Rendu Support Thread

[orgel]

If you get an AirPort Extreme (which is a nice piece of kit—I have one at the office) and connect your MBP and the microRendu to it, you'll be set and you'll still have a spare LAN port on the Extreme. If you need more Ethernet ports, you can attach a Gigabit Ethernet switch to the Extreme and plug everything into that. (Note that there are cheaper 802.11ac routers available.)

 

If you have a 200MB music library (or even a 200GB one), I don't think you need a NAS, not for your music, anyway.

 

I don't think there's a way to use Audirvana with the microRendu, so you'll need to take a different approach for playback. I use Roon + HQPlayer, but if a really simple setup is what you're after, that's probably not a good way you to go.

 

HTH.

 

--David

[orgel]

This isn't my area, so I'll have to yield to someone who knows more about this than I do, but it does say the following on the microRendu product page:

 

"Supports Tidal and Qobuz lossless streaming in Squeezelite output mode and DLNA output mode."

 

--David

[orgel]

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.

 

I'm pretty sure that with AirPlay, you're limited to 16/48. Higher-res material gets downsampled, AFAIK.

 

--David

[orgel]

My Xfinity cable modem is in a different room. My music room has no wired ethernet connection.

 

My setup: 2011 MacBook Pro (Yosemite) > Blue Jeans Cat 6a > plugged into WAN port on Apple Airport Extreme > Blue Jeans Cat 6a > microRendu >usb.....

 

I just purchased the AirPort Extreme for the sole purpose of using it with the microRendu. I also purchased Roon to use the uRendu in that mode.

 

I ran the AirPort Utility to setup/configure my Extreme and that appeared to be successful. However, I am getting a flashing amber light on the Airport Extreme (no access to internet), even though I am getting wireless service on my MacBook Pro. My I am unsure of my next steps to properly configure my Extreme for use with my uRendu.

 

If I understand your setup (which isn't dissimilar to mine at home), I think you want to "Extend a wireless network" and don't plug anything into the WAN port on the AirPort Extreme. Just plug the microRendu and your MBP into the LAN ports.

 

This is a current-model (802.11ac) AirPort Extreme, right? If so, I have to say that it's a bit of overkill for what you're using it for. Long-term, you might consider hard wiring the Extreme to the Xfinity router (you'd use the WAN port for that), disable WiFi on the Xfinity and then either (1) running a cable to a switch in your listening room, or (2) using an AirPort Express (note: 802.11n) or a third-party range extender (e.g., something like this). A lot of folks whose opinion I respect say it's best to keep the WiFi stuff away from the audio-related components, so Option 1 is the preferred one, IMO.

 

--David

 

Edit: I got rid of that first bit about disabling WiFi on the Xfinity, because it was nonsensical in your current scenario. Still, probably not great to have competing WiFi networks.

[orgel]

Should I return this Extreme and get the AirPort Express?

 

Well, before you return the Extreme, I'd get it working in your situation, just so you know what's needed for setup. After that, I'd say yeah, either an AirPort Express or a third-party range extender would be a cheaper solution that would work equally well (since you're basically using the AirPort Extreme as a range extender and a switch). Note that the Express only has one LAN port, so if you go this route, you'll also need a gigabit Ethernet switch. There are a bazillion of these with varying features and numbers of ports, but they can be pretty inexpensive (e.g., like this).

 

--David

[orgel]

That device is fine,

just take a look:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4027282?start=0&tstart=0

 

There's no doubt it will work, but IMO it's kind of hard to justify spending $200 on a dumb 4-port Ethernet switch.

 

It's pretty, though (if kind of large for a switch), and if you ever needed another 802.11ac router, I guess it could come in handy.

 

--David

[orgel]

It sounds like the Express 802.11n is the way to go then so I avoid the negative impact?

 

I think that summarizes @baddog's and my position accurately.

 

--David

[orgel]

For the gigabit Ethernet switch, I will get the one linked by David. In order to use this switch, do I just install an Ethernet cable between the switch and my Express? If so, I guess I need to purchase another Blue Jeans Cat 6a cable.

 

There's no particular reason to get the one I linked to, but I do have one very similar to that and it's been problem free.

 

Yes, just connect an Ethernet cable from the LAN port on the Express to the switch. (I personally think any short Cat6a cable will do, but the BJC one will certainly be fine.)

 

--David

[orgel]

Thanks for the head's up Mikey. That is a good idea regarding the iPower so that makes the TrendNet unit preferable. Speaking of power, do you have any ideas for a different power source for the Express?

 

I think that if you're concerned about power supplies, @MikeyFresh's ideas are very good. I have an iPower I use with the Sonicorbiter SE, and it seems fine.

 

In terms of the Airport Express, based strictly on looking at photos and comparing with my office AirPort Extreme, I think the Express has an internal PS. So if you want to use an upgraded PS, you'd want to look at third-party alternatives to the Airport Extreme.

 

--David

[orgel]

Will HQ-Player in theory benefit me ? How ? Up-sample PCM to 96 or 192 ? (We assume for now my HTPC has the horsepower).

 

This is a little off topic for this area, but I'll try to answer your questions briefly.

 

I think you could benefit from HQPlayer. In your position I would upsample everything to 192/24. However, to see if you really prefer the sound you get from HQP, you should download the trial and play around with it.

 

If I use HQ-Player, will I then have to use a different UI than Roon on my iPad ?

 

No, once you have things set up properly and to your liking in terms of filtering, etc., you can pretty much forget about HQP and use the Roon UI. Note that to be compatible with the Roon iOS app, you need to have an iPad Air 2 or later.

 

If i switch to HQ-Player, what is then the recommended setup for MR ?

 

If you use HQP, you would use the mR in NAA mode. With just Roon, you would use it in RoonReady mode.

 

Is the general advice to run Roon and HQ-Player on different HW, assuming you still would have enough power to just run both in one machine.

 

It depends on what you're doing with HQP. Since you'd only be upsampling to a maximum of 192/24, I think you'd likely be able to run both Roon and HQP on your Windows HTPC with no problems.

 

Is Linux or Windows (or OSX) the preferred OS when HQ-Player is part of the setup ?

 

I don't think it really matters. FWIW, HQP's developer (@Miska here on CA) develops in Linux primarily (I think). If you're upsampling to DSD512, you need to have Windows or Linux in the mix, but this isn't applicable in your case.

 

If I have understood things correctly the HQ-Player needs a UI, so it can't be run headless. Since I'm running iPad, does this mean I have to use RDT / VLC to enjoy HQ-Player.

 

You'd need some sort of monitor or remote-desktop app to set up HQP, but once you have Roon/HQP integration set up, you can run the Roon iOS app on your iPad and that should take care of all your playback needs.

 

Maye there exist some sort of best practice or user guide (for dummies) for all these things I'm asking ?

 

There's a lot about this on the Roon forums. See here, for example:

 

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/how-do-i-use-roon-and-hqplayer-together/5866

 

--David

[orgel]

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

 

awk OSX Man Page | SS64.com

 

--David