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Rendu Support Thread


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Thank you for your reply, baddog.

 

My router is a Google Fiber "network box" designed, I believe, to work optimally with their 1 Gig fiber feed to my house. That box feeds a wired cat 5 network in my condo. At the end of one of those wires upstairs and out of sight is a Time Capsule (fourth generation). So its hardwired to the Google router and is set up to broadcast dual-band wi-fi through my home, which it does very well. For this reason the Airport Extreme seemed like an easy add on to give me the connectivity in my listening room (downstairs) I need for the microRendu.

 

My largest concern now is not so much setting up a NAS (since my Macbook holds my little collection just fine). It's learning how to stream Tidal through the microRendu without having the benefit of A+ that I'm loving. I do not want to subscribe to Roon, which appears to be the easiest way for the microRendu to be Tidal ready.

 

What caught my eye about the microRendu was its promise of SQ and isolation of computer noise from my DAC. But now I see this could get complicated ;)

 

 

Thanks again. Will study the thread you referenced.

 

I'm not a Mac user so I don't know much about A+, but I did a quick perusal of the A+ FAQ and it says you can output to airplay, the microRendu can be setup as an airplay device so you should be able to use it directly with A+. I have no idea if there are any limitations to this, others that are more Mac knowledgeable than me will have to answer that.

 

John S.

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@john - Airplay playback is usually constrained to just redbook quality files ( in fact devices such as the Apple TV play all audio at 16/48 ). FWIW.

 

I did a quick perusal of this on the net and I wasn't sure where the limitation comes from. Everything I ran across was using iTunes to send out over airplay, I'm not sure if the limitation is in the protocol or something put in by iTunes.

 

Has anybody ever tried using the A+ airplay output specifically with Shairport? Since this would not be using iTunes nor Apple hardware on the receiving side it might just support higher rates, but probably not.

 

John S.

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Will the microrendu work with amps with integrated Dacs like the Nuprime Ida-8 . This amp will not work with streamers like the Aries via USB . USB will only work with a computer

 

The FAQ says the DAC does not need a driver for Macs, so that means it is a UAC2 compliant input, so it should work with the microRendu.

 

But your comment that it does not work with Aries seems to indicate otherwise.

 

Is there some place on the web where it talks about not working with the Aries? It may just be that DSD256 doesn't work, not that the whole thing doesn't work.

 

John S.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hello. Another Dummie here with a potential dummy question.

 

I'm considereing the microRendu in a similar setup as the OP. I already have an Airport Extreme base station in my home that acts as the main router for our network. It is connected via ethernet to an iMAC where all of the music files are stored. If I get a microRendu in my lsitening room which is in a different room of the house, I understand I'll need some way of connecting ethernet to it - people have suggested using something like an airport express or those powerline ethernet extenders. However, I happen to have a Buffalo Air Station Wireless-G Ethernet Converter (Model WLI-TX4-G54HP) that I bought several years ago to use with a device in another hobby. I no longer have need to use that device, so the Buffalo ethernet converter is available. Does anyone know if this will work in this new setup?

 

It should work, G is a little slow by modern standards, but it should be all right for most uses. If you use really high rates such as PCM 384 or DSD256 or DSD512 it may not be fast enough.

 

John S.

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Thanks for the inputs. This is pretty much what I was thinking the responses would be: 'worth a try'.

 

Now for the real decision though. Whether to get the microRendu right now or not? For the past several years I have been using a Squeezebox Touch and LMS to wirelessly stream music to my stereo system. I honestly dont have a lot of complaints. This works pretty well for me and the sound quality is decent. My main reason for looking at these newer products is basically out of curiosity and to get an idea of what is out there in case my Squeezebox Touch ever stops working or becomes obsolete somehow. So what I need to decide is whether buying the microRendu now would be worth it. Sounds like it will basically do the same thing as what I am doing now. But I'm open-minded and looking for opinions from others about what the microRendu brings to my system.

 

Are you running the SBT analog out to the system or using the USB out to a DAC? The microRendo will need an external DAC. If you already have a decent USB DAC its sound when fed from the microRendu is almost certainly going to be much better than when fed from the SBT.

