The LPS for my Optical Rendu finally showed up, an improvement over the switching unit I was using.
I’ve been somewhat interested in the Optical Rendu for some time, a solution that is optically decoupled from the network input, just seems to make sense. The only noise your dragging in is from he power supply.
I bid on one in an auction and won, mines the “Lite” version, which only has Roon support, it arrived with something obviously large loose inside, so I disassembled it, to find the processor board rattling around inside the case, reseated it, and it was fine.
It’s well designed inside the case, no switching mode regulator, so you really do want to be towards the bottom of the recommended input voltages (6-9V), or it’s going to get very warm. I’m using a 7V LPS from Little Green Computing.
Generally I’m impressed, On the pacific, feeding it into USB, it’s a step up from the Pacific’s network interface. And also on the pacific a step up from the EMMLabs NS1 via AES, I attribute this to the clocks in the pacific probably being better than the ones in the NS1. USB connections don’t carry a clock, so the DAC is generating the clock, over AES the streamer is providing the clock, and the DAC extracting it.
Nice nice, also personally a big fan of the Sonore stuff, like the ultrarendu as well, one of my faves for usb at the price point. Combine it with a nice psu (if you want something similar in size and style the uptone ultracap is great, but there’s a ton of good psu options) and it’s hard to beat imo
Been waiting for you to chime in with your Rendu experience - I keep boasting that I will pick one up but yet haven’t. I keep thinking is it really that much better than a pi with ropieee …
It’s certainly better, probably for a whole host of reasons.
The Lampizator Pacific’s network in is basically just a Pi, connected internally to the USB interface. Obviously it has an extremely high quality PSU, probably better than anything you are likely yo connect to a Pi. I had mine connected via an optical bridge and the Optical Rendu was a step above that.
Night and day, worth the $$$ over a Pi, perhaps not for most people. But if your DAC has a high quality USB input it might be.
It was interesting to look at the board in the Rendu, it’s clearly designed to minimize noise, as I said there is no switching regulator in the box, it does the inefficient shed the extra volts though heat.
It’s also not using the network bridge, like the NS1, it’s a RAAT SDK device, and I’d guess, that allows lower powered hardware. It is still running some custom Linux variant.
There are two different USB interfaces in the Pacifics, Mine does have the Amanero module, but it has two expensive (I believe they’re like $500 a piece) clock modules soldered onto it with fly wires, later Pacifics used a different XMOS based USB module, again I would assume with the external clocks.
I can get mine upgraded for a reasonable charge, but the thought of shipping it to Pensylvania really doesn’t appeal.
The USB input IME is better than the SPDIF/AES even with a relatively “expensive” streamer like the NS1.
There is a surprising amount of fiddly (had to be done by hand) soldering in and around the digital inputs for the pacific. Even power to the Pi module and where the Pi connects to the USB is all done with hand soldered fly wires, where it could have been done with and I would have expected ribbon cables and sockets.
I had assumed until I openned it up that replacing the USB board would have been simple, but there is a lot of work in that swap, to the point I’m surprised they offer it as an option and the asking price is surprisingly reasonable given what’s involved.
I looked for one and couldn’t find pictures of that part of the internals, I kind of wish I’d taken pictures when I had the top off to reflash the SD Card in the network interface.
Oh I agree I was just surprised about how much of it there was in that area.
Wanted to post some first impressions on this! Now, this is my first streamer and the vast majority of my thoughts have nothing to do with sound quality, so let’s get the sound quality TLDR right up front; when I switched from my iPhone to the microRendu, both running USB into my SU-2 KTE, I heard:
Massively improved dynamics (like almost too much, lol)
Quite noticeably improved transients
Ever-so-slightly better everything else
…and I’m honestly not willing to claim improvements beyond that, mostly because of the timing of this particular purchase. I received this streamer only a week after receiving a new DAC, so my brain was already making a big adjustment from what I was listening to previously, and I don’t fully trust my ears to hear super-nuanced differences between the Mystique V3 with and without the streamer, at least not yet.
Actually, the bullet point format is kind of nice, lets keep that going:
The microRendu has no screen, so you control it via a local web app. The sonicorbitor website should auto-detect the microRendu’s IP, but it doesn’t play nice with VPNs or my work machine’s security software.
Once you have the IP address, it totally works on everything though, so maybe bookmark that URL on all your machines.
The microRendu is small and light enough that heavy cables can lift it, so it might be worth putting a weight on top of it.
The USB port is on one side and the ethernet cable is on the other side, which kinda sucks. Every other Sonore streamer has all the ports on the same side. (It comes with an extremely short USB cable to attach it directly to the back of your DAC. Thanks, but no thanks.)
The screen on SGC’s linear power supply is very bright. Like, RNHP green input selector light levels of bright.
The microRendu supports lots of protocols, including Shairport (for AirPlay 1), DLNA, and Roon Ready. I’ve tried it with AirPlay, Audirvana, mconnect, and Roon. The best user experience by a mile is Roon, even though getting started with Roon for the first time is a bit of a pain. (I couldn’t get DLNA to work with the native Qobuz app. Also, I’m not a Spotify subscriber, so I can’t speak to Spotify connect.)
My work laptop is currently acting as my Roon core, and the ethernet in my office is connected over something like a 75-foot ethernet cable since my office is downstairs and my modem is upstairs. Not ideal, but hey.
I need both Apple Music and Qobuz support, so the solution I’ve currently landed on is adding the microRendu “app switcher” page to my home screen. I’m mostly using Roon, and then I switch to AirPlay when I want to listen to Apple Music, and switching between the two only takes a couple seconds.
When I rearrange my setup, I’m used to pulling up a browser on my phone or laptop to run some audio checks (left/right, sine sweeps, etc). I don’t know how people test their systems using a streamer.
So yeah, I’m still very much getting a feel for using a streamer, but I like it so far, and Roon in particular is great.
Since you mentioned that you picked up a Signature Rendu, I figured I’d poke a little bit about how you like it in this thread! I’m assuming usability-wise, it would be identical to all the other Sonore Rendu products, just with better sound quality? (and not having to fuss with an external power supply)
Correct, I have it running squeeze, and the antipodes is acting as the LMS server, works wonderfully. I would say it’s a surprising step up from the ultra even with a good psu. I have no complaints so far, just feeling things out so far
It’s only USB out which is what it is. Do you have a reclocker between it and the DAC? They’re pricey new, what’s the going rate in the used market for them?
Oh I should note, that I actually changed it from how my diagram is. Previously it was going from antipodes into the silent switch then into the sonore fmc then to rendu, it’s now just going direct out of the antipodes direct ethernet output into fmc into rendu, and that’s a better sound so far
Great in my case since that’s what the horizon has taken best to over it’s spdif inputs
Perhaps perhaps, I hate buying new for various reasons, (in this case it’s more because I don’t want to be on record of buying a new one, it’s more private if I can pick up a used model, also, expensive), so I will be trying to pull some strings to get one. But I don’t think I can do anything to buy the one I have in house now lol
Yep from my main switch stack, previously a cisco switch but now stacked dell switches (gross, I know, but it is what it is). Fiber wise I’m using finistar sfp with commscope teraspeed
