Sonnet Hermes

At Sonnet Digital Audio we are fanatic about building the best Digital to Analogue converters. Because of this dedication to perfection we can truly appreciate listening experiences like Roon. Roon looks at your music and finds photos, reviews, lyrics, and concert dates, and makes connections between artists, composers, performers, conductors, and producers. What you get is a searchable, surfable magazine about your music. And as we believe a Digital to Analogue converter is the heart of your music setup, what else can we do than to build a ROON end point which will allow you to direct your digital music through our streamer in order to get the most sublime sound available!

The HERMES Digital Bridge is using high quality components and combines it with the user-friendly interface from Roon Labs. Recognized for its perfect timing there hardly is another streamer product available which adds so much detail to music. The HERMES out of the box comes as a ROON certified digital end point, however because of its architecture it is also capable of running different platforms such as DietPi, PiCorePlayer, moOde and Volumio. This allows for even more possibilities such as playing Qobuz or Logitech Media Server content, or even being discovered in a network using UPnP. We do not believe in “taking prisoners”, hence the choice to provide our clients with an open platform. Using our HERMES, a client could swap the SD card installed, and open up a whole new world with content from different providers, such as Qobuz. Add web radio and play it throughout your house, office, wherever you wish to enjoy music, installing Logitech Media Server might be the solution. As for warranty we are OK with you choosing freedom, however as long as the changes apply to the software.

The HERMES comes with a dedicated I2S output which is based on impedance matching. This approach makes it possible to use standard UTP cable over lengts of 30 meters without loss or interference. All outputs an audiophile can wish for like AES/EBU, Coax and Toslink are available. The hardware platform in HERMES enables you to stream high resolution music files from network attached storage, online streaming services through the powerful ROON platform or others, outputting bit perfect audio directly to your DAC. HERMES is a plug and play device.

LAN (local area network) input: Connect an UTP cable with your local network. The Hermes is made as a Roon end point and will only work in conjunction with a digital to analog converter (DAC). The Hermes expects a working Roon music server (Roon core) on the same local network.

Coaxial Output: A 75 Ohm coaxial cable can be used to connect the Hermes to digital audio equipment like a DAC. The coaxial output can handle sample rates of up to 192 kHz.

AES/EBU digital output: When using the AES/EBU digital output a special 110 Ohms XLR cable can be used to connect the Hermes to other digital audio equipment. The AES/EBU interface can handle sampling rates up to 192 kHz.

Optical output: A standard Toslink cable can be used to connect the Hermes to other digital audio equipment. The max. sampling rate of the Toslink interface is limited to 96kHz.

I2S output: The I2S connection is probably the most transparent way to connect digital audio equipment over short distances without intervention of all kind of interfaces like AES/EBU, SPDIF or Toslink. However still I2S is no international standard in terms of ruggedizing the format or the connectors used. The I2S standard is optimized as an  interconnection between Sonnet products but will work in conjunction with other gear in most cases. If your Sonnet product has the I2S option installed you can use a simple UTP cable.

All outputs of the HERMES are galvanically isolated.

Reviews and awards:

(Click to go to the review)