A quick summary after a couple of hours of listening. I’ve moved through about 12 songs and there is a difference between the two setups. In fact, I’ve been leaning towards the USB direct as I feel that the rendu is reducing the soundstage a bit and making it more recessed and closed in. By comparison there’s more separation of instruments/vocals with the USB direct (which is also more prominent and forward). Can’t tell any difference in the lower frequencies. I had been finding it hard to nail down which I prefer as they seemed quite similar but that was, of course, until I played A-ha Unplugged (on Tidal). This is the last track of a 2-disc album and Morten Harket’s vocal is very intimate and present. With this track the microRendu is clearly doing something that the USB direct isn’t. His vocals are simply beautifully portrayed (actually I think it’s a wonderfully produced track anyway, I recommend it); the USB direct his vocal is harder and less natural. It’s quite a difference and the microrendu is much preferred on this track.
I’m not convinced either way yet as I still think the USB direct sounds better on some tracks (mainly on electronic music aka. daft punk).
My experience with the mR 1.4 was that it took a very long time to ‘settle’. I think it was at least 150 hours… probably because the new clocks need more time than the old ones to do their best. So be careful with too early judgement
My third Eye has been thoroughly squeedgied clean. The rendu 1.4 isn’t making any difference in my system that cannot be explained by any kind of subjective bias. @xxx.
Hence it will be going up for sale shortly and I will stick with the USB direct from my ROCK.
I am going to cull all ‘audiophile’ cables from my rig too. Expect to see ‘night and day’ mains cables for sale soon too (the result of another ‘test’ to try and objectively distinguish improvements from decent £10 cables).
Count me in. It may have taken me 20 years to get here but I’m here now. And I owe you a debt of gratitude for your attempts to point out my mistakes - appreciated
The one thing…no… two things I’ve learned over the past week: (i) there are parts of the hifi industry (not Roon!) that are mistrustful, deluded, or just trying to make a living but either way we need to start to call these out specifically as ‘not quite the value you think you’re getting’; (2) the placebo effect is astonishingly powerful.
I don’t know what ‘squuedgied’ means but I guess we can say that you popped the marketing bubble! Only trust your own ears (biased or not).
I wouldn’t call myself an audiophile, so imho the smartest thing to do is following the Roon recommendations. Therefore my ROCK is in another room, so I do need an endpoint/transport. As my DAC (W4S) is not roon ready nor has an ethernet connection, I use an allo usbridge and an allo digione. Very good and way cheaper than the rendu.
A squeegee is that rubber straight edge one uses to take muck off the windshield, I guess you would say windscreen(?). He’s saying, in effect, that the scales have dropped from his eyes, in this case, the 3rd eye, i.e. the eye of imagination.
Hehe that was an easy one! Just sticking our running joke about ‘the Dark Side’ of USB audio.
No actually I didn’t know you still use it. So you are well and truely still on the Dark Side.
The key difference between your iFi iUSB 3.0 and the similarly priced microRendu is one is USB input and the other is ethernet input.
They both claim to do the same things with the USB output (clean power for DAC’s that need it, re-generating the USB signal with higher signal integrity, re-clocking etc).
Actually the microRendu is cheaper than the Raspberry Pi3 + iFi iUSB3.0 combination, and only one box
So you are still on the Dark Side with us until you lose that iFi iUSB3.0
In my defense, I bought it in my salad days, when I was green in judgement. No point in selling it now, but I don’t think I’d buy another. Same sentiment about my SMS-200.
You know for a fact that it would have alleviated the original problem you had with your RPi.
It’s only a Nano USB3, but I become too defensive.
Still, I return over and over to my originial point. mR, love it or hate it, is not primarily sbout USB jiggering. mR is really just a transport.
As to this whole discussion, please see my profile comment.
Absolutely right. But again an SMS-200 and microRendu do the same thing in one box, with no problems to begin with.
No problem with being defensive Slim. It’s moreso for someone reading this that’s considering this stuff.
An RPi3 + USB fixer combination is tackling the same issues (or not) that a standalone SMS-200 or microRendu are tackling. No difference except maybe cost.
I’m still going to count you as having ONE foot still in the Dark Side though
But I know what you’re saying and I’d do exactly what you’re doing too. No point selling at this point.
That has been my main criteria for years when evaluting equipment. It’s something that simply can’t be explained as better bass,mid,highs,defenition,soundstage etc and is almost impossible to hear in direct a/b comparison but it is real. Whenever you feel the urge to get up and start skipping songs then there simply is something wrong. vague and hard to pin down but real.
