Rendu Support Thread

[TubeLover]

On 9/15/2019 at 12:21 AM, TubeLover said:

I'm suddenly having a very strange issue, for the first time, with what appears to be either the Microrendu or, at the very least the extremely useful Shairport software. Here is what is happening. I was using the system to listen to the WFMT stream of "The Midnight Special" program earlier this week. That stream sometimes has an occasional odd problem, and at first, I thought it must just be that. During the musical selections they play on a given weeks show, sometimes at the beginning of a song, sometimes in the middle, or sometimes all that way through a song (though that is rare) the music becomes distorted, to varying degrees, and occasionally suddenly actually sped up. 

 

Last night, the same thing happened on a completely unrelated music stream from Music From The Hearts Of Space. Clearly, it was not tied to whatever was being streamed. There were also two different iPad's involved, so that eliminates an individual iPad or their Airplay software/interface. It also happened, on the one occasion, while using an integrated amp, and on the second occasion, on a headphone amp. That seems to leave only the MicroRendu or "possibly" the Shairport software? 

 

I tried power failing the MicroRendu, rebooting it, restarting Shairport, nothing changes the fact that it still appears at times during a 2-3 hour streaming listening session. My software on the MicroRendu is also up to date. Any thoughts, assistance or recommendations on how to address this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

JC 

Things have only gotten worse of late. Despite one two hour streaming session the other night without a single instance of distortion, the last two nights have been worse than ever, and for longer periods, disrupting any ability to listen to music with high pitched screeching, speeding up, and even occasionally slowing down. It has literally rendered me unable to listen. However, a major clue might have shown it's face, for the first time ever, last night. Twice, while listening via my system (using Shairplay and the MicroRendu) the sound just suddenly switched over to my iPads speaker. Once, it completely switched over, once it was playing distorted streaming music on both the iPad's speaker and the system. In each instance, I saw this message appear on my iPad when I tried to get the stream to revert back by re-selecting the MicroRendu. "The MicroRendu is unavailable someone else is using it"! What can that possibly mean?????

 

JC

[AudioDoctor]

It means you need to get ROON... 😉

 

I don't know anything about Shairplay but it sounds like something else is trying to take over the connection to the microRendu.

 

edit: I checked and WFMT appears to be on Tunein meaning it is easily streamable in ROON as well.

 

https://tunein.com/radio/WFMT-987-s28807/

[AudioDoctor]

I normally don't have to use the internet radio option in ROON to listen to MPR as I have a receiver, but I can and it is ridiculously simple.

 

 

[TubeLover]

On 9/15/2019 at 12:21 AM, TubeLover said:

ing the MicroRendu, rebooting it, restarting Shairport, nothing changes the fact that it still appears at times during a 2-3 hour streaming listening session. My software on the MicroRendu is also up to date. Any thoughts, assistance or recommendations on how to address this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jason, thanks for the WFMT tip!  I would much rather use Roon anyway. Now, hopefully my most recent information will help uncover the overall issue.

 

JC

[MikeyFresh]

23 minutes ago, TubeLover said:

What can that possibly mean?????

 

I bet it means you have more than one app, or even more than one device connected or trying to be connected to the same AirPlay (Shairport) endpoint at the same time.

 

 

[AudioDoctor]

Just now, MikeyFresh said:

 

I bet it means you have more than one app, or even more than one device connected or trying to be connected to the same AirPlay (Shairport) endpoint at the same time.

 

 

 

I agree with this. Try turning off any unnecessary iPads and control points for Shairplay and see if that does anything.

[Miska]

I can think of many alternative options what it could be...

• DHCP lease for IP expiring and for some reason doesn't get renewed
• For some reason TCP connection timing out (but this shouldn't need reboot, just reconnection)
• EEE support (aka 802.3az) in switch thinking the link becoming dead and switching the port off (I have one Huawei router that has this issue, if EEE is enabled on HPE switch where it is connected, it gets thrown out as dead connection, every other device in the house works fine with EEE though, so it's some Huawei hardware problem)
• Or it could be the switch finally establishing properly path to the device (switches have per-port MAC tables they learn, to know where packets should be destined to)

TCP connection may also time out due to DHCP lease expiring or the renewal giving another address (shouldn't happen).

 

[TubeLover]

10 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

 

I agree with this. Try turning off any unnecessary iPads and control points for Shairplay and see if that does anything.

Good idea. I did make certain that the other iPad was turned off, but have still had a few episodes of distortion tonight.My UltraRendu has literally never been set to use Shairplay, so that couldn't be the issue. Back to the drawing board, it would seem.  

