Budget UPnP/DLNA Renderer Suggestion?

[MikeyFresh]

4 hours ago, rlaudio said:

I see, ok, the picture is becoming clearer!  So if I purchase one of the DigiOne players and a freeware software solution like Volumio, I can just stream directly from Audirvana?  It will just show up as an endpoint for Audirvana in the Audio Device Selection Preferences?

 

It sure does with JRiver as the server, I have run both Volumio and Moode on RPi3 with no problems in UPnP Renderer mode using a JRiver DLNA server.

 

However my instance of Audirvana+ is the older v1.5 that did not offer UPnP capability, so I can't comment specifically there except to say I see no reason why it shouldn't work so long as you have Audirvana+ 3.1 or newer.

 

I believe it is known to work with Volumio, and I can see the ALLO Digione as an available choice in the audio config panel of Moode, so the only piece I can't test for you is Audirvana because my version is to old.

[MikeyFresh]

24 minutes ago, kbuzz said:

I’d like to reopen this thread as newbie who loves the audivarna platform with my Mac desktop and would like to buy an I expensive player renderer 

 

i have a router near my audio rig, so would the basic recommendation be a sonore micro Rendu >dac? 

 

But also wondering if a node 2i would be nice since I do use tidal 

 

The orchard  pecan pie and alo players also look price competitive but unsure if I can go right from audivarna to one of them? 

 

Thanks in in advance for any suggestions 

 

Using Audirvana+ as the media player software means you'd need a renderer that is UPnP compatible.

 

Both the Orchard Pecan Pie and Allo units are based on the Raspberry Pi single board computer, and can run renderer software such as Moode or Volumio which is DLNA/UPnP compliant, and thus they should work with Audirvana+.

 

Of the units you mention above, I think the Sonore microRendu is a cut above the rest. I own a microRendu, and also have various units I've built using the Raspberry Pi as the computing board, and either Moode or Volumio as the renderer software, both with external USB DACs, and so-called HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) DACs which connect directly to the RPi's GPIO pins.

 

The Orchard and Allo units you mention are RPi platform with their own HAT already assembled as the DAC. You can buy a finished unit like they are offering (Orchard's case looks really nice), or you can put it together yourself for less money.

 

Sonically I'd go with a microRendu assuming it's within budget, and you already have a suitable USB DAC to use with it.

 

You can even do multiform and have more than one renderer, my main system has a microRendu and then I also use the inexpensive RPi-based units for other rooms that are less critical in terms of sound quality and partnering equipment. To change rooms in Audirvana+ you just go into the preferences and select the room you want, looks something like this: