Sonore microRendu

[Germanboxers]

Very fair price, Jesus. Count me in. Thoughts on when/if it will support native DSD to an Amanero USB input on LampizatOr DAC?

[Jud]

Let's put an end to the price speculation....$640 USD without the power supply.

 

Jesus R

 

$639.95 was my next guess!

 

Seriously, though, I look forward to your bringing what I am guessing will be a high level of performance to this price point.

[Account Closed]

Jesus,

 

Should a person wish to go the Signature Rendu route, what would be the performance differential? I realize the output is different, but what is the comparison?

 

Also, I saw you mention somewhere that SGC is building a dedicated LMS appliance but I can't find anything about it on the SGC site.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

[jumper]

Can we play the guessing game for when orders will start to be taken?

[Germanboxers]

Can we play the guessing game for when orders will start to be taken?

 

More importantly...when will orders start to be fulfilled?

[vortecjr]

Very fair price, Jesus. Count me in. Thoughts on when/if it will support native DSD to an Amanero USB input on LampizatOr DAC?

 

Amanaro told me they wanted to submit things to ALSA. I offered to help and they declined. After that exchange they have not provided anymore information. Email them and put some pressure.

 

Jesus R

[Germanboxers]

Amanaro told me they wanted to submit things to ALSA. I offered to help and they declined. After that exchange they have not provided anymore information. Email them and put some pressure.

 

Jesus R

 

Will do...thanks.

[vortecjr]

Jesus,

 

Should a person wish to go the Signature Rendu route, what would be the performance differential? I realize the output is different, but what is the comparison?

 

Also, I saw you mention somewhere that SGC is building a dedicated LMS appliance but I can't find anything about it on the SGC site.

 

Thanks,

 

Bob

 

Right now we are testing a pre-production unit without all the features enabled. We are using a good linear power supply and it's holding its own. However, these two units are very different.

 

microJukebox – Small Green Computer

 

Jesus R

[vortecjr]

Can we play the guessing game for when orders will start to be taken?

 

Be patient...it's coming.

 

Jesus R

[bibo01]

Let's put an end to the price speculation....$640 USD without the power supply.

 

Jesus R

 

Personally I am rather disappointed by the price.

All the best for your new product.

 

I still find a Fitlet an excellent choice. Pity that the basic model, which was selling at $160, is out of production.

[BobSherman]

Sounds like a good idea.

 

Does the closest guess without going over win?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]24377[/ATTACH]

 

$399.95!

[BobSherman]

$639.95 was my next guess!

 

Seriously, though, I look forward to your bringing what I am guessing will be a high level of performance to this price point.

 

 

 

[gstew]

Let's put an end to the price speculation....$640 USD without the power supply.

 

Jesus R

 

Sounds very reasonable to me. I look at it as an UTA Regen ($170) + SonicOrbiterSE ($300) plus performance upgrades (likely greater in value than the $170 difference).

 

I agree I suspect it will be a winner of a product!

 

Greg in Mississippi

 

P.S. I just wish you did the same thing at the same price, but I2S-only output for us DIY'ers!

[Superdad]

Hey guys:

 

Just wait until Jesus and John have the time to explain all the cool tricks--both h/w and s/w--about this thing. Then people will really be falling all over themselves for one. There is tech stuff in this that really going to surprise…

 

John is taking a trip this weekend to see a family member who lives about 70 miles from me. There is a chance he may have time on Saturday to swing by--and he might just have one of the microRendu pre-production units in his pocket. My DAC is warm and ready!

 

From what I understand, launch date really is drawing near. Quite exciting. Only wish we were going to have the UpTone mystery 1A LPS ready in time. They will be the perfect pair.

 

--Alex C.

[pipis2010]

Let's put an end to the price speculation....$640 USD without the power supply.

 

Jesus R

 

Am I correct to suggest that this is the price, due to low quantity of production?

Anyhow, I can't say if the price is good or not, because we still haven't heard it in real life, that's why I'll be waiting for the first couple of reviews and see the price/performance ratio...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[pipis2010]

Very fair price, Jesus. Count me in. Thoughts on when/if it will support native DSD to an Amanero USB input on LampizatOr DAC?

 

I don't understand why this is the case with Amanero/Lampi. Their Lampi DSD computer supports Linux and they promote it on their site as the perfect companion to their higher level DSD DACs...why is there such a compatibility issue?

