Article: Audiophile Style Products of the Decade

[DavidL]

While I agree with your selection of Sonore for the hardware accolade you do them an injustice. They were well ahead of the curve. I bought a Sonore Rendu ethernet-to-SPDIF converter in 2013 to convert my Bel Canto DAC to a streamer - excellent sound quality. Sonore followed up this product with a Signature version which (so I understand) gave outstanding sound quality. I guess Sonore chose this type of renderer because it had the potential to give the best SQ.

Unfortunately this ethernet-to-SPDIF/I2S/AES renderer product line was terminated in 2015(?) and replaced by the current series of ethernet-to-USB renderers, presumably because most computer audiophiles wanted to connect their computers to a DAC by USB. My personal opinion is that this is an inferior concept, requiring a high quality USB interface and associated power supply upstream of the digital to analogue conversion, but the line has certainly sold well. It will be interesting to see whether Sonore will revisit their original idea and implement an ethernet-to-SPDIF renderer taking advantage of subsequent technology advances. I enquired if this might happen when I wanted to upgrade my renderer this year - no such luck yet, so I opted for a dCS Network Bridge instead.

 

On the software front again I agree with your choice, Roon, as it is so comprehensive in its features set. I'd like to add (as runner-up?) an equally valuable piece of software which is particularly appreciated by owners of large libraries of classical music: MinimServer (with MinimStreamer and MinimWatch). As most will know, this software can run on both computers and NAS boxes. It is mature, very reliable and well supported, with an active user forum.

 

 

[DavidL]

3 hours ago, vortecjr said:

................... we were not able to control the vertical to horizontal and that limitation was one of the reasons for discontinuing the line. 

 

OK I'm thick: do you mean converting data packets to a data stream?