microRendu: Review

Gents, I hope you will forgive me starting a third thread but I thought burying a review half way through one of two tangental threads might defeat the object of writing a review.

This is a small box designed from the ground up by a combination of individuals who have been highly active in the digital music sphere for many years. Jesus of Sonore described the aim as building a 'toaster', that is something that does a task easily, plug it in and go. THE task is to act as the conduit between your music and a USB DAC in the highest quality possible. To achieve this the team have designed everything from the circuit board up, including much proprietory solutions that they have sold independently.

In purchasing the mR you get the device, four rubber feet, a USB B to A adapter and a few instructions on a sheet of paper. You do NOT get a PSU. Reviewers have noted that the results that are gained improve with the quality of the PSU. Good results are provided by the IFI, for £45, but better are available via the SBOOSTER PSU or Sonore's own PSU.

Once plugged into your network the metallic box, the size of a playing card box, attempts to DHCP an IP address; you can then access its web server and set it up as you prefer. There is an app to switch the mR functionality, depending on what client/server setup you prefer to use, the options are: Squeezebox; MPD/DLNA; HQPlayer NAA; and, RoonReady. The combinations I have tried are:

Synology 1812 > Logitech Media Server (LMS) > mR (Squeezebox) (Controlled via webinterface onto SAN)
Synology 1812 > Bubbleupnp / Media Server > mR (MPD/DLNA) (Controlled via Linn Kazoo, Foobar2000 or JRiver)
Synology 1812 > Laptop with SMB Share > HQPlayer > mR (HQPlayer/NAA) (Controlled via HQPlayer)

I did not try Roon as I am too much of a cheapskate to try it and then like it! It reportedly sounds very good, and apparently is a superb interface.

Sound Quality
I won't discuss each of the interfaces and client software combinations in any detail. They all sound good. I found some were more detailed, some gentler. Ultimately you will be listening to excellent music that is as detailed as you prefer, and this is using the cheap IFI PSU. I have an SBOOSTER on order and will report back on this in due course.

There is little point in discribing the server/client interface as this is down to personal choice to get the functionality you prefer. For sound quality I will describe what I am hearing via Minimserver & Kazoo with the mR in MPD/DLNA mode.

Listening Tests
My current test playlist is:

Artist - Album - Quality - Track:
Stevie Wonder - Musiquarium - 9624(LP) - Superstition
Rolling Stones - Brussel Affair - 4416 - Brown Sugar
Jeff Buckley - Grace - 4416 - So Real
Phil Collins - Tarzan - 4416 - Son of Man
Keane - Hopes and Fears - 4416 - Bend and Break
Creedance Clearwater Revival - Chronicles - 4416 - Susie Q
Thompson Twins - Into The Gap - 4416 - Doctor Doctor
James Horner - Star Trek: Wrath of Khan - 9624(LP) - Surprise Attack
John Powell - How to Train Your Dragon - 4416 - This is Berk
Stevie Nicks - The Other Side of the Mirror - 9624(LP) - Long Way to Go
Handel - Messiah: Butt, Dunedan Consort - 9624 - Thus Saith The Lord
Rachmaninov - Piano Concerto 2: Jorge Prats - 4416 - II.Adagio
Orff - Carmina Burana: Czech Radio Symph Orch - 4416 - O Fortuna
Rimsky Korsakov - Scheherazade: Piano Duo - 8824 - 2nd Movement
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours - 9624 - The Chain
Elton John - Live at A&R Studios NYC - 9624(LP) - Sixty Years On
Marvin Gaye - Motown Gold - 4416 - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Four Tops - Motown Gold - 4416 - Reach Out, I'll be There
Simon & Garfunkle - Old Friends - 4416 - Keep the Customer Satisfied
Carly Simon - No Secrets - LP - You're So Vain
Pink Floyd - The Wall - LP - Side 2
Rich Woman - Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - 4416
Babylon - David Gray - 4416
Upojenie - Pat Metheny & Anna Maria Jopek - 4416

Previous Listening Notes in italics (1008be review). Please note that that review was done with my NS01 providing spdif input into my Bel Canto 3.5vb. This is the mR into the Oppo 105D via USB. The latter is a Sabre 32 bit DAC which I find to be far more detailed and dynamic. The mR adds texture and turns what can be a bit 'HiFi' into music.

