Sonore microRendu

[Ebag4]

Recieved my unit, got it running without issue. Using linn kinski at the moment, simply because I had tried it with the Aries. No issue playing redbook, but unable to play DSD files, they won't load at all. I believe I played DSD files with Kinski on the Aries. Any ideas where I may have gone wrong? I have the microRendu connected to the Vega with the supplied usb hard connector.

 

Should my DAC be indicating any other rates than these:

Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000

 

Thanks,

Ed

[kennyb123]

My very first impression (in comparision to CAPS Pipeline dual PC config with Jplay) is that the Rendu was a little more polite/smooth. Second impression was that the sound seems to be coming from utter black/silent background and the dynamics are really quite good. Now I am wondering if the slightly less aggressive sound is due to the absence/minimization of PC noise?

 

The absence of noise can be jarring initially. We can get so used to it being there that we can think the music was meant to sound that way. Without it the music can sound thinner or lacking in other qualities we thought we liked. It can sometimes take time to adjust to the absence of noise.

 

I'm still adjusting to the microRendu in this regard. Some songs start off sounding unfamiliar due to the smoothness from the reduction of glare and hardness. I rarely encounter music I have to have Roon skip over due to unpleasant sound, which was all too often the case with the Aries and the Mac before it.

[ted_b]

Recieved my unit, got it running without issue. Using linn kinski at the moment, simply because I had tried it with the Aries. No issue playing redbook, but unable to play DSD files, they won't load at all. I believe I played DSD files with Kinski on the Aries. Any ideas where I may have gone wrong? I have the microRendu connected to the Vega with the supplied usb hard connector.

 

Should my DAC be indicating any other rates than these:

Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000

 

Thanks,

Ed

 

Those rates are all PCM. Are you using Minimserver? If so is DoP set?

[The Computer Audiophile]

Recieved my unit, got it running without issue. Using linn kinski at the moment, simply because I had tried it with the Aries. No issue playing redbook, but unable to play DSD files, they won't load at all. I believe I played DSD files with Kinski on the Aries. Any ideas where I may have gone wrong? I have the microRendu connected to the Vega with the supplied usb hard connector.

 

Should my DAC be indicating any other rates than these:

Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000

 

Thanks,

Ed

Have you enabled the DSD option in the output mode settings/app config on the microRendu?

[Ebag4]

Thanks for the response Ted. I have tried it both ways, Direct DSD checked and unchecked, no DSD either way. Yes, minimserver on my Synology NAS

Best,

Ed

[Ebag4]

Thanks Chris, I have looked but do not see anywhere to enable DSD, I have seen where you choose direct DSD vs DOP, is that what you are referring to?

 

Best,

Ed

[The Computer Audiophile]

Thanks Chris, I have looked but do not see anywhere to enable DSD, I have seen where you choose direct DSD vs DOP, is that what you are referring to?

 

Best,

Ed

Yes. What DAC?

[Ebag4]

Auralic Vega

[reeve_mike]

Thanks Chris, I have looked but do not see anywhere to enable DSD, I have seen where you choose direct DSD vs DOP, is that what you are referring to?

 

Best,

Ed

 

Hi Ed

 

Try setting Max PCM Sample Rate rate to Disable.

 

See my post #2320 further back in the thread.

 

Mike

[The Computer Audiophile]

Auralic Vega

Is it a very early version or does it have newer firmware?

[gldgate]

The absence of noise can be jarring initially. We can get so used to it being there that we can think the music was meant to sound that way. Without it the music can sound thinner or lacking in other qualities we thought we liked. It can sometimes take time to adjust to the absence of noise.

 

I'm still adjusting to the microRendu in this regard. Some songs start off sounding unfamiliar due to the smoothness from the reduction of glare and hardness. I rarely encounter music I have to have Roon skip over due to unpleasant sound, which was all too often the case with the Aries and the Mac before it.

 

That's my current guess as to what is going on. After years of listening to PC's, having a dedicated audio built device just sounds, well, a bit different at first and I need to acclimate my ears. I am still obviously in the "honeymoon" phase with the Rendu but Roon (which I always thought a step down SQ wise from other players) does sound might fine.

[Ebag4]

Chris, it is HW ver. 1.2, SW Ver 1.7., I play DSD files all the time via my Aries.

 

Mike, I dont see a spot to change that. I am probably making a basic error, this is what I have running now:

 

Minimserver running on my Synology NAS., the microRendu connected to my Auralic Vega, my output is MPD/DLNA and I am running Linn Kinski on my iPad.

 

Thanks for the help guys, it is appreciated.

 

Best,

Ed

[reeve_mike]

Chris, it is HW ver. 1.2, SW Ver 1.7., I play DSD files all the time via my Aries.

