Innuos Zen MK3 vs Aurender N100

Will you hear a difference moving from a Mac Min? Yes, absolutely huge. The difference between a Zen Mini with LPS and the Zen is still noticeable and, as already stated, if you aren’t going to use the DAC in the Mini then you don’t need a Mini. I absolutely agree though that the Zen is the sweet spot in the range. Roon is a waste of time with Innuos products unless there is something in the functionality you absolutely can’t live without. The sound quality with Sense is obviously superior.

I own a Zenith and love it. Anything you have heard about Sense relates to the first version which had a connection issue which took a while to resolve. Since then it has been absolutely rock solid. Never crashes and gets better with each version. The Qobuz integration is rather great and I’m beta testing the Tidal integration and can confirm it’s all you would want it to be.

@jkontuly

Innuos website does a good job comparing them side by side with easy to understand features: https://innuos.com/zen-mk3-series/ (scroll down a bit on that page).

Basically ZEN adds to the Mini built in Dual-Linear PSU with mains filter, and
Isolated Ethernet Ports. Also a bigger and better chassis 

ZENith is another considerable step above the ZEN due to the Triple-Linear PSU with Mundorf Capacitors, but also SSD instead of HDD in the lower two models.

IMHO the sweet spot in the lineup price/value wise is ZEN. I currently own and use in daily basis the ZENITH. I have owned in various times the ZEN and the Statement

When I bought my Innuos Zen Mk3, I considered the possibility of getting the Zen Mini instead. My dealer told me that he thought the sound quality of the Zen was a significant upgrade over the Mini and that the cost increase wasn't very large once the added cost of the external power supply for the Mini was figured in. He also mentioned that paying for the DAC built into the Mini was a wasted expense if you were planning to use a better external DAC anyway. 

Thanks everyone. Leaning towards innuos but was wondering if anyone had every started with the mini  plus power supply and the upgraded to the zen and if so was there a big improvement. I don’t plan on using ROON which was one of the benefits I heard of using the zen as it apparently maybe a little slow on the mini. Obviously, on the used market the mini plus power supply is much cheaper which is why I ask.
thanks.  

@jkontuly The N100 has been replaced by the N200. I own an Aurender N20 and it's the sweet spot in current streamers/servers. Maybe consider a used N10 at a similar budget.

Let your ears guide you.

I bought a Zen Mk3 last May, 2021. It replaced a Windows 10 laptop feeding my MHDT Orchid. I’m from the IT world and quite honestly didn’t expect much of an improvement in sound quality. It was more of a convenience factor for me and I knew they had the sense app coming out; I was on the fence about another year with Roon and was looking for a way out.

I’ve read about various "issues" with the Sense app. I’ve had none. I just used an ethernet cable to hard wire the Zen to my router and otherwise no changes from the Windows 10 laptop.

To this jaded, long time audiophile, I was pleasantly surprised by the difference in sound quality between my optimized laptop and the Innuos device. I certainly noticed a better listening experience with the Innuos. The Innuos is also fast as hell. Zippity zoom between albums, playlists, etc. That’s another thing that really surprised me. I thought it would run slow with such a minimal processor. I was happily proven wrong. It’s really fast. It’s a pleasure to use.

I have the TB filled with flac files but most of the time I listen to qobuz with the Zen.

Only one more comment on this thread; I personally find it unprofessional that Audiotroy jumps in with whatever he is shilling now.  I’ve seen him do this on numerous threads on audiogon.  

I have had both in my system and the Innuos Zen Mk 3 is on a whole other level better than the N100 in every sonic metric.

If you can, try to compare both in your system before deciding as with any new component in the chain, it is all system-dependent.

As for the Sense app, it is wonderful with no issues to date. It is a lot more integrated than the Aurender app.

One big feature in favor of the Zen Mk 3 is that it has a CD slot to convert your music to flac or wav files. But in the end as always, its SQ is way superior to the Aurender's.

Absolutely!  Just do it. 

Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences, very helpful. I guess the one question which I should have asked is will I hear a noticeable improvement going from my Mac mini to the innuos. I assume the answer is yes otherwise why bother. 

I have been very happy with the Innuos Zen Mk3 and the Sense app. I have not experienced any problems with Sense, although a few users reported early problems that have been resolved. I do not have any experience with Aurender, and I do not use Roon. 

Overall, I agree with chilehed's comment that "Sense is very solid and sounds great."

I have no experience with Aurender, but I can share my experience with my ZENith Mk3:

I use it with Roon, and it works flawlessly. I love Roon, and I think Roon is miles away every other software in the space. Sense works fine, but, having Roon really makes me not use Sense at all. Maybe also because of my familiarity with Roon, having it for about six years now. Sense is nice too, and I am sure it will improve further with time.

I can give you my 2 cents on Sense but have no experience with Aurender. For clarity I will tell you I have a Zenith Mk3 which is their midrange server/streamer. For the first 5-6 months I used it with the Orange Squeeze app which offers very basic player functions and it was a bit of a drag. I then tried and fell in love with Roon which was (and is) awesome but it is subscription based. In my setup I ran the core on the Zenith and it was rock solid but I did notice a degradation in sound if I tried to use any of the DSP functions. I used Roon for just under a year when Sense was introduced. I waited for 5-6 weeks before loading and trying Sense and though it was a step back functionally from Roon, it sounded better. I fortunately did not run into many of the glitches I have seen others deal with and Innuos has made steady improvements with features and stability. IMO Sense is very solid and sounds great. It is not Roon but what else is? I think Innuos is continuing to evolve Sense and overall they do a good job with support. They are based in Europe so if something comes up it can take some extra time to sync up with them but based on discussions I have seen they seem very responsive. Overall I am very pleased with their product.

Former Innous dealer and aurrender dealer we thought the inous sounded better then the Aurender, and roon is amazing.

We found an even better lime of servers then Innous which we now import.

432evoservers out of Belgium.

The 432evoservers are upgradable and are a fully modular design so

AS even better parts come out the servers can be improved this also means a client can purchase our 3500 starter standard model which can be upgraded at any time to a higher end model.

THIS IS A HUGE FACTOR as we Were frustrated with having to always take back an Iower end Innous model when the client wanted to get improved sound.

Mayjune the absolure sound page138

Andrew quint " the432evo Aeon is the best sounding server I have heard."

Dave and Troy

AUDIO INTELLECT NJ

US. importer 432EVO music servers

Thanks, it would be great to hear from others with innuos sense experience. I agree with you I have no interest in always wondering if this expensive piece of equipment will work.

I had a N100H in 2016 and quickly unloaded it. I found their Conductor software app to be impossible. I didn’t like having to hold my breath every time I turned it on. Most times it lost my music library and I had to start over. Because I bought it used (3. Months old), I got no support. One of my not so good experiences. I hope their software is upgraded by now.