 

Pretty much any USB DAC on the planet when fed by the microRendu is going to sound better than the analog outs of the SBT.

 

The microRendu can do amazing transformations on inexpensive USB DACs.

 

The microRendu itself has no user interface, so you will some other form of control (which you probably already have). An SBT can even be setup as a controller for it.

 

The microRendu doesn't bring any new functionality to a squeeze universe, what it does is bring much better sound quality.

 

John S.

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  • 1 month later...
Thanks again guys.

 

It seems I've misunderstood the uRendo product altogether; it struck me as a specialized hardware player that could also handle networking chores. Which I don't need.

 

Music server products really do confuse me with their various features and proprietary setups.

 

Though I'm comfortable with OSX and can troubleshoot and maintain my Macs, I'm not a computer enthusiast, and have no need for or interest in networking. Online music streaming services have nothing I want. The only music I listen to online is off-the-radar stuff found on internet freeform radio and Youtube. There is only one desktop here. I don't use mobile devices (much). I avoid WiFi for performance and security.

 

If there was a compelling need for networking here, I'd learn to set it up. Otherwise, I won't bother.

 

So I guess I need to go back and try other software players. Or throw $1K at a mainstream hardware player, like Marantz.

 

I'll try it (if it really is some kind of standalone software player), but I am skeptical of Blow Away claims. I've tried several software players, and the only one that sounded significantly different was HQPlayer. But it was so different that I suspect all the upsampling options were only distorting the original music signal, even if it was pleasing at times. Plus it was a kludge to work (no ALAC).

 

I've been content with iTunes for playback, and adding BitPerfect - for cheap - allowed playing hi-res files on the fly without having to access AudioMidi. The only reason I need to change is that I've lost gapless capability in BP with the latest iTunes "update."

 

I'll give Pono/JR a try, and otherwise butt out of the uRendu discussion. I appreciate the clear responses.

 

First off lets cover the word "network", it seems it means different things to different people and that is causing some confusion. Network is NOT the same thing as "internet", in this context it is a connection between computers which may be either a cable or WiFi (among others). Note, the microRendu IS a specialized computer, so any use of it requires a network of some sort, it may just be a single Ethernet cable between it and another computer, or it may be a more complex system.

 

Lets ignore specific implementations and look at what YOU would ideally like your system to look like, then we can flesh out how to implement that.

 

1) where do you want the music files to reside? In a computer in the listening room, in a computer in a different room?

 

2) What do you want to use to control the playback? You mention you have an iMac, do you want to use that for control? Do you want to use a tablet? do you want to use a smart phone? Some other computer?

 

3) what is the input to your DAC? USB, SPDIF or something else?

 

4) how far away is the DAC from your listening position?

 

5) do you have an existing network in your house? If yes do you have an Ethernet cable from this network into your listening room?

 

Once we get the answers to these questions we can start working out specific recommendations that will meet your requirements.

 

John S.

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Thanks, that's a helpful clarification. Although I'm now thinking a microRendu is overkill here.

 

1. The music files already exist in HDDs, with backup, outside the music room.

 

2. The iMac is in the listening room. It's dead-quiet (SSD). I've been using it to play via iTunes/BitPerfect, and am content to continue this way. I might be interested to use an iPod Touch, but only via Bluetooth. No WiFi. There is no home decor here; the room doesn't have to look a certain way. Cables are OK, WiFi is not.

 

3. The DAC is an iFi Nano, USB connection is the only option. Currently connected direct to iMac (no hub).

 

4. The DAC is near the desktop; it's small, USB-powered, and can be moved.

 

5. No existing network. I have an Airport Extreme as a router, nearby the iMac. All hardwired Ethernet, with an available port. WiFi is deliberately disabled.

 

I've set up simple file-sharing networks via Ethernet (when there was a 2nd desktop, gone now). I'd like to avoid unnecessary complexity, and have a player that plays a mix of 16/44 and high-res files (no DSD) on the fly. Like iTunes/BitPerfect did, before the last update tanked. I'd also like this "controller" to manage a library in the same manner that iTunes does, so I don't have to edit metadata. OR, simply resume using iTunes as library management.

