Rendu Support Thread

[jay]

I'm using a PS Audio Directstream DSD like many on here it seems.  Also like many others, I can't figure out the pattern to connect the OpticalRendu to the DS to save my life.  I think I've finally figured out (from reading much of this thread) how to connect the OR to the network regularly (boot it without the optical connection, let it run for a few minutes, then plug in the optical cable), but I can't figure out how to make it connect via the USB to DAC with any sort of predictability or guaranty.  I've tried it with two different USB DACs and 3 USB cables...nothing works off the bat.  I left the house for 6 hours and when I came back this evening it was magically connected to the Music Hall DAC I was using to test (and it played songs fine it seemed), but unfortunately that's the not the DAC for my main listening (the DirectStream is).  I thought I had it connected to the DirectStream this morning (DS USB light showed green, OpticalRendu showed up in Roon), but just got the "Roon spin through song after song in the playlist without playing" behavior that others seem to get sometimes too.  I tried HQPlayer and that exhibited the same behavior.  So I started an hour long reboot session which never got me "connected" again.

 

I bought the Roon-only version of the OR a few weeks back, and then got it working after about an hour, and the thing sounded amazing, so I ironically ordered another one for my other system (the full version).  But I haven't yet gotten the second one to boot up and connect.  BTW, I can connect to it via the Spotify and Airplay connections but it won't play and connect to the DAC with any of those connections either, so I do NOT think Roon is part of the problem.

 

Unless there's a guaranteed pattern to connect to the DACs that I'm missing, I'm afraid this product doesn't seem ready for primetime which is really, really unfortunate because it sounds so good when it works.

 

What am I missing?

[jay]

OK, I changed the order of firing up things.  I booted up the PS DirectStream DAC first, with the USB cable connected to the OR, but with the OR unplugged (powered down).  Once the DS was fully booted, with the optical network cable unplugged on the OR, I booted the OR up until it's light turns yellow from red.  Then I plugged in the optical cable, and it all seems to be working now.  If this was clearly spelled out before in the thread or in instructions somewhere, I missed it.  Let's see if it maintains it's connection.

[Oldsalt]

Hello,

Apologies upfront as I can imagine my issue has surfaced many times.

Can't get audio when using ROON or iTunes. Shairport for iTunes, right? Any help greatly appreciated!

 

2019 MacBook Pro/OS 10.14.6

ATT standard issue router

Micro Rendu

Wavelength Proton

16 foot Audioquest cinnamon ethernet

[vortecjr]

7 hours ago, Oldsalt said:

Hello,

Apologies upfront as I can imagine my issue has surfaced many times.

Can't get audio when using ROON or iTunes. Shairport for iTunes, right? Any help greatly appreciated!

 

2019 MacBook Pro/OS 10.14.6

ATT standard issue router

Micro Rendu

Wavelength Proton

16 foot Audioquest cinnamon ethernet

Try this in order:

1. Remove the power cable from the Rendu and the DAC.
2. Connect the power cable to the DAC and power it on.
3. Connect the power cable to the Rendu.
4. Go to Apps / DAC Diagnostics and confirm the DAC is present.
5. Go to Settings / Roon Ready and press Save.
6. Go to Roon / Settings / Audio and enable the Rendu.

 

For Shairport replace 5 and 6 above with:

 

5. Go to Settings / Shairport and press Save.
6. Go to iTunes and select the Rendu as the Airplay device.

 

[jay]

In my case the above did not work if the OR was also connected to the network (optical) cable on power up.  So in my case I needed an added step 3b "Plug in the Optical network cable and let the OR attach itself to the network after the light turns orange" for it to work.  (In most cases) mine wouldn't connect and show up on the network without this step.  That may be unique to my situation and network for some reason, but if anyone is still having trouble you might add this step to your troubleshooting in the sequence above (power up the OR without the network cable connected and give it a minute to turn orange).  I've had zero issues connecting either of my ORs (I have 2) after adding this step to my startup sequence, and both have been very stable since.

