Sonore opticalRendu

[cat6man]

On 1/11/2019 at 5:16 PM, vortecjr said:

There will be one SFP module provided with the opticalRendu and one SFP module provided with the starter kit. These will be available on both the Sonore and Small Green Computer website. Anyway, these two SFP modules are matching and work with the supplied cable and gear so no worries. 

 

When the opticalModule is made available it will also be supplies one SFP module with it.

 

The idea is make things as simple as possible, but it's very simple to use. My VP had no optical experience and he had his opticalRendu up and running with no support.

 

Based on my years in the tech industry, if a VP can set it up, it is REALLY simple to do!

[cat6man]

On 1/13/2019 at 2:04 PM, vortecjr said:

I post a lot more information here so this is your best bet.

 

Keys things to know:

1. opticalRendu - optical cable input and USB-Audio output. coming soon.

2. opticalModule - optical Ethernet to cable Ethernet converter or cable Ethernet to optical Ethernet converter. coming shortly after #1 above. 

3. SFP - Small Form-Factor Pluggable transceiver. These SFPs plug into the network slot of the opticalRendu, opticalModule or your switch. We are providing these with our gear and the optical cable connects to it. 

4. Starter kit - Generic accessories bundled together to get you started with optical networking.

 

Jesus,

For your consideration:

How about offering a 2nd SFP as an option?  I have fiber today but with a different connector, so I'd need another SFP to plug into my router anyway.  Keeps it simple!

[cat6man]

On 1/13/2019 at 5:34 AM, octaviars said:

 

If you already have a fiber cable to your equipment comming from a switch with fiberoutput for example you can use that directly to an opticalrendu or a use a opticalmodule to get ordinary ethernet to a renderer.

 

 

 

 

 

not necessarily...........i have a fiber fmc but with a different connector, so i need a new SFP to go into one of my netgear routers

[cat6man]

Jesus,

Any chance of an aes/ebu output from the opticalRendu?

[cat6man]

note to all:

 

if you are planning on using single mode simplex fiber, the SFP must be in matched pairs so that the Tx and Rx wavelengths line up properly.

 

Jesus:

you noted you were going to offer an option to purchase a 2nd SFP with the opticalRendu.

can you also offer an option to leave out the SFP if we already have a set?

 

p.s. I've run 15m of single mode simplex fiber from my router........only one piece missing now

[cat6man]

On 2/6/2019 at 8:10 AM, vortecjr said:

Production update

 

The production boards arrived yesterday and a few are shipping out to our team members today for internal testing. As best as I can tell the enclosures which should arrive first of March. 

 

If you are interested in this product please sign up to the Sonore mailing list on our website at www.sonore.us or through this direct link:

https://www.sonore.us/mailing-list.html

 

 

any feedback from internal testers you care to  share?

[cat6man]

5 hours ago, vortecjr said:

He is testing an opticalRendu board installed in a Signature Rendu SE enclosure with it's power supply.  

 

Jesus,

Feed us some crumbs here..............any feedback on opticalRendu vs. ultraRendu from internal testers that can be shared?

[cat6man]

5 minutes ago, barrows said:

Did you watch Chris' quick bit video on the opticalRendu?

 

yup, old news here.............looking for new news

[cat6man]

On 2/17/2019 at 8:45 AM, vortecjr said:

The testing is going great:)

 

Hi Jesus,

 

That qualifies as a crumb

 

I'm just a little grumpy because I sold my ultraRendu and the sound of my system has taken a big step downward using just a cubox

 

I'm sure it will be worth the wait as you guys have a proven track record with me.

 

Cheers (and get back to work!)

 

[cat6man]

On 2/26/2019 at 5:26 AM, Mercman said:

 

I agree with Barrows that the Signature Rendu SE sounds best without added USB enhancement devices. I am looking forward to the optical upgrade for the SE.

 

YMMV as it will be dependent, at minimum, on your DAC

my DAC sounds better with aes/ebu than with usb

 

there is no one size fits all answer

[cat6man]

40 minutes ago, barrows said:

Is that with the Signature Rendu SE as the source?  The point being that quality of the USB output from he source makes a huge difference.  Many Rendu users find that with a Rendu, the USB input on their DAC becomes the best input, even if with other sources it was not.

