My 2 cents… if you consider yourself a bit of an audiophile, have a reasonable investment in speakers, amp, DAC, etc… and enjoy just sitting to immerse yourself in music, then my guess is that the uRendu will enhance that effort significantly. It certainly has for me (and that’s using the iFi PS). I probably have about $10k total invested in my system but I can imagine a far less expensive system still benefiting.
I’ve also used it to feed a fairly inexpensive headphone DAC/amp with great success. In that setup, the DAC/amp & headphones are probably not worth much more than the uRendu itself and yet the uRendu definitely improves the sound over using USB straight from the computer.
But I also have a 2nd system in our kitchen that’s used primarily for background music, I’m using an old Squeezebox Duet to stream there via Roon and it sounds fine. I doubt the uRendu + a DAC would make much, if any, difference for me there.
That’s $2300 USD, plus the rendu, $600 USD, plus speakers (with a system like that, at least $3K USD) plus most likely $2K for a computer/storage and cabling. That is where I get $8K to see/hear benefits from the rendu.
The three DAC-Pre-Amp-Speaker combos I mentioned above cost me (used) between $1200 and $4500. Swapping the uRendu into each of those rigs provided easily noticeable improvement. IMO, your $8k floor is way off, even factoring prices of new gear.
I’ve never heard a BeagleBone black, but the SonicOrbiter SE gives me good sound - maybe 90% of what the uRendu provides. The $390 additional cost of for the uRendu was easily worth the final 10% improvement to me personally. You can read opinions all day long; but, in my opinion, there’s only one way to tell if it is worth it to you in your own rig.
Thanks. That is the kind of feedback I am looking for. So far all (now most) reviews I’ve seen are from folks with what I would describe as upper mid-fi systems.
More on SQ later, but let’s just say as a slight sceptic perhaps, it’s exceeded my expectations even with the ifi.
I have experienced my first ‘weirdness’ though, and I believe it’s already been flagged by other Devialet users in one form or another. If I’m playing to the µRendu and I put the D into standby mode, the music is still sent to the µRendu and plays to an ‘off’ device. Happy with that, Dirac audio processor did the same thing. But when the D is powered back up connection looks like it’s re-established, the timebar does a weird blue ‘travelling’ highlighting and the seek bar doesn’t start and no music comes out. It just kind of stays in this state. Tried restarting the iPad app. Same. After a VNC into my Mac and a restart of RoonServer (and then the iPad app), all was well. Maybe a restart of the rendu would have triggered the same thing? Will try that next time.
So, I’m not sure if this is Roon or the µrendu or a combination. Everythign works as expected USB direct from the Mac mini. Hoping this can get worked out… it would defeat the purpose of the rendu for me otherwise.
Other than that it’s been trouble free and sounding better tonight than yesterday. Where are my speakers?
(yes, I finally worked out how to do the micro symbol on a Mac - Option-M)
I don’t believe I’ve seen that happen. There have been times where I start Roon playing to Devialet USB but the Dev is still in sleep mode or not yet set to USB as source. Switching the Dev on and to USB after Roon has started will not produce music although Roon still shows it as playing. But all I’ve had to do then is stop and start the music in Roon to get the music to start playing. I don’t think I’ve experienced what you’re describing.
I’m away from home for a few days so won’t get a chance to dig deeper until late next week.
Thanks. Mmmm, the start/stop didn’t work - the button just didn’t seem active on the iPad.
I’ll do a bit more experimenting and see if I can make reproducible steps, but as I understand it this is a known compatibility issue between Devialet/uRendu/Roon, so prospective Devialet users tread with care for now I’d say…
Hmm, now that you mention the start/stop button not working, I seem to recall seeing that one time. I believe I just hit the next song button or perhaps selected a different album and then it worked. But truthfully, I only vaguely remember it and never saw it again. I know I didn’t have to restart Roon nor the uRendu to get it playing again. Strange…
It’s a little worrying as I am expecting the MR soon and will be using it on a Dev 200. Worrying yes, surprised, no.
I had a similar issue with HGP NAA and it not connecting with the Dev when it came out of stand-by mode, or when the input was switched too and from USB. This was, initially, using a Mac Mini for the NAA daemon, but latterly it also happens (maybe to a lesser extent) with a Raspberry Pi hosting the HQP NAA.
I thought it was lazy coding by HQP at first, but it does extend to other forms of streaming via Linux OS devices and I do wonder whether this has to do with Linux code and the way a Dev initiates it’s USB connection, or perhaps the disconnects when an input is switched or the unit goes to sleep.
The more I read about issues with this, which do seem to differ from set up to set up, and the more I think this is a Devialet issue in that it does not keep the USB input live, even if a cable is plugged into it’s socket.
Mind you, I still do not understand why these slim devices with Linux OS’s and software like HQP cannot poll the USB connection and determine it is there and live, even after a sleep mode or changed input.
