Sonore Opticalrendu vs Auralic Aries G1.1

i would think they are both quite excellent, i think you would be happy with either - if you are a roon user, i would mention though that iirc some do believe that auralic handicaps sound quality slightly if roon is run through their streamers as a roon endpoint...

i personally have the optical rendu feed from the fmc port of an etherregen, sound is excellent -- tried network acoustic eno filter, barely perceptible difference in sq

Thanks for the input.  I'm going to see if I can set up a demo for the opticalrendu over the weekend.

While I don't own Auralic, I have a Zenith MK3 and also had an opticalRendu before I sold it. I compared the Zenith and opticalRendu side by side and found the Zenith to be better. They're both good but Zenith gets you much closer to the so-called "analog" sound signature than opticalRendu. Just my 2 cents.