ultraRendu or sMS-200Ultra?

I’m currently using a microRendu w/LPS-1 and looking to replace it with either the ultraRendu w/LPS1 or the sMS-200Ultra (with either their sPS-500 power supply or anything else in that price bracket that works better).

The new unit will be used in my main listening setup:

=====
Music Sources:
Mostly hi-res downloads from HD Tracks and NativeDSD. Tidal Hi-fi w/Masters.

Music Server:
Roon on sonicTransporter i7 (HD Plex 100 power supply) + Synology NAS

Main Listening Room:
microRendu (with UltraCap LPS-1 power supply fed by HD Plex 100) • Mytek Brooklyn • Arcam AVR600 • Monitor Audio GS

Headphones:
AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon
Klipsch x20i IEMs

Headphone Sources/Amps:
Mytek Brooklyn (fed by microRendu)

I have not been able to find any comparative reviews online so wanted to reach out here to ask if any of you have had the chance to compare them both. I’d appreciate any input based on first-hand listening.

Thanks!

Don’t discount microRendu 1.4 upgrade, this is a significant improvement on 1.3. I’ll be receiving sMs-200 Ultra shortly and can compare one against the other. That won’t help but it may be of some relevance.

thanks – i also plan on performing the 1.4 upgrade an use my two current mRs in other zones.

thanks i look forward to reading your impressions. but i’m also curious why you didn’t choose to get the ultraRendu.

I can’t speak for @anon72719171 but my situation was I had recently purchased a microRendu(1.3) then within 3 months of purchase they(Sonore) announced the ultraRendu quickly followed by the microRendu(1.4) upgrade program. Spending the $235 made financial sense for me. No need to sell my unit for a slight loss.

Companies always move forward and us consumers don’t know their plans. All that being said the 1.4 upgrade is fantastic and I can only guess that its 95% of the ultraRendu.

As it happens, that’s just about it (except I’ve had the mR a little longer. I think 1.4 was a great call…

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Agreed! The hardest part was being w/out music for the few days while they upgraded my unit.

I performed detailed measurements and comparisons of SMS-200 and microRendu v1.4 with different power supplies including LPS-1. See here: https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hardware-review-and-measurements-of-sonore-microrendu-v1-4.1867/

And here: https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/measurements-and-review-of-sotm-sms-200-network-player.1846/

As I note in those reviews, only use these devices to remote connection to your DAC. They provide no performance improvement (and can actually hurt things depending on how you power them). That’s true of cheap DACs and certainly would be true of your Mytek.

Speaking of Mytek Brooklyn note that if you turn on MQA on it, it will clip on 0 db music/signals, creating distortion (see https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/review-and-measurements-of-mytek-brooklyn-dac.1828/)

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So what is your conclusion? Which one SOUNDS better to you?

To many graphs for me to wrap my head around.

From my own personal experience, sms-200 was better than microRendu, albeit by a small margin. But I am finding the price difference on sms-200ultra vs the ultraRendu hard to swallow

Nobody has compared the ultraRendu with the sms-200Ultra?

OK, I answer my own question, copy/ paste from the email I received from a well known reviewer who had them both:

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ultraRendu has more resolution but sMS200ultra is warmer and more musical. uR plays DSD to Chord DAVE perfectly, sMS-200ultra skips while playing DSD64.

——

I went ahead and ordered the ultraRendu with Jesus

I’ve heard they have made some progress…my microrendu skips at dsd512 but I’m going to try it on 1gb connection and see if that helps…it’s 100mb now. Not yet tried my sms200 with a dsd capable dac

Thanks for offering. That’s a very old post for audio standards :joy:. From 2017, and I have moved on quite a bit from then

I have to say something here… for a Roon only household either BRAND works well enough but whats an issue for me with both is that in order to allow non Roon users in the house access to playing through the system - (Spotify, tidal, airplay, etc) one has to dig into a browser to change modes - clearly this will not fly for a spouse I am guessing…and certainly not for mine - I have enough drama when I suggest just use Roon to play something, and ill get I want Spotify to play my selections as all the local music it too old and tidal is crap selections (she like many always finds too much RAP)

So I have basically shelved my microRendu and SMS-200 units and now using Lumin D1 in my main room and RPi with RopieeeXL just about everywhere else. Solving the Spotify and Airplay needs as well as Roon and having SWMBO happy for the most part to play her tunes when needed without my intervention.

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Same here. I hadn’t noticed this usability “feature” from any of the reviews I read. I have a rarely used sMS-200 Neo as a result.

I have an UltraRendu and before buying it I agonised over the inconvenience of switching settings to enable Spotify then back again, partly to keep things simple for my wife. In the end, I bought the UltraRendu and switched from Spotify to Tidal (which requires no switching on the UltraRendu settings of course). My wife has even less interest in sound quality than I thought particularly if there is more than one button to press. By way of example, I caught her listening to Jazz FM via the TV speakers the other day. Either side of the TV are my Wilson Benesch Curves powered by my Devialet D Premier, powered up by pressing one button on the Devialet remote control. The problem is that you need to change the source to TV on the control, a sequence of 3 presses (default is UltraRendu), that and the fact she couldn’t care less about the sound. Give me strength!

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I’ve read some people have issues with stuttering DSD512 playback thru the 200ultra?

Is this still an issue now with latest firmware?