Sonore Streamers

[Hifi_swlon]

Yeah, me too!

I figured what the hell, it works out at about £500 so it's either going to be the best £500 quid I've spent in a while, or not! My Regen experience wasn't good - I still honestly have two minds about whether it was a belief product or not - but that said I do think Chris Connaker is at least somewhat critical in his reviews (Devialet didn't make it onto the CASH list!), so we'll see. Anyway, I've been banging on about the logic of the setup making sense to me, so its about time I put my money where my mouth is.

My main concern is, if I like it, I won't be able to use Room Correction until Roon integrate something that works with RAAT. Great timing as I just downloaded the release of Dirac 1.2, which allegedly fixes the output dropping issue on Macs, so I would finally be able to use it again (I've been really missing it lately).

FYI I'm ordering mine without power supply, and will start with the same ifi 9v they recommend as the 'starter' supply, but sourced locally. Fingers crossed the smaller box attracts less attention on the way into the UK…. Shame the cheap linear I bought is 5V, and the microRendu needs 6-9V, otherwise I would use that. It looks like there's going to be a few 'microRendu optimised' power supplies cloning out soon.

[Borgen]

I too did part with some money this morning, hoping my expectations are met. If not, I recon it is going to easy enough to sell it 2nd hand...

[Hifi_swlon]

I too did part with some money this morning, hoping my expectations are met. If not, I recon it is going to easy enough to sell it 2nd hand...

What power supply are you going to try Borgen (and Antoine)?

I think you're right re: selling - there are a lot of Regen/CA/Uptone/JS devotees so I'm sure it will be fine - hopefully we won't have to though!

[ogs]

I also ordered a microRendu this morning, with the 9V iFi. I'll be travelling until the end of May so I will not get to hear it until June I guess. I hope to read many reports here on the forum in the mean time. The 9V iFi won't be a waste as it should be re-usable for the Uptone "Mystery" power supply.

[Borgen]

I bought the simple Ifi power supply as a starter. If I manage to modify my 5V LPSU for SB Touch to 7V I may want to use that or I may want to upgrade to whatever JohnS is releasing in some months. BTW the shipping cost was rather high for europe.

[octaviars]

I bought the simple Ifi power supply as a starter. If I manage to modify my 5V LPSU for SB Touch to 7V I may want to use that or I may want to upgrade to whatever JohnS is releasing in some months. BTW the shipping cost was rather high for europe.

What did the charge for shipping to Europe?

[ogs]

69 USD. I agree with Borgen, a bit too much

[Hifi_swlon]

BTW the shipping cost was rather high for europe.

It sure was! $69 for something that small! I hope it arrives quickly at least.

(ogs beat me too it)

If you want to source the ifi more locally (I am) there are several retailers selling it including Amazon (slightly more expensive). You need the 9V as sadly they dont do anything in-between 5V and 9V. From everything I've read 6V or 7V would be 'better' as the unit will run cooler and I want to hide mine in a tight space iof it works out, but the nearest I could find (avoiding eBay Chinese LPS for no particular reason other than time) is the sbooster at about £200.

[Antoine]

That iFi is still a SMPS PSU, me not like! I'll have to go hunt for a nice LPSU, don't have a 6-9V one yet except for a cheap Chinese linear 9V PSU. Too bad that Uptone 'mystery PSU' isn't available yet!

And that $69 is indeed crazy and we may again be surprised later because of customs duties, VAT etc.

[GuillaumeB]

That iFi is still a SMPS PSU, me not like!

And that $69 is indeed crazy and we may again be surprised later because of customs duties, VAT etc.

I agree - although I do use one to power my Paul Pang switch which has definitely brought some improvements to my setup.

I say get the best LPS you can afford and stick a Mutec 3+ USB at the front for re-clocking duties and conversion to AES. Will still work out cheaper than many dedicated renderers. Will it sound better though? There is still the issue of network optimisations and storage devices to factor in though, particularly if comparing to a Melco or Aurender. 

I remember the glowing review Chris Connaker gave the Auralic Aries, to my ears (and a few others that came here when I had it) it didn't cut the mustard.

Guillaume