innuos servers

[Gazzip]

It's got a multi rail linear power supply. 12v for the cpu 12v to feed the pico power supply and possibly 12v to feed the dvd rom or hopefully 5v to power ssd. Hopefully it uses 2 ssd and not 1. Given the retail price there are some serious limitations inevitable with a product like this compare to what you can do diy.

Not sure how much they are but computer audio design sells a CAD CAT. That is worth looking at as I know these are far more comprehensive solutions for best sound quality. Although I think you need an external psu but that is no biggy.

I am sure the CAD CAT sounds great but looking at their website, which does not work with an iPad, immediately casts doubt in my mind on their attention to the user experience.

 

[Andrewjvt]

The software is one of the major draws of the Innuos products. Those that can build their own servers more than likely will - the Innuos products have been designed for ease of use, particularly for those that don't (or don't want) to understand PCs/laptops. How many other NAS drives/servers can you edit metadata with a smart phone or tablet?

That's not to say that Innuos have ignored sound quality, as anyone who has heard the Zenith will understand.

Not wanting to open you up to the firing squad how do the 3 different models compare in sq alone.

Pm me if you would rather

 

[Al ears]

Before being out of work for a long period I was very interested in their Zen + for Oppo but having now seen the Zenith and my doubts I'll never store movies, maybe this is something for the future.

 

[ellisdj]

It's got a multi rail linear power supply. 12v for the cpu 12v to feed the pico power supply and possibly 12v to feed the dvd rom or hopefully 5v to power ssd. Hopefully it uses 2 ssd and not 1. Given the retail price there are some serious limitations inevitable with a product like this compare to what you can do diy.

Not sure how much they are but computer audio design sells a CAD CAT. That is worth looking at as I know these are far more comprehensive solutions for best sound quality. Although I think you need an external psu but that is no biggy.

I am sure the CAD CAT sounds great but looking at their website, which does not work with an iPad, immediately casts doubt in my mind on their attention to the user experience.

Scott Berry has done some wonderful work on PC optimisation I am sure it would work easily and just the same as all of the others with its own twists per se

I have no actual experience using the product, but I have heard it with the CAD DAC and it was excellent and Harbeth like it as well.

For your information I have just seen this user feedback on the JPlay forum regarding their USB isolator - I really want one of these but no budget for it at the minute,

Posted 03 September 2016 - 06:50 PM

Have the isolator breaking in now for about 80 hours...and this thing needs breaking in for sure..have an ordinary pc with lessloss powercord, fidelizer pro and jplay. I am listening mainly through very revealing audeze headphones. The isolator is connected by a jcat usb cable to a zodiac gold dac. The improvement of sound quality is huge....more focus, more depth, better timbre etc etc. It sounds so much more like real music. It reminds me very much of the sound my high end vpi aries turntable is producing. Cannot give a bigger compliment than that.

EDIT

Want one even more now

 

[richardw42]

I must admit, I don't quite get it. A few years ago I was going to get a NAS.

i use Spotify premium (£10 pm) and iTunes Match at just over £20 a year. A server for video intrigues me but definitely not music.

 

[andyjm]

1 - It has an inbuilt two port gigabit switch. One port is to connected to the network which enables you to control it and a network player, the other port to a streamer. However, the two are electrically separated which isolates the player from any hash on the network.

While it may well be a fine product, worth noting that all ethernet connections are electrically isolated - its in the ethernet spec.

 

[Gazzip]

1 - It has an inbuilt two port gigabit switch. One port is to connected to the network which enables you to control it and a network player, the other port to a streamer. However, the two are electrically separated which isolates the player from any hash on the network.

While it may well be a fine product, worth noting that all ethernet connections are electrically isolated - its in the ethernet spec.

Apologies, I may have meant port isolation from the rest of the network rather than electrical separation. AKA private VLAN I believe?

I am not actually using the network to move my files around because I am going direct to DAC via USB and controlling LMS via iPeng as my user interface. I can however easily AB the differences between the two networking methods because I have two Moon MiND 180's. When I find a minute I will use one direct from the Zenith and the other via my QNAP and network switch, further to which I will report back...

 

[Frank Harvey]

I am not actually using the network to move my files around because I am going direct to DAC via USB and controlling LMS via iPeng as my user interface.

Same here. USB into my pre, with control via SqueezePad. Cuts out the need for a streamer, and does away with sending files over the network.

 

[Frank Harvey]

Not wanting to open you up to the firing squad how do the 3 different models compare in sq alone.

Pm me if you would rather

People can say what they like - everyone on the day heard the difference. I did post up about the event on the forum in the shows and events section.

