This is a review and measurements of the Arylic LP-10 streamer. It was kindly drop shipped to me by a member and is on sale for US $80.
The streamer is ultra compact and light. Front panel font is quite small but is still legible at close distance (looks better than the above photo).
A remote control is provided as well as a USB power supply although you can also power it from your computer:
I was pleasantly surprised to see inclusion of ethernet port. Low cost streamers tend to be Wifi (and Bluetooth) only. This removes the need to figure out how to configure the thing.
I tried to use the USB-c plug as data interface, treating it as a DAC but would not work. It can only be powered that way. I then tried to use the Toslink as an input but that didn't work either as it is output only.
The main source of analog output is the 3.5mm. I was yet again pleasantly surprised to see analog input in the form of another 3.5mm input -- something many streamers and certainly DACs lack.
The USB-A port is for a thumb drive but it says it has a limit of 1024 songs. Seems pretty useless to me.
Using the web interface, I checked for firmware update and it said it is current.
Arylica LP10 Streamer Measurements
I connected the unit using Ethernet and then used my Roon player to stream to it. Was pleasantly surprised to see it advertise Roon protocol. Alas, as soon as you attempt to use that, Roon warns that it is not certified so wont' let you do anything with it. Using the "Go" App, I turned on Chromecast and performed my streaming test using that. After setting the volume to max, this is what I got:
Good grief... That is a ton of distortion! As a DAC, it would rank at the bottom of some 400 to 500 DACs tested! Figuring it may be past its limit, I lowered the volume to 82:
That certainly helps but now you have anemic output and still a lot of distortion.
Crossing fingers that Toslink output would be bit exact, I tested that digital output:
The jagged sine wave shows some serious problem there as well as copious amount of jitter showing in our FFT spectrum. Truly broken.
I moved on to testing the analog input with the same Toslink output:
Compared to streaming input, performance is better but still nothing to write home about.
Testing analog output reduces performance a ton yet again:
I don't know about you but I am done testing the LP10.
Conclusions
I hate to show my bias here but before even testing the LP-10, I expected subpar performance. But even I was not ready for such poor performance. Yes, $79 is not much to spend on a streamer but what is there needs to impart some level of competence in design. None exists no matter where I looked.
I can't recommend the Arylic LP10. I hope the company cleans up the design and offers a new version that has at least reasonable performance.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The streamer is ultra compact and light. Front panel font is quite small but is still legible at close distance (looks better than the above photo).
A remote control is provided as well as a USB power supply although you can also power it from your computer:
I was pleasantly surprised to see inclusion of ethernet port. Low cost streamers tend to be Wifi (and Bluetooth) only. This removes the need to figure out how to configure the thing.
I tried to use the USB-c plug as data interface, treating it as a DAC but would not work. It can only be powered that way. I then tried to use the Toslink as an input but that didn't work either as it is output only.
The main source of analog output is the 3.5mm. I was yet again pleasantly surprised to see analog input in the form of another 3.5mm input -- something many streamers and certainly DACs lack.
The USB-A port is for a thumb drive but it says it has a limit of 1024 songs. Seems pretty useless to me.
Using the web interface, I checked for firmware update and it said it is current.
Arylica LP10 Streamer Measurements
I connected the unit using Ethernet and then used my Roon player to stream to it. Was pleasantly surprised to see it advertise Roon protocol. Alas, as soon as you attempt to use that, Roon warns that it is not certified so wont' let you do anything with it. Using the "Go" App, I turned on Chromecast and performed my streaming test using that. After setting the volume to max, this is what I got:
Good grief... That is a ton of distortion! As a DAC, it would rank at the bottom of some 400 to 500 DACs tested! Figuring it may be past its limit, I lowered the volume to 82:
That certainly helps but now you have anemic output and still a lot of distortion.
Crossing fingers that Toslink output would be bit exact, I tested that digital output:
The jagged sine wave shows some serious problem there as well as copious amount of jitter showing in our FFT spectrum. Truly broken.
I moved on to testing the analog input with the same Toslink output:
Compared to streaming input, performance is better but still nothing to write home about.
Testing analog output reduces performance a ton yet again:
I don't know about you but I am done testing the LP10.
Conclusions
I hate to show my bias here but before even testing the LP-10, I expected subpar performance. But even I was not ready for such poor performance. Yes, $79 is not much to spend on a streamer but what is there needs to impart some level of competence in design. None exists no matter where I looked.
I can't recommend the Arylic LP10. I hope the company cleans up the design and offers a new version that has at least reasonable performance.
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
