I just received the Sonore Orbiter this afternoon. Just wanted to make some quick comments. I will give the Orbiter a few days warming up then I will post about SQ. I bounced back and forth between the Orbiter and the Rendu on which on would meet my needs. I decided on the Orbiter, because of LMS being a hardened product and would deliver gapless, and play all formats and sample rates. I have a Mac based home, and use my IMac for music storage. As for the Rendu using JRiver it caused me some concern.JRiver is coming along but still, I would consider in the beta stage. Oh SQ and playback are great, but additional features such as MOG is just not there yet. Also startups of albums with JRiver would start/stop,freeze or just not play at times. Could be the Bridge, could be DLNA but no one would own this problem so I pass on JRiver. All of this may be for not if I ran JRiver in a Windows enviroment but I don’t. Everything I was looking for LMS can provide. Today I connected up the Orbiter and the bottom line is this thing just WORKS. Gapless, all sample rates and formats just WORK. I know I wasn’t going to say anything right now on SQ but after a two hour warm up I really, really like what I hear!!..You power the Orbiter up connect to the PWD via USB, connect your either net cable and go…again it just works.
Interesting. Have you considered using the Sonore USB-to-I2S converter with the Orbiter?
No not really I just sit tight with the Orbiter USB that I’m really happy with…
@gocubs42 did you use the orbiter to replace a squeezebox touch? Also , any update on SQ now that it is run in more. I am thinking Orbiter too so i can ditch the Bridge and get mog and internet radio back.
Thanks,
Lstack
Keep 'em coming…
The orbiter has replaced my touch and the bridge. And I must say I haven’t looked back. The orbiter brings a solution to gapless issues, pops when changing rates, freezes in music, freezes in controllers, the orbiter just works. Comparing the SQ with the touch, the Orbiter is far beyond in SQ. Great imaging, separation of musical instruments, its just there. Comparing SQ to the bridge, I would say the Orbiter can compete with the bridge, maybe not exceeding the bridge but can play right up to the performance of the bridge. The Orbiter helps keeping my blood pressure down, when I go to play the system, or have someone in showing off my system I know everything is going to do what has been advertised. The Sonore Orbiter is a great match with the PWD!!
Thanks for your review, Gocubs! I too am a died-in-the-wool Squeezebox fan and will probably also go the Orbiter route. I was just trying to hold off long enough to at least try the perfectwave streamer.
Is the Orbiter connected to your PWD over USB?
Mike
Yes Mike it is connected to the PWD via USB. It will be 3weeks this Thursday since the purchase and not one problem. Yesterday I purchased Abraxas @176 from HDTRacks. The download played with absolutely no issues at all, no skips, delayed starts or freezes. The Orbiter just works!!
Please give a comparison of the Sonore Orbiter into the PWDII compared to the Bridge sound quality wise?
I’m very happy with the Orbiter and the SQ provided. I removed the bridge about a month ago and have it up for sale. As you know the SQ from the bridge is excellent, but the performance issues, with various data rates, freezes, and gapless sent me in another direction, the Orbiter. I chose the Orbiter over the Rendu for two reasons. First, LMS and second was I just didn’t like how JRiver performed under the Mac umbrella. A new release will be out soon for JRiver and they may be getting closer to the JRiver Windows features. If they do I will revisit the Rendu sometime next year. Would I put the Orbiter ahead of the bridge in SQ probably not. But I also wouldn’t say it is any less. The Orbiter can compete and stand right beside the bridge in SQ and ahead of the bridge in performance and reliability.
Did you consider any box other than the Orbiter and Rendu? These are great options, but I am curious what may also have been on your radar.
I would assume that the Rendu outperforms the Orbiter SQ wise, at least on paper.
My understanding is that the Rendu is an audiophile product.
Did you ever had the opportunity to test the Rendu vs. the Orbiter?
When the Rendu and the Orbiter came out, I started asking questions to Jesus, about each product. I worked with Jesus on a server issue and he came though when I was at a very frustrating point with the server. He is really the reason I purchased the Orbiter. I did not test the Rendu, because of my concerns with the early JRiver Mac. I do believe JRiver Mac will mature to the point I may want to try the Rendu sometime next year. My music budget is blown for this year.
I, too, recently bought an Orbiter and have to say that I share the sentiment that “it just works.” My whole intention of buying the PWD/Bridge combo was to sidestep the need for an expensive music server wth streaming. Alas, the idea was better than the execution. I tried eLyric, JRiver for Mac, Audivrana/iTunes and when it worked it worked great, the problem was it didn’t always work. The Jriver remote was particularly troublesome. I could play off of my iMac without a lot of dropouts, but to work it from ipad was one headache after another–the player was continually freezing for whatever reasons. Finally I decided that the whole wireless streaming thing was a nice idea that still had too many kinks to work out and waiting for this wavestream may or may not fix it, assuming, of course, that there ever will be a wavestream. I had made up my mind to get a mac mini and do a “strip down” to have it function strictly as a media server hard wired to the PWD, when I stumbled across some discussion about the orbiter in the Computer Audiophile forum. I exchanged some emails with Jesus, who is very responsive, and decided that for about what I was going to spend on the mac mini the orbiter might be the better choice. It’s more than a little annoying that I have to spend about the same amount as what the Bridge cost to get something that does what I thought the Bridge would do. All I want to do is hear music, without dropouts and without players freezing up. That’s what the Orbiter does. The Logitech Media Server isn’t the most attractive interface (though iPeng for the iPad is a big improvement) but it basically does what I want, which is to play music without hassle. It does FLAC, AIFF, high rez, streams radio etc. The only problem I had was when I thought I could connect the orbiter to the usb port on the Bridge, because I thought I had read that this results in some noticeable improvement in sound. Didn’t work (does anybody know what that port is for). I talked to Jesus about my needs and we agreed the orbiter was the best choice. Just wish it had been around and I know what I know now before I sprung for the Bridge.
I have the Lumin app but have also used the iPeng.
Clearly there are big room for improvements in this area after getting used to Lumin.
I understand the ties to LMS, though.