Greetings,

First time poster located in the western mountains of Maine.

I've set my B&W based 5.1 home theater system aside and have my new 2.1 system in-house and initially set up.

I grew up in the 70s but sold my vinyl when CDs hit the scene in the early 80s. Rather than repurchase my collection I've built my latest system around Roon/Tidal running on a MacBook. The new Tidal Masters (MQA) are fantastic as is the standard Hi Fi playback. My "Zen" is comprised of:

MacBook with Roon/Tidal (Hi Fi)
Audioquest Cinnimon Ethernet cable to
microRendu player
Silnote Audio Orion M1 USB to
Schiit Bitfrost Multibit
Decware Sliver Interconnects to
SE84UFO
Clear Day Shotgun Cables with banana (about to demo the Double Shotgun) to
Omega Super 7 High Output 1.5 Monitor Level 2 Ebony cabinet
 also have Betsy Baffle from Randy at Caintuck
Clear Day Singles with spades to
Martin Logan Depth Sub

I purchased the Omega speakers a couple of months ago. They are similar to the new Omega/Decware speaker but are monitors and have the larger RS7 drivers rather than the RS5. Lewis at Omega has my speakers rated at 100db.

Another happy listener!

Would love to see the pictures. They aren't showing up for me.

If this works as advertised, here are some pics. As you'll see, the next step is stands and overall presentation.

Steve

Very nice! That must go pretty loud. I can rarely turn the volume past 10'o clock on my SE84UFO running 96 db speakers before bothering neighbors in my apt building. I guess the room size factors in.

Here is my take on the system based on what I read prior to my purchases. I am not a very technical person nor a recognized audiophile (getting there).

I have a MacBook Pro that sits in the bedroom running Roon Core that is tied to my  Tidal Hi Fi account.

Roon recognizes the microRendu  on my home network as a music server. The MacBook Pro handles the Roon core and I can access the core via any device I have. In my case a MacBook, IPad, and iPhone to browse and select music.

The music selection is sent over the network (WiFi) from the MacBook Pro. microRendu is connected to my modem/router via the Audioquest Ethernet cable. The microRendu is built/optimized for audio playback and nothing else. It takes the signal from the modem/router and then pushes it via USB to the Bitfrost Multibit and onward.

To answer your question specifically, I believe it optimizes the output for USB audio and the "system" is convenient for multi device control.

Additional cost? Yes. Additional convenience? Yes. Better sound? I think so.

That's my answer and I'm sticking with it i'm guessing someone else here could explain this better but that's my take.

Cheers,

Steve

The original David Grisman album is still one of my benchmark. Great music! Happy listening, Chris.

Raven,
Before you give up your Zu's maybe get the Omega's and compare them side by side. I'm completely happy with my Zu's and wouldn't think of swapping them with something else unless I heard something side by side that sounded better. I have no desire to even think about considering doing that at the moment.

Rick