Sonore Opticalrendu vs Auralic Aries G1.1

Thanks for the input.  I'm going to see if I can set up a demo for the opticalrendu over the weekend.

While I don't own Auralic, I have a Zenith MK3 and also had an opticalRendu before I sold it. I compared the Zenith and opticalRendu side by side and found the Zenith to be better. They're both good but Zenith gets you much closer to the so-called "analog" sound signature than opticalRendu. Just my 2 cents.

The OpticalRendu is great streamer, especially if matched with OpticalModule (just became available again and top grade LPS on both. I use Uptone JS2 with my OR. Observe many others using Sonore optical equipment with top echelon streamers/servers for two computer setup. In my setup I vacillate between using my custom build streamer in one computer setup, in this mode streamer connected directly to dac via usb. In two computer setup custom build streamer connects to OM and OR, OR connects to dac. At the moment I'm preferring second setup with OR streaming Roon via Squeezelite.

Using a FMC in front of an OpticalRendu improves the sound by a little bit. I have 2 OpticalRendu’s in my office hooked up to 2 DAC’s, which are both connected to a Benchmark LA4 premap (and 1 DAC also connected to a tube amp).

I am able to do some side-by-side comparisons very easily. Especially when I use the GROUP stream option in ROON. One of my Optical Rendu’s does not have an FMC in front of it and the other one does. The one that has the FMC seems like a cleaner window into the music. It is not a lot but worth investigating since an FMC is not expense.

Only problem for me with FMC’s is 2 of them failed on me (cheap ones) so I am now using a spare EtherRegen in reverse order as an FMC. I think any reliable FMC will suffice.

BTW - The idea of using the FMC in front comes from Jon Swenson, the designer of the EtherRegen and OpticalRendu.

not sure i am following

the optical rendu by definition requires a fiber/optical input to feed it its digitized music signal... which it in turn converts back into electrical form, to be sent to the downstream dac via its usb output

so i am not sure how an opticalrendu can possibly be operated without an fiber media converter in front of it

another way of saying this is the defining difference between the optical rendu and its predecessor ultrarendu (or microrendu) is specifically the fact that it does the electrical-to-optical-and-then-back-to-electrical processing, in order to remove the electronically generated and transmitted noise from computer boards/chips, power supplies, network switches and so on...