The Zen Mini I would say is about the same quality wise as the original Zen Mini, but as I say, the biggest improvement with this model is the software. We didn't try that one on the day, although we were going to. More people were interested in the full size units.

The Zen didn't sound out of place on the Classe Delta/KEF Blade 2 system, no doubt helped by its linear power supply, but the Zenith just sounded smoother and more natural, even when playing very loud - we were playing around -10dB at one point and there was no hint of fatigue, and no desire to turn it down. The hi-res release of The Doors' L.A. Woman sounded awesome, as does ambient electronic like Aes Dana and Thomas Koner thanks to the extremely low noise floor (as long as the rest of your system is up to it). Just one track off L.A. Woman was enough to hear its superiority, and then hearing a track from Glass Animals' Zaba that I'm used to hearing also showed an immediate difference. I was going to replace my original Zen Mini with the new Zen Mini for the slightly nicer looks and the updated software (I could've just had the software updated on my existing Zen Mini), but after hearing the difference, and knowing how good my system sounded with the Zen Mini, I knew I just had to have the Zenith - at least then I knew I wouldn't have to worry about whether I should've gone the whole hog.

 

[daveh75]

It's got a multi rail linear power supply. 12v for the cpu 12v to feed the pico power supply and possibly 12v to feed the dvd rom or hopefully 5v to power ssd. Hopefully it uses 2 ssd and not 1. Given the retail price there are some serious limitations inevitable with a product like this compare to what you can do diy.

Not sure how much they are but computer audio design sells a CAD CAT. That is worth looking at as I know these are far more comprehensive solutions for best sound quality. Although I think you need an external psu but that is no biggy.

I am sure the CAD CAT sounds great but looking at their website, which does not work with an iPad, immediately casts doubt in my mind on their attention to the user experience.

Scott Berry has done some wonderful work on PC optimisation I am sure it would work easily and just the same as all of the others with its own twists per se

I have no actual experience using the product, but I have heard it with the CAD DAC and it was excellent and Harbeth like it as well.

For your information I have just seen this user feedback on the JPlay forum regarding their USB isolator - I really want one of these but no budget for it at the minute,

Posted 03 September 2016 - 06:50 PM

Have the isolator breaking in now for about 80 hours...and this thing needs breaking in for sure..have an ordinary pc with lessloss powercord, fidelizer pro and jplay. I am listening mainly through very revealing audeze headphones. The isolator is connected by a jcat usb cable to a zodiac gold dac. The improvement of sound quality is huge....more focus, more depth, better timbre etc etc. It sounds so much more like real music. It reminds me very much of the sound my high end vpi aries turntable is producing. Cannot give a bigger compliment than that.

EDIT

Want one even more now

You're still shilling that ******** then...

 

[daveh75]

1 - It has an inbuilt two port gigabit switch. One port is to connected to the network which enables you to control it and a network player, the other port to a streamer. However, the two are electrically separated which isolates the player from any hash on the network.

While it may well be a fine product, worth noting that all ethernet connections are electrically isolated - its in the ethernet spec.

Apologies, I may have meant port isolation from the rest of the network rather than electrical separation. AKA private VLAN I believe?

It's still a solution looking for a problem...

 

[ellisdj]

The mocking is back even in a thread where multiple people are using and singing praises of a similar product thats being mentioned.

But Its ok an idiot has had his say so he will fell better about himself.

 

[Gazzip]

1 - It has an inbuilt two port gigabit switch. One port is to connected to the network which enables you to control it and a network player, the other port to a streamer. However, the two are electrically separated which isolates the player from any hash on the network.

While it may well be a fine product, worth noting that all ethernet connections are electrically isolated - its in the ethernet spec.

Apologies, I may have meant port isolation from the rest of the network rather than electrical separation. AKA private VLAN I believe?

It's still a solution looking for a problem...

Even if you suspend belief of any of the sonic benefits of the Innuos Zenith, it is a 1TB SSD NAS drive and music player, a CD ripper and a metadata editing suite, running proprietary software over the top of two well respected and universally used UPnP platforms, all nicely packaged up in to a pretty HiFi rack friendly box, a single box at that, which is totally passively cooled meaning it is silent.

I would say that solves quite a number if not most of the issues associated with serving and playing computer file based music.

Oh yes, and you would also have to unsuspend your belief because it sounds fecking amazing.

 

[Andrewjvt]

1 - It has an inbuilt two port gigabit switch. One port is to connected to the network which enables you to control it and a network player, the other port to a streamer. However, the two are electrically separated which isolates the player from any hash on the network.   

While it may well be a fine product, worth noting that all ethernet connections are electrically isolated - its in the ethernet spec.

