Innuos Statement Review


I first heard the Innuos Statement music server at AXPONA 2019. I listened to a demonstration directly comparing the Statement to the Innuos' Zen MkII. After the demonstration, it was clear to me that the Statement was a large step forward in the Innuos product line. I recently purchased the Innuos Statement and took delivery (after a six week wait). I immediately plugged it in, set it up, (super easy) and downloaded .5 TB of WAV files overnight. After burning in the Statement for approximately 100 hours, I compared the Statement's performance to the Antipodes DX3 music server. In order to have as close a comparison as possible (in relative real time) I connected both servers to my Jeff Rowland (JR)  Aeris DAC+PSU using the same brand of cables (Stealth). However, because the Aeris DAC has only one USB input and both the Statement and the Antipodes DX 3 only have USB output, I first ran the Statement through a Berkeley USB Alpha converter and connected the Alpha converter to the Aeris DAC using Stealth's Vardig Sextet V16-T BNC/BNC cable. The Stealth USB Select-T cable connected the Statement to the Aeris DAC. The rest of the system consisted of a JR Corus Preamp (connected to the aforementioned PSU), JR M925 mono amplifiers, Joseph Audio Pearl 3 speakers and a three REL subwoofer "swarm" configuration. Cardas Clear Beyond power cords, balanced ICs, and speaker cables were used throughout the system. Both servers were used as Roon Cores for the comparison/review. I own all the equipment; I don't work for any audio company. (I also don't pump my stuff to dump it later.)
I focused on music selections I know well across the genres of rock/pop, jazz, classical, soul/R&B, and classical. I used a "non-blind" method playing a 1 minute 30 second to 2 minute section of a recording before switching from one server to the other and then repeating the same recording for an immediate comparison. I did the comparison over a two hour period, taking periodic listening breaks. Before providing my overall impressions of the Antipodes Statement, I note that I immediately compared the Statement to the Antipodes DX3 without burning the Statement in. The Antipodes DX3 had been thoroughly burned in before the comparison (more than 500 hours of use). Without burn in, the Statement and the Antipodes DX 3 sounded very similar to one another. I'm confident that I would have been guessing which was which if I was blindfolded and had to name the server I was hearing on any given recording. I repeated this exercise after the Statement had burned in for one hour. At this point it seemed the Statement's soundstage had gotten a little wider and only slightly deeper. It also seemed the vocals on the Statement had become slightly clearer than on the Antipodes DX3. I did no further comparisons until now. The following are my subjective impressions of the Statement after four days of burn in compared to the Antipodes DX 3 server in my system.
The Statement threw a slightly wider soundstage than the Antipodes DX3.
The Statement had a significantly deeper soundstage than the Antipodes DX3. 
The Statement and the Antipodes DX3 had the same soundstage height.
The Statement resolved moderately more than the Antipodes DX3. By this I mean it provided more recording details than the Antipodes DX 3. It was not a night and day difference. It was apparent on most, but not all, recordings I considered.
Vocals presented clearer/crisper (better "enunciation" if you will) via the Statement than the Antipodes DX3.
The Statement provided superior bass differentiation in the lowest and mid bass regions. With the Statement, the bass drum performance did not cloud either a stand up bass or electric bass performance--provided the recording/mastering engineers sufficiently separated the performances on the recording. The Antipodes DX3 is a very good bass performer. But it slightly trailed the Statement.
The Statement placed more air between the instruments and performers than the Antipodes DX3.
The Statement excelled at acoustical instrument presentation. A reeded instrument sounded convincingly "real." The Antipodes DX3 does this well too...just not as well. Percussion instruments also benefit from this attribute. The Statement allowed me to hear more definition in the wood block, the guiro, shakers, all cymbals I heard, chimes, a gong. Again, the Antipodes DX3 was very good at percussive instrument representation. The Statement was simply better.
Both the Statement and the Antipodes DX3 provided high quality believable piano reproduction in all genres. The only significant difference I heard between the two servers on piano performance was found in Alfredo Rodriguez's rendition of "Chan Chan." There, the Statement seemed to handle the quick staccato notes and the unique decay issues of this piece more believably than the Antipodes DX3. But the difference was not night and day.
My overall impression of the Statement is that it provided superior high quality, believable digital music reproduction regardless of genre. I consider it an across the board upgrade in musical reproduction in my system over the Antipodes DX3. My impression of the Antipodes DX3 is that it is a high value product that held up very well in comparison to the Statement. The Statement retails for twice as much as the DX3's retail price when it was in production. If the Statement's performance after four days of burn in was rated as a 100 I would rate the Antipodes DX3 completely burned in as a 75. I will be keeping both these music servers. Hopefully this review helps those in the market for a music server.     
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Showing 31 responses by hehaw77