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

Definitely out of my budget... These small computer cards are supposed to be cheap, not the price of an iPhone!!!

[pipis2010]

Definitely out of my budget... These small computer cards are supposed to be cheap, not the price of an iPhone!!!

 

I bet my cat, it's a low production run, hence the price...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[pipis2010]

I wanted to add one final thing: Exactly 2 days ago, I was looking at my mini-ITX motherboard and was thinking that for an audio use, I don't need all these ports and expansions and the PCI lanes and the onboard wifi chip, etc, etc. Then it hit me; how about if I could find a place to customise a motherboard or better yet try to order my own customised motherboard with just the things I want on it.

The idea behind this was simple: each and every thing on the motherboard produces some kind of noise, thus totaling a significant amount of noise. By, reducing the amount of electrical noise, theoretically, I should get a more "clean" power and signal from the computer - I know, childish thought, but I think it's logical up to a point - bear with me, as I am no tech-guru or engineer genius.

 

Of course, after my short research, I found out that the designing alone of such a motherboard would be VERY difficult, not to mention how very-very-very-very expensive it would be, even to produce 1 prototype, let alone a final product, especially for 1 quantity.

 

Why am I saying all this? Because the microRendu concept IS THE WAY TO GO WITH USB!!! It has to be fought at the very core, and that's the motherboard/PCB itself. Thus, I am completely in line with the Sonore team and John Swenson, and I believe this is it and this is the ONLY way to fight USB noise/jitter, etc. We need customised boards with good power supplies, providing JUST THE VERY BASIC.

 

Thus, I have to wish the guys good luck and I hope they enjoy their "monopoly" (in a good sense), and for the time being. I am hoping that they will start collaborating with other companies and/or other companies will start copying their concept and start producing their own boards and micro-computers...But, in the end, this is it!!!

 

Once, we can get as clean of a USB signal from the computer, I am sure that USB filters/conditioners and such will become obsolete and we will only need a good clock and then send the signal straight to the DAC. In this instance, I am in line with the German people in terms of the use of a good clock prior to a DAC...

[firedog]

Jesus, can you give us some guidance on power supplies for the microRendu?

 

You have listed on the microRendu page:

 

Standard power supply

CIAudio linear power supply

Teddy Pardo linear power supply

Sonore Signature Series linear power supply

 

Questions:

 

1. I'd guess that is in ascending order of quality, with Standard being the least, and Sonore Signature being the best one. Is that correct?

 

 

2. What size/type of barrel connector do we need to connect to the microRendu?

[JohnSwenson]

Definitely out of my budget... These small computer cards are supposed to be cheap, not the price of an iPhone!!!

 

The difference is the microRendu is designed to be the best sounding, not the cheapest known to humankind. You simply cannot get this sound quality from the cheapest parts possible. That doesn't mean it uses very expensive parts, for example there are a bunch of chips that cost $5 instead of ones that cost $0.25 in the other "cheap boards". I put a huge amount of effort into this design trying to use the least expensive parts I could while still maintaining the best sound possible. This is not even close to using the most expensive parts for a given category, for example I am using some $0.36, capacitors, instead of $0.08 ones commonly used, but it is NOT using the $7 ones I could be using. Every single part was optimized to get the lowest cost without sacrificing the sound. I looked at over three thousand spec sheets trying to find parts that did what I needed them to do while costing the least I could get them for.

 

You have a choice, use the cheapest parts and get all right sound, or use much better parts in a proper circuit to get fantastic sound, the choice is yours, you cannot have it both ways.

 

And yes volume does make an impact on unit cost. Specialty audio manufacturers simply cannot have the volume necessary to get really low production prices. You have to get to really large volumes to get significantly lower production prices. 50,000 units is where things start to get low. Much less than that doesn't make that big a difference. Because of the difference in parts cost even very low production costs are not going to bring the price down hugely, yes some, but nowhere near enough to get the high volumes, so the volume is never going to be huge. That is just life in the audiophile realm.

 

John S.