 

Also, of note, I have switched Roon servers (demoing an Antipodes CX) and my whole system has basically been stable for over 48 hours now, so I do think my "tired" modded Mac Mini Roon server was somehow throwing wrenches into the sustained connectivity (and subsequent needs to reboot things).  That definitely wasn't the only issue, as I had trouble using Spotify and Airplay too (removing Roon from the equation), but worth mentioning if you are losing connectivity...my PS Directstream DAC/OR combo definitely didn't like losing a strong Roon signal.

[vortecjr]

22 minutes ago, jay said:

In my case the above did not work if the OR was also connected to the network (optical) cable on power up.  So in my case I needed an added step 3b "Plug in the Optical network cable and let the OR attach itself to the network after the light turns orange" for it to work.  (In most cases) mine wouldn't connect and show up on the network without this step.  That may be unique to my situation and network for some reason, but if anyone is still having trouble you might add this step to your troubleshooting in the sequence above (power up the OR without the network cable connected and give it a minute to turn orange).  I've had zero issues connecting either of my ORs (I have 2) after adding this step to my startup sequence, and both have been very stable since.

I have issue with this. In my mind, step three assumes the unit boots up and connected to a proper network. 

[glen3125]

1st post - I am trying to hook up my Devilsound Dac to ultrarendu and am not having any success. Anybody done this? I have JRIVER and a trial copy of ROON and have not had any success with either. At present Roon is configured on the ULTRRENDU and the light is green and Roon has a diagram at the bottom showing Queue - ultrarendu - speakers but no sound. Devilsound is an 'unknown' dac. Also, have been unable to 'Enable' the ultrarendu even though roon can see it.

[vortecjr]

14 hours ago, glen3125 said:

1st post - I am trying to hook up my Devilsound Dac to ultrarendu and am not having any success. Anybody done this? I have JRIVER and a trial copy of ROON and have not had any success with either. At present Roon is configured on the ULTRRENDU and the light is green and Roon has a diagram at the bottom showing Queue - ultrarendu - speakers but no sound. Devilsound is an 'unknown' dac. Also, have been unable to 'Enable' the ultrarendu even though roon can see it.

Have a look at 1-6:

https://audiophilestyle.com/forums/topic/56460-rendu-support-thread/page/96/?tab=comments#comment-1004482

 

[vortecjr]

On 11/6/2019 at 10:30 PM, irfanh said:

Hello, I am new to the Optical Rendu. Just got mine in the mail earlier today. I have tried to connect as follows but still seem to be having issues connecting to the network. The Optical Rendu light is still orange.

 

I have Optical Rendu for Roon (OR) powered by the SGC linear power supply. The OR is connected by systemOptique cables to the Optical Module (OM). The OM is connected to my cable modem directly. The LAN lights do flash on the OM on the ethernet ports.

 

I have disconnected and reconnected all the cables and rebooted the whole chain without any improvement.

 

Any ideas?

Did you get this working?

[jay]

On 11/15/2019 at 7:17 AM, vortecjr said:

I have issue with this. In my mind, step three assumes the unit boots up and connected to a proper network. 

I'm just telling you how it had to work for me on both of my units.  Could be something with how it's getting an IP in my particular network setup.  I'm just throwing it out there in case others are having issue with your recommended steps.

[vortecjr]

3 minutes ago, jay said:

I'm just telling you how it had to work for me on both of my units.  Could be something with how it's getting an IP in my particular network setup.  I'm just throwing it out there in case others are having issue with your recommended steps.

Maybe it’s a timing issue.

[Oldsalt]

vortecjr -

This seems to have worked!

Thanks a million!

[jay]

On 11/17/2019 at 9:56 PM, vortecjr said:

Maybe it’s a timing issue.

 

Maybe.  Regardless, it's how I had to make it work for some reason...when it was connected to the optical cable on power up I couldn't get it on the network.  Your way must work for most...just didn't for me for some reason.

[Ellsworth]

I bought my UltraRendu about a month ago.  Until recently it has been very stable.  My setup is MacMini with firewire connected external hard drive plugged into router.  UltraRendu is hardwired through a MOCA Ethernet connection into a Holo Audio Spring DAC. Ultra Rendu powered by Uptone LPS 1.2  

 

I am hoping to get some insight on two issues:

 

1). Audirvana Plus does not recognize UltraRendu.  I have tried everything but it won’t get recognized.  Other than changing thenApp selection in 

sonicorbiter  Is there something specific about Audirvana that I need to do to get it to work?

