Innuos Zenith SE MkII

[ADCO]

My latest update on my Zenith

 

I encountered an issue where 60% of my music (approx 500 GB) was literally "trapped" in the unsorted file within the Zenith drive. I contacted Innuos and the very promptly set up a remote session to rectify the issue.

As a disclaimer I chose the Zenith primarily because of the glowing reviews on how easy it is to set up and for a half computer illiterate like me that is very appealing...

Anyway, Roon could not see the file but it is absolutely on the Zenith drive as I can get to the unsorted file through my network . They applied what is best described as a circuitous network path for the Innuos to allow Roon to see the file by way of IP address.

this worked for a short amount of time and has now failed and is showing in Roon that the "drive is not available"...

Once again I am in the process of arranging a remote session but I really dont want to access that music that is already on the drive in a roundabout way ....this makes no sense to me at all and further I just dont have the skills or time to sort this out myself as I do not think this is a Roon issue ....Roon is easy

 

So while I think the Zenith is a great server , I believe that I may have inadvertently mined out a problem with it....

 

ugh

[BigAlMc]

Hi ADCO, 

 

Sorry to hear about your hassles. 

 

Not sure how you put the music files on your Zenith but in case it's helpful I logged onto the laptop that holds my music files, selected the Zenith under the folders under My Network, and simply copied the files from the laptop to the "Compressed" file on the Zenith. 

 

I figured they were FLAC so Compressed was the closest fit. 

 

Anyway it worked like a dream and Roon sees them. 

 

Might be worth a try. Unless you are talking about files you ripped using the Zenith, in which case I agree speaking to Innuos is the way to go. 

 

You can probably use a laptop to simply move those files from Unsorted to Compressed or whatever. 

 

Hope this helps mate. 

 

Good luck getting it sorted 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

[ADCO]

thats not a bad idea ....lemme give it a go....

[BigAlMc]

Fingers crossed dude! 

[ADCO]

Nope, Roon still not seeing the music even when I force a rescan of the folder....

 

lol....I have to be honest this is the exact thing I was attempting to avoid by purchasing EASY....the thing is , if I had half a brain I might be able to determine if there are issues with the files (shouldnt be as they play remotely served from my Zenith to my desktop from the unsorted folder) or if there is a Zenith problem or what....

 

I can read incredibly difficult blueprints, build incredibly complicated structures and sort out just about every conceivable construction related issue you can dream up...But boy oh boy do I suck with this stuff...

[BigAlMc]

Short of obvious stuff like restart the Zenith and by implication Roon, I'm not sure what to suggest. 

 

Worked easily for me. 

 

Are you using Roon on the SE as a Core? And did you select Core instead of Player? You can check under Settings and Server on the myinnuos.com app. 

 

Also what sort of DAC are you trying to send to. USB, ethernet etc? 

 

 

[ADCO]

yep did a reboot etc ....and yes using Zenith as core and server to  a usb dac (Calyx Femto)

 

who knows, I will deal with Innuos on this ....none of it makes any sense to me so I had best leave it to the pros to hopefully sort out.

I mean its not total dire straits I have 350Gb of great music it does feel like serving up and does so very well I might add.

My only real frustration is self induced as I work in an environment that if there is an issue the world stops right there and then to get a resolution....other industries and or work environments don't seem to have the same speed to deal with the issues...such as it goes

[BigAlMc]

As a workaround until Innuos can help you (given its Saturday night here in Europe) you could do the following:

 

Enable Upnp server instead of Roon on the SE.  

 

Download the local player app for Squeezebox that suits your device (see the Innuos quickstart guide for recommended apps). 

 

This should allow you to play your local files via USB to your DAC. And whilst you lose the rich Roon UI the SQ is potentially a step up. 

 

Just a suggestion to get your tunes flowing until Innuos can help. 

[ADCO]

great advice and will do just that

[austinpop]

Yes, there are some minefields in getting Roon up and running on the Zenith. There are actually 3 logical stages to this:

1. Physically copy music over to the Zenith SE's internal SSD
2. Bring up Roon correctly on the Zenith SE, by restoring from a database backup of your existing Core
3. Fixup the music location under Roon > Settings > Storage

Do the following first, on your existing Roon Core server:

• Make a backup to something you can access on the SE - a network share, or even a USB stick.
• Go to Roon > Settings > Storage and note down where your music is currently stored.
• Let's assume your current Roon Core is on a Windows machine named WinRoon, and your music is in E:\MyMusicLib

Let't take each in turn.

1. Physically copy music over to the Zenith SE's internal SSD
   • The key pitfall here is to avoid the Auto-Import at all costs!
   • On the machine WinRoon, open the Zenith network share, and copy the folder MyMusicLib into the Music folder on the Zenith
2. Bring up Roon correctly on the Zenith SE, by restoring from a database backup of your existing Core
   • See https://kb.roonlabs.com/Migration
   • It's really useful to do it this way
3. Fixup the music location under Roon > Settings > Storage
   • You'll see the previous location you had there - [E:] MyMusicLib is broken. Right click and "Disable" it.
   • The Roon Core on Zenith will already have the Music folder enabled by default.
   • This should work. I say should, because in my case, my music was on a NAS. This was much cleaner and easier to bring up.
   • After the restore, I went to the NAS link in Storage, and selected Edit, then Browse. Since my NAS requires login creds, I had to essentially recreate the storage path to my music folder on my NAS.
   • Since then I have been selectively moving a few albums over into the Music folder, to assess "local vs. NAS" performance, but I have not yet done a wholesale copy of my (1.7TB) library over.
   • Advanced tip: by default Innuous locks you out of setting any other local storage location in Roon, but upon request, they can open up other folders for you.