 

with multiple Rendu units, including ultraRendu with lps-1.2.

the usb output direct to dac was compared to usb output feeding various adapters that converted to aes/ebu.

in every case, aes/ebu sounded better with my DAC.

this was true with my DAC using moderately priced D->D converters (e.g. sotm dx-usbHD and Matrix) and high end (TotalDAC reclocker--the best by far).

 

i'm looking forward to feeding my TotalDAC reclocker with the opticalRendu as further reducing upstream noise is clearly important.

just changing the ultraRendu power supply from lps-1 to lps-1.2 was immediately audible, even with a reclocker after the ultraRendu!

 

i have not tried the signature unit though, so i can't comment on that specifically.

 

update:  this does raise the issue of whether or not a super power supply would further elevate the opticalRendu in my configuration.........guess i'll have to wait until April to start investigating that question.   i'll start with the lps-1.2 but i'll be very interested in the feedback of others who may try other power supply units.

 

[cat6man]

3 hours ago, vortecjr said:

I have another customer that really likes his TotalDAC reclocker when feed by a microRendu.

 

looking forward here to having TotalDAC reclocker fed by opticalRendu

 

sold my ultraRendu and currently using a cubox/sonicorbiter which is no match for any Rendu!

[cat6man]

On 4/10/2019 at 6:50 PM, vortecjr said:

Not yet. We are working hard thought and I should be able to post some news this weekend.

 

I know that New England is celebrating Patriot's Day today, so maybe this counts as a 3 day weekend?

Can you share an update Jesus?

[cat6man]

1 hour ago, Ralf11 said:

Didn't they change that to Deflatriot's Day?

nah, nothing to do with football.

a revolutionary war remembrance, celebrated with morning baseball at fenway park and the boston marathon.

now also the anniversary of the marathon bombing

[cat6man]

check this out (read from bottom up)...........at 6:53am today, my opticalRendu was 5 miles from my house (at the Newark, NJ distribution center) but was apparently left on the truck and was next seen in Lehigh, PA, from which it quickly departed and hopefully started its journey back here.................aaarrrrgggghhhhhh...................usps is still quoting delivery tomorrow

 

May 23, 2019, 1:48 pm
Departed USPS Regional Facility
LEHIGH VALLEY PA DISTRIBUTION CENTER 
Your item departed our USPS facility in LEHIGH VALLEY PA DISTRIBUTION CENTER on May 23, 2019 at 1:48 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

---

May 23, 2019, 1:47 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
LEHIGH VALLEY PA DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 23, 2019, 6:53 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
NEWARK NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 23, 2019, 1:32 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
NASHUA NH DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 22, 2019, 9:22 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
NASHUA NH DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 22, 2019, 6:01 pm
Departed Post Office
BEDFORD, NH 03110 

---

May 22, 2019, 4:19 pm
USPS picked up item
BEDFORD, NH 03110 

[cat6man]

47 minutes ago, cat6man said:

check this out (read from bottom up)...........at 6:53am today, my opticalRendu was 5 miles from my house (at the Newark, NJ distribution center) but was apparently left on the truck and was next seen in Lehigh, PA, from which it quickly departed and hopefully started its journey back here.................aaarrrrgggghhhhhh...................usps is still quoting delivery tomorrow

 

May 23, 2019, 1:48 pm
Departed USPS Regional Facility
LEHIGH VALLEY PA DISTRIBUTION CENTER 
Your item departed our USPS facility in LEHIGH VALLEY PA DISTRIBUTION CENTER on May 23, 2019 at 1:48 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

---

May 23, 2019, 1:47 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
LEHIGH VALLEY PA DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 23, 2019, 6:53 am
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
NEWARK NJ DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 23, 2019, 1:32 am
Departed USPS Regional Facility
NASHUA NH DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 22, 2019, 9:22 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Origin Facility
NASHUA NH DISTRIBUTION CENTER 

---

May 22, 2019, 6:01 pm
Departed Post Office
BEDFORD, NH 03110 

---

May 22, 2019, 4:19 pm
USPS picked up item
BEDFORD, NH 03110 

 

 

May 23, 2019, 9:30 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Facility
PHILADELPHIA PA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER 
Your item arrived at our USPS facility in PHILADELPHIA PA NETWORK DISTRIBUTION CENTER on May 23, 2019 at 9:30 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

 

wow, now it's in Philadelphia.........does someone get extra mileage points?  is this someone testing a new AI 'traveling salesman' algorithm?

