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Innuos Pulse versus Zenith Mk3

I currently have an Innuos Pulse with a Phoenix USB providing streaming from Qobuz into a Bricasti M1S2. The NAS I have (Synology two bay system) does not come even close to the quality of sound my ancient Marantz 8003 SACD player provides. The Qobuz songs meet of exceed the quality the quality form the Marantz.

How does the Zenith Mk3 compare to the Pulse in regards to streaming? I do not want to take a step backwards regarding the Pulse, but I would like to have access to my CD and SACD music. The Zen NG is way to expensive for me to consider at this time. Would a Bluesound Vault or Zen Mini work better? I am concerned regarding the quality of the data going through the Pulse since the NAS is of lower quality than the SACD player.

I was considering giving up on my CD collection altogether, but just this past week found over a dozen songs that are not on Qobuz that I wanted to listen to and had to resort to using the Marantz. I do not know if the songs are available on another service. I would prefer to just pay for one service (price and convenience). Some of the songs were available a few weeks ago on Qobuz are not now available. They are not available on Amazon HD either.

Any recommendations?

thriftyaudio
zlone
714 posts
 

A couple questions. What format is your music ripped to on the NAS? How are the NAS and the Pulse connected to your network?

thriftyaudio OP
50 posts
 

@zlone The format is FLAC. The connection is a Cat 8 ethernet.

soix
9,693 posts
 

I’d call Innuos as they know better than anyone here.  They have great customer support so wouldn’t be surprised if you get a thorough answer to your question. 

zlone
714 posts
 

The format is FLAC. The connection is a Cat 8 ethernet.

Hmm, that has me stumped. Any chance you have downsampling or some other feature enabled on the NAS? Snippet:

How to enable audio downsampling 

  1. Go to Settings then Advanced
  2. Select Enable audio conversion for DLNA devices
  3. Choose the audio formats that are unsupported by your device
  4. Select Downsample audio files for better DLNA compatibility
  5. Click OK

I used to have a Synology NAS, but never had any problems with sound quality, but I know it, and some plugins, can mess with the audio files. The only other thing I can think of is noise on ethernet, but that would affect Qobuz too.

I have the Zenith MkIII, and have my files loaded on it, but frankly never use them anymore. I expect it would be an upgrade from the Pulse, but an expensive one for a handful of tracks.

 

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