Innuos ZENith "STATEMENT"

[str-1]

1.4.4 is now out http://www.innuos.com/en/go/release-1-4-4

[Blackmorec]

Hi str-1, its going to be a while until i can install 1.4.4 on my Statement, so in the meantime I’d be very interested in getting feedback on how the SQ has evolved. 

 

 

[magnuska]

I installed the update and the same time got my new Curious evolved USB regen link. So If my improved SQ is due to the Innuos update or the cable I cannot really say. But I can say I am very pleased how my system sounds now. With every software update Innuos have made so far there has always been better SQ involved at least in my opinon. 👍

 

I use a Zen mini mk 3 as a roon server bridged to an Antpodes EX working as a Roon renderer.

 

The curious evolved USB cable is connected between Antipodes to Ideon audio Usb regenerator, with Audiosensibility signature USB  to Vinnie Rossi L2i integrated with DAC. 

[yellowblue]

Just be sure to use the "experimental mode". It sounds much better and now is 10 times more stable than the older version. You can also choose "low current" in the menue. 

[str-1]

15 hours ago, Blackmorec said:

Hi str-1, its going to be a while until i can install 1.4.4 on my Statement, so in the meantime I’d be very interested in getting feedback on how the SQ has evolved. 

 

 

I won’t know for a while because I have some key components of my system out on loan to someone.

[Kimo]

On 5/21/2020 at 4:49 AM, str-1 said:

1.4.4 is now out http://www.innuos.com/en/go/release-1-4-4

 

Nice upgrade on my lowly Zenith II.  I imagine the SE will really shine.

 

Improvements across the sonic board.

[Blackmorec]

9 hours ago, Kimo said:

 

Nice upgrade on my lowly Zenith II.  I imagine the SE will really shine.

 

Improvements across the sonic board.

I would never call the sound from a Zenith II lowly....just a few short years ago it would have been considered SoTA. Take care to optimise the network feed (Router, cables, power supplies, vibration control) and you have a system that can perform at an exceptional level vs the investment required. Good to hear that 1.4.4 brings across the board improvements......I was really pleased with what 1.4.3 did for my system so if this is of the same order I’ll be very happy. 

[Kimo]

5 hours ago, Blackmorec said:

I would never call the sound from a Zenith II lowly....just a few short years ago it would have been considered SoTA. Take care to optimise the network feed (Router, cables, power supplies, vibration control) and you have a system that can perform at an exceptional level vs the investment required. Good to hear that 1.4.4 brings across the board improvements......I was really pleased with what 1.4.3 did for my system so if this is of the same order I’ll be very happy. 

 

I will say that in my system, the latest changes provide a more significant sonic upgrade than the prior one.  I think that you will be very happy, indeed.

[NYCEnglish]

On 5/22/2020 at 4:02 AM, yellowblue said:

Just be sure to use the "experimental mode". It sounds much better and now is 10 times more stable than the older version. You can also choose "low current" in the menue. 

Where is the low current option?

[str-1]

Release 1.4.5. Now available http://www.innuos.com/en/go/release-1-4-5

 

Seems to be mainly about providing extra support for native DSD to more dacs.

[str-1]

I would be interested in the thoughts of other Statement owners on the performance benefits (if any) of separating the two boxes compared to the more convenient stack.  My interest stems from my current focus on exploring relatively inexpensive ways of improving my music system’s performance by reducing the degrading affects of vibration.  

 

I listen exclusively to headphones, and so believe my priority must be draining electrical vibrations out of my system rather than dealing with structure-borne vibration, which must be negligible in my setup.  I’m not sure what the feet on the Statement boxes are optimised for, but I suspect they are primarily for dealing with structure-borne vibration as I’m sure Innuos saw the Statement being used mostly in speaker systems.  Even if that is the case, I’m wondering if the top box feet’s ability to drain from the chassis is better when placed on a 4cm thick bamboo shelf in my rack instead of stacked on top of the bottom box, which either way is itself placed on a similar bamboo shelf.

 

I already have the 0.5m upgrade umbilicals (which I believe are better performing than the supplied cables, stacked or not) and have started playing around with different placement on shelves, as well as trying out under various devices 1-inch hard wood cubes and Black Ravioli pads.  Taking these steps does make a difference, but it is too soon to be sure what if any permutation is a clear net gain.

 

Any tips others can recommend would be very welcome.