 

2). Roon with HQP has been steady and sounds great.  However, the  last two times I have tried to play it though have been very problematic.  On Saturday, I had to fiddle around with restarts and plugging/unplugging for about an hour before I reached a steady state.   Last night was worse.  I couldn’t get HQP to play but eventually got Roon as a stand-alone player to work.  It then cut out after 10 minutes so I gave up.

 

When  trying to get Roon/HQP to play, HQP would start blinking with a bar opening and flashing across the middle of the screen.  The light on the external hard drive would also blink and go faint.  At times when restarting HQP it would not recognize the Rendu.  I suspect that there is either a problem recognizing the Rendu or perhaps an issue with the hard drive but I am not sure.

 

I will try again tonight to see what happens.  Any suggestions or insights are appreciated.  Thanks!

 

 

[vortecjr]

10 hours ago, Ellsworth said:

I bought my UltraRendu about a month ago.  Until recently it has been very stable.  My setup is MacMini with firewire connected external hard drive plugged into router.  UltraRendu is hardwired through a MOCA Ethernet connection into a Holo Audio Spring DAC. Ultra Rendu powered by Uptone LPS 1.2  

 

I am hoping to get some insight on two issues:

 

1). Audirvana Plus does not recognize UltraRendu.  I have tried everything but it won’t get recognized.  Other than changing thenApp selection in 

sonicorbiter  Is there something specific about Audirvana that I need to do to get it to work?

 

2). Roon with HQP has been steady and sounds great.  However, the  last two times I have tried to play it though have been very problematic.  On Saturday, I had to fiddle around with restarts and plugging/unplugging for about an hour before I reached a steady state.   Last night was worse.  I couldn’t get HQP to play but eventually got Roon as a stand-alone player to work.  It then cut out after 10 minutes so I gave up.

 

When  trying to get Roon/HQP to play, HQP would start blinking with a bar opening and flashing across the middle of the screen.  The light on the external hard drive would also blink and go faint.  At times when restarting HQP it would not recognize the Rendu.  I suspect that there is either a problem recognizing the Rendu or perhaps an issue with the hard drive but I am not sure.

 

I will try again tonight to see what happens.  Any suggestions or insights are appreciated.  Thanks!

 

 

Update the unit and reboot. Then go to Settings and the output you want to use and press Save. 

[Ellsworth]

1 hour ago, vortecjr said:

Update the unit and reboot. Then go to Settings and the output you want to use and press Save. 

Thanks for the response.  I don’t know what it means to update the unit but I followed the steps in the post above about unplugging the DAC and the unit in sequence.  It is now working.

 

I got got some funny issues with Roon losing HQP but got it to work when I changed the upsampling from 256 to 128.  Fortunately, that is not a Rendu issue.

[chuttt]

On 11/10/2019 at 8:33 PM, chuttt said:

Hi, long time user of the Rendu. from micro to ultra now. Love it. 

 

First post cause I never had any issue until today. No idea what I did but the Ultrarendu is not working anymore. Power up ok, red light turned to amber. But never to green (honestly never know what color is the final one). The problem is the ethernet RJ45 light not flashing anymore. Nothing. Obviously can't see anything in the network and not able to connect. 

 

I read several pages looks like the next step is to order a new SD card to try? I'm on 2.7.  I'm gonna order the card tmr unless there's something obvious. I'm using the 7V SGC linear supply.

 

Thanks, Tom.

 

Hi, I posted the above but no reply so far.  I went ahead and ordered a new 2.7 SD card and it has arrived today but unfortunately it didn't help.

 

I plugged that in, using the switching adapter direct or LPS1.2 it's the same symptom. It turned on and like 15 sec later red light became amber/yellow and then stayed there.  No light flashing on the ethernet port and for sure not connected whatsoever.

 

What can I do next to fix this? I'm from Canada and I bought it new from Robert of Worldwide Wholesales around April 2018. Can someone help me or direct me to next step? thanks, Tom.

[mtcs]

Chutt, I have never experienced this but it seems like a network issue. In any case, I have had several other quirky issues over the years .Most of them were solved by powering down both the dac and the UR. Sometimes it takes a couple of iterations.May not help but worth a try if you haven't already.

