Sonore Streamers, Optical Rendu, Ultra Rendu, Micro Rendu etc

[elementze]

After a few days with the opticalRendu I have a lot of thoughts. First off, thanks again @Polygonhell for the hot tip on the killer used price! I can’t believe I got this unit for 1/3 retail price!

It will probably take a few posts to get all my thoughts organized and written down.

First off, the simplicity of this device can’t be overstated. Small, light weight, clean case aesthetic. It’s such a straight forward little device it helped cleanup my overall equipment rack. (Please ignore fingerprints on the amp… needs a cleanup really badly.)

Running optical to the streamer helped with my cable routing OCD, knowing the fiber cable position didn’t matter.

I’m using a SGC linear power supply at 7V, with a DH Labs Mirage USB cable into an Iris DDC (then i2s into Pontus2).

Streaming is from Roon Core connected to Mikrotik 5 port SFP switch running on a 12V SGC linear power supply. Multi-mode SFP transceiver modules (both in switch and opticalRendu are made by Finisar. Roon Core is in an Akasa fanless case. The RPi4 in the picture is for running HQPlayer (more on that later).

The ease of use, and snappy playback time make streaming with the oR very enjoyable. It’s performance in this regard is comparable to a RPi4 endpoint. Nice to use, very fast.

The sonic performance (coming from a RPi4 running Ropieee with SGC LPS) is a very clear step up. It reminds me of adding a DDC to the system, it’s like having an all new DAC. The spacial presentation is vastly improved - black black background, wide sound stage, improved layering, a noticable upgrade to “holographicity”. It’s pulling performance out of the DAC/Amp/headphone that I didn’t know was there. Fit example, the HekV2 is a wide and well layered headphone, and with the oR added to my signal chain, it’s wider, more layered, and more naturally tambered. And the dynamics weren’t reduced at all. Just as much punch/slam as before, but with the rest of the spacial presentation improved.

Today I started experimenting with HQPlayer via the oR. Very very easy to use and setup. I need more time with it before reporting any sonic opinions. But from a usability perspective, I couldn’t be happier. In fact, switching between sources (Roon, HQPlayer, DLNA, Spotify, AirPlay, …) is fast and easy.

One very interesting observation, the sonic impact of changing USB cable between oR and Iris DDC was shockingly obvious. My thought going in was that such a setup would diminish the impact of the USB cable. But it actually made it more pronounced. I tried generic USB, Curious USB, Silver Dragon, and DH Labs Mirage. All 4 sounded different, and in my system I found the Mirage to give a touch of warmth and smoothness over the rest that I really enjoyed.

After my time with it, I do actually think it’s worth the $1.8k new price. It’s bringing a lot of value. But that’s a hard price to pay for such a small piece. If you can get one used (and you want to experiment with optical networking), it’s 100% worth it.

[orrman]

I’m guessing this isn’t the most updated version right? What’s the difference anyone know? Except the obvious no USB but I2S connection.

Sonore Signature Series Rendu

[Polygonhell]

@orrman

I’m guessing this isn’t the most updated version right? What’s the difference anyone know? Except the obvious no USB but I2S connection.

Sonore Signature Series Rendu For Sale - US Audio Mart

I think they are completely different.
The new one is basically an optical Rendu in a box with a high quality linear PSU, and I’m sure some other tweaks.
I’d guess that’s based on whatever the Ultra Rendu was at the time was, though the fact it’s not USB out is a little odd. Still seems like a potentially good price.

[Michael]

Got the UltraRendu in. Took all of one song to notice the difference. And I haven’t even gotten around to setting my old PC up as a Roon ROCK yet to get my main computer completely out of the chain.

[dB_Cooper]

It scales very well with better power supplies too!

[Michael]

That’s what I’ve been told. Now I’ve just got to figure out how to get it to play all system sounds so I don’t have to keep switching the USB back and forth between it and my PC when I want to watch a YouTube video, lol.

[elementze]

Question for Team Sonore:

Is there a way to factory reset a microRendu / ultraRendu / opticalRendu? I was debugging some odd behavior with my opticalRendu last night and wanted to factory reset it to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with the setup / config (not that there’s really all that much to config). Googling around and reading through the user manual, I didn’t find anything on this. And there doesn’t seem to be a reset option in the web config page.

[dB_Cooper]

Je ne sais pas. I’d think that turning on without the SD card would do something. I haven’t come across anything either but then again it seems like theres some “saving” of data when the amp powers down and if it it doesn’t power down gracefully it builds everything back up from the SD card.

@Michael the only way to do what you’re looking to do is using it as a bridge and running your hi-fi audio to it as such and having a second DAC that you feed USB out to for Windows audio. Anything more than that will required either dumming down Windows to use WASSAPI which why would you if you’re looking to critical listening or get specialized gear that can handle/mix multiple input sources.