I own and innuos mk2 server and antipodes ex. If you are comparing the innuos statement to an EX there is a huge price difference. You might as well get the cx ex combo which will sound better than the innuos statement. 

I'm not knocking innuos but the work and technology Antipodes puts into their servers is just better. Do the research and see for yourselves. 

In fact Antipodes older gen products sound better than the innous mk2. I don't have an mk3 and would not spend the money on innuos products anymore. 

I just find Antipodes signature smooth, articulate, accurate, detailed without any harshness and the noise tech they use is superior to what innuos does.


Hi there Dave.

The Mk3 is better but its not vastly superior to the MK2 as you state above. It is better but ho hum...

Now to be honest I’m somewhat surprised your not aware of Antipodes technology you just can’t be so focused on one product. Eg.. bias because you sell innuos product etc..

I actually convinced my dealer to bring in the Antipodes product ; he’s currently carrying innuos products. I let him know Antipodes is better and it is.....

Antipodes is well known for "high end" innuos is more mass market smart on their part.

You know I bet I could take old Antipodes products and they would best the MK 3 that’s how confident I am about how much better there products are.

In respect to their technology you could always contact support@antipodes.audio and they can explain it better than I can but I’ll give it a shot.

oh before I get into that the parts they use are also not cheap off market products everything they do is custom. You can google Antipodes CX or EX and you’ll see reviews. Which will go indepth and the CEO himself explaining what they do. I won’t do the homework for you.

Now my meager attempt for their tech. They use frequency offsetting so they have one part of the board which will use a certain frequency and another part of the board which uses another and these 2 frequencies offset each other so noise is eliminated.

I think it genius and they have been doing that for a while. Innuos they do some custom work on the boards get rid of unnecessary chips to assist with noise etc.. but not like what Antipodes does.

I’ve heard the statement and its nice... mk3 is nice.. but ... I throw down the gauntlet to you since your a dealer bring in a CX /EX combo set it up and the musicality will be better than the statement.


oh to your comments about seeing inside the Antipodes boxes.. how about you google Antipodes EX, CX etc.. and you'll see in depth reviews and "inside the boxes" lots of picts...

Vastly hmm.. different... wouldn't go that far. ...  again I challenge you to carry the antipodes product line compare it to what you have the sound signature is better.

I'm very familiar with the statement I was thinking of ordering it at one point but not overly impressed with the sound signature for what you pay...  you really sound like an innuos sales person... that's because you are... you can order the Antipodes and compare

anything unique...?? Innous doesn't do that they just use bread and butter techniques... ho hum....

To say its the best sounding is strictly your opinion.... I definitely do not agree...

the signature of the Antipodes is very smooth, liquidity  detailed, accurate , fast without the harshness of others, and creamy to the ears... and I hear things I don't hear with other players... If you have ever drank untreated water that is pure (not filtered) its very smooth almost creamy when you drink its just a pleasure... you want to drink more of it... the Antipodes products do that to the ears...  

Never experienced that listening to the statement or the innuos product line...  ...  hmm I almost sound like an Antipodes sales person but I'm not....  

I actually know the Innuos guys well... Nuno and team good guys...

Take up my challenge I dare you... CX (server) EX (render) combo and see for yourself......   that's something innuos isn't doing... everything is one box... with them.....
dx3 is an old product and your comparing it to innuos's top of the line. dx3 definitely sounds better than any of innuos's new products....Lol... I think we know how the results will go....

also when you hook up the cx ex combo make sure you use a cat7 cable preferably you should use Sotm cat7 with a filter. In that setup the ethernet cable makes a huge difference..... eg.. sotm cat7 filter then sotm cat7  if you can otherwise 1 sotm cat7 will do...  imho they make the best cat7's on the market...
yes they make a huge difference.... that's why I'm saying for a fair comparison he needs to have the right ethernet cable attaching the cx ex combo....
Dont forget the filter if your ordering   you put it between the cables

Id also recommended a cable for the noisy router
hmm they have different sizes... .75 to 4-5 meters or more ..  I don't find them that stiff  and I'm winding them all over the place. 

