Sonore microRendu

[Summit]

15 hours ago, OldBigEars said:

 

I believe the mR + Eitr is probably slightly better than Eitr direct from a MacBook Pro.  No regrets, from my personal experience.  I'll do a more thorough evaluation once I feel everything  is completely broken in and my ears are completely attuned to Roon (I've switched from A+). 

 

Important to note that I've already discredited Torq's Law....the tester on another site who led the theory that "Nothing else (except Eitr) matters."  He's wrong, of course.  The surrounding cables do in fact matter.  My experience with mR also suggests to me that it makes a clear difference.  It's not massive.  The Eitr is so good you can manage just fine with a simple computer set up - make no mistake.  Differences are marginal, but they are clearly there once you stop LISTENING and just relax and let the music play, as you normally would.

 

But I I don't think my experience with mR enables me to predict further improvements with either a power supply upgrade or with the 1.4 board.  Thanks for sharing your ideas.

 

Many are those that have experience clearly better sound by changing to a “better” PSU on mR and other similar products, me included. I think it’s hard to find any post impression on CA that have not got better sound after going from a Ifi to something like a LPS-1, than the same could be said about upgrade to 1.4 so I understand you.

 

To me however the upgrade on PSU was a bigger SQ improvement than going from mR 1.3 to uR. To me the mR already sound right with a MCRU LPS which it didn’t did with Ifi. With uR the difference was mostly in better clarity and enhanced refinement, but it can all be system depending I guess.

[Tait]

Been contemplating one of these for a while now. Currently using KEF LS50 Wireless speakers with a Bluesound Node 2 streamer.
Would a Microrendu provide an improvement over the Node 2?? I'm not a Roon user (not yet anyway!)

[miguelito]

1 hour ago, Tait said:

Been contemplating one of these for a while now. Currently using KEF LS50 Wireless speakers with a Bluesound Node 2 streamer.
Would a Microrendu provide an improvement over the Node 2?? I'm not a Roon user (not yet anyway!)

 

The KEFs support RoonReady now, I think, and maybe some other protocols? Maybe you can avoid any device at all? I was thinking of upnp and how now Audirvana can stream to that (at least in the microRendu case).

[vortecjr]

3 hours ago, Summit said:

 

Many are those that have experience clearly better sound by changing to a “better” PSU on mR and other similar products, me included. I think it’s hard to find any post impression on CA that have not got better sound after going from a Ifi to something like a LPS-1, than the same could be said about upgrade to 1.4 so I understand you.

 

To me however the upgrade on PSU was a bigger SQ improvement than going from mR 1.3 to uR. To me the mR already sound right with a MCRU LPS which it didn’t did with Ifi. With uR the difference was mostly in better clarity and enhanced refinement, but it can all be system depending I guess.

The LPS-1 should not be everyones last power supply. There are other power supplies you use in combination with the micro/ultraRendu. 

[Tait]

6 hours ago, miguelito said:

 

The KEFs support RoonReady now, I think, and maybe some other protocols? Maybe you can avoid any device at all? I was thinking of upnp and how now Audirvana can stream to that (at least in the microRendu case).

They will do shortly but I'm not planning on using Roon anytime soon (No laptop or PC atm).

Adding the Microrendu would be for purely improving sonic capabilities for me.

 

Anyone tried/use this setup?

 

[jaaptina]

My experience by comparison is that microRendu sounds clearly better than Aries Mini (both with LPS). When I bought Aries Mini the concensus was that it sounded better than Bluesound Node. So I would say yes. 

 

At www.digitalaudioreview.net DAR is very happy with KEF wireless and microRendu. 

[Tait]

6 hours ago, jaaptina said:

My experience by comparison is that microRendu sounds clearly better than Aries Mini (both with LPS). When I bought Aries Mini the concensus was that it sounded better than Bluesound Node. So I would say yes. 

 

At www.digitalaudioreview.net DAR is very happy with KEF wireless and microRendu. 

 

Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

 

I think it was DAR that said the Microrendu playing normal redbook files outperformed the MQA versions. If that's the case then losing the nodes MQA playback wouldn't be such a big deal.

[mrvco]

My µR keeps disappearing from Roon and from the management interface.  If I reboot the µR (sometimes) I'm able to see it in Roon and play music for maybe a minute.  If I click 'manage' from the MySonicOrbiter.com page sometimes it opens the µR index.php page, but most of the time I just get a "This site can't be reached" message.  I was having this same problem with HQP in the chain as well, but it wasn't as obvious whether the issue was with Roon, HQP or the µR.

