Rendu Support Thread

[OldBigEars]

I have to say, the past hour or two have been a massively frustrating experience.   I received my mR today - 1.3 board - downloaded Roon, and proceeded to slowly follow the configuration process.  2 hours later, all I can get is sound playing through my MacBook.

 

First impressions of Roon?  Prime example of a ridiculously over-complicated product.  I hate it. Makes me want to run, screaming, back to Audirvana. Layers and layers of useless clutter; can't find anything. I really don't need an encyclopedia  about every artist I'm listening to.  I just want to listen to the music, and I want speedy navigation.  Get me the heck out of here. 

 

Sonore?  Pretty Mickey Mouse.  Practically zero information in the set up instructions if things aren't working.  It kind of assumes you're a computer nerd if you want to use their product. Big fat zero, so far. 

 

Before you wonder....everything 'appears' to be correctly configured.  The mR appears to be seeing my Schiit Eitr.  Roon and Tidal are set up.

 

I take my hat off to all you folks with the  capability to make this stuff play music.

 

I'm about to give up :-(

 

 

[OldBigEars]

13 hours ago, vortecjr said:

I understand that you are having issues with your Schitt Eitr. The Schitt Eitr USB interface reports to our operating system a streaming format that it does not appear to support. It's working fine for some and not for others so they may have firmware variations in the field. I sent an email to Schitt letting them know and I have not heard back from them. BTW I love Mickey Mouse, but I don't appreciate our work being ridiculed in a public forum.        

 

Well I do apologize for the Micky reference, especially as I eventually figured out that the problem resulted from me not entering correctly the DAC type.  My bad, although I would respectfully suggest you could do well to improve the way this question is expressed.  After about 2 hours, I cracked the code and got everything going just after midnight.  

 

My experience with Roon amplified my frustration ten fold and led to my inexcusably rude outburst.  It's a personal view of course, but I'll drop Roon at the first opportunity.  Even the most simple tasks are, IMHO, obscure or smothered in needless complexity.  While we're talking - how do you delete an album from your Roon library?  It's a bit like being a tourist in Kazakhstan (no offense...) and trying to buy a beer.  

 

So I eventually cracked it with my new mR and am enjoying the fruits of my work last night, with a fine glass of wine listening to Pat Metheny.  It sounds very nice.  No need to bother Schiit, in this particular case.

[OldBigEars]

My mR has recently developed a problem.  It randomly stops playing - typically after about 15-20 mins.  Doesn't matter if it's streaming Tidal or playing FLAC's from my MBP (SSD). It doesn't lose connection, it simply stops playing the track - sometimes right in the middle.  I can't reliably say that this occurs with any particular action or event.  It seems entirely spontaneous.

 

Initially I thought the problem was Roon, but then found the same issue with Audirvana.  Obviously, I've re-installed the mR and all associated connected devices multiple times, carefully following directions.  No joy.  

 

When I take out my mR and connect the MBP directly to my Schiit Eitr - voila, no problem.  Except of course the sound quality takes a major turn south.  So the problem is evidently the microRendu.

 

Hopefully someone can help me sort this out.  My mR is a 1.3, powered by IFI iPower.

 

Just to reiterate, this problem just started out of the blue, after about 2 months with my current setup.  This week I turned everything off for a few days as I was away from home.  Since then I've had this problem.

 

 

[OldBigEars]

On 11/1/2017 at 1:58 PM, lgp said:

The DAC never showed up in DAC Diagnostics but it did after this procedure:

1. Replaced my USB cable with an inexpensive usb cable for printers. Nothing happened.
2. Inserted a coax cable from my Oppo player to my DAC and everything ok.
3. Connected the DAC to my MacBook via printer usb cable and the DAC was working fine.
4. Reinserted the cable to microRendu and the DAC was not showing up.
5. Rebooted the microRendu via Web GUI and (out of nowhere!) is showed up in DAC Diagnostics!
6. Replaced the chip printer usb cable with my more expensive cable and everything is still fine!

So now I'm finally sitting and listening to music again but the frustration is quite high but luckily 101 Eastbound by Fourplay is soothing 

 

So what can I do to get the microRendu run more stable? Is upgrade the only solution? Or maybe I should upgrade for other reasons?

 

 

Something very similar happened to me.  I was having random drop-outs for a few days.  I did almost exactly the same thing as you and it seems like I'm back in business.  No idea what started the problem, but it may have stemmed from when I was testing different networks on my router.  There will be no more testing of that type so *hopefully* microRendu will behave in future.  Funnily enough, I also celebrated with a bit of....um...Fourplay.  Esprit de Four in my case.

[OldBigEars]

6 hours ago, firedog said:

Obvious, but check all the connections and make sure they are solid; sometimes they look okay but contact isn’t good.