 

Given the responses, and my own misunderstanding, I sense that I should just continue to explore other software players.

 

But I'm certainly willing to learn more stuff here. Thanx.

 

How are the HDDs that store the music connected to the iMac? Long USB cables? Long firewire cables? Those HDDs in another room must have some form of cables coming out of them, what are those cables and what do they attach to?

 

You keep saying you have no network in your house, then you say you have an Airport Extreme. Is it turned off and not connected to anything? If it is connected to something then you DO have a network in your house. It may not be connected to the audio system, but if the Extreme is connected to something you DO have a network.

 

We're not trying to be difficult here, just trying to understand what your existing system looks like and what you want to do.

 

BTW the microRendu is all about improving sound quality, not necessarily massively changing functionality. By putting functions such as drives, displays, keyboards etc on another computer, it can be a very streamlined computer that produces a much cleaner USB signal that will significantly improve sound quality for most DACs. In your situation you have a very high probability that a system with the microRendu is going to sound way better than what you have now.

 

In order to do so you need to setup a system where the HDDs storing the music files are not directly connected to the microRendu, they need to be connected to some other computer, the control of the playing (the human interaction) is also done through another computer, it may be the same as the HDDs are connected to or it may be different.

 

Given the above, it is perfectly doable to continue to use the iMac in the same way as currently, with the microRendu connected by a short USB cable to the DAC, and an Ethernet cable from the iMac to the microRendu. Think of the microRendu and the DAC forming an Etherent DAC, so you connect between the iMac and the (combo) DAC with Ethernet cable instead of USB cable.

 

The one difference is that you will have to change control software on the iMac, iTunes does not know how to talk to an Ethernet DAC, but there are MANY MANY programs you can choose from that do, many of which are free.

 

But before we get into that, lets first clarify what you actually have right now, how those HDDs get connected to the iMac and what is that Airport Extreme actually doing right now.

 

Is any of this making any sense?

 

John S.

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Hi there,

I'm a little bit in trouble and need some help.

Received my mR today (via vortexbox.co.uk) and connected it to my network.

But I'm not able to find the device on my network. Checked sonicorbiter.com first, than my router. There is no device.

There is only the yellow lan led flashing, the green led shows nothing at all.

If I put my ear to the mR I can hear a sound like .. hard to say .. "schrrrr" not very loud only when holding directly to the ear.

I ejected the sd card (with no power connected to the mR) and put it to my macbook which could not initialize it, or the say it wasn't able to read it.

I'm using the ifi power which came with the mR from vortex box.co.uk

I checked the lan cable and connection which my macbook to be sure it is not the cable.

I'm a bit frustrated now look for help...

 

You should definitely not run it without the SD card inserted. The SD card is a Linux image, it cannot be read as a normal filesystem by a computer. Please do not try and do anything with it on another computer, that could corrupt the image on the card.

 

The green light means it is connected to a gigabit Ethernet switch, do you know the speed of the switch you have it connected to?

 

When you power it up watch the yellow light, it should come on and flash for a second or two right after power is applied, then go off for 15 seconds or so, them come back on and stay flickering. Does yours do this?

 

If it does this it is a good indication it has booted up and is connecting to something. Do you have a separate switch between the router and the microRendu? If yes can you check to make sure another device plugged into the same switch is connecting to the router?

 

Issues like this usually wind up being something like the cable is unplugged, or a bad cable, or the switch is turned off etc.

 

If it is on a separate switch try it plugged directly into the router. If already plugged into the router try a different port on the router etc.

 

John S.

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  • 1 month later...
Thanks.....as one who remembers 8 track tapes fondly......I'm slowly absorbing all this bits stuff.

 

Is LMS pointing to exactly the same disk location as iTunes? The playlist file will specify a file location, using the method of the OS iTunes is running on. If LMS is running on an OS that uses a different method of specifying a file location it won't be able to read the files. (for example OSX and Windows use a different format for file location)

 

Can you post a snippet of one of these files and tell us what OS iTunes and LMS are running on? That will probably help in debugging this.

 

John S.

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Hi,

Thanks John for your reply.

My ITunes library (created on OSX) resides entirely in my NAS and LMS is run by the NAS OS (some form of Linux).