 

Regardless of whether the µR is working or not, I'm able to ping the IP address assigned to the µR no problem.  I'm also playing to other devices via Roon (streaming and local file) without a hitch.

 

Any ideas on what I should try?  This thing has been 100% reliable since I received it in the very first batch shipped.  It also has the 2.5 card installed.

[mrvco]

On 10/10/2017 at 4:27 PM, mrvco said:

My µR keeps disappearing from Roon and from the management interface.  If I reboot the µR (sometimes) I'm able to see it in Roon and play music for maybe a minute.  If I click 'manage' from the MySonicOrbiter.com page sometimes it opens the µR index.php page, but most of the time I just get a "This site can't be reached" message.  I was having this same problem with HQP in the chain as well, but it wasn't as obvious whether the issue was with Roon, HQP or the µR.

 

Regardless of whether the µR is working or not, I'm able to ping the IP address assigned to the µR no problem.  I'm also playing to other devices via Roon (streaming and local file) without a hitch.

 

Any ideas on what I should try?  This thing has been 100% reliable since I received it in the very first batch shipped.  It also has the 2.5 card installed.

 

/bump

[ogs]

@mrvco

 

it is a bit difficult to know what is happening here. Is wifi involved?  It's known that uR/mR acts strange if USB connection to the DAC is unstable. Roon can easily loose connection in this scenario. Check with a different (known working) USB cable. If you have another USB DAC, try it.  You say you can ping the uR IP all the time. Is latency higher when the error is there?

[Yourmomm]

Hi. Sorry if this isnt the right place to post this... Please move it if not. 

 

My microrendu was working fine... Now for some reason it's just randomly stopped recognising my Oppo bdp 105d as a USB dac device. It still recognises my chord Mojo, no worries. I've tried different USB cables, and all possible turn on/off combinations of oppo, microrendu and roon PC core, all with no resolution of problem. No dac seen... I get the:

 

"Error in alsa-capabilities (v0.9.1): aplay did not find any soundcard." 

 

Error code in sonicorbiter settings. 

 

The oppo still works fine as a USB dac with a pc...Just not the microRendu. 

 

The only thing I can think is that the oppo firmware updated recently, but the microRendu was working since that update. It's just bizarre. 

 

Any ideas? 

[ogs]

This is definitely something for  @vortecjr Any chance of downgrading the Oppo firmware to the previous version? As the Mojo works in the same setting suspicion points to the Oppo. Did you try updating the mR?

[Yourmomm]

1 hour ago, ogs said:

This is definitely something for  @vortecjr Any chance of downgrading the Oppo firmware to the previous version? As the Mojo works in the same setting suspicion points to the Oppo. Did you try updating the mR?

Don't think downgrading is possible... Suspect I've wrecked my chances to ever rip dsd's too :-( yes to everything else... I'm suspecting oppo too... Mebbe dodgy solder joint at 'usb in' port, creating intermittent problems...? I managed to get it recognised by microrendu for about 30mins, but then it disappeared again, mid-track! Still haven't got it back... Lots of cable unplugging and replacing to no avail. 

 

I just wondered if there were known issues between oppo and microrendu... 

[mrvco]

7 hours ago, ogs said:

@mrvco

 

it is a bit difficult to know what is happening here. Is wifi involved?  It's known that uR/mR acts strange if USB connection to the DAC is unstable. Roon can easily loose connection in this scenario. Check with a different (known working) USB cable. If you have another USB DAC, try it.  You say you can ping the uR IP all the time. Is latency higher when the error is there?

 

No WiFi involved.  Would the USB cable cause the management UI and streaming application to stop responding over the Ethernet?  The µR is picking up and IP address from my DHCP server just fine and I'm able to ping it without interruption with no latency spikes or additional lag than any other device on my home network.

[ilia.smirnov]

MPD stops working after last 2.5 update.

 

I have a microRendu with 2.5 sd card and i'm using it with minimserver as mpd renderer. Everything works ok until today I hit update button in software manager. It updates something, i've rebooted the rendu and after that it won't show in every control app (i'm using linn kinsky & kazoo on mac and lumin, linn kinsky & kazoo on ios). Just "waiting for the room" and nothing happens. I'm using minimserver & mediaserver, both on synology, as is before the rendu update. Can see them inside apps, but there's no renderer

 

I can manage the device, it even plays ok via shairport, so hardware is fine. But there's no way to play it as usual.

