Innuos Zenith SE MkII

[monteverdi]

I am presently auditioning the standard version of the Zenith Mk II feeding my Devialet D250-Pro (core upgraded) and like it a lot via USB. Just using a Belkin gold USB cable for now. I can not use a direct ethernet connection which was a better sounding connection before the core upgrade. Hopefully Devialet comes up with a firmware update which will make that possible again. 

I am contemplating to get the SE version  (7K vs 4K) but I have not seen any report of a direct comparison. Presently I am tending to get the standard version (wait time or SE is 2-3month). I am assuming that server technology will progress as it a relative new product class so even the SE will bettered in a few years.

[monteverdi]

I used a Macbook Pro (only for streaming recently), a CD transport (Pro-ject CD box RS) and the best sound from a SDtrans 384 (a semi DIY SD card player with voltage regulated battery PS). The sound quality is in any respect significant better than the CD transport and on par with the SDtrans (that is with not even excellent cables were as the SD trans is via very good SPDIF cables).

Streaming is now possible direct to my Devialet via WiFi for Spotify (and hopefully soon for other services) and that sounds quite better than Spotify via Innous. So likely I will use the Innous mostly as a file player and not much for streaming.

[monteverdi]

12 minutes ago, matthias said:

I listened to the SE at High End Munich 2017 and was disappointed. I think the SE has some strong competitors like the latest Antipodes DX.

 

Matt

I did the same and thought it was quite good but a little too much hifi-isch. But it was in a system that I did have any experience with.

The Antipodes DX 3 is almost 2x of the SE (or 3x of the standard Zenith)

[monteverdi]

5 hours ago, beerandmusic said:

 

I thought spotify was mp3 only?  why would someone spend $4K+ to listen to mp3?

Not criticizing, just curious?  Shouldn't a comparison be made using DSD?

Yes Spotify is only mp3 (hopefully changing soon) but a good way to discover new music (not so much good stuff on Tidal for my taste) and as I said my Devialet sounds better using Spotify connect directly than via Innuos. I bought a Zenith not to stream but to listen to downloads or rips.

[monteverdi]

I am still waiting patiently for the arrival of an Zentith II but I wonder what is the best format to rip WAV or FLAC?. Is it dependent on which DAC is used? What is the compression level of the FLAC rips?

[monteverdi]

I got a standard Zenith II and love how it sounds but importing music is not as trouble free as I expected. For ripping CDs I am using the assisted mode and it works fairly straightforward with rock and pop but metadata are pretty messed up with classical which is 50% of my CDs. Very often the composer is in the artist field and sometimes the artists are missing. So it requires correcting the metadata before ripping. About 10% of the classical CDs I tried had completely wrong metadata and cover often from an album with some music in common but different label, performer, date. iTunes could find all the correct metadata and cover. I wonder if that is an Innuos specific problem or just the standard behavior of music servers and the data bases they use. 

[monteverdi]

I find ripping classical music completely unacceptable with my Zenith. Only about 15% of my classical CDs get all metadata correct and about another 40% I need to correct the metadata, often searching for covers and other data on the internet. The remaining CDs are too painful to rip with the Zenith but with all of them I have no problem ripping using my Macbook Pro and dBpoweramp including the correct album art. So if dBpoweramp has access to the correct metadata and album art why is Innuos so incapable?

[monteverdi]

I am just testing Qobuz streaming to my Devialet (was waiting for it for years). I can use Qobuz web player on my Macbook and that has great UI. Alternatively I was able to stream via my Zenith (ethernet in and USB out) and it works well and sounds beautiful but the user interface via iPeng on my iPad is just terrible.

Are there better ways to control the Zenith? Innuos said they will develop their own control app but I have not seen anything mentioned recently.