Article: Sonore opticalRendu & Signature Rendu SE Optical Review | Part 1

[The Computer Audiophile]

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[The Computer Audiophile]

42 minutes ago, firedog said:

Of course, by saying you didn't really hear a sonic difference with the Signature Rendu SE optical, you may have really hurt the sales of that item and boosted the sales of the OR. I do agree the one box solution with the high end PS is worth something, the question is how much. 

I should've noted that I'm using the very upgraded PSU with the opticalRendu.

[The Computer Audiophile]

14 minutes ago, ted_b said:

Very nice summary, so far Chris.  Looking forward to sq comments.  What SFPs did you use (at Sonore end and Unifi end)?

I use all Ubiquiti stuff everywhere.

 

UF-SM-1G-S

 

https://store.ui.com/products/sfp-modules?variant=31221652365

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, rickca said:

Is the 400GB microSD card included on all opticalRendu and Signature Rendu SE optical units, including the ones that have already shipped?  If so, nobody noticed?  I did see your comment about introductory upgrade pricing, but that seems to apply to the 512GB microSD.

@vortecjr?

[The Computer Audiophile]

5 minutes ago, bobflood said:

Also, this is totally against the whole reason for the Rendu series of products.

 

Is this documented somewhere?

 

 

 

5 minutes ago, bobflood said:

The Rendus were supposed to be an endpoint quiet zone with all the storage, retrieval and associated processing happening elsewhere.

 

Storage on the sd card is happening no matter what because of the operating system. Now storing music there for super quick access isn’t worse than pulling a file over the network to be stored temporarily on the sd card / RAM. There isn’t any processing. Just reading the file that has to happen anyway. 

 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, bobflood said:

There is still the problem of back-up and additions/deletions.

 

Mathis is an issue with every audio system ever made as long as you have local files. I just setup my NAS to reach out to the Rendu to back it up. Set it once and forget it. New music is added to the sd card over the network and automatically backed up the same way. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, R1200CL said:

And why can’t we have the option for a bigger one ?

(Or did I misunderstood there was a limitation? )

 

The current limit for these sd cards is 1TB. 

 

 

1 hour ago, R1200CL said:

Any discussion with Roon, to make them open for using this storage option ?

 

Technically you could point Roon to Rendu’s storage and have the Roon core index it, but this doesn’t make much sense. Just attach storage to the Roon core. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 minute ago, R1200CL said:

I wonder if MQA support now make more sense for Sonore, as you could also play Tidal through iPeng ?

 

I don’t speak for them but I’m unsure why Sonore would want to go through the huge hassle and development work (ask any other mfg on Earth) to implement MQA. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

8 hours ago, thotdoc said:

Would you mind telling us what "very upgraded PSU" you are using?

 

Many of us are looking for a PS for our ORs.

 

Thank you

 

G

It’s also visible in the video. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

I believe Google’s requirements to turn an endpoint into a Chromecast endpoint are quite steep and impossible for most. Plus, Google owns StreamUnlimited, the company that makes such endpoints. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, bunno77 said:

Yeah I wouldn't doubt it but more and more companies are beginning to incorporate it. I am just being hopeful.

I'm with you. I'd love it in the Rendu series. 

 

Perhaps Sonore can pull off a Wadia move (getting iPod digital output) and get Casting.

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 minutes ago, ArthurOtt said:

Talk about going back in time 15 years! Click on the link to Sonore's terrible website. They expect you to buy their $3445 Signature Rendu SE optical based on one low-res picture of the front of the unit. No picture of the rear of the unit and the connectivity. Yes, that website is a real blast from the past as it looks like it was designed by a high school kid in 2004. 

Is this comment meant to add to the community or increase our enjoyment of this wonderful hobby? 

[The Computer Audiophile]

3 minutes ago, charlesphoto said:

 

Paul Hynes barely has a website and people are paying and cueing up years in advance for his power supplies. Last least with Sonore one can see if the product is in stock and order from the site. Website aesthetics is really is a non-issue in this hobby, imo, esp for gear that works and is available now, and isn't just some magic pixie dust in an EE's imagination. 

In fact, one should be cautious about flashy websites when the company doesn’t have a proven track record. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

23 hours ago, rickca said:

I thought you were committed to Roon. 

I'm committed to everything. There isn't a "best" solution for me and I need to understand all the solutions inside and out. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

39 minutes ago, R1200CL said:

@The Computer Audiophile

If you are able to compare the SQ, using different power supplies, I think that would have great value for many of us. 

And comply with your statement in the above post as wel 😀

 

It’s my understanding that Sonore supplied you with a PS that won’t be available for sale, unless you purchase the Signature SE. (And hence maybe why you didn’t notice much difference between the two Rendu’s).

 

As we we all know, the chosen power supply for previous Rendu’s, did quite a noticeable difference to most people. 

