Does anyone know if the microRendu can be connected directly to the ROCK server ethernet without going through a proper ethernet hub?
I would like to connect it directly to my NUC7i5-based ROCK. The ROCK would use the WiFi to connect to Tidal and would see the microRendu as an endpoint directly attached to Ethernet. Has anyone tried it? Is either a straight or cross-over ethernet cable required? What would be the proper LAN configuration for ROCK?
Why not buy a cheap 8 port switch and plug them both into that and connect the switch to your broadband, job done.
(Misleading advice removed)
Hello, why do you say that? The NUC can be connected simultaneously to WiFi and Ethernet, using different network configurations (e.g. IP, Subnet Mask, Gateway) for the two ports. Why do you say that its network card has such a limitation? Every PC should be able to bridge wifi and ethernet. I am thinking to remove the Ethernet Hub to reduce complexity as with a direct link it is not needed. The NUC needs to be cable-linked to the microRendu only, in the setting I have in mind, which does not justify a multi-port hub.
Direct connect to a ROCK machine, why use mRendu at all? Couldn’t the DAC be connected to the ROCK machine’s USB port?
For the microrendu performance isolating the DAC from the electrical noise which is associated with the digital source. The microrendu used as a streamer to the DAC seems to have a major impact on the playback quality.
@simoneratti If you bridge wifi and ethernet through Rock/NUC (same IP net on both sides) it may work, but a lot of unneeded traffic will traverse the bridge.
With separate subnets on wifi and ethernet you’d have trouble setting an IP on the microRendu. It needs DHCP. Rock has no DHCP server option, nor can it act as a router with IP-helpers.
@xxx the output from the microRendu is probably better than direct from the NUC. Besides, an mR is silent…
So they say.
Silent? You mean electrically silent or inaudible? If you mean electrically silent, I doubt that modern PC power supplies are noisy enough to make a difference. If you mean inaudible, the OP is already contemplating putting the mRendu in the same room as the Rock machine.
In the case of Roon, I think these streamers only have a place because of RAAT and using ethernet to have multiple, remote from core, endpoints. The OP’s original questions indicates he is not using RAAT topology.
No fans…
@ogs what would be the consequence of unneeded traffic traversing the bridge? Can’t the mrendu IP addresses be set manually?
So, the NUC is fanless? OK, so is the DAC. Where is the fan noise coming from? Nowhere, with or without the mRendu.
I don’t believe the mRendu has a super duper USB port. So, running ethernet from the ROCK machine to the mRendu and then to the DAC is no better than running ROCK USB directly to DAC, and far less complicated.
No, you can not set the IP manually on a microRendu. A big part if the noise over a bridge is the kind you want to avoid in an audio setup. You’d probably be able to hear the difference as the mR is not immune.
You seem to know this?
The issue here is wether ROCK has the functionality to do what you need. I think it can but I can’t confirm because I have no wifi on my ROCK machine. And to be honest, with the hardware I have I wouldn’t want to depend on WiFi. Though that said I did use it to feed an end point in a friends house in the absence of cabling and it was fine with Red Book. It is just that I do everything at 2 X DSD.
Please, put aside the fan noise, the microrendu is of interest to me for its the electrical performance which seems outstanding. So, what is different in terms of ethernet traffic between the standard setting of the mrendu attached to an hub vs. attached to the NUC directly? Also when plugged to the hub the mrendu would see a lot of traffic going about.
I know that people want to use add ons that probably aren’t necessary.
Don’t want to start an argument, but tell me what would be the difference between ROCK USB->DAC vs. ROCK Ethernet ->mRendu->DAC, except for the added complexity, assuming the USB ports on ROCK machine and on mRendu are of equal quality and if they’re not GEN 5 somewhere then they are.
All this talk about hubs, DHCP servers, etc. is missing the point, or at least avoiding the point.
Sorry, if you really want to know do test it yourself 
Just a cop-out on your part. You can’t propose, as a thought experiment, what the difference would be, because you can’t think of a difference? 
Sorry but, I am not willing to drift the thread towards a discussion about the microrendu value. Most of the expert feedback online raves for the microrendu. This thread is focused on understanding whether it is feasible to connect the microrendu directly to the NUC’s ethernet, letting the NUC itself bridge the WiFi traffic with the microrendu endpoint.
Point taken.
BTW - Raves is right. This expert online feedback is by people who run adverts for the same equipment they test.
Oh yeah, one last thing. By connecting a streamer directly to a ROCK machine, you have misunderstood what the purpose of a streamer is in the RAAT topology.
