Sonore ultraRendu v1.3

[zettelsm]

Outstanding customer service should be recognized:

 

I was having a problem with playing native files via my Sonore ultraRendu music streamer to my Playback Designs Merlot DAC. I could play DSD64 and DSD128 files via DoP, but since my DAC tops out at 384kHz PCM, the only way I could play my DSD256 files was by down-sampling them to DSD128 and using DoP.

 

I mentioned this not too long ago to Jesus R of Sonore, Andrew G of Small Green Computer, and Andreas Koch of Playback Designs and they began collaborating on a fix for the ultraRendu not playing DSD files natively via the ultraRendu.

 

Well, a half hour ago Jesus logged onto my network via TeamViewer and installed a firmware patch in the ultraRendu operating system.

 

I'm now able to play DSD all the way up to the capability of the DAC (DSD256) natively via Roon, Roon/HQPlayer and HQPlayer by itself.

 

This was a problem that had to affect only a tiny number of ultraRendu/Playback Designs Merlot DAC users, maybe only me. And it really wasn’t a big deal in the scheme of things. I could still play DSD files in their native resolution via DoP to DSD128, and play my handful of DSD256 files by down-sampling to DSD128, so it wasn’t like I couldn’t enjoy my music.

 

Not only did these three men take time out of their busy days to work this out, but instead of waiting until the next firmware update as he easily could have, Jesus took the time to install the patch on my ultraRendu and made sure I got it working. Yeah, you could say he needed to see if it would work and I was his beta tester, but still this kind of customer service is pretty rare outside of the small business/one man show-sized audio companies. And the one man shows have got to have the highest demands on the time of that one man of any business scenario.

 

I can’t speak highly enough of Jesus', Andrew’s and Andreas' customer service. Truly outstanding.

 

Steve Z

[zettelsm]

Jamesg11,

 

Jesus mentioned to Andreas that it would be incorporated into the next firmware update when it is pushed out to the general population. What that means for users of other DACs I can't say. It surely won't break them. For users of Playback Designs Merlot DACs it means that they can now play DSD files natively to the full capability of their DAC without using DoP. I'm sure Jesus can elaborate more what this means for other users.

 

I'm agnostic about sq issues concerning DoP vs. native DSD; the issue for me when I had to use DoP was DoP topped out at DSD128 because the max sample rate my DAC will do in PCM is 384. So my DSD256 files had to be converted to DSD128, in my case by Roon or HQPlayer before I could play them.

 

As I wrote above, not a big issue in the overall scheme of things since there is not a lot of commercial content out there yet in DSD256, though HDTT has some excellent titles transferred from tape to DSD256. It's nice to be able to enjoy really good recordings in as high a DSD rate as possible, particularly as the Merlot DAC does such a great job playing DSD. If as I hope there is a Playback Designs Pinot ADC in my future my collection of vinyl transferred to DSD256 will grow quite a bit.

 

Steve Z