In summary, don't be afraid to start over, using the steps above. It should go a lot cleaner.

[BigAlMc]

Hey Rajiv, 

 

Are you any closer to posting your much anticipated listening impressions of the SE? Or are your TX-USBultra problems slowing things down? 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

[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?

[austinpop]

3 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

Hey Rajiv, 

 

Are you any closer to posting your much anticipated listening impressions of the SE? Or are your TX-USBultra problems slowing things down? 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

 

Hi Alan,

 

Getting there. Yes, the failure of the tX-USBultra was a real spanner in the works. I just got a shipping notification that I will receive it back midweek. It too will need burn in, so I should have something to say in about 2 weeks, perhaps sooner. On the plus side, my SE is well past 300 hours burned in, so it's raring to go!

 

BTW - May and Lee gave me pretty amazing customer service as usual. My problem was an intermittent one, and rather than hold me up, they just replaced the internal boards in my unit. Kudos to SOtM.

[BigAlMc]

1 minute ago, monteverdi said:

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

 

My understanding (and I'll happily be corrected by the more knowledgable on here) is:

 

The Innuos rips to FLAC but with zero compression. Unlike the likes of DBpoweramp or suchlike which recommend some compression. 

 

It would be interesting to hear Innuos opine on why they selected this. 

 

The other option is WAV as you say. 

 

I believe the advantage of FLAC over WAV is that FLAC supports better meta-data (artists, release year etc). 

 

I 'think' but at this stage risk the wrath of the purists - that uncompressed FLAC and WAV are essentially the same thing and should sound the same. Note should! 

 

I stand ready to be corrected or pelted with rotten fruit 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

[rickca]

2 minutes ago, BigAlMc said:

I stand ready to be corrected or pelted with rotten fruit

FLAC vs WAV is an long standing argument but it doesn't belong here.  I know you weren't looking to start one.

[BigAlMc]

7 minutes ago, austinpop said:

 

Hi Alan,

 

Getting there. Yes, the failure of the tX-USBultra was a real spanner in the works. I just got a shipping notification that I will receive it back midweek. It too will need burn in, so I should have something to say in about 2 weeks, perhaps sooner. On the plus side, my SE is well past 300 hours burned in, so it's raring to go!

 

BTW - May and Lee gave me pretty amazing customer service as usual. My problem was an intermittent one, and rather than hold me up, they just replaced the internal boards in my unit. Kudos to SOtM.

 

Thanks Rajiv, 

 

Am very curious to hear your thoughts. Especially versus the Trifecta which in my mind at least was the choice. Trifecta (spaghetti) but awesome SQ vs kick ass (but simple) server. 

 

I have the SE and an MKII in house. But I need to return the MKII soon and I head off on holiday (vacation for you linguistically challenged Americans ) on the 1st of February. 

 

So I need to find the time to set up an A-B test but need to allow time to courier the spare unit back to the dealer. 

 

Obviously my impressions are completely different as I'm assessing 'best unit' in my setup. Whereas you and Eric have more of a perspective on SE vs Trifecta. 

 

Anyhow, I look forward to your thoughts. 

 

Have a great weekend. 

 

Cheers, 

Alan 

[BigAlMc]

11 minutes ago, rickca said:

FLAC vs WAV is an long standing argument but it doesn't belong here.  I know you weren't looking to start one.

 

Thanks for not throwing rotten tomatoes my way 

 

Yup - just meant the same in terms of compression. 

[Patatorz]

Hello, I  come to you for an information concerning the innuos that is not clear to me. I tested and was owner, for some of them, of numerous streamers : TTD, Aries, refStream, 3dlab nano, Amare Musica, rockna, sonore, sotm,....some of them are gorgeous, some others less....I think I know now what I want/need and I focus, for sure on sound quality but I need a streamer that is fully support Roon and could be a upnp renderer.

with the innuos, no doubt on Roon but for UPnP....I understand that it is a upnp server, based on asset upnp, but is it also an UPnP renderer, openhome compatible ?

 

Thanks for your help.

[BigAlMc]

www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/innuos-zenith-se-mkii-std-network-audio-server

 

Jason Kennedy is a fan! 

 

"the SE is by far the quietest and most revealing digital source I have encountered in three decades of reviewing." 

 

"Epiphany machine
But the reason I wanted to get as much music as possible onto the Zenith SE is that I have never heard better sound from digital audio before." 

[matthias]

http://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/innuos-zenith-se-mkii-std-network-audio-server

 

Matt

[Patatorz]

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

 

best regards 

[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.

[klaus]

I am surprised that nobody has reported from a direct Ethernet connection from a Zenith to an SMS-200ultra or similar device. From my understanding Have I to conclude that the Zenith SP alone is the better solution?

[LTG2010]

3 minutes ago, klaus said:

I am surprised that nobody has reported from a direct Ethernet connection from a Zenith to an SMS-200ultra or similar device. From my understanding Have I to conclude that the Zenith SP alone is the better solution?

http://www.the-ear.net/review-hardware/innuos-zenith-se-mkii-std-network-audio-server

[rickca]

17 minutes ago, klaus said:

I am surprised that nobody has reported from a direct Ethernet connection from a Zenith to an SMS-200ultra or similar device. From my understanding Have I to conclude that the Zenith SP alone is the better solution?

I expect to hear some feedback about this from @austinpop in about a week.