SGC vs Roon Nucleus

CLARIFICATION:

I have run a SGC Sonictransporter (with MicroRendu) for months and it's worked flawlessly. Very happy with it, but recently it's been dropping off the network. I am working with SGC owner Andrew Gillis to sort this out, and will send it in to him. He's been very responsive to my email and has used TeamViewer to log into my computer and try and see what's going on.

>> Hence I REMOVED MY PREVIOUS COMMENT stating some frustration with SGC. The comment *wasn't unfair or inaccurate* but also wasn't meant to hurt SGC's business and reputation unfairly. I'm in sales and know how a bad review can hurt. I originally chose SGC not only because it was quite a bit less $$ than the Roon Nucleus (with an i5 chip instead of an i3), but also because I like to support independent entrepreneurs and was confident that if I had a problem I would be dealing with a person, and not just submitting help tickets.

Andrew of SGC properly points out that with a NUC I would be my own tech support, and with Roon I would be submitting help tickets and using the knowledgebase. There is a learning curve to this networked audio streaming and it's not for everyone or the faint of heart. I appreciate being able to deal with a real human, and Andrew is responsive.

PD

sbank, re:

Having familiarity with the sonicorbiter browser interface

Regarding this, it’s been an issue for me accessing the apps/manage page by clicking the "MANAGE" button when I go to sonicorbiter.com.

On the main page, the sonictransporter and/or the microrendu SOMETIMES show up (one or both) with the IP addresses etc, and sometimes they don’t show up at all. Totally inconsistent, and sometimes a refresh doesn’t fix it.

Then, when they do show up, often when I click the "manage" button for the sonictransporter, >50% of the time I can’t get to the app page (to burn CD’s, check status, do resets etc). Nothing happens, or it tells me that page can’t load. It would seem to be an issue with SGC’s website, and I have asked Andrew and gotten no answer.

Have any SGC folks here had this issue?

sbank
re

When I’ve seen seen any issue like you describe, it has to do with the local network

It wasn’t my network. I used FING and other network diagnostic tools extensively, and sent all screenshots and reports to SGC. We went round and round but I followed all his many troubleshooting suggestions to the letter and they didn’t fix it. All other devices running on my network operated flawlessly during the same time.

I sent the unit back, and whatever he did ( wiping it and reloading everything? or hardware fix?) fixed it and he sent it back within a day. He never told me what the problem was in followup emails, nor with the returned unit.

It’s been working like new (like it did originally for 3 months) for 6 months and I am happy. Hope that continues. It’s a good alternative to the Roon Nucleus, and smaller and less expensive. Cheers, PD