Sonore microRendu

[Dev]

I assume you are using the intona after the urendu, not before...?

 

 

The Intona can _only_ be used after the uRendu, not before.

[cat6man]

since i won't get my uRendu until June, i can't test this out myself.

 

one of the critical things i've found over the past 2 years of streaming audio with a logitech touch and then a sonic orbiter with battery power is that streaming WAV sounded clearly better than streaming flac in my system (ymmv).

can some of your try some direct WAV/FLAC comparisons and see if the uRendu effectively eliminates the need for WAV?

 

thanks folks

[kennyb123]

Tonight I swapped out the Curious short cable for the hard adapter into my W4S DAC2-DSDse. I never would have believed it, but the hard adapter sounds better. Especially since, when I used the Regen, the opposite was true. The Curious cable was way better.

 

The opposite was true for me too with the REGEN. I will try the hard adapter tonight hopefully.

[ted_b]

I am not one to want to start any more flac vs wav discussions (we've had hundreds) but realize that with uncompressed flac (I'm not talking "0" setting I'm talking uncompressed) the discussion changes. It's basically wav with tags.

[Dev]

The opposite was true for me too with the REGEN. I will try the hard adapter tonight hopefully.

 

If the hard adapter indeed sounds better than the others, I need two of them with uR and Intona in chain. Where can I buy another one of the exact quality ?

[ted_b]

If you all notice what I noticed (while upsampling to DSD128 with URendu in NAA mode) the hard adapter is much more detailed and brings about a certain immediacy, as if the sizzle of the performer's guitar amp is energizing the room. Space is amazingly rendered. HOWEVER, there is a tradeoff; there is a slight hardness to the sound that might turn you off on certain music. It's not a panacea, but it is staying until I find something that ameliorates the final specs of hardness.

[André Gosselin]

If the hard adapter indeed sounds better than the others, I need two of them with uR and Intona in chain. Where can I buy another one of the exact quality ?

Why two of them ? Could you explain your setup ?

[vortecjr]

Oh good grief! While I assume you are just joking, I'd best nip this in the bud before some here start calling for a comparison of the adapters. AFAIK the MicroRendu and REGEN ship with exact same adapter--I connected Jesus with my source months ago.

 

Same connector.

 

BTW Looking forward to the Uptone Audio LPS-1 / microRendu combination.

[Doak]

Tonight I swapped out the Curious short cable for the hard adapter into my W4S DAC2-DSDse. I never would have believed it, but the hard adapter sounds better. Especially since, when I used the Regen, the opposite was true. The Curious cable was way better. I'm using the iFi power supply for now. Anyone care to explain this?

 

Colin

 

While I can't explain it, my experience is also different than with Regen. I've well over 100 hours on the Sonic Transporter>mRendu set up. I started with the hard connector then at maybe 30-40 hours switched to and preferred my .7m Supra USB. I've recently put the hard connecter back in and I think I can better hear its positives now. I'll listen to it for a couple of days/sessions and give it another chance.

 

It can seem to tend towards a hardness in the sound though this does sound to me to be software dependent. Could be possible that it is just being more honest. Time will tell.

ps: IMO total honestly may not always be the best way to go, not for everyone/every system.

[Forehaven]

I've got nearly 200hrs on mine now. It's a slow process for sure, but well worth the patience. Like most other first evals, I'm incredibly impressed with this product. Tbh, I wasn't expecting as much as in the past, it was more incremental. This product feels like a big jump for me. This makes music, real music. An incred. ability to hear deeper into the music and instruments. Instruments from the sax, to acoustic guitar, percussive drums, piano all sounded like real instruments. Plus the obvious, way more detail/resolution, bass, midrange presence...transparency. You name it, everything improved. And, for me, especially so with the Crown amps that are powerful, neutral yet musical.

 

This is the best sound I've had to date. Simply put. Well done Sonore and Uptone. And this is 'only' DSD256 with my Mini. It's maxed out right now running HQP and Roon. So I'm incredibly curious as to DSD512 thru Windows...and perhaps a better DAC. Thinking of Vinnie's LIO or that T&A DAC8. Either way, I bet a high quality DSD DAC, combined with the microRendu, one could be near sonic heaven

 

Oh, this is with iFi iPower. This is the best and only supply I have on hand.

[kennyb123]

I'm temporarily back to the Aries as my microRendu is out on loan to a good friend.

 

Not a pleasant experience going back to the Aries. The microRendu really spoiled me.

 

Auralic is going to have to seriously up their game.

[HumanMedia]

Finally got my microRendu.

