Innuos Zenith Mk3 or OpticalRendu + separate server?

[FredM]

39 minutes ago, barrows said:

Another detail: The upstream server hardware does not matter, because it makes no difference anymore to the Renderer: In a direct connected set up (Server-USB-DAC) it is the noise signature of the hardware (server box and its power supplies) which comes over to the DAC via USB which makes for the sound quality differences.  With the optical Ethernet connection from server to Renderer/DAC, that noise signature is no longer present.

 

With no relevant knowledge on this subject, I did remember a viewpoint in the SOtM switch review: “There is no single product which removes noise completely, even though the product are good at reducing noise so it improves sound quality, it doesn’t mean that the products remove noise completely”. I guess only listening in practice will give the answer (in both cases).

[FredM]

This topic is quite useless and runs in circles, as a suggestion:

- move the topic to the Sponsored section

- rename the title, ie ‘When using a OpticalRendu, does a quality server matter?’

- just wait till OpticalRendu’s are actual available, so a comparison can be made 👍