@david_ten your aware of how the cx ex combo works right? 

Well you do need to go all out ! Especially if he's going to compare two different servers and the cat7 between the cx and ex  makes a "huge" difference. Using cheapo cables will give you cheapo results... period. 

The more filtering the better especially if he's going to have a noisy cable going into the cx from his router...   bye the way they also sell a audiophile switch which makes even more of a difference.....

How do I know... I've demoed the items and I would say the cat7's are great the cat's with the switch spectacular.....

however for this comparison... the cx ex with the cat7's should oust the statement... 


Yes I do have them (unless your calling me al liar) Please do.. I'd love to prove you wrong.... 

.75 is available don't know who your getting your parts from. Yes it can be wound but not like snake. I'm using them now as I type this. 

1 meter is also available so no need for 1.5M 

if your spending 10 to 15K on a music server 1350 is not expensive. 

Sotm is the BEST option and this setup requires the best. 

There are lots of options ; but this setup is not to explore that its Antipodes top of line vs. Innuos statement


Both the CX and EX can do either function server or render or both. 

However the CX is designed to be a server and the EX a renderer in that setup. That is their top of the line setup. 

Both the EX and CX are superior to the DX series... 
You know I decided I don’t want someone that actually owns a statement to give a verdict here. So decided listen to the statement myself. As per above there is obvious bias.

It is definitely better than the SE model I give it that and it is very detailed and you can hear different layers of music; things that were previously hidden.. eg.. separate power supply then the 8 rails inside the unit for different components do make a difference with the noise floor. etc. it has a built in clock for the usb and another clock for ethernet I believe. . So it does sound good and it should for the price point. Can’t knock it there. Very nice...

However.... I did find it just a tad on the bright side ; just a little .. for my liking... that’s pretty much the only criticism I have... and the size......its large... basically two units...

I know that Innuos is working on a separate usb clock for SE owners which should improve the sound of the SE.


My preference is for the liquidity smooth sound signature of the CX/EX combo. It’s just as detailed and I prefer the tech. they use to eliminate noise. It just feels right to me.... As I mentioned in a previous post how I like there sound signature... even back to the DSGT days...

So in the end it really comes down to preference I don’t think either choice is a bad one. I’ve owned Innuos products and still own one...

Just prefer the Antipodes for what they bring to the table in design, size and technology they use. The statement is a bit large in size.. it reminds me a lot of the WA 33 woo amp that I have...

I do want to say something to SE owners and Zenith MK2 owners... or any MK2 owners...
When I initially demoed the Antipodes and Innuos products back in the day before both their new units where out Antipodes was better hands down...
However I did end up buying the Innuos MK2 because I got a stellar deal on it. However when I took it home etc.. I did not like the sound signature at all.... almost yuk..... way to dark for me... muffled ...yuk...

So those of you that want to improve the sound of those units.... there is a way .... "filtering"

I ended up buying the Sotm usb ultra and their OCX10 Mhz clock.
The ultra is quite affordable the OCX a little pricier but well worth it.

After I added these two components I started getting closer to the Antipodes sound signature not quite there but close enough... I eventually added another noise filter after and improved it even further...etc...

So depending on budget and how far you want to go you can improve the sound of the older units... in fact it will improve any unit...

One more things cables are a huge factor ; power, interconnects , usb cables, ethernet etc.. these all make a difference... that's for another discussion...


this is long... and if you’ve read this far I’d give you a cookie if I saw you in person... HEHAW !!
I'm always messing around changing things moving them around to see if I can tweak the signal. Right now its so amazing but made a small change today moving some cables around. I have 3 usb cables in my chain... 2 Valhalla 2 usb's and one 7N silver usb.
The silver usb is new... initially I had it in the number 2 spot  val2 to usb ultra to 7N out of the ultra to noise filter than a  val 2 out to the chord blu2   long story short since it needs break in I moved it to the number 1 spot  7N to ultra and saw an immediate difference...