Second, it may be a network issue. Do you have another router to try? Or a network switch you can obtain/borrow to add in between the server+ mR and router? Either of those might stabilize your setup. I had similar problems till I added a switch.

 

Thanks, it seems to have miraculously corrected itself.  I can't honestly pinpoint what cured it other than all kinds of reconnecting, rebooting and reinstalling. I do have 2 networks (one for the TV) and this may have been the source of the problem.  Seems OK now.  The only remaining issue I have is that my mR only plays up to 24/96 files.  As soon as I switch upsampling above 96 it kills the sound.  It's only slightly annoying as I'm not a fan of upsampling beyond 24/96. But I'm curious as to why it won't work.

[OldBigEars]

4 hours ago, firedog said:

What mode are you using the mR in? If it won't play  back anything above 24/96, their is probably a settings issue somewhere in your setup. 

 

I use Roon and Audirvana.  It that what you are referring to as the mode?  Either player cuts off when set above 96.

[OldBigEars]

7 minutes ago, thijazi said:

I had a similar issue when I first installed the ultrarendu and it drove me nuts, it would play everything fine up to 176kHz and those would cut off within a few seconds of playback. In the end it turned out that my switch was not set to "Flow Control" which did not optimize throughput, once I corrected this setting at the switch everything works now perfect.

 

Thanks for your info - can you let me know where to find the "flow control switch"?  Is that somewhere in mysonicorbiter.com ?

 

I'm not aware of microRendu having such a switch.

[OldBigEars]

Hi,  I'm not making much progress with this problem....  my mR 1.3 has the 2.5 card.  The problem is that it will only play files up to 24/96.  Any time I set 192  - whether I use Roon or Audirvana - it just cuts the sound.  I then need to reset the bitrate to a max of 96 and restart the player.  My DAC is a Hegel HD25, and is set to play 192 files.  I believe I've eliminated other factors from suspicion, such as the Schiit Eitr.  Just can't figure this out - I'm guessing it must be something in the settings but it seems that I've tried everything.  Your help would be appreciated.

[OldBigEars]

On 11/12/2017 at 7:51 PM, vortecjr said:

Can you post an image of Apps / DAC Diagnostics?

 

Hopefully you can see the image of my Apps/DAC diagnostics?

 

Thanks for your advice on how to solve this.

[OldBigEars]

More endless testing this morning....looks like the Eitr is the problem.  Anything over 96 kHz not working.

 

I'll reach out to Schiit directly

 

[OldBigEars]

2 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

Try that configuration just the same.

 

Thanks - I've tried that already, as you've mentioned it before.  It didn't resolve the problem.

[OldBigEars]

59 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

Can you confirm that you get playback with and with out that configuration just not above 96kHz?

 

Exactly - I get playback with that configuration but it won't play over 96kHz.

 

 

[OldBigEars]

I am trying some minor DSP adjustments in Roon.  Don't know what you mean by wired settings.  I use Power of 2 Sample Rate Conversion with Headroom Adjustment of -2 decibels.  Sometimes I switch it off.  If I use max PCM rate it cuts off.

[OldBigEars]

2 hours ago, vortecjr said:

Will it play above 96 kHz if you remove all DSP functions? 

 

Do you mean if I play a native 192 kHz file?  I have one, I think.   Otherwise, the only way to play above 96 kHz is by using DSP, no?

[OldBigEars]

19 hours ago, jos said:

MeToo, it seems to me as a minor update. How about the sound? I can’t judge, because just before upgrading I replaced my generic cat6 cable to the very nice sounding Supra Cat8, or is it just wishful thinking?

 

I spent an hour or so with 2.6 last night and think there could be distinctly more bass and warmth than 2.5.  Obviously you can't go back and forth to verify, but that was the my first short session impression.  

[OldBigEars]

19 minutes ago, miguelito said:

Hmmm... You could have kept a microSD with 2.5...  It's  easy to clone.

 

That probably would have been smart.  However...only first impressions....but I think I'm liking the new sound.  I use Roon with very delicate PEQ adjustments.  Maybe I can turn down the bass a half-click with 2.6.  I'll test more and confirm.

[OldBigEars]

3 hours ago, jos said:

Version 2.6 is working fine. But I would advise to deliver MQA someday, because it wil be a huge selling point.

 

+1

[OldBigEars]

1 hour ago, diecaster said:

 

I used the iFi with my ultraRendu when I first bought it. I was not impressed with the sound quality of the ultraRendu at that point. When I replaced the iPower with the the Teddy Pardo, the ultraRendu did impress me. The difference was not small......

 

I had a very similar experience with microrendu 1.4.  I was disappointed by the performance with the IFI - frankly I couldn't say it was better than direct USB from my MacBook Pro.  And then, after talking to Adrian at Sonore, I bought a CI Audio 7v power supply in preference to the LPS 1.  The improvement in SQ was massive.  