[str-1]

@nvitorinoHi Nuno, can you provide an update on development of the Innuos control app, and perhaps comment on the issues raised in this post on the Head-fi Chord DAVE thread regarding sound quality differences when using different control apps?  Thanks. 
 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/post-15954517

 

[nvitorino]

6 hours ago, str-1 said:

@nvitorinoHi Nuno, can you provide an update on development of the Innuos control app, and perhaps comment on the issues raised in this post on the Head-fi Chord DAVE thread regarding sound quality differences when using different control apps?  Thanks. 
 

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/chord-electronics-dave.766517/post-15954517

 

 

Starting with the "Innuos control app", what we are doing is revamping the entire OS and not just adding a control app on top of the existing system. The app will be part of innuOS 2.0, which has been in the works for two years now. It is a major difference on the user experience you have now. It's now getting close to Beta release so we will soon start publishing information how it looks and new features, stay tuned.

 

Regarding the differences between "different control apps": The question is not the control app itself but the underlying technology used to playback the music. if your are using innuOS and say iPeng (iOS) and compare it to OrangeSqueeze (Android), they should sound exactly the same. They simply send network commands to the server, it's the server that plays all the music. If you use the Web player on the :9000 port, again it does exactly the same thing - send the play, next, volume, etc commands over the network in order to play the music. If differences are heard, check if things like volume are at 100%. Unless there is something we are not seeing, there should be no differences in sound quality between the different apps connecting to the LMS on our servers. 

 

innuOS 2.0 is a different OS altogether. It's not the fact there's a new app to control it that makes any difference in playback. These are things much more at the music player application and the base OS itself. I think there is simply confusion about the definition of "app". We tend to think "app" as the control application and nothing more. Some think of the "app" as the entire OS.

 

When other methods are used like Roon or UPnP, they use other methods of playback which is processed in completely different ways. This may lead to differences in sound, better or worse - you decide.

 

P.S. Regarding Roon in experimental mode, squeezelite is called with a different set of parameters compared to when used with iPeng/OrangeSqueeze, etc. This can lead to differences in sound quality. Some may prefer one or the other - this is audio - there is no single universal best...

 

[baconbrain]

16 minutes ago, nvitorino said:

 

Starting with the "Innuos control app", what we are doing is revamping the entire OS and not just adding a control app on top of the existing system. The app will be part of innuOS 2.0, which has been in the works for two years now. It is a major difference on the user experience you have now. It's now getting close to Beta release so we will soon start publishing information how it looks and new features, stay tuned.

 

Regarding the differences between "different control apps": The question is not the control app itself but the underlying technology used to playback the music. if your are using innuOS and say iPeng (iOS) and compare it to OrangeSqueeze (Android), they should sound exactly the same. They simply send network commands to the server, it's the server that plays all the music. If you use the Web player on the :9000 port, again it does exactly the same thing - send the play, next, volume, etc commands over the network in order to play the music. If differences are heard, check if things like volume are at 100%. Unless there is something we are not seeing, there should be no differences in sound quality between the different apps connecting to the LMS on our servers. 

 

innuOS 2.0 is a different OS altogether. It's not the fact there's a new app to control it that makes any difference in playback. These are things much more at the music player application and the base OS itself. I think there is simply confusion about the definition of "app". We tend to think "app" as the control application and nothing more. Some think of the "app" as the entire OS.

 

When other methods are used like Roon or UPnP, they use other methods of playback which is processed in completely different ways. This may lead to differences in sound, better or worse - you decide.

 

P.S. Regarding Roon in experimental mode, squeezelite is called with a different set of parameters compared to when used with iPeng/OrangeSqueeze, etc. This can lead to differences in sound quality. Some may prefer one or the other - this is audio - there is no single universal best...

 

 

Thanks for the update, really appreciated.

 

In addition, I sent you a PM on a different topic recently and am looking forward to your response. :)

[str-1]

24 minutes ago, nvitorino said:

 

Starting with the "Innuos control app", what we are doing is revamping the entire OS and not just adding a control app on top of the existing system. The app will be part of innuOS 2.0, which has been in the works for two years now. It is a major difference on the user experience you have now. It's now getting close to Beta release so we will soon start publishing information how it looks and new features, stay tuned.

 

Regarding the differences between "different control apps": The question is not the control app itself but the underlying technology used to playback the music. if your are using innuOS and say iPeng (iOS) and compare it to OrangeSqueeze (Android), they should sound exactly the same. They simply send network commands to the server, it's the server that plays all the music. If you use the Web player on the :9000 port, again it does exactly the same thing - send the play, next, volume, etc commands over the network in order to play the music. If differences are heard, check if things like volume are at 100%. Unless there is something we are not seeing, there should be no differences in sound quality between the different apps connecting to the LMS on our servers. 