I have other things in mind... to experiment with...
@astewart8944 chocolate chip or Oreo? :) 

Hmm this one had a lot of burn in... so don't think that was the issue.... it just hits those high frequencies a bit hard for me..from time to time..or who knows maybe it did need more burn in...                                               ...others may like that.....speaking of issues I have those issues with the Zenith MK2 and I do have to reboot it from time to time to make that irritating stop/start (hiccups) in the music go away... agreed not a big deal... I have a complex chain so... I don't complain about it...   I can say the EX has been flawless on my system...  silky buttery smooth... 
email conversation I had with Antipodes...... one reason I feel its superior to the Statement (CX, EX combo unit)


Yes, but Mark Jenkins comments '....The clock is a lot less relevant than people assume. The 3 things that matter with digital audio are the clock used to generate the signal, noise levels and bandwidth. The clock is less important than the other two. To my knowledge Antipodes is the only firm that addresses bandwidth. The others sacrifice bandwidth through use of noise filtering. We use no filtering at all, leaving full bandwidth intact and achieve low noise by designing it out from the ground up.'.

Regards,

Tony




Hi Tony. Do your units have clocks?
Reason I'm asking is I have the Sotm stack.. eg usbultra and work clock @ 10Mhz
I've tried your EX unit with the Sotm stack and it sounds better without it. Which is for the most part ridiculous...
This should not be... the Sotm stack definitely helps the Innuos unit sound better... but yours sounds better without it.
Whatever you guys are doing there is awesome..
@audiotroy    you have not done your research... and you should before you make statements. I would not comment on the other products you have listed except the statement because I understand what Innuos has done ; but the others I could not comment on

 I eluded to what Antipodes does to eliminate noise before but if your honest its just easier for you to sell the other products you have. 

In regards to the combination CX/EX that is easily resolved via cat7 sotm cables as I've discussed before but seems you "missed" it for convenience. Since you are "not" a music server designer its obvious you are not.. why would you understand what Antipodes does... 

Go to the roon boards and they also recommend you separate the server and renderer. The Statement has weaknesses in running two external power lines outside into the main box above? ... they perhaps should consult Mark Jenkins on how to build a noise free power supply.... Also running both server and renderer together is also another weakness. 

To make it clear to the rest... I think the statement sounds very nice... and am familiar with the "basic" tech Nuno and team use for noise reduction. The Antipodes way of reducing nose in my opinion is better and way more fascinating to me. 

I told you previously they offset various frequencies on their boards to eliminate noise ; and you said that you didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. Which tells me you do not know this product at all. 

Here's a small piece and I suggest you do your research for the other pieces unless you feel you need to be spoon fed. 

Below is the education you need to sell Antipodes servers which in my opinion are better than what you have listed. If i was  your boss I'd tell you to be more learned on products you refer to. 

The below is just for their power supplies; this is also for their older generation power supply their new ones are even better. 

The key thing is that all regulated power supplies generate switch noise, and that with digital it is really important to not only reduce that noise, but through design, put the residual noise in a frequency range that does not interfere with the digital signal. This not only involves the regulation used, but also how the transformer is wound and how it is screened – for example our transformer is completely copper screened.


Mark Jenkins:
“The motherboards are sourced from the world’s best supplier and they cost around 6 times what some of the competitors are using. We tune the motherboards to shift the frequency peaks of the noise generated by each component in order to eliminate noise nodes, so the mainboards start as an off-the-shelf board and then are customized for our use.”

Antipodes also places a lot of emphasis on the quality of the power supply, which they manufacture entirely in-house.

Mark Jenkins:
“What we did with the new power supply was to test the injection of noise into the motherboard at various frequencies to see which frequencies did the least damage to the sound quality, and then we designed the power supply board in such a way that the noise component was in the benign frequencies. This has a similar effect as a zero noise power supply.”

