Kubs said:
Hi David, is there much of a difference between the mini Zen and the SSD appart from storage space .... I'm interested from a sound quality point of view ?
There is, but I'd say it depends on the system as to whether it is fully worthwhile going for the Zenith, although, many might say it is worth it purely for the difference heard at an Innuos event last year. Through a relatively high end system, it was clear that the Zenith was superior with regards to just how clean and smooth it sounded. It lost the "edge" that was apparent in the Zen - but I don't mean that in any negative way towards the Zen, because it is bloody good on its own, and worth the outlay over the Zen Mini in any decent separates system. You could very easily listen to it for hours on end with zero fatigue.
Through my own system, it's the best I've ever heard, and a pretty big step up from the Zen Mini it replaced. I don't know what sort of cost you'd put on the DAC section of the Classé Sigma SSP pre-amp, but whatever that cost would be, add it to the £3,299 of the Zenith and you have something that, in my opinion, is easily competing with high end CD players, and I'm talking players of five figures. Just my opinion.
Then there's the speed as well., due to its SSD drives. With a good control app, like Moon's Mind app, music choice is lightning fast, almost unbelievable how it keeps up with however fast you'd like to go.
I think for many, as it was for me, it's as good as you could ever rip and store CDs and digital files, with the aid of silent SSD drives and the triple linear power supply. Low noise floor. Low noise USB connection into a DAC of your choice, and where do you go from there? I'd be interested to hear the Chord Dave in place of my Sigma to see just how good the Zenith can ultimately sound. Then again, I'd rather not!