Innuos Zenith SE MkII

[Vangelis]

I just picked a used Zenith MKII SE last week. Now I’m thinking about if I should import my AIFF files to the Zenith as WAV or FLAC. Anyone found an improvement in WAV over FLAC? I guess WAV files take up more drive space. I may not even be able to transfer my files over as WAV as I already have 1.7 TB of AIFF files to transfer to the Zenith.  The Innuos manual kind of discourages the use of WAV files.

[Vangelis]

I don’t want to get into which file sounds better but I want to get my file converted. closest to my native AIFF files. Unfortunately I cannot copy my files over in their native AIFF format. I understand that WAV is the closest file type to AIFF.  I’ve heard rumors that newer servers can reach out and grab metadata now for WAV files, at least artwork artist and song information. But I’m not sure the Innuos will do that. Is there anybody at imported wave files in to the Zenith and found album art etc attached? I guess if the AIFF & FLAC file size are the same I could at least try it. 

[Vangelis]

Oh, that’s great news! I had that completely wrong. I was wondering why Innuos wouldn’t support other file formats.  I thought I had to choose one or the other when I import files and that the Zenith would, based on my import selection convert the files to either FLAC or WAV. Thank you so much for clearing that up. 

[Vangelis]

I’ve been trying to determine if I should leave my Zenith MKII SE on continuously or just turn it on from the front switch when I wish to listen to it. The drives are SS so they probably won’t be impacted too much by being left on. I’m not sure if by turning off the front switch if some portions of the Zenith remain powered up. Does the standby keep it partially warmed up? There is a substantial power supply in the chassis, Providing the rear toggle switch is already powered on, does the sound improve leaving the front power /standby button on? 

[Vangelis]

This may not be the appropriate forum for this.

This is both a Innuos and a hard drive issue. Anyone reading my posts has likely interpreted that I’m not technologically savvy, I’m always trying to claw my way through this stuff. A lot of the instructions I read might as well be in Latin. I have a OWC Mercury Elite pro single 2tb HD drive. I am trying to import my music files into my Zenith MKII SE server from the OWC external hard drive. The drive is already formatted at fat 32 (see attached photograph). When I try to import, I get an Innuos error message saying “Unfortunately your a USB drive is formatted in way we can’t recognize”. “Your USB drive needs to be formatted in one of the three acceptable formats, NTFS, Fat 32 and HFS”

 

Innuos support replied: “The issue you described if usually related to not healthy, degraded or malfunctioning USB Disk drives and/or corrupted partitions or file systems on the usb drive. Your screenshot even mentions that the Data volume was created on December 31, 1969 which is hardly believable”

 

I don’t believe the HD is corrupted, as it plays just fine through my Mac system. 

 

So I contacted OWC support. With the help of their support technician I did a first aid check on the external drive he claimed the drive is working fine. The Innuos notes say “ The Innuos will automatically select the first drive partition above 512 MB on the hard drive”. It will then scan your entire USB drive and import any music found there.”  How do I know if my drive is partitioned in a Innuos friendly fashion?  Is there a way to determine if my drive is partitioned in a manner the Zenith doesn’t like? My concern is buying another drive and coping music files over to the new drive may just pass corrupted partitions or file systems onto the new drive?

Is there a reason why Innuos might prefer NTFS over Fat32?

 

I’m at a loss about how to move forward. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Vangelis]

6 hours ago, BigAlMc said:

Hi @Vangelis,

 

Depending how big you library is then perhaps a USB thumb drive as an interim step. 

 

If you have a spare one copy across a few GB to the USB drive and the put it in the Zenith to see if it works.

 

A 64 or 128gb is fairly cheap. Bit of a hassle but might help work past your issue. Workaround rather than fix admittedly.

 

Cheers,

Alan

I have over a TB of files so a USB stick transfer would take too long. The support technician from OWC recommended disc Wizard for further analysis. My drive with the current files worked fine when I transferred it to a different server. This is what makes me question the Zenith’s requirements. When you transferred your files what format was your hard drive? I’m waiting to hear back from Innuos about which specific format I should be using.

[Vangelis]

I can see a need to buy a couple USB thumb drives and try that. Do I have to format the thumb drives or will they take the files and allow me to import them direct to the Zenith?

here is a snapshot of my hard drive. I’m also going to buy a external hard drive.  OWD said they can format it for me. Should I have them format it for me in the NFTS that Innuos recommended?

[Vangelis]

On 7/16/2020 at 3:53 PM, kennyb123 said:

 

If you formatted your drive using a Mac, your drive was likely formatted in a "Mac OS Extended" format.  If you do a "Get Info" on your drive you can see the format as shown in this screen shot.  The Linux operating system that Innuos uses cannot read this format.  It can read the other two.

 

So what you must do is use Disk Utility to erase the drive (after first removing your music).  You can then select Fat32 as the format for your drive.

 

Hi Kenny, check out photograph above and under the format it shows at MS-DOS (Fat32) so the mystery continues. I’ve ordered a large US thumb drive to try and transfer a few small files at a time and see what happens. Also also ordered brand new 2TB external drive to  transfer my files hopefully without also moving the old issue to the new drive , then I can try to import the files on to the Zenith. Innuos support recommends formatting the drives to NTFS.  Meanwhile, I’ve been working on my network and making improvements. I’ve been learning a lot while I’m waiting to solve the import issue.