Innuos Zenith MK3 teardown

[LTG2010]

32 minutes ago, agillis said:

But it's powering a $150 Supermicro motherboard which is covered with small switching power supplies.

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/celeron/X10/X10SBA-L.cfm

 

Here we go again..................

The mark 11 zenith /se etc, used the supermicro X10sba-L the new mark 3 versions have a new board. A quote from their site:

" New Custom Motherboard with reduced EMI ''

Sure it has switching regulators, but some of the noisier ones removed.

For example on the higher end models you have the new USB board with OCXO clock, lower down the USB bus is powered by a linear power supply, I don't have all the details but you can easily inquire with Innuos to get the exact spec. and changes.

[LTG2010]

27 minutes ago, firedog said:

Innuos said in the past they tested dozens of motherboards and used the lowest noise ones they found. Said the better off the shelf boards were better than some custom boards.

 

Here is the new board inside the Statement with OCXO clock board. I think the CPU is also slightly bigger than Mk 2 models.

[LTG2010]

26 minutes ago, rickca said:

Do you know whether this is another SuperMicro board?  Do you know the model number?  I think Innuos said the motherboard in the Statement is custom, but I don't know what they customized.

I think its a Supermicro board, I don't know the model no/ the nearest board.....yet - if I did it would be in my server

 

Here is a snapshot of the motherboard of the mark 3 without OCXO boards taken from Darko's youtube review/ video:

 

 

I can see (it looks like) a power connector going direct to the USB/ ethernet outputs - replacing the switching regulators with linear power, from the SJ supply.

 

[LTG2010]

Looks very much like a customized version of an atom board with components removed, so getting closer.

 

https://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/A2SAV-2C-L.cfm

[LTG2010]

10 percent price increase and selling out quickly. Typical.....😁😁

[LTG2010]

23 minutes ago, vassils said:

 

If that's the case, I don't think this is a "power connector going direct to the USB/ ethernet outputs". It seems to me like this is a USB cable for the USB LED Controller that can be seen on the picture I posted. 

Yes you are correct, after I identified the board I checked the motherboard manual. It's just a usb header. And that's where the connection to the USB ocxo clock is taken for the Statement.

Both X11 / A2 appear to be the same board but with processor variants and some extra features in the X11. 

Unless anybody can spot something else, the 'customization' seems to be the switch of processor on the a2 board and removal of the vga port.