[M0N]

@dB_Cooper

the only way to do what you’re looking to do is using it as a bridge and running your hi-fi audio to it as such and having a second DAC that you feed USB out to for Windows audio. Anything more than that will required either dumming down Windows to use WASSAPI which why would you if you’re looking to critical listening or get specialized gear that can handle/mix multiple input sources

Id rather just run a toslink out or cheap ddc to the dac, so when you want dedicated music listening it’s sonore → totaldac, and when you want pc casual audio go from PC over toslink to totaldac or if you don’t have a toslink out of your PC grab cheap ddc to run usb to toslink then to totaldac, then just switch inputs on the totaldac. All you have to do is switch inputs on the totaldac via the remote

I also have no idea how to factory reset, I know that when my ultrarendu acted weird I just unplugged, removed sd card, plugged back in, then unplugged, then put SD card back in and plugged in. Don’t know if that was good for it but it fixed some intermittent issues for me lol

[elementze]

@M0N

I also have no idea how to factory reset, I know that when my ultrarendu acted weird I just unplugged, removed sd card, plugged back in, then unplugged, then put SD card back in and plugged in. Don’t know if that was good for it but it fixed some intermittent issues for me lol

Sweet, thanks! I’ll give it a try.

[Polygonhell]

@elementze

Is there a way to factory reset a microRendu / ultraRendu / opticalRendu? I was debugging some odd behavior with my opticalRendu last night and wanted to factory reset it to make sure there wasn’t anything wrong with the setup / config (not that there’s really all that much to config).

Just send Sonore or Small Green Computers a message they are both pretty responsive to email.

[M0N]

Please do that instead lol @elementze, I don’t know if that’s a good thing to do for it lol

[dB_Cooper]

I’ll also add that it’s been pretty damned stable with zero issues. They don’t like losing power without a proper shut down but other than that, I’ve been very pleased.

[dB_Cooper]

@M0N

Id rather just run a toslink out or cheap ddc to the dac, so when you want dedicated music listening it’s sonore → totaldac

Yeah, maybe I didn’t write it the same way but this is what I mean.

@M0N

when you want pc casual audio go from PC over toslink to totaldac

casual listening? whaaa? lol

@M0N

then just switch inputs on the totaldac. All you have to do is switch inputs on the totaldac via the remote

The benefit to having the Sonore as a bridge is that you can channel the good stuff to that as a second endpoint. (Roon paying dividends here) And all of the dings and pings and such from the PC go to the DAC with a cheap DDC in front of it. I don’t even have to press a button to switch the DAC input.

I realize now that when I answered it was in the context of Roon and I didn’t even specify that in my response. Shows how my listening habits are cemented.

[M0N]

@dB_Cooper

casual listening? whaaa? lol

Sometimes you want to play a game and have music in the background or watch a youtube video, pretty casual to me lol. Or working on other stuff I guess where you need audio like editing something

@dB_Cooper

I realize now that when I answered it was in the context of Roon and I didn’t even specify that in my response. Shows how my listening habits are cemented.

lol

[orrman]

@M0N

Sometimes you want to play a game and have music in the background or watch a youtube video, pretty casual to me lol. Or working on other stuff I guess where you need audio like editing something

Get a Zahl with mixing two inputs

[M0N]

Would rather not compromise everything by putting an analog mixer in path if possible (unless you can fully bypass the mixing circuit, which it looks like you can so that’s good so nvm)

[Michael]

@M0N

Id rather just run a toslink out or cheap ddc to the dac, so when you want dedicated music listening it’s sonore → totaldac, and when you want pc casual audio go from PC over toslink to totaldac or if you don’t have a toslink out of your PC grab cheap ddc to run usb to toslink then to totaldac, then just switch inputs on the totaldac. All you have to do is switch inputs on the totaldac via the remote

This is probably what I’ll end up doing. I really don’t fancy keeping a second DAC on my desk, even though I still have the Bf2 and could just use it. So, Singxer SU-2? Or is there a better option?

[M0N]

Admittedly, I wouldn’t spend that much if it’s only for something really casual, and I’d also focus on using toslink over aes or spdif, not because it will sound better, but because it then offers electrical isolation from a noisy pc or crappy ddc, so you don’t have that noise leak into the system when using the nicer source

For cheap I’d just get something like this

Douk Audio U2 PRO XMOS XU208 Digital Interface, USB to TOSLINK...

and a decent toslink cable and call it a day, but if you wanted to go a higher quality route I think something like the sinxer would work just fine, just seems a bit redundant if you’re going to be doing your more serious listening on the ultrarendu

[Michael]

There’s just something not quite right when the cable costs more than the unit, lol. Grabbed an Audioquest Carbon optical and an iFi iPower2 to go along with it.