[pipis2010]

The difference is the microRendu is designed to be the best sounding, not the cheapest known to humankind. You simply cannot get this sound quality from the cheapest parts possible. That doesn't mean it uses very expensive parts, for example there are a bunch of chips that cost $5 instead of ones that cost $0.25 in the other "cheap boards". I put a huge amount of effort into this design trying to use the least expensive parts I could while still maintaining the best sound possible. This is not even close to using the most expensive parts for a given category, for example I am using some $0.36, capacitors, instead of $0.08 ones commonly used, but it is NOT using the $7 ones I could be using. Every single part was optimized to get the lowest cost without sacrificing the sound. I looked at over three thousand spec sheets trying to find parts that did what I needed them to do while costing the least I could get them for.

 

You have a choice, use the cheapest parts and get all right sound, or use much better parts in a proper circuit to get fantastic sound, the choice is yours, you cannot have it both ways.

 

And yes volume does make an impact on unit cost. Specialty audio manufacturers simply cannot have the volume necessary to get really low production prices. You have to get to really large volumes to get significantly lower production prices. 50,000 units is where things start to get low. Much less than that doesn't make that big a difference. Because of the difference in parts cost even very low production costs are not going to bring the price down hugely, yes some, but nowhere near enough to get the high volumes, so the volume is never going to be huge. That is just life in the audiophile realm.

 

John S.

 

As you may have seen already, I am with you on this one John! Kudos to you and Sonore, because I really believe this is the way to go!!

 

Now, how much do you wanna bet, that in a very short time you will get asked to produce the "cost-no-limit" microRendu edition? I'd say within a year...

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Computer Audiophile mobile app

[Qhwoeprktiyns]

The difference is the microRendu is designed to be the best sounding, not the cheapest known to humankind. You simply cannot get this sound quality from the cheapest parts possible. That doesn't mean it uses very expensive parts, for example there are a bunch of chips that cost $5 instead of ones that cost $0.25 in the other "cheap boards". I put a huge amount of effort into this design trying to use the least expensive parts I could while still maintaining the best sound possible. This is not even close to using the most expensive parts for a given category, for example I am using some $0.36, capacitors, instead of $0.08 ones commonly used, but it is NOT using the $7 ones I could be using. Every single part was optimized to get the lowest cost without sacrificing the sound. I looked at over three thousand spec sheets trying to find parts that did what I needed them to do while costing the least I could get them for.

 

You have a choice, use the cheapest parts and get all right sound, or use much better parts in a proper circuit to get fantastic sound, the choice is yours, you cannot have it both ways.

 

And yes volume does make an impact on unit cost. Specialty audio manufacturers simply cannot have the volume necessary to get really low production prices. You have to get to really large volumes to get significantly lower production prices. 50,000 units is where things start to get low. Much less than that doesn't make that big a difference. Because of the difference in parts cost even very low production costs are not going to bring the price down hugely, yes some, but nowhere near enough to get the high volumes, so the volume is never going to be huge. That is just life in the audiophile realm.

 

John S.

 

Thanks John for your input. I understand all the effort that you put into this, and the logic behind the pricing. I really liked the value proposal of the Regen, and did my best to spread the word here in France.

 

With respect to my current system, I am not ready to spend an extra 700$ (after import costs), to replace my computer board (Intel dn2800mt running TinyMPD). Hopefully someone here in Paris will make the jump and we can organize a comparative listening session, and then I will change my mind !

[hifi_swlon]

It's still 6-9 VDC.

 

Jesus R

 

That's a shame, I was hoping to use the 5V linear I already have on my Pi2.

[sbank]

Jesus, can you give us some guidance on power supplies for the microRendu?

 

You have listed on the microRendu page:

 

Standard power supply

CIAudio linear power supply

Teddy Pardo linear power supply

Sonore Signature Series linear power supply

 

Questions:

 

1. I'd guess that is in ascending order of quality, with Standard being the least, and Sonore Signature being the best one. Is that correct?

 

 

2. What size/type of barrel connector do we need to connect to the microRendu?

 

Firedog, thanks for saving me all that typing of same question.

 

Jesus, if you are planning on stocking these power supplies and selling as package options with Microrendu, those package prices are certainly of great interest.

 

Perhaps a weird question for those of us on a tight budget, how would the SOSE + upgraded power supply stack up vs. the Microrendu with standard power supply?

 

Thanks for your efforts and patience with us all here. All this communication must be a constant test of self-restraint and a distraction from the design/manufacturing to boot.