We compared two different products - ultraRendu v1.3 (mine) to the newer (upgraded?) opticalRendu (@dB_Cooper) since there isn’t a lot of information online on the differences
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Oh I gotcha now, yeah you are absolutely right on the lack information online, one of the reasons I shied away from the brand despite the many endorsements. I still not clear on what one needs to run say the OpticalModule Deluxe as it looks like two would be needed to take advantage of the fiber connection.
Pretty neat to look at the inside of these boards.
Go to smallgreencomputer they have more information and videos that might help or PM me if you want
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That’s very interesting, and is pretty much what they describe, an optical rendu with a custom PSU in a shielded case
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Yeap, with all the additional expense put towards the PS plus the RF shielding.
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seems like something that can be built diy-style, no?
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seems straight forwards enough, I don’t think that’s an off the shelf transformer and Mercury Magnetics are often referred to as having good “sounding” power transformers (whatever that means) in the guitar world which is the bulk of their business. But there are probably lots of alternatives around.
Hard to tell from the picture, but that looks to be a LOT of capacitor in that power supply, but it looks to be a straight forwards RC into Linear Regulator, with a small decoupling capacitor on the output of the regulator.
You’d obviously have to make up the box and shielding plate.
Certainly wouldn’t cost the difference in price to DIY, but it’s always the case.
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I’m obviously in no way capable of building this but doesn’t make me feel the asking price new is worth it. Used perhaps. Seems like getting the optical with a beefy PSU would be almost just as good (although ugly multiple boxes).
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Markup is likely pretty signicant, we can’t see component names on their, so it’s hard to guess at cost of goods, the transformer is probably $200-$300 the big capacitors on the board could be anything from $3 a piece to $300 a piece depending on size, voltage rating and manufacturer (probably closer to 3 than 300). Hard to say what that divider is made of, case might cost you a few hundred $ to reproduce, call it $150 for a one off PCB, and most of the other parts.
But it’s not really worth worrying about. Cost of goods rarely corresponds to cost.
And if you did DIY it, you’d likely get very little of what you spent back in resale.
There are advantages to having everything in 1 box and isolating the high voltage section from the low voltage section, plus of course heat. The Optical Rendu runs insanely hot in it’s little case.
Though I’ll admit having seen it, I’m tempted to DIY it, only cause I kind of like the idea of going overboard on the case, and doing the MSB thing.
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Was also curious on the psu + opticalrendu vs single box, from the time I had the opticalrendu, while I can’t make side by side comparison, I don’t really remember the opticalrendu + a psu like a mojo illuminati or ferrum hypsos reaching the level that the signature rendu provides, however I wonder if getting a nice psu from sean jacobs or other equally good supplies would either match or outperform the signature, although at that point price wise it wouldn’t be too far off from the signature
Honestly imo retail wise, I think it competes pretty well with other streamers within the range at least sound wise just like all the other sonore stuff I’ve tried. But if you can diy a real nice psu, I bet you could get similar performance for less with your nicer psu and opticalrendu, don’t really know though until someone tries lol
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I might give it a go after I finish my current project, it’s only really interesting to me if I can get a really cool case made up though, I’m very enamored by the whole MSB machine the case from a single piece of Aluminum thing, but your not really saving money at that point the raw Aluminum blanks would would probably run $500-$1000 before you have someone machine it.
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You might get some customers out of it. Thinking the biggest cost would be for the transformer. Looking at their design, it’s pretty easy to take just about anything really of high quality and getting a two wire 6 or 7 v power directly to the solder points on the opticalRendu board.
What other “high end” supplies are there out there @M0N that are worth while to keep an eye out for? It’s painful to buy single purpose power supplies.
I know at least with my Mojo, I’m powering both the oR and the Alpha USB, cost savings and ease of implementation I’m okay leaving some performance on the table. I’m sure that like everything else in the hobby, the higher end you go though, the more the higher end PS matter. I don’t think I’m at “that” level.
But then again, my next area of experimentation will be throwing some SR fuses on the LTA.
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Also looking at what sonore themselves claim, the psu uses mundorf mlytic ag caps, and apparently some special polymer output cap (although doesn’t look like that in the picture, wonder if that’s an older version then since it’s not using those mundorf caps and the output cap doesn’t look all that special lol). Also comes with a synergistic purple fuse, and the transformer is indeed custom from mercury.
I also see they claim a “turbo linear power supply” which I don’t think is specific although I do remember a paul hynes psu used to use that moniker at some point, don’t know if it’s a similar design
For the really really high end stuff, aside from sean jacobs, I’ve not really heard that many options in that price range personally, and can’t think of many off the top of my head, but I’m sure you could find some. I think that’s mainly because after a certain point mfg would rather make their own custom to their needs and therefore bypass having some external unit that’s not custom to them. I also think in terms of higher end psu builders it’s likely also that they’d rather build psu for specific circuits/units that are tailor made to them, rather than make a high end universal focused unit. But don’t really know tbh
Really when you keep going up, the psu can almost become the centerpiece for some companies, and ends up being what they put a lot of their resources into, either going nuts with the amount of stuff in there, or making a more simple circuit highly optimized for a specific design
I actually ran into both of those while searching for the SE.
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I think the bottom is the older signature power supply, don’t think they sell that anymore, but the top is the right type of caps so that is likely it lol, is that a diy design or sold as is? Or did someone rip that out of a sonore or other psu
It showed up directly from Sonore, a post on their FB page… you know Facebook Right? lol
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A lot of higher end mfg are surprisingly active on fb lol. Especially the smaller ones, but I guess it makes sense when the main demographic that has money to buy this stuff (old people) are also surprisingly active on facebook lol
Thank you for finding this. I’m less interested in it now but an optical rendu with an external psu could work for me
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I kinda feel the same but depending on luck with the deal you find and how crazy of a PSU you get the difference might not be huge in the used market and having it in one box with everything sorted out does have its benefits to me
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