I just discovered the SonicOrbiter SE. This looks like an awesome, relatively cheap little endpoint.
It’s clearly a Cubox-i model. And before Roon came out I’d been using a Cubox-i4 Pro for a couple of years to great success. (Well, in the interest of full disclosure, it did not work well with the AudioQuest Dragonlfy DAC, without a bit of tweaking). Like other people here, I set my Cubox-i up as an AirPort device (running Volumio), and it worked very well as an AirPlay endpoint. And now with recently released Squeezebox support, I’ve changed it to a Squeezebox emulator (running Squeezelite), and it works BRILLIANTLY as an endpoint. The only problem, it’s not easy for a non-Linux geek to set up. And arguably, it does not have a linear power supply. THAT’s what’s exciting about the Orbiter SE; it solves both those problems.
It comes preconfigured for both AirPlay and Squeezelite emulation AND comes with an Linear PS. It should work great out-of-the-box as a Squeezebox, letting you plug an Ethernet cable in, and USB or Toslink out to your DAC. PLUS they are working on making it RoonReady.
Since I’ve already got a Cubox-i, I’ll not be buying one personally. But wanted people to know. IMO this is worth a hard look. (and no, I’ve got no connection to this company - just excited about the product, and what it can mean to the Roon community).
That is a very interesting product Steve. How do you see it stacking up against the Aries Mini ? (Edit: I see you’ve answered this as far as possible in the other thread).
Andybob - This is actually a complicated question to answer. Once the Orbiter SE is RoonReady, AND assuming the Aries Mini is also made RoonReady, then it would be time to do a sonic comparison.
As it stands now, since the Orbiter SE supports Squeezebox emulation, that means it can stream DSD DoP. The Aries Mini, having to emulate AirPlay, does not support that. So IF you want to play DSDs NOW (not waiting for them both to be RoonReady), I’d be picking up an Orbiter SE now. But that ignores the possible sonic differences.
I’ll have to spend some time comparing my Cubox-i (not playing DSD, just PCM 16/44) to the Aries Mini. But having been listening to my Cubox-i for a couple of years (not Roon/Squeezelite, but LMS/Squeezelite), I’m used to how it sounds. And listening to the Aries Mini sounds excellent. But I cannot say it sounds better than what I was used to before. So short of detail comparison, I’d guess they are on par. But that also is a comparison of MY Cubox-i vs. my Aries Mini. Your question was about the Sonic Orbiter SE specifically.
My Cubox-i is the Cubox-i4 Pro model. The Orbiter SE appears to be a Cubox-i2 or Cubox-i2eX. I conclude that because it does not support WiFi and has “multiple cores” per Sonic’s marketing info. And that means Orbiter has dual core vs. my quad core, and 1 GB RAM vs. my 2 GB RAM, and possibly memory running 20% slower. Does that matter? I would not know, but I kind of doubt it.
Sorry I cannot provide anything more definitive, other than to say that I’ve spent a lot of time on the Cubox forum, and have not seen any evidence of people moaning because they bought a Cubox-i2 model vs. a Cubox-i4 model. I’ve suspected for a while that my model is overkill, for this particular use.
Yeah. I agree. I brought that up to the developer in this forum. He does not seem inclined to change that, but at least offered some hardware suggestions to fill that gap.
But thank you for bringing that up. No “out of the box” WiFi support will make this less desirable for a lot of people in this community. That said, my Cubox-4Pro offers that out of the box, but then you have to get involved with all sorts of Linux configuration/setup stuff, and have no linear power supply.
The Sonicorbiter SE is based on a box we had customized by SolidRun. We are running a custom hardware and software solution so comparing it to an off the shelf Cubox with the free Volumio is not really an apples to apples comparison.
Also the Sonicorbiter CE has completed RoonReady certification so again this is very different from a free solution.
As for the Aries Mini I’m sure they will get RoonRady certified at some point but the Sonicorbiter CE has a lot more features
DLNA renderer for use with jRiver and others
RoonReady RAAT certified
AirPlay
NAA player from HQplayer
Squeezelite
I like to call it the Swiss army knife of audio players since it supports all the most common audio playback protocols.
You can even load Squeezebox Server on it if you want.
