.

Sampling Rates:

PCM: 44.1KHz to 384KHz in 32Bit
DSD: DSD64(2.8224MHz), DSD128(5.6448MHz), DSD256(11.2896MHz), DSD512(22.57892MHz)

Control Software:

AURALiC Lightning DS for iOS.
AURALiC Lightning DS for web browser (device settings only).
OpenHome compatible control software (BubbleUPnP, Kazoo).
Roon (Roon Core required separately).

Streaming Inputs:

Network shared folder, USB Storage, USB CD Drive, Internal Music Storage (Up to 2TB SSD), UPnP/DLNA Media Server, native TIDAL, HighResAudio, and Qobuz Sublime+, Internet Radio, AirPlay, Bluetooth, Songcast, RoonReady.

Audio Outputs:

AURALiC Lightning Link.
Digital Outputs: AES/EBU, Coaxial, Toslink.
USB Output: USB Host to compatible DAC.

Network:

Wired: Gigabit Ethernet.
Wireless: 802.11b/g/n/ac Tri-Band WiFi.

Dimensions:

13.4 x 12.6 x 3.7 in. (34cm x 32cm x 9.6cm) W x D x H.

Weight:

20.7 lbs (9.3kg)

Colors:

Matte Black Anodized Aluminum Finish

Accessories:

2 External WiFi antenna (2pcs), Power cord, User’s guide

MSRP:

$5,089.00

Website:

us.auralic.com

Company:

Auralic

SECRETS Tags:

Auralic, aries, steaming, digital, transport, wireless, Streaming Transporter Review 2022

Carlo Lo Raso

A native of Toronto Canada, Carlo's interest in audio began at a young age when, unbeknownst to his mother, he started taking apart her numerous transistor radios to see how they worked. This desire for “knowledge through deconstruction” continued through to the family’s 8-track tape player, turntable, headphones, and speakers. Carlo subsequently spent a lot of time in his room. Toronto was a fertile ground for Hi-Fi in the 1970s and 80s and Carlo spent much of his wayward youth hanging out in downtown Toronto stereo shops, listening to all manner of gear and picking the brains of the various store owners. Through that formative experience, Carlo developed an appreciation for good music and good sound reproduction. Also, as a budding graphic artist, the aesthetic aspects of a given piece of gear became increasingly of interest to his eyes. It was at about that time as well that Carlo began purchasing “Audio Magazine” on a regular basis and came to appreciate, in particular, the writing and reviewing of the late Leonard Feldman. Later on, he was also influenced by the writing and observations of the staff at Sound and Vision Canada, helmed at the time by Alan Loft. Carlo graduated from Sheridan College with a degree in Classical Animation and was subsequently employed by Walt Disney Consumer Products for 10 years as a Character Artist and Art Director. Having become disenchanted with Los Angeles, he then decided to strike out on his own. Carlo started his own company and has been freelancing artwork, from his home studio, primarily for the toy and publishing industries since 2001. In 2013, on a bit of a lark, Carlo answered a “Call for Writers” ad from an AV website that he had been regularly reading for about 5 years called Secrets of Home Theater and High Fidelity. He had come to appreciate the website’s combination of subjective impressions along with the objective bench-testing available in several of the reviews. The “B-Team” must have been working that day because by some miracle he was hired as a writer and his first review for the site was published early in 2014. Carlo has been continually writing, editing, traveling, listening, and learning on the company’s behalf ever since. Carlo currently lives in Granville, Ohio with his wife, two sons, and a very old, but chill dachshund.