Innuos Zenith SE MkII

[firedog]

I don't think we yet know of anyone who's heard one. One member is about to get one and I'm sure he will report. 

[firedog]

4 hours ago, matthias said:

It is a pity that neither Innuos nor CHC publish specs for the PS in the standard or SE.

I can imagine that even in the SE the PS is inferior to a PH SR7.

 

Matt

That may be true, but I'd think that one of the attractive features on an item like the Innuos, is that it is one box. Lots of people have a strong preference for one box as opposed to 2 or multiple boxes. 

[firedog]

It may be an “and” instead of an “or”.  The other question would be how the Zenith sounds compared to other sources.

[firedog]

4 hours ago, Patatorz said:

Do you know if there is a possibility of upgrading from a 2 to a 4to after sale ?

 

best regards 

Yes, you can. I talked to Innuos about this. But it isn't user serviceable. Requires a trip to Innuos (or possibly in some cases distributor) and reinstall of firmware and OS. 

I think that's the main reason I've decided to go in different direction.

[firedog]

8 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

I guess the caveat to C is that it looks like they are all sold. But given the stellar reviews and reception it's hard not to imagine Innuos doing something similar in the near future. MKIII, differently configured SE etc.

Yes, if they really plan on limiting production to 100,  and they feel that it was worthwhile economically, then they can come out with a new "flagship" - The Zenith Mk III or Zenith Ultimate SE.  I'd guess it depends on whether they feel the 100 pieces made enough profit to have a new item in the line, and if they get feedback that there's still a market for a significant number of expensive pieces (sounds like there is). 

 

Of course, they can also do what many companies do: just decide that it was such a success they "have to" make more.

[firedog]

2 hours ago, noel.gregoire said:

Hi all, 

after reading all the comments about Innuos a MK II is ordered... the supplyer will install ROON on it ... and all will be connected to a Bricasti M5 ... 

no doubt it 'll be a real enthousiam listening music.

Good for you. Will be interested if you do a comparison of it with and without the Bricasti. Innous seems to think it is better without the streamer there, direct from the HD. 

[firedog]

1 hour ago, mikicasellas said:

 

Funny i am demoing the Bricasti M5 right now and i am wondering if getting the MKII would be a better than the M5, iam between one of those two choices, never thought the option of combining them only compare them to see which one is better..

What do you think of the M5? Compared to your present source chain?

[firedog]

should work

[firedog]

1 hour ago, BigAlMc said:

Regardless whether I use Play Next or Add To End (of current playlist) all four Apps do the same thing. Confirm the track is added but stops playing at the end of the current track. 

I’m using Orange Squeeze and it does that fine..`i’m not using an Innuos, so I’m not sure it’s an app problem.

[firedog]

I have orange Squeeze on both a Samsung phone and a Lenovo tablet. Works well on both-it is the only LMS app that hasn’t caused me problems on Android. I’m running LMS on my Windows 10 server.

As far as a player, your memory is correct, but in the end I changed my mind and ordered a Bricasti M5. It should be here in about 2 weeks.

I have to pay 32% customs and VAT here, so in the end I decided the Sonore was more than I wanted to spend.

As far as the Innuous, I came to the conclusion that the HD was a problem - both in terms of cost and capacity. Plus, not user upgradeable or fixable if it breaks. I decided  in my situation I’d rather have something without a HD in the player. Simpler, and less chance for something to go wrong and need service.

 

That’s how  I got to the Bricasti. It has the side benefit of also having AES and spdif outs, which I don’t really need, but will be interesting to have and compare to the USB. It’s a bit like the Sonore, one box with good PS and noise reduction built in.

I’ll post some impressions after I’ve had it a while.

[firedog]

Wow, they made the SE "obsolete" really fast. Wonder how much this new baby is going to cost?

[firedog]

11 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Obsolete?! Ouch! 

 

I wouldn't say obselete. But intrigued to hear whether this one is 'better' or not. 

 

 

From the description (PS, and custom motherboard, etc. ) It sound like it will be. But how much better and at what price? Sounds like we're getting into a very steep diminishing returns/price curve.

[firedog]

46 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

 

Thanks Firedog but I ain't getting into anything. My SE is more than enough (and defo more than enough money!) for the foreseeable. 

 

@austinpop  if the Statement is better then kindly lie to me and say its the same. See above!  

I wasn't really predicting you were going to buy it.

But I wonder if they are leaving the total number to be produced open to demand (sounds like yes).

If it's 5 figures, only a very select group of buyers will go for it. Of course if it has something like a 4 TB SSD built in, that alone will make it very expensive.

[firedog]

13 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

The dealer where I bought my SE is now advertising the Statement for £9800

 

The Zenith MIII is £3000 (compared to £2300 for the MKII 

 

I'm sticking with my SE as I'm very, very happy with it ? but just sharing as this is the first time I've seen an actual price for the Statement. 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

For that price premium, it better be really good....

[firedog]

48 minutes ago, FrankMA said:

I was afraid of that. Thanks Kenny. In researching the PSA DAC it looks like it packages it over DoP via USB per Ted Smith:

 

DoP is DSD, but wrapped in a PCM “envelope”, just like flac is PCM wrapped in a losslessly compressed “envelope”: in both cases you don’t loose any information, it’s just obscured for a little. DoP is a way of smuggling DSD thru an other PCM delivery chain. So rather than having to use something that supports 1 bit at 2.8224MHz, you can use the 24 bits at 176.4kHz path that most hardware supports.

 

I2S can accept Native DSD

Nothing to be afraid of. No meaningful difference between DoP and Native. Both are actually "native" - meaning the DSD is unaltered when sent and arriving at the DAC.