Sonore OpticalRendu

When I first switched to Roon, I thought that an "Audiophile Grade" silent PC running Roon Bridge would be perfect between Roon Core and my DAC.

I then tried the UltraRendu from Sonore-SGC... what a difference ! Every aspect of it was better soundstage, tighter bass, smoother highs. So impressive for such a small device! 

Last year I decided to go optical, and bought a OpticalRendu. Again, what a HUGE improvement, especially a much lower noise floor.  Following Andrew's advices at SGC it was frankly easy to change from Ethernet to Optical, ans SO worth it.  

My budget won't allow for the Signature Rendu, so I'm a bit jealous ;) but not too much, since the OpticalRendu is quite an amazing device.   

quintiq

I just spoke to Adrian @ Sonore, and he said they hope to have the new OpticalRendu out by this fall. They have had supply chain issues and the parts costs have gone way up. It will be about $500 more than the current OpticalRendu.

In the meantime, I will upgrade my power supply for my MicroRendu (which I love) to the Sonore external supply (about $800!), which I can use with the new OpticalRendu when it comes out. Adrian says upgrading the power supply (from the SGC external PS) will be very noticeable. 

It seems wise to make the leap past the UltraRendu to the OpticalRendu, though with the better Sonore power supply I would probably be very happy with the Ultra also. I am running an SGC Sonictransporter, which imo is excellent. 

Six reviews in one day just to save $30 bucks?

I have experimented a lot with my opticalRendu (oR) setup.

1. Power supply quality makes a bit difference. I feel that the Sonore Audiophile Power Supply (SAPS) is a great match for the oR and the opticalModule (oM).

2. The type of SFP matters a great deal to the sound quality. Some sound digital with a low noise floor and a relatively flat soundstage. Others sound more natural, with better timbre, more euphonic with a better depth in soundstage. The best SFP I have that exhibits the latter is the Cisco SFP-10G-AOC1M. I prefer that over the others I’ve tried. And yes: please be very careful and buy the original one - the ones from China on eBay appear to be fake.

Soon, I’ll be placing my oR/oM setup with 2 SAPS, SFP / fiber up for sale to move to the signatureRendu.

Hoping you guys can give me some advice. My Lumin D2 died and so I am looking for an alternative and based on all I've read I want to set up seperate digital streaming with optical rendering going into a USB DAC (still thinking which one; currently have a Mac C47; but probably will do either a Holo May or the Weiss 204 and just use the C47 as pre-amp).

Anyway, what components from SGC do I 'need' to be able to 'feed' the dac, get the benefits of optical rendering and be able to stream without Roon using Tidal or Qobuz from my phone.

Specifically, I'm wondering what is the difference between the Optical Rendu and the Ultra Rendu + Optical Module bundle (this is what Andrew recommended, I'm just trying to understand options).

Also, what improvements are expected in the new Optical Rendu.

Thanks for your expertise; I watch the videos but seems there's more than one solutions through SGC components.