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Aurender W20 Review
Aurender music servers have been part of my digital playback arsenal since 2011. I was so impressed by the
Aurender S10 that I placed it on my CASH List and named it the 2011 Product of the Year. The S10 was the
first music server I'd seen that was built like a high end audio component with solid engineering on the inside
and stellar attention to detail on the outside. The S10 was IT. However, a couple colleagues of mine thought
the S10 was a good start, but there was much room for improvement. It turns out my colleagues were
correct. Not long after the S10 hit dealer showrooms the Aurender team completed a state of the art listening
room and went to work on something better than the S10. The product that emerged from this work was the
flagship Aurender W20. The W20 is not an upgraded S10. The only critical component shared by the two
models are the oven-controlled crystal oscillators (OCXO). Based on several months of listening, testing, and
comparing the W20 to all other servers I've used, I conclude the Aurender W20 is unequivocally the pièce de
résistance of high end music servers.
Aurender W20 Hardware - No Hocus-pocus Just Solid Engineering
The Aurender W20 hardware and software were designed by music loving engineers. High end audio hocus-
pocus is antithetical to the principles guiding of this team. The state of the art listening room at Aurender's
Seoul, Korea headquarters is used to verify engineering changes and concepts implemented in Aurender
products. When squeezing out every ounce of electrical and mechanical noise from a product, a very quiet
listening room with highly resolving components is a requirement. The Aurender listening room contains
analog components from Constellation Audio, digital conversion and clocking from dCS, and loudspeakers
from Magico.
Several items separate the Aurender W20 from not only the Aurender S10 but most music servers on the
market. At the heart of the W20 design are the main motherboard and physically separated and isolated
audio board. Both items were designed in-house by Aurender engineers. When designing a flagship product
it's necessary to design one's own audio boards. However, designing one's own computer motherboard is
expensive and requires a level of expertise not found at many high end audio companies. A major advantage
of designing one's own motherboard is the ability to eliminate or drastically reduce electrical noise. Most
commercial motherboards are designed to a very low standard compared to a high end audio component.
Commercial board design is often controlled by accountants seeking to lower the price rather than improve
quality and features according to Wavelength Audio Founder and "Godfather" of high end USB audio Gordon
Rankin. Gordon designed many motherboards for very large computer manufactures before pursuing high
end audio. One type of noise caused by computer components when mixed with audio components can be
heard easily. For example, I recently received a ~$10,000 audio product for review with built-in WiFi. When
the WiFi is enabled but unconfigured a very audible ticking noise can be heard through the right channel.
Once the WiFi is configured this noise is reduced greatly but can still be heard with an ear close to the right
tweeter. Disabling WiFi on this component eliminates the noise. No such noise can be heard through the
Aurender. The moral of the story is, computer components are electrically noisy. The ability of the Aurender
team to craft its own motherboard featuring only the capabilities required for audio reproduction and to