In mid 2014 I received a call from Sonore's Jesus R. He wanted to discuss an idea. Jesus and his team had decided they needed to move the needle, in a huge way, with respect to computer audio playback. They had built, sold, and supported custom high end music servers for years, but were ready to innovate beyond this somewhat traditional approach. Jesus told me they wanted to design and build both the hardware and software for a tiny microcomputer the size of a credit card, that had a single purpose, to reproduce the best sound quality possible. Then he semi-jokingly asked me if I knew anyone with really deep pockets who'd like to bankroll the endeavor. At the end of our lengthy conversation I concluded that this was another great idea that would never come to fruition because it was simply cost prohibitive for a boutique manufacturer. Fast forward to summer 2015, when I received an email from Jesus with the subject, code name = Toaster. The first two sentences said, "For your eyes only. The small board goes on top of the larger board and it's to scale if you want to print it." Attached was the schematic for prototype units numbered 1, 2, and 3 that were already being made as I read the email. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. Jesus and his team had successfully pulled off the initial hardware design phase of a project I never thought would see the light of day.
Seeing a product brought to life from its infancy was pretty cool, at least for me. Readers putting two and two together are probably asking what happened from mid 2014 to mid 2015 to the end of April 2016. As anyone with knowledge of hardware design, prototyping, software development and testing, and sourcing components can tell you, there are more trials and tribulations involved in bringing a high precision product to market than Joe Sixpack could ever imagine. But, that's an interesting story for another time. Today, April 28, 2016 marks the launch of the highly anticipated custom designed Sonore microRendu, a purpose-built audiophile microcomputer designed to unprecedentedly process USB audio.
The Team
I want to take one step back before diving into the microRendu because it's important to understand who brought this from an idea to a purchasable product. The microRendu came about through a collaboration between Sonore by simple Design, Small Green Computer and JS Electronics. All three entities have been very active in the development of high quality computer audio for many years. Members of the Computer Audiophile Community are likely well aware of Sonore's products (music servers, signature Rendu, high quality customer support, etc...) and perhaps are as familiar with the Small Green Computer products developed by Andrew Gillis, namely Vortexbox. What most people are completely oblivious to is the fact that Jesus from Sonore and Andrew from Small Green Computer have worked tirelessly behind the scenes with software developers to improve high quality Linux based audio playback. The two have worked for years, herding cats and influencing without authority, to get a global cast of characters to update, adapt, and improve their individually or group maintained Linux software packages. Many improvements to UPnP, DLNA, LMS, MPD, and DSD playback have been driven by Jesus and Andrew, without seeking applause from the countless companies and end users worldwide who have benefited form this work. Then there's "Mr. Wizard", John Swenson. If you want to feel uninteresting and undereducated, have dinner with John. I did at Rocky Mountain Audiofest 2015 and walked away thinking he is one of the smartest people I've ever met, certainly the biggest Shakespeare fan I've ever met, and one of the nicest guys I've ever met. John has been building and designing audio components for decades, including his first DAC that was a whole 4 bits. Around 2000 John started digging deep into computer audio, sound cards, USB DACs, and Linux systems. He has designed some great products over the years, most recently the UpTone Audio JS-2 power supply and the USB REGEN. To pay the bills John has worked at a very large semiconductor company for over thirty years, designing power networks inside custom chips that are used in many devices we depend on every day and the internal circuitry of these chips effects the surrounding components. Trust me, it's way more complicated than that layman's description, but just remember John has likely forgotten more that most of us will ever know.
All three came together to produce the Sonore microRendu. To oversimplify things, you could say Andrew developed the software, John developed the hardware, and Jesus managed the entire project and handled QC. The gritty details are much more intertwined than that description, but the general gist of it holds true.
What Is The microRendu?
To say the microRendu is a computer or microcomputer is true but it's also a bit misleading and may lead to miscategorization. People like to categorize and group things in order to better "understand" them. This is human nature, but it may lead to placement of the microRendu in the same category as Macs and PCs or custom music servers. The microRendu is in a category all by itself. Sure it contains a CPU, RAM, USB, Ethernet, etc..., but that's where the similarities end. The microRendu is a combination of software and hardware, designed to work in concert, to keep processing and ground plane noise a low as possible, while receiving audio over Ethernet and outputting audio over USB to deliver the best possible signal to a digital to analog converter. The end goal is to reproduce the best sound quality possible. How it accomplishes this goal is discussed below in great detail.
First, let's look at this from a more general perspective.
Input bread, depress lever, wait, receive toasted bread. Toasters are dead simple and work every time. Thus, the microRendu's code name of Toaster. Not only must the microRendu produce sonically, it was designed to function like a toaster. Connect to network, play music, hear music. At least that was the idea, and based on my extensive testing, the microRendu is the configurable toaster of computer audio.
