can fulfill. Aries can do a fair bit more. Different design philosophies as well. Ultimately they are both a transport with different feature sets of which a few overlap.
Yes and No. Aries lacks the possibility to connect with HQPlayer. This might be important for me in the future.
Thanks for the inputs. The Sonore product is what I go for.
Good point. I have yet to dive into HQPlayer but its on my list. Looking forward to hearing how everything comes together.
You’re kind of stuck with Lightning with Aries, no LMS or other combination for controlling it as far as I’m aware. I don’t think it has optical input.
There are various points that shifted my decision to Sonore.
I am quite sure that Sonore is a very good choice.
Auralic strength for my usage would have been the integration of Spotifiy Hifi ( the new lossless service) when available.
Auralic 's price is quite high compared to Sonore.
Great decision. I’m running an oR (Roon lite version) in the main space, and an mR 1.4 in the office. The quality of power supply does make a difference (Sonore’s own Power Supply is very good - $$ but not $$$$) and the dc cable. I would suggest an opticalModule for the oR though any fiber transceiver will get you going.
Really enjoying the opticalrendu so far, but a set up question.
Is it better to have
ethernet switch → copper ethernet 20’ → converter → optical ethernet short run → opticalrendu
or
ethernet switch → copper ethernet 5’ → converter → optical ethernet 20’ → opticalrendu
?
I would have thought short copper ether / longer optical would be optimal,
but in a bit of listening so far the longer copper actually seems better.
Any thoughts / ideas from folks who have tried both ways appreciated!
–Peter
I would assume you go optical straight in otherwise you’re introducing another step? So B, I assume that’s what it’s designed for. However…I’d try both! I haven’t actually tried A, straight into B, sounded great- job done.
If you’re a believer, you have an EtherREGEN in there, ethernet in, optical out straight to opticalrendu.
I don’t have an ethergen, just copper to fiber converter that small green computer sells with the opticalrendu for those that have standard copper ethernet.
At first I put the converter at the end of the copper ether run, with a short optical run into the opticalrendu.
Then I got a longer fiber run so I could put the converter in my closet next to the ethernet switch.
But my initial impression is it doesn’t sound as good that way.
Will try some experiments, just wondering if others have tried variations and what they found.
Thanks.
The folks at Sonore specifically recommended to me that I run fiber through my walls to my listening room, then a short run of Ethernet. They said this would be twice as good as a long run of Ethernet, then one meter of fiber. Unfortunately the solution they recommend would be a PITA and $$$ to do, in my home. So I’m stuck with the sub-optimized long run of copper for now. But having said that, it sounds fantastic anyway so I’m really not going to lose sleep over it.
This makes no sense. The idea behind fiber is get rid any electrical noise that wire might propagate. So fiber at the end should be better than copper at the end regardless of what comes before…
I probably didn’t explain very well. I was recommended to move my etheregen away from the audio to near my router in another room. Then run a long fiber cable to the audio, instead of copper, where it connects with my optical tendu. So the fiber would avoid all the noise picked up by copper between my router and the optical rendu. Makes theoretical sense to me, but in practice I’m getting a mighty clean signal with Ethernet doing the long stretch.
Oh my giddy aunt. Ethernet has isolation transformers and common mode chokes on every RJ45 connection. Noise over ethernet is a myth. Fibre is designed to deal with huge bandwidth, 10Gbps to 40Gbps. Some of the latest fibre research is hitting crazy bandwidth. I’ve done listening tests with copper and fibre - no audible difference, which confirms the science and engineering.
“…no audible difference.” Your ears are not working, mate. Debrox works wonders…
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Whether it’s the fiber isolation or the other improvements, I’m quite shocked how good the optical Rendu sounds. It’s really good.
That is what you believe. Maybe your ears aren’t very good…I am sure you think all cables are the same too.
I wouldn’t lose sleep over it if it’s something that would be a PITA. And I think ‘twice’ as good might be overstated. What are you powering the opticalRendu with? That’s where the money is best spent, on good power supplies for the devices, not drilling holes in your walls.
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I agree about the power supply. I use a CI Audio 7v - I would say it’s an excellent combination but I haven’t compared with other PSUs.
Who did you talk to? I just completed a renovation in my home / system and opted for a long copper cable and then a short fiber cable to my opticalRendu and it can’t help sounding really good. Either solution will work and will sound great.
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Just remember any length of fiber will give 100% galvanic isolation.