Sonore Streamers

[Hifi_swlon]

There has been a bit of chatter in various threads about Sonore Streamers.  (I guess "renderer" is the right term?)  In particular the "Sonicorbiter" and forthcoming "microRendu", although they do make other products.

It strikes me that these little widgets might be of some use for those looking for a simple streaming solution, or Roon implementation with a Devialet, for example.

Has anyone tried one?

To be honest, I'm thinking that they are unlikely to be as good with respect to pure sound quality as say a Melco, Aurender or similar.  That said, could you hook one up to a reclocker, something like a Mutec MC-3 + USB, with potentially good results.  How good?  Who knows until someone tries it.  Probably better than a Mac Mini or a NUC via USB?   As good as a Melco N1A / Aurender X100?  That's a tough call, personally I doubt it, but you never know, something like a Sonicorbiter + Mutec combo might just be spectacularly good, and all for £1000 or so, plus some cables.  In fact if it was good, you could buy two or three Sonicorbiters or microRendus, they are that cheap, run them with different configurations, all through the Mutec to get the SQ up to scratch.

This is all very speculative, and reading through the bumf on the internet re the Sonicorbiter, I haven't quite worked out how you would set one up.  For example, I notice that the Sonicorbiter has two USB sockets.  So could you connect one to the Dev, one to a USB hard drive and away you go?  Or do you need the additional hassle (and hardware) of a NAS drive to get a functional set up?  Then you have the additional issues of control apps and so on.  Is this simple plug and play stuff or one for IT specialists only?  It might just be simpler to use a NUC or Mac Mini, and if you are hunting ultimate SQ, stick that through a Mutec or similar.

In summary, I have no idea if these things will be an endless nightmare to set up, sound terrible and be utterly pointless or if they will be the greatest thing ever, simple to use, all the functionality you desire and crush £10k streamers with regard to sound quality.

The other issue that these things are made in the USA and not officially distributed in Europe or anywhere else.  So you are looking at ordering one on-line, and hoping it slips through you local customs office without too much difficulty.  Plus niggles such AC voltage and funny foreign plug on the power supply.

Any thoughts?  Has anyone tried one?

Confused - not tried one but have been reading a lot about them.

Sonore have a good reputation for high-end renderers - their top of the line Signature rendu appears to have a good following, but has limited output options.

The just released Sonic Orbiter SE is a standard cubox (they admit this) but running their custom designed OS which is optimised purely for audio playback and supports various products 'out of the box' as network endpoints. I was interested for RoonReady but it can be an HQ player NAA as well as others. I believe it's a case of plug it into the network, attach it to a DAC via USB, and set which mode you want it to run in - ie RoonReady - via their web interface.

A few users on the Roon forums have started giving feedback, and some of them less technical. A couple of snippets from memory were 'set up and playing in 60 seconds or less', and 'it's the best I've ever heard my system sound'.  So it seems like a safe bet that it's not going to be a technical hassle. I don't know if you can attach a drive - I think it's purely a network endpoint, but you'd have to check that one. Of the quotes above I've no idea what they were comparing too or whatever, but Ive not seen any posts about issues other than the newness of RoonReady on certain high rate DSD on certain DACs purely because they need supporting or are still in development. It can be powered by a linear PSU too.

Sonore say they're not happy with any current hardware, so the planned micro rendu will be designed and built by them (in colaboration) with the goal of making it the best USB renderer available - still running their OS. Of course, it's not built yet and there's no price, so not a lot known other than it will be a small box like a Regen.

If I weren't running Dirac I'd have bought an SE to use with Roon. But I need to sort out where Room Calibration fits in so I'm holding off for a bit.

My hunch is a tiny purpose built computer will be able to blow away expensive streamers, but that's purely based on my understanding of the theory and what I've read.

What would you be looking to use it with?

Added to say here's the Roon forum link. Worth reading from the beginning but the feedback starts here:
https://community.roonlabs.com/t/have-yo...nt/6440/21