Stevie Wonder - Musiquarium - 9624(LP) - Superstition
Whenever I have listened to this track there appeared to be recording issues that I was drawn to aurally, not now. Great music with lots of musical detail that adds to the whole.

Jeff Buckley - Grace - 4416 - So Real
I have never heard this sound SO good. It is not just the persussiveness of the track but the added bits of musicianship, layers of guitars and drums each doing individual touches and flourishes. Breath taking.

Phil Collins - Tarzan - 4416 - Son of Man
This is a problem recording with spitting SSSSSSSSes. The mR/105D brings some brilliant detail and dynamics, but it does not sort the underlying issue, and even makes it a bit more painful; the Naim/Bel Canto was kinder.

Keane - Hopes and Fears - 4416 - Bend and Break
Oh wow. Love it when that left hand goes down! Stonking bass that in no way effects your ability to hear what else is going on.

Stevie Nicks - The Other Side of the Mirror - 9624(LP) - Long Way to Go
The bass on the Focals was linear, there were no notes where the bass bloomed, the LV could demonstrate this in my room. This worked to effect for the LV on this track where there is a delicious puase where a bass guitar note is leaned on and works delightfully. The Focals lack this element of bloom, which I suspect is accurate - but I missed it.
OK, yes the bloom has gone but with the mR you can here what the musicians are really doing. The opening phrases include the bass leaning into the guitar, but now you can hear clearly what the bassist is doing. Now that I am aware of this I am sure that I will hear it by my other listening routes, but it was the mR that acted as the lens.

Rimsky Korsakov - Scheherazade: Piano Duo - 8824 - 2nd Movement
Oh, wow. I enjoyed this through the LV, but with the Focals the piano takes real and realistic weight; hadn't expected that.
Clearly resolves all four hands. Now I can really hear this is a piano duet.

Elton John - Live at A&R Studios NYC - 9624(LP) - Sixty Years On
The three performers are more clearly delineated via the Focals, I suspect there is more to be gained here by careful speaker positioning. The high energy drum work is infectiously conveyed.
I have played with the speaker positioning but I think that what I am hearing is more feel for what the musicians are doing and the instruments they are playing, and I think this is down to the mR.

Marvin Gaye - Motown Gold - 4416 - I Heard It Through The Grapevine
The LV is slightly kinder, hiding the issues in the recording. The impact is brilliantly conveyed by the Focals, but the vocals are spotlighted - not unlistenable at all, but certainly more comfortable via the LV.
Didn't expect this, especially after the Tarzan track above, this track has become completely listenable and brilliantly resolved. Yes, there are ways in which the recording has been stitched together, and these are clear to hear, but the music is great.

Simon & Garfunkle - Old Friends - 4416 - Keep the Customer Satisfied
Great track, but can frustrate me trying to follow the two vocalists. They sound like the were recorded singing in the shower. This is the best I have ever been able to follow them individually.


Conclusion
I am very enthusiastic about this product, I have been waiting for something like this for years. For a price that I think is entirely reasonable, if not a bargain, you get a box that can translate your files into something that can be fed into a DAC and makes music. Detail is presented that allows you to know what the musicians are doing, this adds immensly to the experience, a lens through which music is extracted and presented.
You have a choice of front ends all of which sound good, if somewhat different, and depending on what you choose you can spend hours playing with settings. I have listened to PCM > DSD but, for me, this was akin to upscaling from 44.1 > 192k, made things smoother but robbed the music of some vitality.
Changing servers did not alter the sound, but Minimserver feeds the folder.jpgs to Kazoo properly, so that is what I am listening to; and, boy is it GOOOOOOOD!

Next Steps:
1. SBOOSTER PSU;
2. USB/SPDIF converter (Gustard U12) > Bel Canto 3.5vb.

M