Apologies, I may have meant port isolation from the rest of the network rather than electrical separation. AKA private VLAN I believe?

It's still a solution looking for a problem...

Even if you suspend belief of any of the sonic benefits of the Innuos Zenith, it is a 1TB SSD NAS drive and music player, a CD ripper and a metadata editing suite, running proprietary software over the top of two well respected and universally used UPnP platforms, all nicely packaged up in to a pretty HiFi rack friendly box, a single box at that, which is totally passively cooled meaning it is silent.

I would say that solves quite a number if not most of the issues associated with serving and playing computer file based music.

Oh yes, and you would also have to unsuspend your belief because it sounds fecking amazing.

Ill be at frank harvey to test them anyway but for me any sound quality improvement due to the quiet usb and superior power supply compared to my laptop so be it. As the laptop sound quality is fine atm.

What i like is the convenience and Not having to plug in my laptop and having the usb wire sticking out the av rack.

The box can sit in the rack no problem.

 

[Infiniteloop]

But it's just 1's and 0's - isn't it? - Doesn't all digital sound the same?

It can't possibly sound better. *shok*

(Somebody had to say it....) *diablo*

 

[Andrewjvt]

Not wanting to open you up to the firing squad how do the 3 different models compare in sq alone.

Pm me if you would rather

People can say what they like - everyone on the day heard the difference. I did post up about the event on the forum in the shows and events section.

The Zen Mini I would say is about the same quality wise as the original Zen Mini, but as I say, the biggest improvement with this model is the software. We didn't try that one on the day, although we were going to. More people were interested in the full size units.

The Zen didn't sound out of place on the Classe Delta/KEF Blade 2 system, no doubt helped by its linear power supply, but the Zenith just sounded smoother and more natural, even when playing very loud - we were playing around -10dB at one point and there was no hint of fatigue, and no desire to turn it down. The hi-res release of The Doors' L.A. Woman sounded awesome, as does ambient electronic like Aes Dana and Thomas Koner thanks to the extremely low noise floor (as long as the rest of your system is up to it). Just one track off L.A. Woman was enough to hear its superiority, and then hearing a track from Glass Animals' Zaba that I'm used to hearing also showed an immediate difference. I was going to replace my original Zen Mini with the new Zen Mini for the slightly nicer looks and the updated software (I could've just had the software updated on my existing Zen Mini), but after hearing the difference, and knowing how good my system sounded with the Zen Mini, I knew I just had to have the Zenith - at least then I knew I wouldn't have to worry about whether I should've gone the whole hog. 

Want to arrange demo soon. Ill take a look on the show forum page.
But got lots of other little thing to get first aka c3c.

 

[Kubs]

Morning,
Interesting solution and discussion. So in theory this kit could replace my nas drive and squeezebox touch - the connection will be from the zenith into the mdac?

 

[Andrewjvt]

Morning,
Interesting solution and discussion. So in theory this kit could replace my nas drive and squeezebox touch - the connection will be from the zenith into the mdac?

Yes it can
And can also be a nas aslo all out of sight in av rack

 

[Frank Harvey]

But it's just 1's and 0's - isn't it? - Doesn't all digital sound the same?

It can't possibly sound better. *shok*

(Somebody had to say it....) *diablo*

*biggrin*

 

[Frank Harvey]

Morning, Interesting solution and discussion. So in theory this kit could replace my nas drive and squeezebox touch - the connection will be from the zenith into the mdac?

Although you'd more than likely transfer any stored music you have to this, you can also use it as a streamer for any other music stored on your network.

Don't forget it will also give you access to TuneIn internet radio, Spotify, Deezer, and Tidal. I have asked for Bandcamp to be added - fingers crossed.

 

[Gazzip]

Morning, Interesting solution and discussion. So in theory this kit could replace my nas drive and squeezebox touch - the connection will be from the zenith into the mdac?

Yes, and in addition to all the stuff David just said, it rips any new CD's to FLAC and allows metadata corrections via tablet or phone, so in theory you no longer need to use your PC or Mac for anything NAS related. The Zenith runs Squeezelite which is a headless Squeezebox emulator so you won't know the difference when using controller apps...

 

[Kubs]

Great - thanks for the confirmation .... It would be interesting to hear any difference in sound if this was to replace my nas and sbt ...

 

[iceman16]

Attention - Been there..Andrew.

...

 

[Andrewjvt]

Attention - Been there..Andrew.

...

Ja?

 

[Frank Harvey]

I would suggest that anyone thinking of an Innuos in the near future gets an order in by the end of this month - found out today there's going to be a price increase taking effect on the 1st October.