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Review of ultraRendu / opticalRendu

I have both the ultraRendu (uR) and the opticalRendu (oR) from Sonore.

 

First: both are a lot better than lot of the standard music streamers mentioned in this group. Prior to this I had the Auralic Aries streamer. I think that Sonore streamers compete directly with SoTM's SMS-200Ultra series. I have the SoTM trifecta as well and am familiar with it.

One thing to keep in mind with all these streamers: the power supply choice plays a big impact in the resulting sound. I've tried a few (SoTM SPS-500, SBooster, Sonore standard linear power supply, Sonore Audiophile Power Supply (SAPS)).

 

However, there are differences between these products: In my opinion, the OS of the uR and oR (sonicorbiter) just runs better than the oS of SoTM (Eunhasu).

 

 

My early attempts at using both the uR / oR vs the SMS-200Ultra Neo had me conclude that the uR / oR are more detailed analytical whereas the SMS-200Ultra Neo was more euphonic albeit with a smaller soundstage.

Later, I temporarily put aside the uR and experimented with the oR. I tried a variety of SFPs / fiber combinations. Once I found one that I liked a lot (a CISCO combination), I realized that I was able to get best of both worlds of the earlier traits I had attributed to both classes of streamers.

So, at the moment, the oR is the one I like best.

 

 

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fuzztone's avatar
fuzztone
5,598 posts
 

Not a fan, returned both. Both had shoddy support that was shoddy for me. They had no player OS, depending on Roon.

Glad it works for you.

patrickdowns's avatar
patrickdowns
509 posts
 

I have the microRendu, which I use with my Small Green Computers Roon server. I like it very much, but have thought of upgrading to either the Ultra or Optical rendu. I can't decide if going one step up to the Ultra is only incremental, and it would be better to spend the extra $$ and jump past it straight to the OpticalRendu. There is more complexity going that route, with a different optical switch (iirc), and the SGC website doesn't really explain it well (or I haven't explored it enough). 

Thoughts? Thx

yyzsantabarbara
4,817 posts
 

The OpticalRendu is not difficult to setup. At one time I had 3 of them streaming ROON throughout the house. I used PowerLine adapters (recommend TP-LINK not Netgear) to get the bits to the different rooms of the house. The oR is much better than the microRendu (I have it somewhere gathering dust)

I sold 2 of the OpticalRendu’s since I sold off gear. I ended up buying 1 more afterwards, because I got some new gear and I think they are great streamers.

For the OpticalRendu, I use a network switch that has a SFP slot and that has proved to be the most reliable. The other cheap Ethernet to optical converters I owned all broken down fast. This is also the easiest way to setup the OpticalRendu.

I had a Lumin X1 DAC/Streamer | Playback Designs Streamer-IF | OpticalRendu all in the house at the same time. I did some comparisons, and they were not the same sonically, nor was anyone of them better.

The X1 was loud, brash, and a great listen, the opticalRendu sounded more refined. Both were using fibre optical. The sleeper was the Streamer-IF which sounds in-between the other 2 and also sounds great. I am not even using optical (yet) on the PBD. I am using SPDIF out of the Streamer-IF.

Once I get the PBD Dream DAC and can use the fibre optical of the Streamer-IF I think that streamer will be the best one. There is some magic going on inside the Streamer-IF, to make SPDIF sound so good.

BTW - with the OpticalRendu, it does not matter if you use a cheap computer as your music server (far from your system). It does not matter if you use PowerLine adapters to get the bits to the destination. This is because the glass fibre cable kills any noise from getting into the DAC. Well not exactly since there is a conversion to USB that makes theOpticalREndu less than perfect. A perfect solution is the Lumin X1 DAC and the PBD Dream DAC I want to get to pair with the Streamer-IF. The OpticalRendu gets you close to perfect though at a reasonable price.

 

 

 

 

 

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