Sonore's microrendu is out - the first audiophile microcomputer?

[Steve Bruzonsky]

My microrendu is hooked up and playing right now. Sounds good. Too early for critical listening!

 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

My Sonore Microrendu came in today! Installed mid-afternoon today. Have used XLO Reference Recordings burn-in disc. Checked sonics at about 3, 6 and 10 hours of playing/burn-in.

At the 3 hour mark, if that was the best, then I would charitably say great product for the money but not for me, vocals were somewhat flat, same for bass and high end, lack of midrange. Patience.

At the 6 hour mark, soundin’ better, but would not replace or equal my CAPSv4 sonically.

At the 10 hour mark, soundin’ marvelous, as good as my CAPSv4 in every respect, and I think
perhaps a bit more 3d in placement of voices and instruments on some stuff.

Count this as a 3 round win for the microrendu!!! Its everything that Andrew Gillis, Small Green Computer, told me it was sonically, in my system when used as the Roon Bridge!!! For only $640! It’s a steal!

 

[bonzo75]

My Sonore Microrendu came in today! Installed mid-afternoon today. Have used XLO Reference Recordings burn-in disc. Checked sonics at about 3, 6 and 10 hours of playing/burn-in.

At the 3 hour mark, if that was the best, then I would charitably say great product for the money but not for me, vocals were somewhat flat, same for bass and high end, lack of midrange. Patience.

At the 6 hour mark, soundin’ better, but would not replace or equal my CAPSv4 sonically.

At the 10 hour mark, soundin’ marvelous, as good as my CAPSv4 in every respect, and I think
perhaps a bit more 3d in placement of voices and instruments on some stuff.

Count this as a 3 round win for the microrendu!!! Its everything that Andrew Gillis, Small Green Computer, told me it was sonically, in my system when used as the Roon Bridge!!! For only $640! It’s a steal!

How are you streaming to the microrendu, using the CAPS?

 

[Jesus R]

My Sonore Microrendu came in today! Installed mid-afternoon today. Have used XLO Reference Recordings burn-in disc. Checked sonics at about 3, 6 and 10 hours of playing/burn-in.

At the 3 hour mark, if that was the best, then I would charitably say great product for the money but not for me, vocals were somewhat flat, same for bass and high end, lack of midrange. Patience.

At the 6 hour mark, soundin’ better, but would not replace or equal my CAPSv4 sonically.

At the 10 hour mark, soundin’ marvelous, as good as my CAPSv4 in every respect, and I think
perhaps a bit more 3d in placement of voices and instruments on some stuff.

Count this as a 3 round win for the microrendu!!! Its everything that Andrew Gillis, Small Green Computer, told me it was sonically, in my system when used as the Roon Bridge!!! For only $640! It’s a steal!

Steve, what PS are you using with the microRendu?

 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

The LPS that came with my CAPSv4.

 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

How are you streaming to the microrendu, using the CAPS?

I have a Linksys AC router, used as an access point, in my theater room. Ethernet is hardwired to the CAPSv3, my main ROON PC (and used for multi-channel audio over HDMI); and Ethernet is also hardwired for the Microrendu. My WDMYCloudEX4 16 TB (with over 7.5 TB music) is also in the room, is quiet, and connects via Ethernet to the Linksys router used as access point, too.

 

[thedudeabides]

Have used XLO Reference Recordings burn-in disc.

Is that the disc that Keith Johnson helped produce?

 

[Dr Tone]

My Sonore Microrendu came in today! Installed mid-afternoon today. Have used XLO Reference Recordings burn-in disc. Checked sonics at about 3, 6 and 10 hours of playing/burn-in.

At the 3 hour mark, if that was the best, then I would charitably say great product for the money but not for me, vocals were somewhat flat, same for bass and high end, lack of midrange. Patience.

At the 6 hour mark, soundin’ better, but would not replace or equal my CAPSv4 sonically.

At the 10 hour mark, soundin’ marvelous, as good as my CAPSv4 in every respect, and I think
perhaps a bit more 3d in placement of voices and instruments on some stuff.

Count this as a 3 round win for the microrendu!!! Its everything that Andrew Gillis, Small Green Computer, told me it was sonically, in my system when used as the Roon Bridge!!! For only $640! It’s a steal!

What exactly is burning in? If the noise signature injected onto the USB is changing that much in 10 hours there is something wrong with the device.

 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

is that the disc that keith johnson helped produce?

yes!

 

[Steve Bruzonsky]

What exactly is burning in? If the noise signature injected onto the USB is changing that much in 10 hours there is something wrong with the device.

This is the only time in this thread that I will reply/comment on the subject of burn-in. I have experienced this phenomena with many audio components over the years. So what you are saying is there is something wrong with me. Go fly a kite. If you wanna discuss burn-in start a new thread, that's not the subject of this one. No one evers gonna persuade you otherwise.

 

[Dr Tone]

This is the only time in this thread that I will reply/comment on the subject of burn-in. I have experienced this phenomena with many audio components over the years. So what you are saying is there is something wrong with me. Go fly a kite. If you wanna discuss burn-in start a new thread, that's not the subject of this one. No one evers gonna persuade you otherwise.

I don't think there is anything wrong with you. I've heard many of my analog components change over time so I believe in burn-in.

I just think the dramatic change you are describing in a digital device that is designed and advertised as the ultimate low noise music endpoint, leads me to believe that something might very well be wrong with it. Maybe Jesus can explain to us what's going on in this situation?

