Sonore Streamers

[Hifi_swlon]

It's not quite as compact either, which was definitely a key reason for me taking the N1A off the 'for consideration' list.

Well no, but neither is my 4 bay QNAP NAS that sits on my desk. With my d1 server plus external power supply, that's 3 boxes. Not to mention all the other stuff in between. 
….

I guess in your situ the N1A would be small then, but I'm in the market for getting back towards a 'one box' solution, so love the idea that the micro rendu could be tucked away and be invisible, whereas for me the Melco would mean a full-width rack or something to put it on right next to the Dev.   My NAS, switch and other paraphernalia are all located in other parts of the house…..

Its probably not going to be possible to direct attach the rendu to a Devialet (especially not my wall mounted one), but I'm thinking a super short 'link' type cable and then I can hide it round the back or make space for it in the wall (or make a thin box for the whole unit).

I've never really heard anything bad about the sound of the Melco, so it will definitely be a benchmark, and if the rendu were capable of its performance I'd be ecstatic.  Bearing in mind they are positioning it as 'the ultimate USB renderer', with a custom built motherboard made on a 'no-compromoise to SQ' basis, it would be disappointing if it weren't at least on a par out of the box.  But stranger things have of course happened!

Since Roon have also pretty much confirmed they'll include a convolver in the software in the near future, as well as workaround to enable AU/VST plugins, I think this will result in my final setup being a Roon one for some time to come….