 

innuOS 2.0 is a different OS altogether. It's not the fact there's a new app to control it that makes any difference in playback. These are things much more at the music player application and the base OS itself. I think there is simply confusion about the definition of "app". We tend to think "app" as the control application and nothing more. Some think of the "app" as the entire OS.

 

When other methods are used like Roon or UPnP, they use other methods of playback which is processed in completely different ways. This may lead to differences in sound, better or worse - you decide.

 

P.S. Regarding Roon in experimental mode, squeezelite is called with a different set of parameters compared to when used with iPeng/OrangeSqueeze, etc. This can lead to differences in sound quality. Some may prefer one or the other - this is audio - there is no single universal best...

 

Thanks, Nuno.  I’m looking forward to learning more about InnuOS 2.0.

[kennyb123]

3 hours ago, nvitorino said:

 

P.S. Regarding Roon in experimental mode, squeezelite is called with a different set of parameters compared to when used with iPeng/OrangeSqueeze, etc. This can lead to differences in sound quality. Some may prefer one or the other - this is audio - there is no single universal best...

 

Will there still be an experimental mode or something equivalent to this mode in innuOS 2.0?  Roon’s sound quality really benefits from not having playback performed by Roon itself.

[nvitorino]

16 hours ago, kennyb123 said:

Will there still be an experimental mode or something equivalent to this mode in innuOS 2.0?  Roon’s sound quality really benefits from not having playback performed by Roon itself.

 

Yes, we plan to keep experimental mode in innuOS2.0.

[kennyb123]

5 hours ago, nvitorino said:

 

Yes, we plan to keep experimental mode in innuOS2.0.

That's great news - thank you!!!

[noel.gregoire]

👌 great news !

[baconbrain]

I am playing around with the idea of expanding the local storage on my Statement to take my current NAS based music library out of the signal chain. The challenge I have is how to locally accommodate my library size of approx. 12 TB?

 

Have any of you faced something similiar? If so, what type of a solution did you come up with? 

[Blackmorec]

Hi there,

As far as I know InnuOS buffers albums and tracks to the internal RAM then shuts down network functions before playing, so the Statement is not constantly streaming over the network while playing music.  My system has close to 500 Mbps, so the loading of tracks and albums takes a fraction of a second. 

 

If you want to improve SQ, take a look at the network itself and the power supplies it uses.  In my system, improving those power supplies and cables have brought the largest improvements. The other major improvement will come from isolating your Statement and its network from the rest of your household network traffic. 

[baconbrain]

43 minutes ago, Blackmorec said:

Hi there,

As far as I know InnuOS buffers albums and tracks to the internal RAM then shuts down network functions before playing, so the Statement is not constantly streaming over the network while playing music.  My system has close to 500 Mbps, so the loading of tracks and albums takes a fraction of a second. 

 

If you want to improve SQ, take a look at the network itself and the power supplies it uses.  In my system, improving those power supplies and cables have brought the largest improvements. The other major improvement will come from isolating your Statement and its network from the rest of your household network traffic. 

Thx Blackmorec.

 

My motivation for storing the library locally is more performance driven. In particular, I have noticed that the start-up time for Roon is significantly faster when the files are not located on a network share. I realize that this could be caused by underlying issues in my Network Setup, but the combination of the performance issue and my personal (purely subjective) SQ preference of local vs. network storage rises my curiosity in exploring what options exist.  I also feel that the current product's off the shelf max. 4TB internal storage is a bit limited, given the wide range of high-res music formats available today.     

[sbilotta]

17 minutes ago, baconbrain said:

I also feel that the current product's off the shelf max. 4TB internal storage is a bit limited, given the wide range of high-res music formats available today.     

True, and Innuos have just “upgraded” to 8TB internal storage.

previous Statements can be upgraded.

[baconbrain]

5 minutes ago, sbilotta said:

True, and Innuos have just “upgraded” to 8TB internal storage.

previous Statements can be upgraded.

Sbilotta,

 

I wasn't aware of this, definitely an option.

 

Thx for sharing! 

[sbilotta]

From FB:

 

We are pleased to announce that the 8TB SSD versions of the ZENith and STATEMENT servers are now available to order. A great opportunity for those who have especially large music libraries and still wanting access to higher performance!

Available now! 
Contact your local #Innuos dealer for more information.

#innuos #innuoszenith #innuosstatement #innuosstreamer #MusicServer #highendaudio #audiophile #digitalaudio #streamingaudio