I am back with another microRendu issue. I am temporarily moving my microRendu to my bedroom to connect my non-wireless KEF X300A Active speakers. I cannot use a direct Ethernet connection this time so I plugged in my D-Link powerline (a very old one).
The KEF X300A speaker has a built DAC and it supports the following:
Up to 96kHz, depending on source resolution USB 2.0: mini USB type B connector
Up to 24-bit
Up to 96kHz, depending on source resolution
The D-link is working fine and I can get a connection to the mircoRendu from Windows 10 Enterprise file manager. So the network is good.
I have tried to setup the microRendu with the setup web page like I did in the past when I connected the Rendu to my Benchmark DAC2. A few gotchas there but it was resolved and worked great. The web setup seems to work but when I go into ROON software I do not see the mircoRendu available in the list of network players.
I am hoping that this works because I want to get the cheaper Sonare SonicOrbiter for this KEF X300A system and put the mircoRendui back with the Benchmark DAC2.
Are the Sonore products compatible with the non-wireless KEF X300A DAC?
Good as in that connection type is working, however many devices filter multicast packets and Roon (and other software) use these to discover device on the LAN.
Is is possible just as a test to hardware the microRendu, to rule this out?
Roon will not list the microRendu until the microRendu sees your DAC. To verify if the microRendu sees yours DAC go to Apps / DAC Diagnostics. If the DAC is not listed you may have to remove the USB cable, reconnect the USB cable, then refresh the page. If your DAC is still not listed try power cycling the DAC followed by power cycling the microRendu and then go to Apps / DAC Diagnostics. If your DAC is listed then you have some kind of network issue unrelated to the microRendu.
Thanks you guys. It was the D-link that was the culprit. I plugged in the microRendu from a direct Ethernet (in my office) to my speakers and it was recognized immediately. So the next question is how to get an Ethernet to the bedroom that works with the microRendu.
Can you guys recommend some other Powerline system that is known to work with ROON and the microRendu. Something that is also reliable since my wife is going to be a big user of this system.She is not into network diagnostics.
If not Powerline, what other options are there? It wold be great if a device existed to connect to a wireless network and then output to Ethernet wire (at the reduced wifi speed). Most of the wireless products that I could use have a DAC and I do not need a DAC.
I don’t know anything about Ethernet over Power, but a wireless bridge is one way to connect Ethernet only devices by WiFi. There are also proprietary Bridge devices with transceivers at router and reception point that can have better signal reception than vanilla WiFi.
Most any competent Wi-Fi router with a built in Ethernet router can serve as a wireless bridge. Whenever I upgrade my main Wi-Fi router, I put the old one it replaces in another room and have it join the network as a wireless client. That opens up its LAN Ethernet ports for devices in that room – without having to run Ethernet through my nearly 100 year old house.
Thanks for the networking tips. I learned some useful things on this thread. I did a bit more research on the Sonare site and they had a recommended PowerLine adapter (a TP-Link model) to use with the mircoRendu. It is only $34 so I will try this out first before I look at the wireless bridge.
TP-LINK AV500 Nano Powerline Adapter Starter Kit, up to 500Mbps (TL-PA4010KIT)
I think my problem with the D-Link powerline I used was that it is a very old unit and not of the highest quality.