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Article: Sonore microRendu Review, Part 1


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My Sonic Transporter and microRendu were delivered today. They're running in overnight.

Bought the "bundle" with the iFi PSU from Small Green Computer - great deal and lightning delivery.

sonicTransporter microRendu iFi bundle – Small Green Computer

 

I am jealous btw!! Have fun and enjoy them!!! I think this combo is great for people who don't upsample to DSD (well the transporter obviously, since the mR doesn't care about upsampling)...

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Good technique, it seems a lot cheaper now ;)

 

So the price of the combination reviewed was in fact $2,048. (I would have corrected my original post but that's not possible now.)

 

That this combo at circa $2K can 'better' an Aurender W20, as one example, is pretty incredible.

 

Looking forward to the part II and Chris' more detailed listening impressions.

 

Well we don't really know this for a fact, but what the mR will eventually achieve is for other competitors of streamers/servers to lower their prices (hopefully significantly). At least that's what logic says if you can achieve great sound with $649, compared to 2-5-10-20k streamers/servers...just my 2c

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Long post, well fairly long.

 

I have had the microRendu for a week now and the sonicTransporter for several days. The first and most striking thing that I realized was that these items work right out of box. I have messed around with Windows computers for audio for years and as Ted B said " ... Plug and Pray...". To get the level of performance this combination offers is certainly possible with multi-purpose computers but it is not easy or reliable. You wind up using optimizer programs, tuning programs and other various hacks and crutches none of which are designed to work together and they frequently do not. This is a hardware/software combo designed for music only and it works.

 

The sound quality is on par with anything that I was ever able to achieve using Windows computers. I will say that I never spent a lot of money on the hardware as some have but even if I had it would not be fair comparison as this two computer solution is only just over $1,000 depending on the power supply for the microRendu. The sound quality is very full and robust with an organic flow that is very seductive.

 

The software is simple to use and very intuitive. I am sure that there are bugs but for what I have used so far it just works. I have completely gotten away from the home library approach and only stream FLAC so I use the LMS 7.9 module (with the ickStream platform installed) on the sonicTransporter and the Squeezelite output mode on the microRendu. With this setup I can stream FLAC from Tidal, Deezer Elite or Qobuz (I have had all three).

 

For me this product combination is a dream come true as I was getting very tired of struggling with the Windows ecosystem just to play music. It always seemed like disaster lurked at every update. Music is an afterthought for MS and Windows has become very bloated and even more difficult to make work well as a music platform.

 

I await the next installment on the microRendu but these are my impressions for now.

 

Sorry for the outburst Chris.

 

If only I could upsample to DSD, the SonicTransporter would have been on my list. That thing looks sooooo sweet and a great solution!!!

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SMG has several more powerful versions of this type of appliance that may be able to run the upsampler. If they get enough requests maybe they will add HQ Player to the software suite of sonicOrbiter for those machines that can handle the load. It is worth a try to ask.

 

Also, there was some discussion on the Sonore sponsored thread about how to do this using another machine for the upsample but still using the sonicTransporter as the server. Check over there or email Jesus directly and I am sure they will help you get this figured out.

 

For me this was not an issue as my DAC (ML 390s processor) internally upsamples 44.1/16 to 352.8/24 before conversion and that is all I need for now. When I replace this DAC, I will be looking for the same solution so good luck.

 

Thanks for the response! I'll check it out for sure!

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Yes. I just wrapped up my west coast trip tonight and will return to Minnesota tomorrow. Will finish the review soon.

 

I was able to listen to the microRendu on an extremely high end system over the last three days. Wow this thing is good.

 

And that's what we like to hear!

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