 

JC

[Henry53]

How do I send the heap of xxxx back?

[Tintinabulum]

Awkward if it turns out you haven't pressed the right button...

[Henry53]

I think a better manual would help in working out which are the right buttons.  If I turn on my computer Audirvana always finds my Naim Uniti and always plays, I don't need to press any buttons, its not hard, people have done it?

[AudioDoctor]

Do you want to get it working or just send it back?

[Henry53]

I have had the microrendu for some months, works fine then just ceases to function, nothing has been changed but some new error occurs. It would be nice if the "manual" helped but it doesn't. I bought this and Audirvana because they both say 'works with Audirvana'. The problems never occur when I use Audirvana to stream to my Naim Unitilite. Recognised every time, plays every time. Issues are just too many to list but with no rhyme or reason why they occur. I really love what it does when it does it. But failings and dropouts occur every other day. Microrendu do not seem to want to get involved and Audirvana actually respond with rubbish. If they work together why can't they provide a set up page that shows HOW?

[AudioDoctor]

Well, first you're trying to use UPnP right? I don't know much about that and I have seen many comments over the years that it isn't always the most stable route to go for network play.

 

If you want to give it a try, give Roon a trial and see how that works via your Microrendu. Worst case you either stick with Audirvana and the Naim or you keep Roon and it works flawlessly with the Rendu OR Naim Uniti...

[Henry53]

The Naim is in my second system.  I bought the Microrendu for my main system and it is there that the problem lies. Not really sure why Roon will work any better than Audirvana and UPNP works fine with the Naim the Naim however has direct link to Tidal so I don't need to use UPNP but it does work flawlessly when I do connect via UPNP. The MR is seemingly very temperamental but sounds really great when working.  Roon is also extremely expensive and, to my ears, offers no sound improvement.

[AudioDoctor]

Because ROON uses its own protocol that works flawlessly...

 

But hey, don't listen to any advice from someone that actually uses this stuff too...

 

If you can't figure out how to return the device, I think I found the problem as well.

 

 

[Henry53]

Hey some people tell me that MR works flawlessly for them with Audirvana, however pages are fairly full of people with complaints. I think the Roon annual fee is rather rich. I may try Amazon with using Audirvana. Could be more stable?

[AudioDoctor]

Maybe we should try to solve the problem then so you can get it to work flawlessly as well...

 

Hows that for an idea?

[james45974]

5 hours ago, AudioDoctor said:

Maybe we should try to solve the problem then so you can get it to work flawlessly as well...

 

Hows that for an idea?

What a patronizing attitude!  I don't have a rendu or use Audirvana or Roon,  but if you look at the Roon website forum there are plenty of people having problems.  It doesn't "work flawlessly" for some people.

[Henry53]

Hey I seem to have started a bar fight. The products mentioned appear to have well documented issues, It's no good blaming the users, products put on the market should work.  I have a Naim streamer, it works,, I had a Marantz streamer it didn't, Poor upgrade poor support. These are just my experience.

[AudioDoctor]

That Marantz used UPnP too...

 

I'll leave you to your anger then. Have a good day.

[Henry53]

Hey thanks for your time. 

[TubeLover]

Newest report is that over the past two days,  I cannot get any music to play on the upstairs/MicroRendu system when I try using Shairplay now. And this occurs despite repeatedly resetting the MicroRendu for Shairplay, and then rebooting it each time. This whole situation just keeps getting worse

 

As soon as possible, I am going to relocate the downstairs UltraRendu and it's power supply upstairs to see what happens at that point. I have only held off doing it thus far because a really painful hip injury is making it extremely hard to even bend over, much less get down onto the floor and reach (and then get back up again) to disconnect the UltraRendu and power supply from where they are located under the bottom shelf of my audio furniture. I'll report back about what I find. 

 

At this point, I simply need to find some way to identify what the problem is. My plan was to move to an OpticalRendu system for the main system downstairs, and use the UltraRendu and LPS 1,2 power supply upstairs somewhere around year end, or January. Until I know what the current issue is, I don't know whether that strategy still makes sense, or whether I need to consider moving to other hardware, which I would much rather not do.

 

JC

[vortecjr]

Have we talked about swapping out the micro SD card from one unit to another as a test? If you try this make sure the unit is powered down first.

[Blake]

Hi Jesus,

 

My Ultrarendu seems to have lost power.  It has been working perfectly for a long time.   I keep it powered on 24/7 with an Uptone LPS 1.2.  I went to listen today and the LED on the Ultrarendu will not light up.

 

The LPS 1.2 is working fine.  Thoughts?