The microRendu has a single audio input (Ethernet) and a single audio output (USB). Installation entails connecting the unit to your network and to a USBDAC (or D to D converter like the Berkeley Alpha USB) and powering it up (power options discussed later as well). Configuration, calling it that is a stretch, is done via a web browser by selecting one of about five audio output modes. There are other options that may be necessary depending on one's desired use of the unit, but for the most part it works like a toaster.
I'm sure some readers are wondering why they'd ever need the microRendu or wondering how they might use it in different scenarios. I get it, these same questions were popular when USB DACs entered the market. People used to say, "Why use a computer, can't I just use my CD/SACD player?" The answer is, you can stick with the status quo if that feels more comfortable. You don't need the microRendu in the same sense that you need food and water, but I believe many people reading this will very much want a microRendu. Here are five scenarios where the microRendu really shines.
1. Simplification in combination with sound quality. These two don't often go hand in hand, but the microRendu makes this possible. Currently many people are using a NAS for storage of TBs worth of local music and a music server (Mac Mini, PC, CAPS, etc...) connected via USB to their audio systems. Control is frequently handled by an iOS or Android device. Inserting the microRendu into this chain enables one to remove the music server entirely. This simplifies the audio chain and removes the maintenance and cost of an "extra" computer and all its accessories. The new playback path is simply NAS to microRendu to audio system. All controlled by the an iOS or
Android device.
2. A few people in the industry frequently talk about removing the computer from the listening room. Whether this is because their computers are noisy or they just don't like having computers in their listening rooms, that's beside the point. They just don't want one, but they still want all the benefits of using a music server. In essence, the microRendu takes care of this issue. Even though it's really another computer, it's more appropriate to think of it like an audiophile appliance. Once installed, it just works without requiring maintenance. One example of this scenario is the person who has a music server with a few TBs of internal storage sitting in his audio rack and connected to his USB DAC. Maybe the server runs JRiver Media Center or Roon, and it's controlled by an iOS or Android device. This music server can now be placed in any other room of the house, as long as it's network connected, and send audio to the microRendu that is dropped right into the system where the music server was located. Same Ethernet input and same USB output, but now the "computer" has been removed form the audio room and I'm willing to bet the sound quality is even better.
3. Many audiophiles have components with AES, S/PDIF, or USB inputs and they wish they had an Ethernet interface for sending audio the network. Based on the cost of replacing one's component(s) to get that Ethernet interface or the fact that they may have to switch to an inferior product just to get a networkable component, I don't think many people are lining up at HiFi shops to get this functionality if they are already down the non-networkable road. This is where the microRendu comes into play. Connect a microRendu to a USB DAC or D to D converter and one instantly has a networkable audio system. No need to replace one's favorite DAC with something of lesser quality or greater price, when all that's needed is a microRendu.
4. High quality multi-room audio. Using multiple microRendus connected to any number of USB audio devices in different locations throughout one's house is a great way to get the highest of resolutions to almost any system. Streaming 24 bit / 192 kHz or DSD256 to the same or different microRendus is a piece of cake. Use Roon or JRemote for music selection and control of each zone and call it a day.
5. Audiophiles want the best sounding playback system they can afford. Based on my functionality tests and listening sessions, the microRendu could be the solution. I've never had better sounding audio in my room with any other device or server or streamer. Period. Much more on that later. Those who want the best must give the microRendu a spin.
3. Many audiophiles have components with AES, S/PDIF, or USB inputs and they wish they had an Ethernet interface for sending audio the network. Based on the cost of replacing one's component(s) to get that Ethernet interface or the fact that they may have to switch to an inferior product just to get a networkable component, I don't think many people are lining up at HiFi shops to get this functionality if they are already down the non-networkable road. This is where the microRendu comes into play. Connect a microRendu to a USB DAC or D to D converter and one instantly has a networkable audio system. No need to replace one's favorite DAC with something of lesser quality or greater price, when all that's needed is a microRendu.
4. High quality multi-room audio. Using multiple microRendus connected to any number of USB audio devices in different locations throughout one's house is a great way to get the highest of resolutions to almost any system. Streaming 24 bit / 192 kHz or DSD256 to the same or different microRendus is a piece of cake. Use Roon or JRemote for music selection and control of each zone and call it a day.
5. Audiophiles want the best sounding playback system they can afford. Based on my functionality tests and listening sessions, the microRendu could be the solution. I've never had better sounding audio in my room with any other device or server or streamer. Period. Much more on that later. Those who want the best must give the microRendu a spin.
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