 

I am not sure if this is what you would like to see:

 

Here is the file path of my iTunes library residing in the NAS.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28856[/ATTACH]

 

Here is the file path of the same library as seen by LMS

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28857[/ATTACH]

 

The other piece of information is a sample of one of the playlist files so we can see exactly how the playlist references the files.

 

John S.

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Like this?

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28859[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks again,

 

What I was after is what is actually inside the m3u file itself. Bring the file up in a text editor and show us the actual lines of text in the file. Don't do this with the music application but normal OS text viewing application.

 

I want to see if the full path IN the M3U file looks exactly like how LMS is seeing the path to the music files.

 

Thanks,

 

John S.

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I think this is it:

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28897[/ATTACH]

 

Thanks,

 

That's it! Look at the starting of the path name in that m3u file and compare it to the start of the path name that LMS uses. In iTunes it starts with /Volumes/ but on LMS it starts with /volume1/ , iTunes has an uppercase "V" VS LMS with a lowercase "v", and iTunes ends in "s" VS LMS which ends in "1".

 

What this means is that the computers iTunes and LMS run on have the NAS mounted under different names, so LMS will never find the files as listed in the iTunes m3u file.

 

You have two choices here, get the computer LMS is running on to mount the NAS with the same name as it is for the computer running iTunes, OR create a new directory on the NAS and copy the m3u files to that dir and edit each m3u file so the path of the file references is /volume1/ rather than /Volumes/ . You can keep the name of the m3u files the same, just change what is inside. Then tell LMS to get its playlists from the new directory.

 

LMS should then be able to see the files referenced in the m3u files.

 

John S.

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Thank you very much!

I really appreciate your time and effort, but terminal and shell commands are way out of my league. Perhaps someone savvy enough and with the same problem would find the solution in your post.

The search continues, I really need my playlists.

Is there anybody who has successfully imported playlists from iTunes to LMS? Please tell.

Thanks again,

 

OK, so the next possibility to to make a copy of your m3u files and edit them. From your comments it sounds like you have some sort of Mac which has the NAS mounted. (or maybe you have a windows machine as well, it can be done with either)

 

On the Mac (or PC) use your normal tool for seeing the file structure (I don't know Macs, but I think I have heard other people call it the finder). Find the NAS, then go to the directory with the m3u files. It might be something like Playlists, but it might be something different. Create a new directory (NOT under playlists, but under the same parent), name it something like LMS_Playlists. Copy all the m3u files into this new directory. Then use a text editor to change the Volumes to volume1. I have no idea what the text editor program is on a Mac, others will have to help with that. All text editors will have a "search and replace" command that will do alll the lines at once, but you will have to do each file separately.

 

This is nothing complicated, it is just using your normal GUI based file management tools on your computer, I'm not a Mac person so I cannot give you a button by button set of instructions.

 

This should work.

 

John S.

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Hi guys,

I was able to replace "Volumes" with "volume1" in all my playlists using the OSX text editor as per your instructions however LMS still shows them as "Empty". I even cleared the library and re-scanned both the library and the newly "fixed" playlists but that did not work either. Perhaps I should try from a PC.

I am not ready to give up so more suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

 

Did you make a copy of the files in a new directory? If the copies are what you edited then you need tell LMS to find the playlists in the new directory. The playlist path is under Basic settings on the LMS settings page.

 

Editing from a Mac is actually fine, it has the same underlying text format as the NAS, just make SURE, that the full path name in the m3u files is exactly the same as LMS is looking for and the files actually do exist there.

 

John S.

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Thank you earnmyturns. Certainly this is a problem for some of us migrating from iTunes to LMS. There are many forums' pages dealing with this issue I found. I have also found that for some people their working LMS' playlists were "broken" on the next software (LMS) update.

To me the prospect of rebuilding over a dozen of playlists in LMS is becoming almost a deal breaker to using the SqueezeLite mode with the uRendu. I said almost because it is hard to give up its sound quality.

At this moment I am not ready for MPD/DNLA and even less for Roon/HQ output modes. By the way, does anybody can tell if those output modes also have a problem importing playlists from iTunes?