I’d love to see Auralic incorporate an NAA into the Aries and Lightning DS. I raised it with Mr. Wang when it became clear that HQP would control distribution in the Roon integration. I think it’s fair to say he wasn’t attracted to the idea but indicated it might be considered at some time in the future. I can understand that RoonReady and MQA may have a greater priority.
I think that as well as WiFi, MQA software decoding could become a point of distinction between the Aries Mini and the Sonicorbiter SE. It may be that the Sonicorbiter SE could include an MQA decoder. I don’t know enough about the required hardware to guess.
MQA needs to be decoded by the DAC itself. As far as I know we already support MQA. It’s supposed to be transparent to the devices transporting it. It just looks like FLAC, WAV etc.
If you play MQA on a device that doesn’t support it you just get standard quality sound.
As far as Wi-Fi is concerned I’m not a big fan of having a radio transmitter that close to a DAC and amp combo. The chance of interference is high. I don’t put Wi-Fi on any products that I sell.
Also most consumer Wi-Fi networks are crap. I spent a lot of time on the Squeezebox forum and there were thousands of users complaining about music drops, clicks, and playback stops. In almost every case once they went to a hard network the problems disappeared.
I’m a huge fan of HomePlug. This allows you to put a network device like Sonicorbiter in any room of the house with the reliability of a wired network. It’s very easy to set up and very secure.
You can get a pair for $30 and never have to worry about problems again
MQA can be decoded by a DAC, but The Absolute Sound article with Bob Stuart said the decoder can be implemented in many ways, including as a bit of software. In that case I expect the resulting 192KHz PCM stream can be sent to a non-MQA DAC. Both Tidal and Roon intend to implement MQA decoding in software.
It seems to be a live issue for debate whether an MQA DAC will have some advantage over a software decoder. Time will tell.
I thought on of the advantages of MQA is it matches your DAC to the ADC that was used to record the music. That could only be done in the DAC. I’m not sure what you can do in software.
Anyway the Sonicorbiter SE supports Roon so if Roon does this type of decoding we will support it.
Yes, that could well be a point of distinction. If the software knows what DAC it is attached to, then it might download what it needs to know about that DAC in order to best handle the decoding but it may not have the same access to control surfaces in the DAC as a hardware implementation.
If you use the SonicOrbiter SE as a Squeezelite device (one option), Roon will absolutely send DSD DSF files as DoP to the SonicOrbiter. I’m sure because I run a different Squeezelite device, and Roon sends DSD DSF files to it as DoP. Sounds great.
However, I don’t know if it will do that as a RoonReady device. Though I’d be shocked if it doesn’t since it does for Squeezelite endpoints.
I’m sorry, I don’t have a SonicOrbiter SE. So I am familiar with their options.
But I do know that one option is supposed to run Squeezelite emulation. If you find that option, AND if you go into Roon and find the network setup gear icon for it, Roon will let you set up DSD (DSF) playback over DoP.
As I mentioned before, I’m surprised that it does not work under RoonReady. But I know it works for Squeezelite. So it should work for Squeezelite on SonicOrbiter SE.
roon is not scan dsd dsf file yet(in nas or nerwork)
We have supported DSF files for 8 months. I have SonicOrbiter SE here, and I play DSD files often.
Maybe the files are not recognized by Roon for another reason? @vova or @mike might be able to help troubleshoot. Roon’s file handling is independent from playback. If the files are not showing up, it is probably not related to Sonicorbiter SE.
looking forward to reading more about the SE - seems like a nice solution to getting my laptop away from the USB connection to my DAC. I am thinking sound quality would be big jump up from my ordinary multi-function laptop. Just wondering where the Microrendu fits in and whether I would be regretting going Sonicorbiter when the uRendu happens.
My understanding is that the microRendu will be hardware that is all original and optimized for its purpose, whereas the Sonic Orbiter SE is pretty much off-the-shelf hardware.
Also, Jesus at Sonore had this to say when I asked him a similar question over on Computer Audiophile:
“Dave, the hardware on the microRendu is different in that it’s optimized for USB output:) The Sonicorbiter SE is a nice renderer and a great value. The software on the microRendu is similar in functionality, but void of the optical output configuration in the GUI.”