On 11/15/2019 at 3:33 AM, vortecjr said:

Try this in order:

1. Remove the power cable from the Rendu and the DAC.
2. Connect the power cable to the DAC and power it on.
3. Connect the power cable to the Rendu.
4. Go to Apps / DAC Diagnostics and confirm the DAC is present.
5. Go to Settings / Roon Ready and press Save.
6. Go to Roon / Settings / Audio and enable the Rendu.

 

For Shairport replace 5 and 6 above with:

 

5. Go to Settings / Shairport and press Save.
6. Go to iTunes and select the Rendu as the Airplay device.

 

 

[vortecjr]

22 hours ago, chuttt said:

 

Hi, I posted the above but no reply so far.  I went ahead and ordered a new 2.7 SD card and it has arrived today but unfortunately it didn't help.

 

I plugged that in, using the switching adapter direct or LPS1.2 it's the same symptom. It turned on and like 15 sec later red light became amber/yellow and then stayed there.  No light flashing on the ethernet port and for sure not connected whatsoever.

 

What can I do next to fix this? I'm from Canada and I bought it new from Robert of Worldwide Wholesales around April 2018. Can someone help me or direct me to next step? thanks, Tom.

Tom this reflects things on boot: red means power, orange means boot, and green mean internet. No green usually means a network issue. Connect the unit directly to a router trying new cables and different ports. You can also ask Worldwide Wholesales to test the unit. 

[chuttt]

35 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

Tom this reflects things on boot: red means power, orange means boot, and green mean internet. No green usually means a network issue. Connect the unit directly to a router trying new cables and different ports. You can also ask Worldwide Wholesales to test the unit. 

 

Hey thanks for the reply appreciate it.   I tried several ethernet cables and directly from my router. Unfortunately it stayed orange. It seems like the ethernet port, for some reason, is completely dead. There's no blinking of either lights on the ethernet port at all. 😞

 

Not sure what else I can try. I'll call up Robert in WW this week. Again thanks. 

[irfanh]

Yes I did get this working! Love the opticalRendu. Thanks!

[Blackfiction]

Hi,

 

I'm using an UR connected to a LPS 1.2 and a Benchmark DAC2 and since a couple of weeks I'm getting dropouts. When I start listening all is well, but after a while (could be 1 minute or 10 minutes) the music stutters...

I have replaced the ethernet and usb cable,  used it with and without the LPS 1.2 and that does not help...

DAC diagnostics attached.

 

Could you please help me out? 

 

[Mike Rubin]

Is it better to run a new ultraRendu with the Uptone LPS-1 (not 1.2) that I used with my old microRendu 1.4 (at 7v) or with a W4S LPS (only at 9v)? 

 

I gather that Sonore no longer recommends the LPS-1 for use with any Sonore product, but I had no issues at all with the microRendu for the several years that I used it with this LPS.  I generally think that running towards the bottom of the voltage range usually is a better idea than at the top, so that favors the LPS-1, but don't want to use a product that the manufacturer doesn't think is a good idea.  

 

Are either of these viable long term power supplies or is it smarter to bite the financial bullet and buy a more recent 7v model? 

[Superdad]

39 minutes ago, Mike Rubin said:

Is it better to run a new ultraRendu with the Uptone LPS-1 (not 1.2) that I used with my old microRendu 1.4 (at 7v) or with a W4S LPS (only at 9v)? 

 

I gather that Sonore no longer recommends the LPS-1 for use with any Sonore product, but I had no issues at all with the microRendu for the several years that I used it with this LPS.  

 

Hi Mike:

There are still hundreds of people happily using their original UltraCap LPS-1 linear power supplies with microRendus and ultraRendus.  

To give slightly better technical performance (preventing high-source-impedance leakage currents from entering and passing through the UltraCap design), we suggest that you "energize"/charge your LPS-1 with the same internally ground-shunted SMPS that we ship with the UltraCap LPS-1.2.  It is available here for just $17

https://uptoneaudio.com/products/uptone-branded-7-5v-4-8a-36w-smps-with-internal-ground-shunt

[vortecjr]

When was the last time you updated the unit? What output mode are you using?