Thanks again,

 

At this point I would create a short playlist or two with LMS (pointing at the same music on the NAS) and look at the text in the file and compare it to what you have for your existing m3u files. Hopefully you can find some formatting or pathname difference that you can apply to your existing m3u files.

 

Be careful with white space, some formats might use tabs which might be difficult to tell from a string of spaces.

 

John S.

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Hi,

As per your suggestion I created a short playlist within LMS which, as expected, works just fine. For easy comparison I used the same tracks that were included in the snippet of the iTunes playlist that I posted before.

 

Here is the original iTunes playlist example:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28944[/ATTACH]

 

Here is the new LMS playlist (using the same tracks):

[ATTACH=CONFIG]28945[/ATTACH]

 

As you can see the LMS playlist not only shows a different root volume designation (volume1 Vs. Volumes in iTunes) but also adds a new line of information per track that is not present in the iTunes one.

I am not sure if that is a difference that can be fixed in batches :(.

Thanks again,

 

This is not too hard, a short awk script can easily do this (or perl or python or lua etc). This could be run either on the Mac or the NAS. It might be easier on the Mac if they have awk. Since OSX is based on unix awk just might exist.

 

If awk exists on either the Mac or the NAS I can write you a short script that will do the conversion.

 

John S.

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Thanks a lot John. I do not have a clue about awk but of course I take your offer of writing a script to do the conversion. Please see orgel related reply to your post.

 

I'm sorry I have not been able to write the script yet, things have been insanely busy this weekend, and today looks even worse. It will probably be Tuesday before I can get to it.

 

Thanks for your patience,

 

John S.

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Thank you John, no hurries of course.

OK, I finally had some time to write this up. It should work. First create a file called play.awk, put it in the directory where you have the copies of the playlists:

 

BEGIN {in_extinf = 0}
/#EXTINF/ { in_extinf = 1;
ext_line = $0;
next;
}
/#/ { print; next}
{ if(in_extinf) {
in_extinf = 0;
path = $0;
sub(/Volumes/, "volume1", path);
pathsp = path;
gsub(/ /, "%20", pathsp);
printf("#EXTURL:file://%s\n", pathsp);
print ext_line;
print path
  }
}

 

The rest has to be done in a terminal window. After bringing up the terminal you need to cd to the directory where you put the file:

 

cd <path to the directory>

 

 

Then for each m3u file type:

 

awk -f play.awk name.m3u > newname.m3u

 

The usual approach is to make the newname the same as the old except add a prefix or postfix to the name such as:

 

original: playlist1.m3u new: playlist1_new.m3u (or whatever you want, it has to be a different name though)

 

At this point you can delete all the old ones or copy the new ones into a different directory.

 

If you have so many m3u files that this is going to be really difficult to do one at a time a shell script can be used to do this to all files in the directory, but I don't know what shell the Mac uses or any Mac specific issues involved with doing this.

 

That should do it.

 

Let me know if it doesn't work.

 

John S.

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Thanks a lot John. I apologize for the belated reply. I too have been extremely busy with work and family.

As the saying goes "be careful what you wish for" it turns out that I do not know how to implement your script. When you mentioned a script I thought that you were talking about something à la "Dough's Apple Scripts for iTunes" which are small, downloadable, self-contained and executable files that work without much intervention from the user.

On the other hand I have never used "terminal" but am willing to learn something new. I am sure there are plenty of tutorials on the web.

Here are a couple of questions to begin with:

- When you say "First create a file called play.awk": do you mean a folder that I should name "play.awk"?

- Do I copy and paste the "Code" into that folder named "play.awk"?

Thanks again,

 

 

 

Thanks again,

 

I really wish that someone who knows Macs would help you out with the mechanics here, because I really don't know, I can make some guesses, but that is really all they are.

 

Before you start terminal use the finder to find the directory where you have the copies of the m3u files. Somewhere it should tell you the full path to that directory (I don't know where to tell you to look, hopefully it is obvious). Write down this path, you will need it. Use textedit to create a new file called play.awk, copy and paste the "code" section into this file. Save the file to that directory you wrote down. (I don't know if finder will let you start up a textedit in the directory you had chosen, or if you have to do a "save as" to tell it where to put the file, I don't know those mechanics of OSX)

 

Anyway you should now have a file called "play.awk" in the same directory as the m3u file copies.