 

Mike, I dont see a spot to change that. I am probably making a basic error, this is what I have running now:

 

Minimserver running on my Synology NAS., the microRendu connected to my Auralic Vega, my output is MPD/DLNA and I am running Linn Kinski on my iPad.

 

Thanks for the help guys, it is appreciated.

 

Best,

Ed

 

Ed, Sorry, my comment relates to a Roon-based set up - now that I see your configuration it's not relevant. Mike

[earnmyturns]

That's my current guess as to what is going on. After years of listening to PC's, having a dedicated audio built device just sounds, well, a bit different at first and I need to acclimate my ears. I am still obviously in the "honeymoon" phase with the Rendu but Roon (which I always thought a step down SQ wise from other players) does sound might fine.

Interesting. I never listened to PCs. I started with a NAS and an integrated streamer/DAC/amp (Naim UnitiQute), moved to dedicated Ethernet>USB UPnP/DLNA setups for various systems at home (SOtM sMS-100, CuBox-i+Volumio, Sonicorbiter SE, all of these supplemented by Bel Canto mLink USB>S/PDIF, now uRendu directly to DAC). The uRendu (with Teddy Pardo PS) is the best of the lot, but the background has just moved from very dark to really black. I'm glad I never even considered feeding my DACs from PCs or Macs.

[chetthejet]

Received my uRendu today. My compliments to the design team on the ease of setup. It took me longer to move my server from my audio shelf to my downstairs then it did to hook the mRendu up, configure it and have it playing music. The device is physically way smaller than I'd anticipated, btw. Cool design!

 

As others have commented, with the iFi 9V power supply, the unit does (as John S. said) run "quite warm". I have it on its side but still pretty warm....

 

Is there an expectation that, if I were to purchase the new Uptone LPS-1 power supply, the uRendu would run any cooler???

[firedog]

Received my uRendu today. My compliments to the design team on the ease of setup. It took me longer to move my server from my audio shelf to my downstairs then it did to hook the mRendu up, configure it and have it playing music. The device is physically way smaller than I'd anticipated, btw. Cool design!

 

As others have commented, with the iFi 9V power supply, the unit does (as John S. said) run "quite warm". I have it on its side but still pretty warm....

 

Is there an expectation that, if I were to purchase the new Uptone LPS-1 power supply, the uRendu would run any cooler???

 

I believe Alex is going to sell the LPS-1 with the 7.5V MeanWell PS (for those that want it) as a "feeder" PS to the LPS-1. So your mR will run cooler than with the 9V iFi, unless you DAC is pulling lots of power over USB. If you DAC doesn't pull power over USB, it will run cooler with the LPS-1.

[vortecjr]

Chris, it is HW ver. 1.2, SW Ver 1.7., I play DSD files all the time via my Aries.

 

Mike, I dont see a spot to change that. I am probably making a basic error, this is what I have running now:

 

Minimserver running on my Synology NAS., the microRendu connected to my Auralic Vega, my output is MPD/DLNA and I am running Linn Kinski on my iPad.

 

Thanks for the help guys, it is appreciated.

 

Best,

Ed

 

Try this configuration in the MinimServer's configuration:

Rendu MinimServer setup with DoP

[DavidZ]

I got my urendu a couple of days ago, and thought I'd share this pic -- I have it sitting atop a pile of Mapleshade brass disks to get it up to the needed height of the Yggy's usb input. The pile may not look too convincing, but seems stable -- provided I don't trip on the LAN cable at some point.

 

I'm running it in the MPD/DLNA mode, with Minimserver running on a Zuma/Windows 8 box, using bubbleupnp on my Android as a control point. The Yggy's only been in my system for 5 days, so it is a total digital front-end makeover for me. I have the Mojo Joule V linear power supply -- its 2 outputs power the Zuma @ 12v and the urendu @ 7v. I've been cooking it for 48 hours, and it barely get warm to the touch.

 

And, it sounds just astonishingly good. Listening sessions are a hazard to anything else I'm supposed to be doing at the time, including sleep. There has been only one "hiccup" in terms of functionality. Bubblupnp has a list of network renderers it sees, including the urendu (I was using Jplaystreamer before). Once last nite in the middle of playing, the urendu dropped off that list. I got it back by rebooting the urendu, but if Jesus or anyone else knows what might cause this, it would be helpful. Thanks. -- David

[Ebag4]

Thanks Jesus, I will give that a shot when I get home tonight. It appears that this configuration will have my Synology NAS converting my DSF files to WAV format, probably not the best scenario for sound given my NAS is a DS214 Play unit and perhaps a little light on processing power.

 

It could be I am trying to swim against the current, if there is a better known solution than Linn Kinsky that will play DSD files from my NAS using Minimserver I am open to it. I am not married to Linn Kinsky in any way. Perhaps the MPD solution would work more cleanly. Is there a setup guide for MPD using the microRendu? I believe there is a mPad app that I could run on my iPad.