 

Also, Would you happen to know if your DAC’s draw any Vbus power ?

 

Great points, I will do my best to test these differences for Part 2. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

20 minutes ago, vortecjr said:

I'm not sure I understand this?

It was a reference to Wadia back in the day when the company, out of nowhere, announced the world’s first device to take digital audio out of an iPod. All sanctioned by Apple. 

 

Thus, I was dreaming that you guys could be the new Wadia and work with Google on cast support 😁

[The Computer Audiophile]

9 hours ago, JoshM said:

@The Computer Audiophile, I couldn’t help but chuckle and sit in awed reverence at your calling a system with TAD CR1s capable but “less than stellar.” 😛

The CR1s have been sold and I'm "stuck" with Focal Sopra N1 speakers until my new ones arrive :~)

 

The TADs were stellar.

[The Computer Audiophile]

16 minutes ago, jabbr said:

 

Typically the OS (linux variant) loads the OS into RAM and doesn't actually make many filesystem accesses -- except to write to logs.

 

Consider that the newest "SD Express" (SD 7.1) has a speed of 1 Gbs ... and of course that isn't needed for audio ... and when you go to direct SD card access you totally give up the fiberoptic Ethernet isolation ... so actually "pulling file over network" into RAM, really is better than storing on SD card ... jus' sayin'  

Not following you. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

37 minutes ago, jabbr said:

I know its counter-intuitive but there is no speed advantage in storing music files locally.

 

There is the disadvantage that locally stored files cause increased processing due to SD card access, as opposed to fiberoptic ethernet which completely isolates the music server processing (including disc access) from the DAC.

I'll disagree all day long with this. 

 

Do some real world testing of pressing play on a track stored locally and a track stored on a NAS. The NAS will never be faster to start playing. It's really angles on the head of a pin because the difference is minuscule most of the time.

 

I believe you are excluding any processing that needs to happen when a file comes over the network in your comparison. Easy access of local disk requires less than receiving the file over a network and dealing with SMB protocol file transfers. 

 

If you want to bring in music server processing then all bets are off because that's a different game all together. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

1 hour ago, jabbr said:

my library is terabytes, I don't want to search through directories, so again how does storing music on a SD help me?

There’s no help for you. 😁

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

2 hours ago, jabbr said:

Regarding disc vs network access latency: I've looked into (and personally tested) these issues extensively not for audio but for video storage and processing. That's what I installed my 10Gbe system for. I've also compared Infiniband to Ethernet ... a lot of this has to do with network latency. I can assure you that the time between when you start to press "play" and when the button makes contact is several infinities longer than the actual disc drive or network latency, but for the sake of discussion ...

Think about it though, network playback also requires disk access plus network latencies. Your point about latency proves my point. I said network was slower and you said not really but it’s slower because of latency. Not really following you but there’s no getting around the fact that network includes a file read and latencies whereas local on the sd card just requires the file read. 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, jabbr said:

1) if you are using Wi-Fi to control the oR, then the latency has much more to do with the WiFi latency than disc vs network latency.

 

We still have network latency. 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, jabbr said:

3) latency is a huge issue in NAS, and the most modern NAS are starting to use NVME over Fabrics (including Ethernet): https://blog.netapp.com/nvme-over-fabric/

 

Agree. Which is why SD cards are really cool for small libraries. 

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, jabbr said:

4) modern networks can saturate a PCIe connection

 

which leads to ...

5) Where the file is located is not necessarily the limiting factor for latency and access, rather the medium on which the file is stored

6) my own NAS is much faster than any single disc drive, ssd or sd card that I own (Its just an Ubuntu server with 64Gb RAM, a SAS3 array and a 10Gbe NIC)

 

I think you are you are off in the weeds. Cool 10GbE weeds but pulling an 80 MB music file for playback none of this really matters. Any Roon end point or DLNA renderer that can benefit from 10 GbE will really surprise me. 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, jabbr said:

SMB has been made crazy efficient

 

Sure but it’s like being the tallest dwarf. 

 

 

PS - Do you get to RMAF? Would love to meet up. 

[The Computer Audiophile]

56 minutes ago, jabbr said:

 

Chris would respond except that he’s currently bidding on eBay for more RAM for his NAS  

Ha. Used to use free NAS which used RAM like a monster. But I still couldn’t get enough GBs for my library 😁

[The Computer Audiophile]

Part 2 is now up!

 

 

[The Computer Audiophile]

9 minutes ago, oldfirm said:

I'm trying to get my head around this D to D converter.

Is this the connection logic.(by set-up)

Router>RJ45 out>Fidelizer network switch >RJ45 out >optical module>optical out>OpticalRendu>USB out>DAC>XLR out>amp

                                                                     <>RJ45 out>laptop >windows 10 Pro

Yes.