[cat6man]

5 hours ago, lestes said:

I live in the Lehigh Valley and my unit arrives Saturday.  They could have just left yours with me!  

 

 

well, from Lehigh Valley they sent it to Philadelphia, then back to Newark at 8am this morning, giving me hope I'd get it today.

however after holding it all day in Newark, at 5:23pm today it was recorded as sent from Newark to Kearny, NJ........maybe everyone at usps has left early for the long weekend and they are shipping stuff around to get their desks clear and pass the potato

 

hopefully they won't keep it until after the holiday weekend.

 

KEY POINT:  those of you who have received your units, why are there no reviews of audio quality????????????

[cat6man]

after a tour of the northeast US, the USPS found my house after all...............powered up with lps-1.2, added my optical connection, configured and had it running in 15 minutes....................letting it warm up now

 

will connect to DAC after dinner and will have to see if HQPLAYER settings.xml needs to be changed

 

NAS==>hqplayerd(nuc running ubuntu, bionic beaver)==>cat6==>24 port 1G switch==>6 port 10G switch==>optical==>opticalRendu(naa mode)==>usb into TotalDAC reclocker==>aes/ebu into TotalDAC DAC

[cat6man]

19 hours ago, Sonic77 said:

Finally got some time to listen to the opticalRendu last night, even though I received my oR on Thursday. I thought it did sound different when I first hooked it up then when I listened on Saturday night, so maybe some break in happened there. I am using hqplayer desktop 4.0.3 as the software playback which I purchased earlier this week. The sound is extraordinary, I'm hearing lots more detail then before, the songs almost sound like different songs because of all the new detail, where sounds blurred together I'm getting more separation of instruments and clarity of voices. I am using the starter kit while I wait for the opticalModule, I didn't have a problem with set up, since I already own the microRendu, and ultraRendu, using sonicorbiter which was already set up on my computer, just had to choose the opticalRendu as the rendu to play back using hqplayer. My power supply is the Sonore signature power supply, my dac is the Resonessence Mirus Dac, my preamp is PS Audio BHK signature preamp, my amps are the PS Audio BHK 300's monoblocs, my interconnects and speaker wires are Iconoclast, my Ethernet cable is AQ diamond. I'm looking forward to other peoples reviews.

 

can you tell us what the comparison is being made to?

opticalRendu replaced ?, an ultraRendu with the same power supply?

[cat6man]

sorry i can't contribute a detailed review yet, but i got my OR just before beginning a trip and only had a short period to listen.

 

in the 48 hours i had the OR hooked up to my system with an lps-1.2, neither item seemed excessively hot, the sound was good (though I really didn't do any critical listening).  i'm sure it will be nicely warmed up and broken in when i get back in a week or so.

 

on the other hand, reports of more detail across the entire spectrum and, in particular, hearing chairs creaking(!) and the movement of spit inside the singer's mouth, sound to me like audio reviewer holy grail.  aren't we all dying to hear more into the recording?

 

in my experience, from sonic orbiter on a cubox to microRendu to ultraRendu, these streamers have consistently improved, and shined even more with great DC power.  i expect no less here, but will want to experiment with both power supply and DC cable and usb cable before i draw any conclusions.

 

for now, i'm happy with my portable system but even with a good player and iem, low level detail s(and chair squeeks) tend to be obscured by jet engine noise.

[cat6man]

On 6/3/2019 at 12:28 AM, JohnSwenson said:

Of course that depends on how much money you want to spend. The best sound will be from an opticalRendu and opticalModule. Plug the opticalModule into the switch with a short Ethernet cable, plug your existing optical cable into the opticalModule and the other end of the fiber cable into the opticalRendu.

 

If you don't want to spend that much the least expensive upgrade is an opticalModule in place of the existing FMC. There are various options with ultraRendus with intermediate cost.

 

An opticalRendu connected to the existing fiber cable, without the opticalModule at the switch end, is going to sound considerably better than the microRendu with the opticalModule feeding it. I still think it will sound better than an opticalModule feeding an ultraRendu, but the best is the opticalModule feeding the opticalRendu.