 

Swapped out my Squeezebox Touch, putting the microRendu in its place.

Powered up DAC, then microRendu.

Logged into sonicorbiter.com, clicked on microrendu, clicked on Squeezeplay, named it the same as previous Squeezebox, select DoP.

Selected some music to play.

It plays perfectly without a glitch! even DSD128, took no more than 5 minutes and no further fiddling.

 

Put a big playlist together with every format of music I have to burn it in and will revisit it later tonight for some serious listening. But even with 5 mins on it it sounded great.

 

Will try some different USB cables in a few days. (Currently my USB preferences are: Chord SilverPlus > Supra > Curious > hard adapter). I am also trying out an Elijah Audio Konvertible CU, which has the midrange clarity of the Curious but without the rolloff of the Curious. Also the stock Silver Konvertible was definitely not to my taste but the CU version is a contender up with the Chord Silverplus.)

 

PS. Oh there was one small tweak I needed to make to make the transition from Squeezebox to MicroRendu - set my player volume to 100%

 

So far I am very happy with what I am hearing.

[wanta911]

Not a pleasant experience going back to the Aries. The microRendu really spoiled me.

 

Interesting....care to elaborate a little more?

[Iving]

Will the price of the microRendu remain stable in the near-to-medium future (let's say its first 12 months-ish)?

What with:

- production lead times;

- my own learning curve re understanding technical complexities;

- waiting for user verdicts and their experiences with power supplies (especially the Uptone LPS-1) etc;

all combined with projection of my own finances, developing saving opportunities and strategising possible upgrade paths, it could be just a little while before I am ready to join the throng of happy listeners.

TIA

[firedog]

I'm temporarily back to the Aries as my microRendu is out on loan to a good friend.

 

Not a pleasant experience going back to the Aries. The microRendu really spoiled me.

 

Auralic is going to have to seriously up their game.

 

They announced at Munich that they are going to bring out a "super Aries" model.

[hornytoad]

I'm temporarily back to the Aries as my microRendu is out on loan to a good friend.

 

Not a pleasant experience going back to the Aries. The microRendu really spoiled me.

 

Auralic is going to have to seriously up their game.

 

Can a music streamer feeding the same dac make this much of a difference ?

 

Is so , buying a 600 dollar device vs a 1500 dollar Aries is a no brainer.

[manisandher]

Parcelforce (UK) delivered my mR to me this morning I only had 10-15 minutes before I had to jump into a car to the airport. But I managed to get it connected and up and running. A few observations:

 

1. My music server has 4 ethernet connectors built in (5, if you include the IPMI connector). One is connected to the internet, the other 3 are not. I had to 'share' the internet connection with the ethernet connection to the mR for the Sonicorbiter web page to recognize the mR.

 

2. My Phasure NOS1a DAC is not recognized What a bummer, as this is by far the best DAC I've ever heard. Maybe PeterSt will consider developing a Linux driver at some point?

 

3. My iFi DSD DAC is recognized I'll do all of my subsequent reporting using this DAC.

 

4. Having been connected for only 10 minutes, the case was already pretty hot. Not too hot to burn your finger or anything, but still... pretty hot. I'm using the iFi 9v PSU. I will definitely be ordering an Uptone LPS-1 so am not particularly bothered about this.

 

More when I return in a week or so's time.

 

Mani.

[hifi_swlon]

Finally got mine powered up last night too

 

I won't do any listening impressions yet, but I was taken with how small and lightweight it is in the flesh - it's lighter (and a lot sleeker) than the 'business end' of the totaldac USB cable I'm using with it right now.

 

It was certainly easy to setup - the hardest part was getting the plastic wrapper off the ifi box, and then working out how to open it. After that it was plain sailing. Took me a minute to find how to set it up for RoonReady mode (practically nothing required) and I was done. It was interesting to compare the difference in packaging etc between ifi and the rendu - the ifi being much sleeker and more 'high street', whereas the rendu had a more 'bleeding edge' feel about it

 

One thing that really interests me having read a few posts here - I was expecting it to run fairly hot with the ifi 9V. Yet, this morning I touched it after it had been playing all night and it was barely warm to touch, slightly above body temp.

Where does the discrepancy come from? Is it based on 'work' the device is doing? My library is mainly full of redbook and Tidal, so perhaps it gets hotter if its pushing HD and DSD? I'm in the UK and it's into a Devialet 200.

 

Hopefully get some time to do more listening this week, and then I'll report on that properly...