 

Best,

Ed

[ted_b]

mPad is a great remote app for MPD. For DLNA so is Linn's Kazoo, which then requires you to install Bubbleserver on the microRendu or the NAS. Buubbleserver simply provides virtual OpenHome capability, it is not in lieu of Minimserver despite the confusing "server" name. and OpenHome protocol is needed for control points like Kazoo, Aries Lightning, etc.

 

The Minimserver DoP settings, which I referenced earlier, do not convert DSF to wav, but instead containerize DSF for DoP playback.

[clipper]

Using it in RoonReady mode now. In the past I have preferred the Yggy in native mode to HQPlayer but will check out NAA later.

 

When you test the microRendu as NAA (with your Yggy), try it with no filtering, noiseshaping/dither or upsampling.

 

With the Yggy, I definitely prefer (by a big margin) Roon --> HQPlayer (with no filtering, noiseshaping/dither or upsampling) --> microRendu NAA versus just Roon --> microRendu (RoonReady mode).

[chetthejet]

I believe Alex is going to sell the LPS-1 with the 7.5V MeanWell PS (for those that want it) as a "feeder" PS to the LPS-1. So your mR will run cooler than with the 9V iFi, unless you DAC is pulling lots of power over USB. If you DAC doesn't pull power over USB, it will run cooler with the LPS-1.

 

Thanks, Firedog. Is there an easy way to tell if the DAC is pulling power (Benchmark DAC2 D)? Also, I have that MeanWell supply, so could I just try plugging the MeanWell into the uRendu or would that be a big mistake? I notice the Meanwell is 7.5V @ 2.93A and the iFi is 9V @ 2A and, due to my knowledge of electricity being near zero, I don't know whether that difference would cause any damage or not....

[André Gosselin]

Thanks Jesus, I will give that a shot when I get home tonight. It appears that this configuration will have my Synology NAS converting my DSF files to WAV format, probably not the best scenario for sound given my NAS is a DS214 Play unit and perhaps a little light on processing power.

 

It could be I am trying to swim against the current, if there is a better known solution than Linn Kinsky that will play DSD files from my NAS using Minimserver I am open to it. I am not married to Linn Kinsky in any way. Perhaps the MPD solution would work more cleanly. Is there a setup guide for MPD using the microRendu? I believe there is a mPad app that I could run on my iPad.

 

Best,

Ed

I am currently streaming DSD64 and DSD128 from minimserver to my mrendu connected to a Simaudio DAC using BubbleUPnP. Absolutely no issue. DOP transcoding has to be used however, since the mrendu does not have the driver needed to stream native DSD to the Simaudio DAC. On minimserver side, I tried both "no transcoding" and "dsf:dopwav" transcoding, with equal results. I then realized that the mrendu can do the DOP transcoding itself, so I settled for "no transcoding" on minimserver. In a previous post, I was wondering if offloading the DOP transcoding to minimserver could improve performance by saving a few cycles on the mrendu. Jesus reply seemed to indicate that it does not matter. Keep in mind that DOP formatting is simply an encapsulation of DSD to masquerade as PCM, and so is not a resource hungry process, and more importantly does not alter the nature of the original DSD signal.

 

For now, DOP transcoding has to be used to stream DSD from the microrendu to my DAC (Simaudio). I thought this had to be done at the music server level, eg Minimserver or AssetUPnP which both provide for DOP encapsulation of DSD data. I just realized that the microrendu can handle that itself. My question is thus : is it better to leave the DOP transcoding to the microrendu, or does it benefit the microrendu to offload this job to the music server ?

 

 

Either way.

hello

[fritzcurtis1]

Jesus, I have the M2tech Hiface Evo Two combined with the rendu and it sounds amazing. I recently tried to add the new Word/Master Clock piece that they sell separately as an add on unit. When I power on everything, I notice signal has a hard time locking on and it continually crashes the rendu. I have tried different sequences in powering everything up with no luck. Have you had others who are trying to use the M2tech Master clock have this issue?

[firedog]

Thanks, Firedog. Is there an easy way to tell if the DAC is pulling power (Benchmark DAC2 D)? Also, I have that MeanWell supply, so could I just try plugging the MeanWell into the uRendu or would that be a big mistake? I notice the Meanwell is 7.5V @ 2.93A and the iFi is 9V @ 2A and, due to my knowledge of electricity being near zero, I don't know whether that difference would cause any damage or not....

 

The quoted spec for the mR is 6-9V, so both PS are okay. You can write Benchmark and ask them if the DAC pulls power over USB (some DACs do, some don't). The MeanWell will work fine with the mR (I've done it). Try it and see what you think.