Arylic LP10 Budget Streamer Review

[NHL99]

There's a number of expensive streamer/DAC brands which WIIM and Eversolo, often with similar HW, completely undercut!

Auralic, cocktailAudio, Innuos, Naim, Melco, and what not. The HW isn't standalone anymore, frequent SW updates are needed to fix bugs and support new/updated streamer API's.

 

[Rusk Reeder]

And I think it was lauded by some YouTube audiophiles unless that was a different model. This is very poor performance.

 

[VientoB]

RIP more like

My two are still going.

 

[chelgrian]

I have like 6x S10+ in an install I did last year. I really hope that the LP10 is just a weird fluke and the S10+ isn’t as horrible.

Not that it matters for my case, ambient noise floor makes THD irrelevant (background music system in massive soccer gym). Music is never even 10db over ambient.

It’s pretty pointless because the S10+ is the older generation of product which are based on LinkPlay modules and Arylic can no longer properly support. For example they will never get Spotify lossless.

 

[Nopiano]

Thanks for the correction. Auralic is another streamer company. The similarity of the names must have caused confusion amongst consumers!

Yes, and ironically Auralic made some decent gear, albeit at much higher prices. Sadly if this Arylic is typical then this is the brand that should end!

 

[NJ coffee roaster]

Bypassing the DAC would the optical output be essentially transparent to the source material?

 

[capslock]

Bypassing the DAC would the optical output be essentially transparent to the source material?

It's even worse. Look at that section of the test. The sine looks more like a 5 bit approximation of a sine which is clearly reflected in the SINAD of only 30 dB. I am surprised the highest components in the FFT are at -110 dB, I would have expected much worse from both the sine as well as the SINAD reading.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?attachments/arylic-lp10-streamer-dac-stereo-chromecast-volume-max-toslink-out-measurement-png.499239/

 

[chelgrian]

Bypassing the DAC would the optical output be essentially transparent to the source material?

It appears to be resampling and introducing ultrasonic noise as it does so also the jitter is so bad that it might actually not be correctable. The first of those might be fixable in software the second probably is a hardware design fault.

 

[Chr1]

Just out of curiosity (and ignorance), when was the last time we saw digital measurements this bad?
Ta

 

[mc.god]

It was some time now since i had to throw the usual reaction

 

[yofi]

I asked my wife to order one for me for Christmas before the review dropped.

I am not entirely an objectivist, I just liked the form factor. The poor measurements were not an immediate turn off because I’m plugging it into Best Buy bargain basement gear.

So allow me to add to the dog pile

For forty minutes I had stable output via Spotify Connect and Airplay, sounded fine.

Then I couldn’t control the device in the app. Then it stopped playing, or began to skip to the next song after ten seconds of no sound. So I factory reset it and set it up again. I get one song of stable playback before it refused to play again. I’ve tried power cycling it, cycling inputs, it just won’t play via Spotify/network or Airplay.

Huge disappointment, what point is there to the measurements if you can’t even get it to play music through protocols it is supposed to support?

Could it be my network? Maybe. I have a very old Google WiFi mesh system. But then, how come my TV works? With multiple personal devices streaming at the same time? And my work computer connected to the VPN?

I have a Chromecast audio connected to my living room AVR. Pretty sure it’s Gen 1. Bought it for my wife in 2014 when we were dating. How come that works still but the Arylic seems incapable of doing the basics? Inexcusable.

I’m going to exchange this for something else. I don’t like the Wiim Mini’s form factor, but if I can swap between AirPlay and Spotify connect all day while working, I’ll forget that it looks like a hockey puke and stop caring.

Please tell me the Wiim Mini just works?

 

[IngMishael]

Please tell me the Wiim Mini just works?

yes it just works.

 

[Herbert Shooler]

put it i fancy case, a 10000000 multitap filter, you have a Chord Dave mark 2.

 

[lordhumungous]

I want this streamer and i want it now !!!!!!!!

 

[SoySalsaPicante]

I want this streamer and i want it now !!!!!!!!

The sarcasm is strong with this one.

 

[yofi]

Return started;

A Wiim Pro arrives on Sunday. Ordered a remote too so that I can set the line in as a preset for my work laptop.

Been a long day. I’ll pack up and take the Arylic back tomorrow.

 

[somebodyelse]

It would be interesting to know which level constitutes "low distortion". This thing gets burned down to the ground here, based on measurements, not listening.

There are threads on audibility of different sorts of distortion, and sites where you can ABX different levels of different distortions to find your own threshold. We're fairly clear that most well-engineered DACs now will be audibly indistinguishable as the distortion levels are so low. That includes dongles cheap enough to be considered disposable by a lot of people. This can't even beat the cheapest DAC reviewed, which I suppose is an achievement of a sort. To me it suggests they aren't even trying. And it's not just this product - their others measured here have been similarly bad.

On the pure digital side anything less than near-perfect (to allow for volume control, resampling etc. if necessary) is an indication that there isn't even basic QA on the firmware. That rings alarm bells for a network connected device - I wouldn't want it anywhere near my network.

That makes two indications of a lack of attention to quality. I simply don't trust this company's engineering. There other options around this price that measure significantly better than this, so why would anyone knowingly take the worse one?

 

[lordhumungous]

The sarcasm is strong with this one.

Sarcasm is the one guy who voted this streamer as great ! It wasn’t me !! lol.

 

[VientoB]

Sarcasm is the one guy who voted this streamer as great ! It wasn’t me !! lol.

Yes, you thought it was "Fine"?

 

[Dmitri]

I almost want to buy one so I can hear what bad sounds like!

Well there’s a new marketing concept…