Sonore UltraRendu vs my 8 year old fanless pc

[DLA123]

I’m looking for a more streamlined (lower maintenance) source experience to stream losslesss digital music through my 2-channel system. 

 

I’m wondering if it may be worth dropping 800 bucks for an ultrarendu to replace the little fanless htpc I built about 8 years ago (running jriver mc now to stream music I own). 

 

It seems with the ultrarendu i’ll gain ux-related improvement and be able to easily stream from tidal which is a main goal. 

 

My main question and reason for the thread is, what type of sonic improvement (if any) can I expect by replacing my pc (Windows7 os on a ssd, intel atom 330, fanless)- link below to product page for the mobo in my pc?https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AT3IONTI_DELUXE/

 

Those of you who have compared either the microrendu or ultrarendu to custom fanless PC’s, can you comment on the sonic comparison and on any other benefits? Sell me on the ultrarendu, or tell me the difference wont be worth it.

 

thanks in advance for feedback!

 

david 

 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, DLA123 said:

I’m looking for a more streamlined (lower maintenance) source experience to stream losslesss digital music through my 2-channel system. 

 

I’m wondering if it may be worth dropping 800 bucks for an ultrarendu to replace the little fanless htpc I built about 8 years ago (running jriver mc now to stream music I own). 

 

It seems with the ultrarendu i’ll gain ux-related improvement and be able to easily stream from tidal which is a main goal. 

 

My main question and reason for the thread is, what type of sonic improvement (if any) can I expect by replacing my pc (Windows7 os on a ssd, intel atom 330, fanless)- link below to product page for the mobo in my pc?https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AT3IONTI_DELUXE/

 

Those of you who have compared either the microrendu or ultrarendu to custom fanless PC’s, can you comment on the sonic comparison and on any other benefits? Sell me on the ultrarendu, or tell me the difference wont be worth it.

 

thanks in advance for feedback!

 

david 

 

I thought the mR when I had it improved the sound- a little cleaner and smoother than directly from the fanless server. Server is a CAPS IV Pipeline. 

[davide256]

you may want to do some reading on the last 5 pages of " the thread that never ends". Audiolinux booted to RAM on Celeron NUC w/ 8gb RAM is

getting thumbs up from people that have SoTM and xRendu endpoint products. I can attest that it helps on the PC Roonserver end. You do need

more horsepower on the server end, its doing a lot of processing, think i3 or equivalent... an Atom processor is  under powered for DSD or DSP

processing.

 

 

[diecaster]

@DLA123

 

If you want simple with a noticeably improvement in sound quality, it would be hard to beat the ultraRendu. The computer you use to stream to the ultraRendu does not matter as long as it has the horsepower to do what you need (which it probably does). 

 

A nice LPS powering the ultraRendu would be another step up in sound quality but you could wait to do that. Small Green Computer might even have a bundle.

 

I would be wary of what you read in that “thread that never ends”. If you look at the history, they have gone from crazy expensive word clock setups to custom NUC setups that defy logic. All the while claiming “massive” sound quality improvements every single step along the way with no one being able to explain how or why.

[Ralf11]

I'd keep the PC (and keep it well away from the DAC).

 

the ultrarendu has many fans and is returnable IIRC (OTOH, they are planning a new device for Ethernet)

 

can you briefly describe your system topology?

[DLA123]

5 hours ago, Ralf11 said:

I'd keep the PC (and keep it well away from the DAC).

 

the ultrarendu has many fans and is returnable IIRC (OTOH, they are planning a new device for Ethernet)

 

can you briefly describe your system topology?

Sure. The little form factor pc is running an intel atom 330 chip on a asus at3ionti deluxe motherboard. In that pc I have a ssd running Windows7 and jriver mc. Connected to that pc I have a 1tb spinning drive that hosts my flac/lossless digital music. 

 

The pc is connected to a MusicHall 25.3 usb dac which is connected to a Rega Mira3 integrated amp which powers 2 floorstanding Rega RS5 speakers.  

 

In my office down the hall I have a HPZ820 16 core w Xeon chipset. That room is connected to my router by cat5, as is the room where my stereo is. 

 

My thinking is that I can run something like a roon core on the office pc and access the saved music and play tidal streams through a rendu that is connected to the same router as my office pc. 

 

Would love any feedback relating to improving ux and/or sq. I generally prefer NOT to tinker w setup, config and maintenance once I complete initial setup.  

[MrUnderhill]

Having just sold my ultraRendu I would thoroughly recommend the audiolinux + NUC route. To my ears this was also better than the full SOtM stack & dCS Network Bridge.

 

M

[DLA123]

Got my UltraRendu hooked up and currently configured in Roon output mode, running a Roon core on a hp workstation down the hall running Xeon processor. 

 

On SQ:  seems on par with previous configuration which was a form factor pc running atom 330 processor and jriver, hooked up directly to usb dac and playing files from an attached spinning external drive.  No noticeable improvement in SQ but perhaps I’m not the most discernible listener (not A/Btesting or anything). 

 

All this said, I didn’t purchase this urendu for improved sq, but instead for improved ux and ability to stream tidal integrated w my music library. It was easy to hookup/configure and worked out of the box without tinkering. If I never have to mess w it again it was a purchase worth making.  

 

Going to experiment w some different output configurations before settling on Roon. Want to hear what HQ player sounds like as I’ve heard great things. Maybe tinker w the DSP a bit as well. Feedback welcome. 

 

 

[asdf1000]

6 hours ago, DLA123 said:

Got my UltraRendu hooked up and currently configured in Roon output mode, running a Roon core on a hp workstation down the hall running Xeon processor. 

 

On SQ:  seems on par with previous configuration which was a form factor pc running atom 330 processor and jriver, hooked up directly to usb dac and playing files from an attached spinning external drive.  No noticeable improvement in SQ but perhaps I’m not the most discernible listener (not A/Btesting or anything). 

 

All this said, I didn’t purchase this urendu for improved sq, but instead for improved ux and ability to stream tidal integrated w my music library. It was easy to hookup/configure and worked out of the box without tinkering. If I never have to mess w it again it was a purchase worth making.  

 

Going to experiment w some different output configurations before settling on Roon. Want to hear what HQ player sounds like as I’ve heard great things. Maybe tinker w the DSP a bit as well. Feedback welcome. 

 

 

 

Which USB DAC, if you don’t mind me asking? And which USB cable?

 

Cheers

[mrkoven]

de;ete

[DLA123]

 

 

 

On 12/10/2018 at 3:17 PM, Em2016 said:

 

Which USB DAC, if you don’t mind me asking? And which USB cable?

 

Cheers

 

MusicHall Dac 25.3 tube DAC and using a Pangea 25.00 USB cable

[vortecjr]

On 11/25/2018 at 3:11 PM, Ralf11 said:

the ultrarendu has many fans and is returnable IIRC (OTOH, they are planning a new device for Ethernet)

I'm not sure that you mean by that. We are not making a new Rendu with Ethernet network input. We are making a new Rendu with optical network input. We are also making a fiber media converter (FMC) so you can intermingle optical and cable Ethernet devices. The Rendu series has software we maintain and update periodically for you and both have FEMTO clocking and linear regulation on board.