Further to AllenB’s comment above, I was wondering what those with microRendus (green glow of envy) were generally experiencing as regards switching of their DACs to other inputs and back, both with RoonReady and particularly HQP NAA.
Is the mR, Roon and HQP picking up the USB connection without difficulty when the DAC is switched back ?
Sonore are of the opinion that out of the thousands of devices they connect to, this only happens with Devialet, so it’s something Devialet are doing wrong and will need a firmware update to fix. With any other brand I would think this unlikely, but if there’s one thing I’ve come to know about Devialet, they do things differently and their code is sloppy, so I have to at least consider it may be the case.
Why RoonBridge on the Mac, or Dirac virtual driver etc work, I’m not sure, perhaps they’ve written around it, which I understand Sonore don’t like to do. I get that viewpoint but it leaves the end user a bit stuck - I can’t imagine how long it would take to try and get Devialet to test and/or acknowledge this and then release a firmware update.
Last night I didn’t have much time but my Rendu played flawlessly, but I didn’t try and input switching or standby modes/power cycles.
It probably wouldn’t be such a big deal in general, but this was bought on the back of a load of streaming hassles (thanks to Devialet), so I’m probably more sensitive than others! At the end of the day I don’t want anything that may mean from time to time I can’t play music (or friends or guests can’t play music) because something in the chain needs a restart or reboot or whatever. Not more than once in a blue moon anyway.
I did see a mail this morning that Roon are looking into this too, so we’ll see. There’s some hope yet.
It’s a very good sign for the success of the µRendu though as a few people on various forums - having read my woes - are PMing me to try and take it off my hands! (Don’t worry Roon user here, you’re still first in line)
@hifi_swlon We somewhat mirror each other, at least after Roon, so to speak, and I also find it unacceptable that frequent re-boots may be necessary, we audiophiles can cope with it, but family members or guests, no that is not how things are done. I am expecting delivery of the MR in the second batch, and excited by it, but the prospect of all these woes with Devialet USB inputs is going to be serious downer.
Why ohh why can’t Devialet just get things right. I have lost all confidence in them, yet I love the sound produced. They are turning out to be worse than Naim in terms of software development for their hardware. Yes, we have AIR3 and possible new firmware / hardware upgrades coming up this year (we think) but I am not holding my breath that it will all get sorted.
I’d still be excited by it personally, it’s a great sounding device… and these things may be solvable… (I do try to be positive despite Devialet having worn me down!)
Just to clarify too, I haven’t tried input switching so I don’t know how that fares with the rendu - this was specifically the D coming out of standby mode (i.e. screen on). I’m really tight on time at the mo but will try and do a few more ‘scientific’ tests as soon as I can, although I can only test Roon mode, not HQP or any of the others…
Strange, since I have not really experienced the problems @hifi_swlon is running into.
Perhaps a dumb question, but on the Devialet configurator for USB, there is a USB INIT toggle. I believe it defaults to checked which is how I have mine set. Steve, is yours checked?
I am very interested to read any impressions of people who already have a Sonicorbiter SE. How does it compare to the microrendu?
I am currently using the SOSE with a 5V CIAudio LPS, and W4S Recovery on the USB going into a W4S DAC-2DSDse. The sound is pretty spectacular. I am interested in the microrendu, but feel that the add ons I have already on the SOSE are probably equal to what I would get out of the microRendu, so I waiting on the sidelines to hear what other people are hearing from their units.
I use DLNA and run Bubble server on the microRendu as a Openhome, control it with Bubble app on Android. I have absolutely no problem with the standby on my Devialets. If the Devialet goes in to standby the song is paused and when I start the Devialet again I can just hit play and the song continius to play no need to reboot or anything else.
If the problem is with Devialet why do it work for my setup or is it just Devialet and Roon that is a problem?
I do have one thing if I play a playlist on Tidal the first time I restart after standby it keeps playing the song that it was paused on, when I skip to the next song it will play the songs in the playlist.
@fritzg - this is how my microRendu is setup. Amazing device.
iMac Roon and HQPlayer control in my office feeding the main system in my Great Room as follows:
microRendu in NAA mode>W4S DAC-2 (femto)>Audio Horizon 5.1 Tube Buffer>W4S STI-500 integrated/Yamaha RX-A 3010 AVR (used as a pre-pro) >W4S MC7x250 multichannel amp>Monitor Audio Gold Reference 9.1 setup (Subwoofer is Martin Logan Dynamo).
I have other several other sources including Bryston BDP-1 (DLNA/MPD or squeezelite via Roon) feeding the DAC via AES/EBU. The microRendu via USB is my primary source for sound quality.
Most of my stuff is a few years old, but still sounds quite good. I use my setup a few hours per day, mostly in my evening quiet time.