[OldBigEars]

My mR 1.4 has worked great for a year or two.  It has the 2.7 Sonicorbiter SD card.

 

But recently my mR has been reluctant to reboot.

 

I often need to reboot as I'm still switching between Roon and Audirvana - can't decide which I prefer.  I'm finding that rebooting when I switch has become extremely difficult, requiring lots of repeated efforts.

 

Any suggestions?

[OldBigEars]

Another ominous misbehavior tonight.  My mR 1.4 just cut out for about 30 secs.  Lost it connection.  Then found it again by itself. This is new and frankly it’s disheartening.  Once upon a time we bought equipment fully expecting it to last (many) years.  Hopefully we haven’t yet reached the point where 2 years is all that’s expected. 

[OldBigEars]

On 11/11/2019 at 2:35 PM, bobflood said:

This sounds like a power blip. Check your power supply and if you have an alternate, power it with that and see if the problem persists. I had the same issue on my mR and it turned out my LPS-1was failing so Alex at Uptone replaced it as mine was still under warranty at the time.

 

@bibflood Belated thanks for your advice.  You could be right...

 

The problem's got worse.  My mR drops out of Room approx every 15 mins - then, it restarts a minute of so later.  I can't stand it any more - completely ruins a listening session.  There seems to be two possible or likely culprits:

- my CI Audio 7v power supply, which has worked faultlessly for the past couple of years

- my mR 1.4 with 2.7 card.  

 

@vortecjr has suggested buying a new card. Obviously not a huge outlay but seems crazy to have to replace the card so soon.

The CI Audio PS seems more likely to be the issue.  I'll call them tomorrow to discuss. It's under their 5 year warranty so hopefully they'll back it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[OldBigEars]

13 hours ago, vortecjr said:

Let's add a third culprit.

 

Please log into your router and look for a setting named DHCP Lease. When you find this settings make the DHCP Lease time 8 days and press Save. This should be a global setting, but some routers might have a port specific settings you can tweak. Mine was set to 10 minutes and causing me periodic issues during testing today. After increasing the time all issues are now gone.

 

 

Another thing you can try while you are in the router is to assign the Rendu a fixed IP address in your routers settings.

 

I eventually found my way to the router settings you mention....and found that it was set to 1440 minutes.  As this seems pretty lengthy I decided not to change it for the 8 day period you suggest.  

 

My plan is to simply try plugging in different ways until I identify where the issue lies.  I've got an iPower 9v that I'll try instead of the CI Audio.

 

[OldBigEars]

On 12/9/2019 at 9:45 PM, vortecjr said:

Okay. Good plan.

 

I think the testing has reached a conclusion...

• Subbing in my spare iPower 9v instead of the CI Audio - exact same result.  Connection randomly lost after 15-30 mins. So the CI Audio 7v PS is clear.
• Despite what I said, I went ahead and increased the DHCP lease to the equivalent of 8 days. Whatever....
• Have tried a multitude of power outlets - with / without power conditioner.  Same result.

So that leaves the microRendu....just keeps losing connection.  

 

Should I replace the card?  Is that likely to fix it? Was there a warranty on the 2.7 card?

 

Not a happy camper.

 

PS I should mention that I often notice the mR cuts out when the heating thermostat kicks in.  I don't think it always happens at this time - but often.

 

 

[OldBigEars]

I think I've nailed it - problem solved!  After reading John Swenson's advice about how to stop Etheregen's dropping off the network, I simply locked my microRendu's IP address in the router.  Et voila!

 

Funny how this has never occurred before, and then suddenly this happened.  But I'm delighted to get back to listening to music, instead of switching flippin' cables. 

 

 

[OldBigEars]

On 12/13/2019 at 8:21 AM, vortecjr said:

Nice work...enjoy!

 

(I'm trying to be calm....)

 

I apparently celebrated too soon.  Two weeks ago I thought I solved my intermittent network disconnection problem by going into my Verizon Fios router and setting the IP address to 'static'.  Since then, no more drop-outs every10-15 mins.

 

This evening.... the problem's back worse than before.   It seems to be losing connection faster and then inexplicably reconnecting moments later.  To make matters worse, I seem to be unable to reset my router back to 'dynamic' mode (i.e. not static).  No easy backwards step there.  I feel completely out of my depth messing around with advanced router settings, in any case.

 

What to do next?  I've tried rebooting the router, powering down my microRendu and restarting it.  Resaving all the settings etc. Multiple times.  After 2 years owning a mR I've become familiar with the fun and games of saving settings etc.  These days my mR often seems unwilling to reboot.  Sometimes yes - sometimes no.

 

This is completely ridiculous. My microRendu was only upgraded to 1.4 two years ago.  

 

Dead already?  Tell me it's not so.