[mdconnelly]

In my experience (last 12 days), the uRendu with the iFi PS pretty much stayed at the same temperature regardless of what was playing. It was always warm to touch but never hot. Even when nothing was playing, if it was plugged in, it stayed warm.

[firedog]

Where does the discrepancy come from? Is it based on 'work' the device is doing?

 

One factor could be if your DAC draws any power thru the mR. I assumes that even if the DAC is drawing only a small amount (vs. none) that could make a difference.

[MikeyFresh]

Finally got mine powered up last night too

 

I won't do any listening impressions yet, but I was taken with how small and lightweight it is in the flesh - it's lighter (and a lot sleeker) than the 'business end' of the totaldac USB cable I'm using with it right now.

 

It was certainly easy to setup - the hardest part was getting the plastic wrapper off the ifi box, and then working out how to open it. After that it was plain sailing. Took me a minute to find how to set it up for RoonReady mode (practically nothing required) and I was done. It was interesting to compare the difference in packaging etc between ifi and the rendu - the ifi being much sleeker and more 'high street', whereas the rendu had a more 'bleeding edge' feel about it

 

One thing that really interests me having read a few posts here - I was expecting it to run fairly hot with the ifi 9V. Yet, this morning I touched it after it had been playing all night and it was barely warm to touch, slightly above body temp.

Where does the discrepancy come from? Is it based on 'work' the device is doing? My library is mainly full of redbook and Tidal, so perhaps it gets hotter if its pushing HD and DSD? I'm in the UK and it's into a Devialet 200.

 

Hopefully get some time to do more listening this week, and then I'll report on that properly...

 

 

I'm also using the iPower 9v and running barely warm to the touch. Like a previous post mentions, it seems not to matter what I'm streaming in terms of bit depth/sample rate etc... same barely warm to the touch temperature regardless.

[Storytime]

Just got mine set up last night. Wow, was that easy!! Took all of 15 minutes, and that counts peeling the paper backing off the rubber feet and sticking them on--by far the most challenging part of the set-up for me! I'm running Roon straight up (no HQ Player), and it sounded very good for zero warm-up time. Might add HQ Player later, but I'm streaming to a Yggdrasil DAC, which does its own upsampling and doesn't do DSD, so I don't see the point. (But if someone wants to tell me why it would be a worthwhile move, I'd welcome more information.) The Yggy's USB input is located directly above all the other digital inputs, so the hard adapter was a no-go for me. I'm using a regular consumer-grade USB cable for now, and in a few days I'll receive and try out an LH Labs Lightspeed 2G USB split cable. I'll let you all know how that one sounds.

 

Once again, I'd really like to thank Jesus, John, Andrew, et al., for a super-smooth set-up experience. It really works as flawlessly as advertised. I kept waiting for some hitch or error message during the installation, but all I got was great-sounding music, right off the bat. Can't wait to hear what it sounds like after a hundred hours of burn-in.

[The Computer Audiophile]

Just got mine set up last night. Wow, was that easy!! Took all of 15 minutes, and that counts peeling the paper backing off the rubber feet and sticking them on--by far the most challenging part of the set-up for me! I'm running Roon straight up (no HQ Player), and it sounded very good for zero warm-up time. Might add HQ Player later, but I'm streaming to a Yggdrasil DAC, which does its own upsampling and doesn't do DSD, so I don't see the point. (But if someone wants to tell me why it would be a worthwhile move, I'd welcome more information.) The Yggy's USB input is located directly above all the other digital inputs, so the hard adapter was a no-go for me. I'm using a regular consumer-grade USB cable for now, and in a few days I'll receive and try out an LH Labs Lightspeed 2G USB split cable. I'll let you all know how that one sounds.

 

Once again, I'd really like to thank Jesus, John, Andrew, et al., for a super-smooth set-up experience. It really works as flawlessly as advertised. I kept waiting for some hitch or error message during the installation, but all I got was great-sounding music, right off the bat. Can't wait to hear what it sounds like after a hundred hours of burn-in.

Hi Storytime - Are you sure the split cable will work with the single USB port in the microRendu?

[André Gosselin]

Just got mine set up last night. Wow, was that easy!! Took all of 15 minutes, and that counts peeling the paper backing off the rubber feet and sticking them on--by far the most challenging part of the set-up for me!

Your unit was shipped with stickable rubber feet ? Strange, mine came without that. Very, very mute point. Just curious.

[firedog]

Your unit was shipped with stickable rubber feet ? Strange, mine came without that. Very, very mute point. Just curious.

 

they are very small and wrapped in cellophane. Possible you missed them or accidentally threw them out?