As mentioned, the EX and CX have two Ethernet ports. One can be used to connect to the network and the second to provide a low-noise dedicated feed to an Ethernet DAC. According to the info in the manual, “Ethernet can introduce high levels of noise into the receiving device. The Direct Ethernet solution in Antipodes servers minimizes network ‘chatter’ on the link and creates a high bandwidth, phase accurate, low-noise direct link between the server and renderer. This provides a dramatic improvement over connecting your server and renderer devices through a noisy switch or over a long length of network cable”.

I’ve put this to the test and indeed, the direct connection sounds considerably cleaner as well as freer than a connection via the existing network. BTW I also conducted a similar test using multiple network switches and network cables in a range of lengths with surprising results, using Meridian Sooloos components, the predecessors or Roon, so to speak.



So your bias comes out... clearly..  difference here is I AM NOT A SALES PERSON so I don't have to justify anything. 

It's obvious you HAVE NOT read the all the audiophile sites or you wouldn't be perplexed to how Antipodes eliminates noise. 

The statement is not cheap and I think its overpriced and needs justification. It's more expensive than the CX/EX combo (which is better)

Hottest does not mean best. Bugatti cars are rare purchases and many other high quality products but they are not "hot" items.  

Perhaps I need to say it again... "do your own research" you have access to the same people I do.. get  your own white paper... 

Who said software? It's done at the board level. You know the difference right? 

Innuos uses... lol.... its more of a  V8 Chevy approach compared to a finely tuned Aston Martin   Innuos as I said before is good its ok I own an innuos server... but the sophistication and preparation on the
Antipodes  imho is better. 

Trajectory? lol... they have been around for a long time. So we are clear they are having a hard time keeping up with demand....  You will find these servers in audiophile homes;  not Joe and Bob's living room where you might find an Innuos. Nothing wrong with that... but the target audience is NOT the same.

No of course you don't because you sell Innuos products that's why you don't see a difference is separating Core and renderer. 

But even Roon itself will tell you its beneficial  as I stated above and again was ignored..... ..... any audiophile with experience will tell you its beneficial... 

As for ethernet...  that's addressed above... perhaps a re-read will help 


@astewart8944    .. sometimes a nice heated debate is ok. ..  I don't take anything he says seriously... it actually made me chuckle..  
Sotm makes an awesome usb filter ... usbultra and they have a word clock that is top notch and doesn't cost 10K or more...
provide the link... if this is his quote  

"Since you already own the DX3, you already have a significant portion of the CX+EX sound and I’m not sure if upgrading to CX+EX would yield enough to make this change worthwhile."
I'd have to see this favorable review for myself; as the DX3 is good but just ok sub par compared to the combo and he EX alone is better.


Of course I’ll comment on the below. The EX alone sounds better than the DX3 ; the CX alone sounds better. DX3 is old tech even if its been upgraded. It’s been noted already that the combo sounds much better. Than each unit on its own. Others have also commented that comparing the DX3 to other servers is not a correct comparison. I Really don’t know what more can be said if people want to believe something regardless of facts. I’d venture to say this person has not listened to the combo. Almost positive of that..in fact anyone agreeing with that statement I’d ask if they have heard the combo. If you have then prefer something else fair enough; as I’ve heard both and prefer the combo over anything I’ve heard to date.
I can also say the MK2 with my clocks give me a significant portion of the Innuos Statement sound; which is somewhat correct, and upgrading to the Innuos Statement wouldn’t give me significant up-gradable experience. Which is somewhat true; but I’d be comparing old tech to Innuos top of line.


Quote: "Since you already own the DX3, you already have a significant portion of the CX+EX sound and I’m not sure if upgrading to CX+EX would yield enough to make this change worthwhile."
@jbrrp1  Remember that the CX would be your server and its an i7 using 6 cores. Very fast almost instant for me. I wouldn't be that patient either.


@astewart8944 

I already posted those links in one of my responses and his final conclusion is as per below. So I agree with that but saying the dx3 gets you almost to the cx/ex combo is inaccurate. Even the sound signature is different on the new units ; smoother etc.. 