 

Start terminal, again I don't know if you can start it up in the directory in question or not. If in doubt where it is type:

 

pwd<Enter>

 

(that stands for Print Working Directory)

 

If that matches the directory you wrote down, you are good to go to the conversion step. If if it is not the same, then type:

 

cd <directoryPath> <Enter>

 

(cd stands for Change Directory)

 

You can do another pwd to make sure you are in the right place.

 

To get a list of the files in the directory you can type:

 

ls <Enter>

 

(ls is short for List Directory) (ls is actually short for "list", the obvious "ld" is a completely different command)

 

Now you can do the actual conversions:

 

awk -f play.awk filename.m3u > newfilename.m3u <Enter>

 

(that ">" is the right arrow key, it means "take the output of the command and put it in the following filename". If you don't use the ">" it displays the result on the screen, the ">" tells it to put the result in a file)

 

Hopefully that should be enough to get you going.

 

Again if any Mac users that know this stuff could jump in with the actual details of how to get this done that would be appreciated.

 

John S.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Firstly, apologies for posting it in the newbies section - it was meant for the main rendu section.

 

Mmmm, I'm not sure what the router would have to do with it? I use a dumb gigabit switch. DHCP is served off the router but the rendu has a reserved IP against its MAC address (still hoping for the static IP at some point). Also would be a bit odd for it only to repeatedly affect the rendu and no other DCHP clients. Will give it a go though and see what's what.

 

Shame about the logs too. So there's no way to see if the units having issues?

 

Issue with things stop working in the middle of the night are frequently caused by DHCP leases expiring and not getting renewed on time or not at all. With an old router I used to have this issue every so often, the solution was to reboot the router every couple weeks. I eventually got fed up and got a different router and it did the same thing. The final solution for me was to get pfSense on a fitPC, that has never had any issues at all.

 

John S.

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  • 1 month later...

 

Get an out of band switch that is connected to your computer and your microRendu ONLY. Something like a Netgear 4 port gigabit switch. If you have the funds, I would recommend a managed switch as you can segment traffic to VLANs, and take advantage of additional tuning options.

 

 

Hi enser,

I agree with a lot of your post except for the managed switch. We have found that the handling of multicast traffic by many managed switches as they come out of the box does not work well with the microRendu in NAA mode. They can usually be tweaked to handle it correctly but very few people are up to the task.

 

I usually recommend that people have a separate UNMANAGED switch to deal with the traffic between the computer running HQP and the microRendu. It can still have a connection back to the internet, but it works best if the packets between HQP and the microRendu go through an unmanaged switch, in particular NOT through a router or a managed switch.

 

John S.

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I did a fair amount of testing of the microRendu between 1gig and 100Mb and could find no correlation with speed and SQ. The correlation I DID find was with power supply. Some network equipment comes with really awful SMPS supplies. Newer equipment usually comes with SMPS that are usually not too bad and these sound better. The best was a linear supply. Currently I'm running my microRendu connected to an old 100Mb switch with a linear supply, this was the best arrangement I could come up with.

 

As far as running your audio packets through a router, it has nothing to do with WiFi per se, some routers just do not have the best switches in the world which can cause problems with some audio configurations. It may be perfectly fine it may not.

 

So I recommend that if you can, get a separate unmanaged switch and put your microRendu and server on that switch. The unmanaged switches are not very expensive so for most people it is not a big deal. And if you can, power that switch from a linear supply.

 

John S.

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  • 2 months later...
Need help. No sound. Using LUMIN I've been able to play my Soekris 1101 usb dac on mode 1 but very glitchy/touchy. In mode 2 no glitch, but no sound.

 

Soekris website describes Mode 1 and Mode 2:

 

"Select between USB Audio Mode 1 and USB Audio Mode 2. The WindowsOperating System for some reason still doesn’t have direct support for USB Audio Mode 2 but requires drivers. If you don’t want to load the drivers, or just want to do some testing, set the dac1101 to USB Audio Mode 1 and the DAC should work on any Windows System without drivers, but it will be limited to no more than 96 Khz PCM sample rate. To use higher than 96 Khz sample rate or to use DoP or DSD, you need to set the switch to USB Audio Mode 2 and install the Windows drivers for the dac1101"

 

 

 

 

System hard wired, no wifi.

