I have the microRendu, which I use with my Small Green Computers Roon server. I like it very much, but have thought of upgrading to either the Ultra or Optical rendu. I can't decide if going one step up to the Ultra is only incremental, and it would be better to spend the extra $$ and jump past it straight to the OpticalRendu. There is more complexity going that route, with a different optical switch (iirc), and the SGC website doesn't really explain it well (or I haven't explored it enough).
Thoughts? Thx
Review of ultraRendu / opticalRendu
I have both the ultraRendu (uR) and the opticalRendu (oR) from Sonore.
First: both are a lot better than lot of the standard music streamers mentioned in this group. Prior to this I had the Auralic Aries streamer. I think that Sonore streamers compete directly with SoTM's SMS-200Ultra series. I have the SoTM trifecta as well and am familiar with it.
One thing to keep in mind with all these streamers: the power supply choice plays a big impact in the resulting sound. I've tried a few (SoTM SPS-500, SBooster, Sonore standard linear power supply, Sonore Audiophile Power Supply (SAPS)).
However, there are differences between these products: In my opinion, the OS of the uR and oR (sonicorbiter) just runs better than the oS of SoTM (Eunhasu).
My early attempts at using both the uR / oR vs the SMS-200Ultra Neo had me conclude that the uR / oR are more detailed analytical whereas the SMS-200Ultra Neo was more euphonic albeit with a smaller soundstage.
Later, I temporarily put aside the uR and experimented with the oR. I tried a variety of SFPs / fiber combinations. Once I found one that I liked a lot (a CISCO combination), I realized that I was able to get best of both worlds of the earlier traits I had attributed to both classes of streamers.
So, at the moment, the oR is the one I like best.