 

Lots of ways you can mix and match the parts.

 

John S.

 

hi john/jesus:

 

i want to see if i understand this correctly, as i may have missed something important here.

 

are you saying that an opticalModule, with short ethernet from my network switch, will sound better than simply using the single mode optical SFP output from my network switch?

 

i guess i 'heard' folks saying that the cheap optical converters were not very good (and my experience is that they made my ultraRendu sound worse) but i had thought that the optical connection to the opticalRendu cleaned things up.

in other words, i thought (hoped?) that the opticalRendu made the uplink source irrelevant

 

so, what is the consensus on SFP at network switch==>opticalRendu vs. having the opticalModule do the conversion to optical?

 

since i'm away from home on travel, I'll give you all a week to resolve this critical question for me

 

i'm not really interested in "is A is better than B", more like 'what give the BEST' sound

 

 

[cat6man]

Thanks John.  A very cogent summary.

 

I understand the jitter issue and how complex it can be (going back at least to Duttweiler's classic paper in the BSTJ on jitter accumulation in repeater chains!).  It also explains why some folks have reported that multiple jitter reduction devices in series can be beneficial, but of course YMMV depending on the specifics of your system.

 

So let me re-phrase my question more carefully to this esteemed community:

 

If you have an optical connection from their network router to your opticalRendu, have you tried adding an opticalModule in between?

Do you hear further improvement?

Please share your results with this forum and include details such as network router equipment, how you are powering your various network devices and what DAC you are using.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

 

[cat6man]

2 hours ago, incus said:

 

 

The oRendu has officially knocked the sMS-200 Ultra SE out of my headphone playback chain for good. I know many with laugh/object/get their knickers in a twist when I say this - but it sounds best with two SOtM switches before it - the first one takes the Ethernet signal (via SOtM cables) from the modem and the server, then connects optically to the second SOtM switch which connects optically (obviously) to the oRendu. So triple reclocking and double optical isolation!  The oRendu plays into my mScaler/Hugo TT2 combo. Best my headphones have sounded since I started this hobby so many years ago... There is obviously more going on than just optical isolation helping with leakage. Those clocks and new parts are something else . Fantastic frequency balance along with seductive transients, gorgeous trailing edges, incredible air and ease around the notes, rock-solid timing, and a full-bodied, organic tone. I feel I am much more a part of the musical event - witnessing as it starts and unfolds in a much more direct way. It's uncanny at times, in fact, how inside the music I feel now. Everything has slowed down so the notes are observable, tangible, hovering in 3d space, whatever you want to call it. I am very grateful to be able to have such a tactile experience, to participate in the music in this way, almost giddy in fact... I've spent a long time "searching for the sound" and this is one of those products that brings me palpably closer. Great job, Sonore!

 

great report..........thank you.

this is more evidence that, in a very hi-rez system, the upstream jitter/reclocking can matter (YMMV).

in my case, i've enough suggestive info to go ahead an order an optical module to place by my network router and reclcok before the long feed to opticalRendu..

 

by the way, the comment that 'everything has slowed down' is my key indicator for great sound.  when that happens, i hear magic.

NOTE:  i once attained a level where i had that experience but stupidly changed a few things in my system that "should not" have made a difference (usb cables, psu, etc) and lost the magic..............lesson==>don't screw around after you achieve magic unless you are very careful to keep track of what you change so that you can get back to where you were

[cat6man]

4 hours ago, R1200CL said:

 

Go to HQPlayer thread. It’s a known issue. 

 

i installed my opticalRendu just before leaving on a trip and had no problem with using it as an NAA.

could you summarize the 'known' issue please? (that's a long thread)

 

i did have one annoying problem (which i repeatedly relive since i usually forget it) and that was losing connectivity when the IP address changed on me, so i had to go to my router and assign a static IP

[cat6man]

On 6/12/2019 at 6:07 PM, sahmen said:

So is the deafening silence I am detecting here the sound of all the opticalRendus out there burning in, or their enjoyment?  I am just hunting for owner's impressions, so if any owners care to chime in at this time, their contributions would be welcome.

 

 

here is my impression, reported in the optical Module thread for reasons that will be obvious when read