10 grand - what set up would you recommend?

[davide256]

On 11/29/2017 at 6:50 AM, BigAlMc said:

 

I'm going to take it back to the Ops original post way back in July for an update on my own journey here.

 

A few of @bigblue's original points are very salient for the path I've just embarked upon. Namely Roon based, 6 box solution vs 1 and having a DAC that's a non-negotiable part of the end-game result. In my case my PS Audio Directstream DAC.

 

A few things have happened recently which have caused me to re-evaluate and change direction. In no particular order:

 

• I've had a few issues and have got pretty fed up with crawling behind my rack fiddling with the mass of wires of my '6 box' or 'spaghetti' solution.
• I've been fighting with my server for a while now and it died on me last week.
• And cards on the table I've just been plain out coveting the Innuos Zenith SE for a while now. 

 

Anyway, my current server dying on me brought me to decision point. First tho I'd like to go on record saying that it's a great piece of kit and I still have a lot of admiration for both the products and support that the people involved in it offer. The fact mine died is just one of those things and the supplier is being very diligent about getting it repaired for me ASAP. However due to combination of the above factors I'm having it repaired in order to sell it as I am moving onwards and hopefully upwards. 

 

So I have selected and ordered the Innuos Zenith SE but these were the other contenders and I'll offer my thought process on why I didn't go there:

 

1. The SOTM Trifecta. Very tempted by this but the thought of replacing one spaghetti solution with another was just a deal-breaker in the end. I may well live to regret this decision in terms of SQ but I really wanted to simplify and move to a kickass server & kickass DAC combo.
2. The homebake sCLK-EX based server with motherboard mods by SOTM. Again very tempted but before the usual suspects pop up and tell me this is better/cheaper I'd like to point out I'm not disputing either of those claims. I just want a turnkey solution with manufacturer support because I don't have the knowledge to build my own server and am worried that one or more screwups (bad BIOS settings, poorly connected components, mishandling something and leaving electrostatic damage etc, etc.) could result in sub-optimal SQ and defeat the purpose of going this route.
3. The Antipodes DX Gen 3. This was the other main turnkey product left after I discounted 1 & 2. But the Innuos SE has both Ethernet and USB output compared with the Antipodes USB only. Given my DAC happily accepts Ethernet and USB then I felt the Innuos offered better future proofing. 

 

So all things considered I am still extremely intrigued in the SOTM Trifecta / sCLK-Ex offerings but as none other than the mighty Romaz points out on his review of the Innuos SE over at Head-Fi, the Innuos is a great choice for those wanting a one-box solution that don't want to build an sCLK-EX server or spaghetti solution. I'm paraphrasing but that was the gist of it. He also says he still prefers his sCLK-EX server but the Innuos gives it a good run for it's money. Again paraphrasing from memory. But that and the other stellar reviews were good enough for me and I've take the plunge.

 

Now I did wonder about availability as Innuos made such a big deal around the Zenith SE being a limited production run of 100 units only. I contacted Innuos and they told me that these are now being made to order only and the next batch of 10 was due in late January. Apparently the triple linear toroidal transformers are hand twisted by mountain goatherds or something (ok I may had made that last bit up ) but these are made by another firm and are the production limiting factor.

 

So this was a problem for me. My server is dead. And late January is a long way off. A really long way off in audiophile panic terms!

 

Now I praised my current server earlier despite it and I not particularly getting on recently. As my emergency solution I dusted down my old QNAP NAS drive and gave thanks that my laziness and general ineptitude had prevented me from following my girlfriends instructions about selling it on Ebay! Phew, disaster averted! But whilst I have music playing again the NAS (even with a basic LPS) sounds very clunky compared to the Audiostore Prestige server it's stepping in for. Locally stored FLAC just sounds heavy and clunky compared to the Prestige. Interestingly Tidal doesn't sound too bad. But suffice to say I am hearing a very noticeable drop in quality versus the Prestige. So despite this server dying on it's ass I have a renewed appreciation for the great job it was doing. Pretty ironic! 

 

So what to do about the interim wait until late January. Could I cope with limping along with a NAS, clunky music, no Roon and the old school feel of BubbleUpnp?

 

Short answer, nope! But talking to a couple of UK dealers about whether they happened to have a Zenith SE in stock led me to come up with the following interesting solution.

 

My Zenith MK2 arrives today . I have also ordered and placed a deposit on the SE for the late January batch. Upon the dealer getting the SE, I'll pay the remainder and they'll ship to me. The dealer will then accept the Zenith MK2 at a very nominal markdown from what I paid for it. In other words I'm paying a fairly trivial fee for a loaner Zenith MK2 to tide me over until the SE is available.

 

So ok there is a small hassle in terms of needing to setup two different servers within 2 months of each other and needing to package/courier the MK2 back to the dealer. But there are plenty positives too. Not least I get to restore hopefully great sounding music today. I also get to compare the Zenith MK2 to my previous server. Based on memory only obviously. I'm not expecting the difference to be very big but hopefully the MK2's higher price is somewhat reflected in SQ. We shall see I guess. I then also get to do a direct comparison of the MK2 vs the SE in January. I'm obviously hoping that the SE will kick the Prestiges ass in terms of SQ and given the difference in price it better do!

 

As per a few reviews (including Roys) the SE needs some real burn-in time so I guess I need to factor that in. But it will still be an interesting and hopefully fun experiment.

 

I guess that sticking with the experimentation theme I also have the intrigue/dilemma of what to do with my surplus to requirements spaghetti components. Obviously selling them is the standout answer. But do I sell them without testing whether any of them further improve the SQ with the MK2 or SE. The ISO Regen for example in the USB path. The SU-1 to offer an alternative USB to I2S. I hope that this is not the case because I am spending a large sum of money to try and simplify into a one-box kickass solution. But it would be foolish to not at least try whether the additional boxes I have on hand improve things or not.

 

Anway, that's the admittedly long story of how from in July to when the Op started this thread till now in the dying embers of November I have moved on from a six box solution to (hopefully) a one box solution. I stated a few weeks ago on this thread that I thought the Zenith SE & Directstream DAC would be a killer combo. Well I've put my money where my mouth is and I'm about to find out. Fingers crossed! 

 

I'll report back on the Zenith MK2 after a few weeks of bedding it in.

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

I'll be all ears to hear that review.