Sonore opticalRendu network bridge and streamer

A universal network bridge that uses a fiber optic network connection for optimal galvanic separation. Given the track record of Sonore this must be quite interesting….. The Sonore microRendu was my first encounter with a network bridge and I was rather impressed. The opticalRendu is clearly family as is the ultraRendu improved, which in turn is the microRendu improved. He latter two work with unshielded twisted pair cabling.

00:37 - As said the opticalRendu uses fiber optic cabling. Let’s see how to install this all. The Sonore devices that have their name ending on ‘Rendu’ are rather versatile. They can function as a network bridge or as a streamer. I expect most users will have it function as a network bridge which essentially is nothing more than a ‘USB output at distance’. So instead of connecting your DAC to the computer, you now connect it to the network bridge.

01:11 - That is connected to the computer over the network. Although it seems too complex - and we don’t like ‘complex’ in audio - it gives designers the possibility to optimise that USB output for audio and keep is as separated as possible from the electric noise and phase noise that computers cause. These are the most likely explanations why a digital device like this can bring sound improvements. The microRendu had proven to do that successfully in the past. Since the opticalRendu uses fiber optic cable it offers 100% galvanic separation since fiber optic cables don’t conduct electricity.

01:57 - The opticalRendu has to be connected to your network over a fiber optic cable using an SFP media converter. If your network already has a router or switch with SFP port, you connect the opticalRendu directly to it using an SFP media converter on each side. On the right you see the SFP media converter that is plugged into the OpticalRendu and the router. The fiber optic cable uses two strands, one strand in each direction. So it has be used as a cross cable, as you can see the yellow marked strand is on the left in one connector and on the right on the other.

02:34 - If your router doesn’t support fiber optics, you need a converter box. This small box holds the SFP media converter and on the other side has an RJ45 port for a twisted pair cable. Unfortunately these cheap boxes are not kind to digital audio signals since the phase noise can be rather high while the cheap switch mode power supply that comes with it is rather noisy too. So I will use a Sonore opticalModule as media converter. It does the same, but only better. And use an audio grade switch mode power supply to power it.

03:13 - Also in the network there needs to be a computer or NAS holding the music and in most cases also a music player program. I’ll get back to that later on. On the output side of the opticalRendu a USB cable connects to a DAC that in turn is connected to the amplifier driving a set of speakers. Depending on the mode chosen, music playback is controlled from the computer or using a tablet of smartphone. If you use an AV receiver or amplifier with built-in DAC and USB input, the opticalRendu is connected directly to it. The opticalRendu is a small box that Sonore uses for many of their products.

03:56 - It measures 110 by 112 by 29 mm without the rubber feet. With the feet it is 37 mm tall. It weighs 0.26 kilograms without power supply. The front holds no controls and not even a power LED. The rear holds a 6 to 9 volts DC input, the USB A port to connect to the DAC, The SFP port for the fiber transceiver, the power LED and the micro SD card that holds the operating system. Sonore is somewhat secretive about the design, which by the way was done by John Swenson that also developed the fantastic UpTone Audio EtherREGEN I reviewed in February. What I see is that from the SFP media converter the signal goes to the Microchip ethernet switch and from there to the Bourns ethernet transformers.

04:51 - Then it goes to the Freescale ARM Cortex A7 processor, that is mounted on a piggyback board and holds DDR3 RAM on the flip side. The signal continues to the USB hub chip and end in the USB A connector. Every individual function on the board has its own ultra low noise LDO voltage regulators like these two that seem to provide the general 5 Volts DC. Than the regulator for the USB hub and the regulator for the crystal oscillators, that, by the way are ultra low phase noise Crystek types. The ethernet switch module also has its own voltage regulator as has the SFP cage.

05:36 - And there are even more of them, eleven in total. When we flip the board over we see several ground planes in multilayer technology. All pointing in the direction of the art of proper digital audio design. Time for the soft side of the opticalRendu. The opticalRendu runs on the SonicOrbiter software that supports many streaming standards and depending on the chosen standard, the opticalRendu will behave differently.

06:09 - All these emulations do true gapless playback, PCM up to 768 kHz and DSD up to DSD512 using DSD over PCM or native DSD unless I say differently and provided that the DAC used supports these sampling types and rates: Squeezelite does Squeezebox emulation. The Logitech Media server, needed for Squeezebox operation can run on the opticalRendu or on a computer. It indexes the music and plays the music files on the opticalRendu. Shairport allows the use of Apple Airplay streaming from Apple computers, iPads and iPhones. Airplay is limited to sampling rates up to 48 kHz PCM and does no Multiroom in this incarnation. MPD runs the Linux Music Player Demon.

07:02 - It plays music stored on a share on a computer or NAS. Here the opticalRendu does the intelligent work and needs to be controlled from a MPD compatible app on a computer, tablet or smartphone. DNLA needs a DLNA or UPnP AV server program. That can be BubbleUPnP running on the opticalRendu or for instance MinimServer on a computer. It can be configured to work as OpenHome renderer or work as renderer with Audirvana, Tidal and Qobuz.

07:33 - Songcast mode accepts streams from a computer running Linn Songcast. This emulation is still in beta. HQ Player NAA lets the opticalRendu work as Network Audio Adapter for Signalist’s HQ player that has to run on a computer. HQ Player is a player that does impressive DSP work on audio signals, like upsampling and room correction. Roon Ready makes it an endpoint in a Roon based system. A separate computer running the Roon Core is needed.