 

MacMini->hdd (with AIFF music file)->ethernet cable->router->ethernet cable->MicroRendu(MPD/DLNA)->usb->Soekris 1101

 

Tried everything, reset, unplug, volume, nothing works.

 

I have that DAC, it is a VERY nice DAC. Just a few obvious things, do you have the line/phones switch set to the appropriate position?

Whenever the DAC connects it sets the volume to near zero. You have to turn the volume control many times clockwise to get the volume full up. Unfortunately full volume is actually 10dB above maximum which will distort most music. So you have to turn the nob many times clockwise to get to full, then backoff 10 clicks to get it to 100% volume. You have to do this EVERY time it connects.

 

Since the microRendu is linux based you don't need any drivers for the DAC1101.

 

It is touchy about the USB cable you feed it with (I'm not sure why, but it is). I get all kinds of ticks and pops with a long USB cable, so I recommend a very short cable or a hard adapter to get the best from this DAC.

 

I HAVE also had the "no sound" from it. The way I have fixed it is to go to the settings page, make sure everything is correct, then press the "Save changes" button, EVEN if you didn't change anything! This makes sure the program is using the current settings.

 

You can try the Apps->Dac diagnostics, this will tell you if the software sees the DAC, there is also a Set max volume button, you can try this to see if it makes any difference.

 

One time none of that worked. I got it to make sound again by connecting it to a windows machine with the Soekris driver installed, this somehow got it to play music again, then it worked fine with the microRendu.

 

John S.

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Anyone else out there who has had success with mR and Soekris DAC1101?

 

Mine was working nicely until two days ago when it started doing the same thing yours is doing, everything looks good, but no sound. It works on windows and other linux machines, just not the microRendu. So far I have not figured out how to fix this. Other DACs work fine on the microRendu so it does not seem to be some form of generic problem.

 

One thing I noticed is that the DAC has a S16_LE mode as well as the usual S32_LE mode, thus the software MIGHT be sending 16 bit samples when the DAC is set to 32 bit samples. One thing to try is playing a 24 bit file, which should force it to use the 32 bit mode.

 

I'm going to do some more tests later on today and see what happens.

 

John S.

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Let me start by saying how much I appreciate Vortecjr and their commitment to helping customers. Truly amazing. I also appreciate Soren from Soekris willingness to help.

 

At this time it seems the Soekris DAC1101 is unable to work with mR. Both products are truly amazing for their performance, but somehow don't seem to have compatibility at this time. With Vortecjr ensuring (via remote access) that mR ran correctly, we tried everything but could not get sound even with mR and DAC1101 appearing to run properly; the music was playing, but never got any sound. After a long time of trying it was clear they weren't compatible.

 

I verified my system was running properly by swapping out the DAC1101 with my Centrance DacMini which immediately worked with no issues. This confirmed the problem was the DAC1101.

 

Now I'm left with the delima of choosing between the two, not wanting to give up either one.

 

I got mine to work, this is what I did:

 

Power disconnected to microRendu, plug in USB cable, switch set to USB2.

 

Plug in power. Wait the normal boot time, use the normal sonicorbiter.com to to connect tothe microRendu, make sure things are setup in your normal configuration.

 

Start playing music.

 

Note there is no sound, even with the volume control turned up.

 

While playing flip the switch to USB1. Music starts playing! Pull the USB cable out (leave microRendu powered up), wait a few seconds, plug USB cable back in. Should hear music (might have to turn up volume), flip switch to USB2, unplug cable, wait a few seconds. Plug USB cable back in, should hear music, again may need to adjust music.

 

You are now back to USB2 mode with music!

 

This worked for me. I hope it works for you.

 

I'm not sure what is happening, but I think the driver in the microRendu is getting out of sync with the mode the DAC is in. This should not happen, but at least for me, changing the mode switch got things to work, so it seems like it has something to do with the mode.

 

John S.

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