Jim M.
Still Buying with more to go!!!
Jim May Mileski Verified Buyer Reviewed AURALiC ARIES G2.1 Streamer / Music Server Add 2TB Solid-State Hard Drive So I really wanted to listen and play before I wrote this. I purchased in November and opened on Xmas and sat up on New Years. 21 days later after listening, I can honestly say I have not played any physical media. (I will soon , just enjoying the ease) When Kevin says that this is easy to operate and set up, boy he wasn’t kidding. I plugged it in following the setup and I don’t think I did anything other than turn it on and pressed the “find” from my phone app. It did all the set up. Now I have a Mytek Brooklyn DAC and I have the Mcintosh C53. I have hooked this up to both and found it extremely beautiful sounding. The soundstage is wide and dynamic. Both the DACs easily identify the streaming information. Weather it be 16 bit 24 bit 44k 96k 320 this unit will identify and display . It’s menu is easy to scroll through and self explanatory. Which helps this old dude who is not at all computer literate. It’s as easy as your IPhones menus. I was really nervous to get into the streaming game. I was worried the sound wouldn’t be there like it is on a silver press SACD. Boy was I wrong!! The difference between the physical media and streaming is the ease of use only...you will find it’s nice to sit and enjoy the music instead of getting up and down and changing out records or sacd’s. You actually can just type into the search bar what you want to hear and boom it’s that’s quick!! Love it Love it Love it! Now I also had a 2TB hard drive installed which was the correct thing to do. As I have already taken advantage of filling up a little over a TB of music and it’s right there! I have hooked up my Aries to both my C53 preamp and mc452 but also hooked it up via the mytek and Prima Luna Tube route. The difference in the mytek, to me, seems to be the low end and the mid. Very expansive and oh so warm. Can’t believe you can get a warm tube sounding sound out of a digital streamer....who knew? The unit is of a out of this world build quality and is what sold me on it. When Kevin broke it down in the video, I pulled the trigger and oh so happy I did. Thank You Upscale! Thanks Uncle Kevin! Big Love from the Beautiful Cascade Mountains! Now a few weeks later I have returned to Upscale and purchased a ROON Nucleous and a VPI turntable. Kat helped me with both purchases and knew how busy I was and actually filled out my invoices and sent them to me to simply add my card number and the items were mine. She had the TT professionally assembled by the upscale trained techs! The stylus and cartridge are mounted under a microscope so that it is ready to go! She then threw in a super big boy TShirt!!! What more could a guy want! A record brush valued at $25! These people are super whacky crazy good nutty! Love this place ❤️ . My next magor purchase I will have to fly down to buy. I will have to listen to the speakers I’m interested I and I know that they will build my home stereo pieces in their showroom so I’m able to hear what I will be bringing home knowing EXACTLY what it will sound like. Will they be a set of Bowers n Wilkins 803? Focal Sonota? Something by Wilson? Or something I’ve never heard before? Whatever,I know I won’t be steered wrong..but that’s a year out and that is something I have to show up for to hear for myself. But I know they will replicate every piece of my home stereo so I will be able to tell exactly how the speakers will sound with MY stereo. Uncle Kevin will make sure of that... I just know it. Maybe they will buy me a cheeseburger on that trip! Peace and Love to Upscale and all their staff. Jim MayMileski 🤪🤪🤪