[mrvco]

4 hours ago, mrvco said:

 

No WiFi involved.  Would the USB cable cause the management UI and streaming application to stop responding over the Ethernet?  The µR is picking up and IP address from my DHCP server just fine and I'm able to ping it without interruption with no latency spikes or additional lag than any other device on my home network.

 

Rebooted the µR and was able to access the management UI long enough to run software update.  I'm not sure if it actually updated anything, but it ran through the process.  Rebooted and it seems stable now in RoonReady mode.  I haven't tried HQP yet, but hopefully that is stable now as well.

[vortecjr]

It's best to keep the units up to date. 

[mrvco]

12 hours ago, vortecjr said:

It's best to keep the units up to date. 

 

How do I know whether there is an update available?  Current and Available software version showed 2.5 before and after executing the update process.

[vortecjr]

55 minutes ago, mrvco said:

 

How do I know whether there is an update available?  Current and Available software version showed 2.5 before and after executing the update process.

Just press the update button. 

[Yourmomm]

On 13/10/2017 at 9:16 PM, Yourmomm said:

Hi. Sorry if this isnt the right place to post this... Please move it if not. 

 

My microrendu was working fine... Now for some reason it's just randomly stopped recognising my Oppo bdp 105d as a USB dac device. It still recognises my chord Mojo, no worries. I've tried different USB cables, and all possible turn on/off combinations of oppo, microrendu and roon PC core, all with no resolution of problem. No dac seen... I get the:

 

"Error in alsa-capabilities (v0.9.1): aplay did not find any soundcard." 

 

Error code in sonicorbiter settings. 

 

The oppo still works fine as a USB dac with a pc...Just not the microRendu. 

 

The only thing I can think is that the oppo firmware updated recently, but the microRendu was working since that update. It's just bizarre. 

 

Any ideas? 

 

 

OK... An update here, for anyone else struggling with the oppo...

 

I’ve been having huge problems with my microrendu consistently seeing my Oppo bdp 105d as a usb dac…it sometimes connects, sometimes does not, sometimes loses connection, and can’t get it back when unplugging microrendu, etc etc. I tried every cycling order, loads of different cables, etc etc, all with no luck.

Then I did some research, and found out that there is a view that the oppo 105 usb implementation is REALLY poor, (unreliable and low quality, even when working), so I went through my cheapo usb isolator/converter box, (to SPDIF), and whammo, all problems instantly rectified. No more inconsistent connections, and sounds better to boot (despite advice from sonore that I needed to connect microrendu directly to USB, for best results, which I’m sure is true, except for the oppo).

It would seem that my oppo 105d, at least, does indeed have a poor usb implementation…perhaps anyone having similar problems can try usb conversion?

 

 

[Charente]

I've been reading about SMPS and their current leakage straying through the transformers of an Ethernet switch and therefore into the music chain. John Swenson has posted some very useful information and tips for overcoming this on another thread.

 

However, thinking about how this could affect my setup, I was wondering whether the microRendu design actually mitigates any such effects when it receives its input signal from Ethernet before outputting to USB ? 

[vortecjr]

I have been very busy this week, but I don't recall John posting that this noise gets into the DAC:) I said this on another thread over the weekend: 

 

There is not enough research posted by John to make a clear guideline of what is best. John didn't measure any of this at the analog output of a DAC so you may be correcting an issue that doesn't exist in your system. We don't know if this affects non bus powered DACs, galvanically isolated DACs, optically isolate DACs, balanced outputs on DACs, etc. 

[Charente]

Thank-you @vortecjr ... I'm clearly jumping the gun with my thinking !

[lgp]

On 7.10.2017 at 12:23 AM, vortecjr said:

Good work. 

Well, now it happened again and this time I am not able to get it working again. I've tried power cycling DAC and microRendu, updating microRendu and reconnecting the USB cable. I've done this in different order but I am still not able to get it working.

 

I would also like to mention the reboot function in the web GUI System -> Reboot has never worked properly since the device just shuts down and never boots up again. This may not be related to the other problems I have.

 

Any tips or solutions?

[JBNY]

35 minutes ago, lgp said:

I would also like to mention the reboot function in the web GUI System -> Reboot has never worked properly since the device just shuts down and never boots up again. This may not be related to the other problems I have.

 

 

I don't think it works for anyone. Mine does the same thing since a few months after launch.