 

[microstrip]

I don't think there is anything wrong with you. I've heard many of my analog components change over time so I believe in burn-in.

I just think the dramatic change you are describing in a digital device that is designed and advertised as the ultimate low noise music endpoint, leads me to believe that something might very well be wrong with it. Maybe Jesus can explain to us what's going on in this situation?

Once you accept that these digital devices change the sound quality and believe in burn-in it is easy to accept that digital components have burn-in effects - all digital circuits are intrinsically based in analog circuitry and noise will change the thresholds of digital circuits introducing more noise and time fluctuations.

IMHO life is only easy for firm radical non-believers - once you accept any of the small effects or tweaks you are not able to reject the others with coherency. I have found that in sound reproduction most skeptics show skepticism of others beliefs but have their share of almost religious audio beliefs and practices.

BTW, I appreciate your Sabrina's a lot - one of the few small speakers that really impressed me!

 

[YashN]

Ahhh, that makes a lot more sense.

But... it appears they will also launch a very good power supply for it, probably above $1,000, so if you consider both of these, the cost rises quite a lot. You can always envision powering it with other PSUs, especially if you already have a suitable one.

 

[YashN]

BTW, considering the excellent signal to noise ratios of current digital implementations, IMHO signal to noise ratio is not a good indicator of digital subjective sound quality.

Do you think that this device will have drivers to connect to a Devialet?

It's all relative, so further little improvements can add up and have thoroughly unexpected effects on perceived SQ.

EMC isn't an easy subject.

I am not sure if the device can be used with Devialet - if you have USB inputs for a DAC, I don't see why not. - or if you would need specific drivers.

I believe we'll need to wait a couple of weeks more until we get some people to have listened with it and without it long enough to provide their feedback.

 

[YashN]

Signal to noise ratio is an objective metric. So hopefully that data will be coming our way to validate the device.

Or as I said, that you will embark on such a thing if that tickles your fancy or else contact Jesus for any measurement they can provide if they want to.

By the way, this isn't the measurement sub-forum.

 

[YashN]

I'm gonna evaluate it in my system. Amir's findings (or the lack of) isn't gonna change my mind one bit. Over the years, I have learned to trust my ears.

Looking forward to your listening impressions, especially since you already own two of the most well-regarded DACs, and additionally have what is supposed to be a very good server computer too.

 

[YashN]

Here, here! Yes interested in your impressions irrespective of other noise on this thread. I, for one, am fairly sure that electrical noise from computers getting into connected digital audio devices is the main source of SQ degradation & tackling such noise sources at source makes a lot of sense.

Interestingly, John Swenson made a post in the comments thread on the review over at CA saying that a lot of the noise that does get through to the DAC by the computer actually occurs because of other equipment polluting the AC mains, and that part isn't actually generated by the computer itself, just passed through (hence the microrendu is designed to also tackle this). Of course, this doesn't mean the computer doesn't affect the SQ too.

AFAIK, the microrendu uses linear regulators instead of DC-DC converters as most motherboards do. I suspect this accounts for a significant element of such electrical noise as when I & others have replaced such motherboard buck converters with battery power the improvement in sonics was palpable. There are some other tweaks I have gleaned have been applied inside the microrendu along the lines of special care with USB signal handling & again I know from my own experiments that the quality of the USB signal seems to be a significant factor in SQ.

I agree, I have been doing my own experiments with USB, and some more experiments for clean power are forthcoming.

 

[YashN]

This thinking admits to the fact that current demands cause noise injection but fails to address the issue head-on by designing a power distribution network which is non-reactive & injects little or no noise into the motherboard ground plane when servicing transient current demands.

Furthermore a recognition of where this noise is of critical importance to computer audio & an attempt to isolate the ground plane of this area from any unavoidable noise injection I would imagine is part of the MicroRendu design approach.

Absolutely, and if you've followed how John Swenson designs things for audio purposes, you know that he knows this in-depth and is meticulous about it.

An old case in point can be found in his explanations for the linear PSU he designed for the Logitech Squeezebox touch.

One can learn much more about building and improving a circuit for audiophilia the similar circuits we learned at school and in the normal textbook aren't optimised for SQ at all and John is an audiophile himself on top of being an EE.

 

[YashN]

Another side note: all of these devices need constant security updates/fixes to keep them safe. Alas, what these companies do is give you a copy of Linux and leave it be without updates. As new exploits of the OS are discovered, hackers use them as a guidebook to go after all the copies that are not updated. The Linux that our server uses for this server gets updated. Copy of Windows or Mac gets updated by their respected owners. Who updated your little Linux box you got as a streamer? No one. What access does it have in your home network? A lot, including what is on your NAS. Get into this box and the hacker will have full access to spread other exploits.

Now, chances of this happening is very low but if it happens, there will be severe damages. So I don't want to overly alarm anyone. But do ask whether security fixes are pushed down to the appliance or not.

Sounds like useless fear-mongering to me. Any computer is vulnerable.

I once my computer totally taken over by malware because Microsoft couldn't enhance their own browser properly nor solidify their OS...

Thankfully at that time, a bunch of Open-Source volunteers were offering you to "Retake the Web" using Firefox...

 

[YashN]

I will repeat the bottom line: I don't care for another technical theory made up by someone who doesn't have hands on experience in this area. If you have measurements, I love to see that. Otherwise, I m not interested in lay opinions of a highly technical topic.

You should instead ask people who actually build these stuff for audiophile purposes and have done the work and the measurements and improved designs instead of relying on your past knowledge of general purpose computing...

People like John Swenson and Peter Stordiau.