08:04 - It is controlled from that same computer, from a tablet or a smartphone. Spotify Connect lets you play music from Spotify using your computer or tablet that runs the Spotify app. Only 44.1 kHz lossy compressed PCM files are available on Spotify. So it might be clear that any way of playing music files over the opticalRendu is supported with the exception of the proprietary standards from Sonos and Bluesound. The European Sonore representative, Metawave of Sweden, provided me with the opticalRendu, a CIAudio VDC.

7 MK II linear power supply for the opticalRendu, a Sonore opticalModule 08:54 - that converts twisted pair to fibre optics, two SPF media converters, an iFi iPower 5 volts, 2.5 amps audio grade switch mode power supply to power the opticalModule and 5 meters of fiber optics cable. Total cost of this complete setup is just over 2,000 US dollars. This all was installed as described earlier. I then opened the internet browser, looked up the sonore. us site and clicked on the menu ‘Find My Unit’. Right away the opticalRendu became visible and after clicking the blue ‘Manage’ button the HTML control page popped up. Here I found the general info on the opticalRendu. Clicking on the ‘Apps’ menu shows the apps that are installed. Selecting the ‘Audio App Switcher’ lets you change from one protocol to another. Currently MPD/DLNA is active.

09:52 - Going to the Software manager lets you add or delete apps. Let’s install Shairpoint for Apple Airport by clicking on it, select Install and confirm the installation. This takes some time so lets jump forward and show you it’s now listed under installed apps. Localization is easy too. Select Settings and then localization. Here you set your location for time references and your preferred language: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese or Spanish. Then you have to set the opticalRendu as renderer or endpoint in the player software you use. I’ll show you in Audirvana.

10:33 - Just select the opticalRendu in the network box and you’re set. To use it with Roon you fist activate the Roon app on the opticalRendu by going to the App Switcher and clicking RoonReady. Then go to Roon, go to the Settings menu and select Audio. Find the opticalRendu, give it a name and, if necessary, change some settings and then select the opticalRendu as endpoint. Since all supported systems advertise their presence on the network, with other systems you will be able to select the opticalRendu as ‘output’ in a comparable way, provided the right app is activated on the opticalRendu.

11:14 - By the way, this all works the same with the other Rendu products that use the Sonicorbiter operating system. It’s always hard to tell to what extent the achieved sound quality is due to the galvanic separation by the fiber optic connection. Fact is that it can’t all be due to it since there also is phase noise and that must have been tackled quite well too as we have seen in the tech part. I have listened to the complete opticalRendu setup using Roon and Audirvana and couldn’t hear a difference between the two software players using the opticalRendu. In both cases there is a sound field that is characteristic for digital equipment of a higher class than the price suggests.

12:03 - It delivers a very deep but controlled low end with clear texture, a rather clean mid range that produces voices that come close to real life and highs that have little problems with metal percussion like triangle and glockenspiel. The stereo image is at about 85% of what I have heard in my setup 1 up to now. And there is the lovely black background that surprises people not familiar with this level of audio equipment. In stead of having the music coming from a mechanical device, it’s suddenly there. Out of nothing. In audiophile speak this is called ‘the black background’.

12:42 - For those that wonder how these qualities can be claimed to be a property of this device - for the signal remains digital and is not processed by DSP: I am working on a more in-depth video on the subject, searching for a good mode to explain it to a broader public. Just give me some time. Let me compare the opticalRendu with the two digital sources in my setup 1. I have enjoyed the SOtM sMS-200 Ultra NEO with 12 volts DC sBooster BOTW P&P Eco MK 2 power supply for a long time but the opticalRendu setup performs clearly better. Not just on a single detail but really overall. The sound stage is more open, lows are better controlled and go deeper, mid range is more relaxed and highs more rounded while sibilance is even better controlled.

13:34 - That doesn’t make the sMS-200 Ultra NEO a bad network bridge. I could easily live with it for another few years. But given the price of the the SOtM with power supply and the price of the Sonore setup as reviewed here being about equal, the Sonore setup would be my choice. The Auralic Aries G2 sound quality is not met by the opticalRendu setup. I would say it’s half way between the SOtM and the Auralic which is quite a feat if you realise the price of the Auralic is more than double that of the complete opticalRendu setup and is almost equal to Sonore’s top of the range Signature Rendu SE optical.

14:16 - It was remarkable that where with the SOtM and the Auralic the use of the UpTone Audio EtherRegen switch made a very clear difference compared to a normal domestic quality switch, the difference using the opticalRendu was very small. I keep being surprised by the developments in digital audio. It’s only four years ago I reviewed the Sonore microRendu and although I was very enthusiastic then, the opticalRendu is not only about twice the price but offers perhaps four times the sound quality. And where then the microRendu was beaten in price and a tiny bit in sound quality by the original SOtM sMS-200, this time the opticalRendu wins clearly from the about equally priced sMS-200 Ultra NEO with power supply. In four years playing audio files over the network has evolved from impressive for streaming to impressive full stop.

15:18 - The hardware is now fully up to speed with the software that, since the Squeezebox days, has evolved to easy to use players that do not deteriorate the sound quality. Which is a fine statement to end this video with. There will be a new video next week, if all goes well at Friday 5 pm central European time. If you don’t want to miss that, subscribe to this channel or follow me on the social media so you will be informed when new videos are out. If you liked this video, give it a thumbs up.

15:50 - Many thanks to those viewers that support this channel financially, it keeps me independent and thus trustworthy. If you like to support my work too, the links are in the comments below this video on Youtube. I am Hans Beekhuyzen, thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com. And whatever you do, enjoy the music. And keep safe. .