There comes a time when a reviewer just lacks the superlatives to describe the latest experience and for me, this is it. How do I describe the CX+EX delivery if I have already used all the superlatives that I can think of for earlier reviews? This combination is, quite simply, the very best digital front end that I have heard.
@astewart8944

I didn’t know it was his review. Thought you were talking about someone else... I’ve already referenced his review in one of my posts; so thought it was someone else... that's the problem with reviewers. Everything is always the best
Hmm... well you don't have one piece with the statement you have 2 pieces and 2 external power cords attaching on the right and left sides. Plus a power cord. I do find the design a little strange... but that's just me.

Just my opinion I own a WA 33 woo audio amplifier and they put the power cords in through the middle. No external cords don't know if there was a reason Innuos didn't do that. Maybe flexibility? Power box can be put farther away from the player portion with longer cables. Again though you do risk noise when you do that...

I also prefer a burner outside the music units. Unsure of the noise factor with having it internal... doesn't really affect me; as I do have an Zenith MK2 unit I can burn cd's to. 

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is storage. Your basically stuck with the statement... Antipodes you can swap out drives and increase on the fly. 
The 2 piece core and render-er is what Roon itself recommends.

To me this is a flaw regardless of brand. Including the ultra crazy pink faun which I reviewed a little while ago.

Secondly these are stand alone units they don't have to be used together. They are separate units and can be used as such. I had the EX before I ordered the CX to get to the next level. To me the EX alone is a match for the statement... that's right ... a match. It's a different sound signature as I've spoken about in other posts. Which of course I prefer.

That's right you have a massive noise generating power supply right underneath your player. Then you also have two power cords with more noise potential. If I had bought that unit. I would immediately have been looking to upgrade the 2 stock power cords to something high quality.

It's also bulky looking (my opinion) some of you may like the look. The EX/CX units are small and light. I can pick up one unit with one arm.

Which by the way my local dealer did try to get me  to buy the statement. He now has the Antipodes units. Smart move on his part.

It's not nice to have one built into the unit its a noise source should be outside the unit.

That's another advantage if you don't have the funds right away to go cx ex you can just buy  the ex ... affordable as far as music players/servers go ... and then upgrade from there.

EX retail is 5099 CAD  4K US
CX retail is 7800 CAD 6K US  

Don't quote me on exact Antipodes pricing...

I paid way less than this 8900 US for both.. that's right 8900 (taxes included)  so the person who was saying it comes out to the same is not correct. If you know how to bargain of course.... yes brand new units.

Statement retail price below excluding taxes.... 
  • 1TB SSD £9 800 • €11 000 • $13 750 • CAD$17 900
  • 2TB SSD £10 300 • €11 500 • $14 400 • CAD$18 900
  • 4TB SSD £10 800 • €12 100 • $15 150 • CAD$19 700

  • Again I'll say that when listening to the Statement I liked it so those of you that own it don't assume I'm slamming it. I just didn't like it as much as the Antipodes...  I think its overpriced... Eventually they will cut pricing (if they want to move units) or maybe not if the other models do well. Personally I think they will.... sorry present Statement owners.

    As for SSD drive space 650 for an extra TB? I can easily get 2TB SSD for that
    @astewart8944 

    I know they are out there. I get PM's ... but its up to them to respond...
    There are many good options ; I was impressed with the pink faun... strange name... for a one box solution. I still think the best solution is to keep core and render separate as per Roon...
    I have finally setup my system to 95% of the way I want it. Won’t go into details but I can say now with confidence that I literally feel like I’m in the studio with the artists like they are there beside me and I think that’s what a lot of us want but never can quite attain to.

    It’s taken a lot of money time effort, knowledge gathering but there’s that 5% still but going to give my wallet a little rest for now and enjoy what I have in audio bliss.

    Hoping the rest of you can attain this regardless of what system you end up buying as you all know I’ve done it with my preferred Antipodes CX/EX setup... I can speak only for myself in that I prefer a nice listening session over a fine wine, delicious meal, dessert ; that’s how good things are now... if your not there yet... well... keep eating fine meals till you do.... later !
    Its been a while since anyone posted here. I was at a local dealer today and I can proudly say that I steered someone way from the Statement to the CX/EX combo. He's a rich guy so money isn't going to be a factor to him. I didn't knock that statement but did tell him that Antipodes product sound signature is more liquid and relaxed. He knows I spend a lot of time listening. The dealer also agreed and while the statement is more expensive it wasn't about money more the sound signature preference.