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batteries. No user intervention is required, the audio board is always powered by these batteries. The audio
board is also isolated from annoying ground noise emanating from the mains outlet powering the rest of the
server. An additional bank of LiFePO4 batteries is used as a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) when power is
removed from the server altogether. This temporary battery supplies the mother board, hard drives, and OLED
display enabling the server to shutdown gracefully and inform the user what's happening via front panel display.
The W20's batteries are spec'd to last 3,000 charge-recharge cycles until they reach 80% of capacity. If the W20
is used eight hours per day, 365 days per year, the batteries should last about 40 years.
The Aurender W20 features two AES/EBU outputs so it can operate in single or dual mode AES. In the simplest of
terms single AES uses one cable and dual AES uses two cables. Both single and dual use digital cables with XLR
terminations on each end. This is one major differentiating factor between the W20 and nearly all other music
servers on the market. The reason for dual AES on the W20 is that some very high end digital to analog
converters from companies such as dCS, Esoteric, and Chord support or require dual AES for sample rates over
96 kHz. The ultra rare and long out of production Pacific Microsonics Model II requires dual AES as well. The Dual
AES feature of the W20 is enabled or disabled within the Aurender iPad app. Set it once and forget it.
Along a similar line as dual AES, the W20 supports word clock input. Many of the same DACs from dCS, Esoteric,
and Chord support word clock output. Systems from dCS and Esoteric are often configured with a separate
master clock component that feeds word clock to a physical disc transport, a DAC, and even an upsampler. This
same master clock can feed the Aurender W20 thus all the digital components are fed by a single master clock.
Clocking is a big deal in digital audio. The fact that the W20 supports word clock input is another major
differentiator between it and the competition.
During the review period I received a dCS Vivaldi system without the physical disc transport. This consisted of the
Vivaldi DAC ($34,999), Vivaldi Upsampler ($19,999), and Vivaldi Master Clock ($13,499). Combined with the dCS
stack the W20 fits like a glove. dCS and the Aurender team worked together to enable the W20 to communicate
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