Music Server Recommendation
Rbstehno, your comments are totally odd. A network bridge is doing exactly the same thing a server is doing. A per USB being somehow inferior it all depends on implimentation of the cable, the dac and the server. The Audioquest Diamond is not state of the art in any way, we started with the Diamond as it was really the first high end USB Cable, and then we graduated to the Wireworld Platinum which was even better sounding, then we moved to the Enklein pure silver, which was better still than the Wireworld and then we found the Light Harmonic cable Lightspeed, which has a Femto reclocker built into the cable and this is the most remarkable USB cable we have yet tested. A Network bridge is taking packeted audio from the Network and then in the case of the DCS then outputing to the Dac via AES or SPDIF or USB. If you are looking to do the highest sampling frequencies of Quad Rate DSD a standard AES or SPDIF cable will not pass those frequencies nor will the DCS bridge. Now it also depends on which servers you were using before the DCS bridge, the Innuous sounds way better tha the Aurender we sell both. You may have had decent but not a state of the art server before you moved to the DCS piece. You are also missing the user experience which Roon brings which makes listening to music a much more exploratory experience. Uberwaltz, you are missing the concept of upconversion or cross conversion. By emploing a server which allows you to change or cross convert you can create a psuedo high resolution data stream from a 16 bit 44k sample. The actually difference between a true high resolution sample and a reprocessed one may be completely undiscernable. We routinely take Tidal data stream, upconvert through our Innous server to our Light Harmonic Davinci and listen to all music at Quad Rate DSD and the sound is glorious. Server with Roon, and the ability to upconvert or crossconvert can dramatically create a much more analog like sound even with a standard Redbook digital data stream. Labtec the difference between reference servers is hardly neglibile we heard major differences between the Innuous Zenith, the Baetis Reference x, and the Memory Player. The difference is a combination of hardware, software and implimention of all of the different factors. As per packing a good cardboard box can be very effective, if you don’t think you aren’t paying extra for the fancy flight case that you will never use again you got another thing comming. We are really looking forward to our new Innuous Statement which employs a totally custom designed motherboard, a state of the art USB output board, a temperature controlled clock, custom software. This will be the best sounding sever on the market, save your pennies at $13k it will not be cheap, but it should set a new reference for a digital front end. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
The issue with packeted audio is very simple, if you have an dac which can take an ethernet direct signal you may get the best possible sound quality out of a dac, however, if your dac does not possess an ethernet connection then you can not use the dac in this mannor. We sell Naim streamers and they run off an ethernet connection, while other dacs that we sell such as the T+A, Aqua Hifi, the Light Harmonic and others do not accept an ethernet connection. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
Fdemello. You are missing the point you do not need any onboard storage. You use a NAS and point Roon to the NAS and import the files that way A 4TB NAS is $400 to $800 which is way less then the 4TB SSD that Innuous uses for internal storrage. There is 0 need to store locally as the NAS based store being pulled in via ethernet sounds just as good. The new MK III Innuous will be impossible to beat, literally impossible for the money, only Aurender, Naim, and Lumin make their own motherboards, every other computer based server uses an off the shelf motherboard which may be modified but was not designed from the ground up for music. Aurender doesn't do roon, Lumin is a Roon endpoint, but only a dedicated Roon server can do the full upconversion and upsampling which many of today's dac are emabracing for the best quality sound. The new statment combines a crazy outboard power supply, femto clocks, custom motherboard, custom software, a custom digital output board. The MK II SE beat a SGM server yet cost less then half, the MK III servers will set a reference point that most small music server companies will not be able to touch. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
The onboard vs NAS arguement is a tough one for some people to get. In the world of digital the packeted music going into the server may actually sound better than the onboard music via the ssd. As per packeted out that is a tougher call, as many fine dacs are only usb input. We do have the Light Harmonic USB cable that has a femto reclocker built into the cable and boy is it amazing, it does cost $2,000.00 so it isn’t cheap but it beats everyother digital cable we have tested so far. As per not embracing the NAS that is unfortunate we are running a QNAS with 8 bays and 32TB of storage with 21 TB active on a Raid 4 configuration and the QNAS Rocks. If the reason you are not looking for a NAS is there is no ethernet in my audio room, most of these servers will require a Wireless to wired ethernet bridge to work as well. The other option is to purchase a demo MK II and then upgrade it to the MK III when you are ready. If you have additional questions please give us a shout we are one of the best stocked digital dealers in the country with the following digital products on display: Naim, Innous, Baetis, Lumin and Aurender servers, Dacs, NAD, Mytek, Nuprime, Aqua Hifi, T+A, Light Harmonic, Lumin, Naim Digital cables Wireworld, Light Harmonic. Dave and Troy Audio Doctor NJ |
Hehhaw, we have to comment on your statement as some of what you posted needs clarification. First you have only two posts both denigrating the Innuous, you also make ridiculous statements like you won both how is this possible? Also the Innuous Zenith MK II is vastly outperformed by the newer MK 3 units. Also there are no "filters" in the Innous that affect sound quality, they are Ethernet noise filters that eliminate the incoming line noise and then present a cleaned and optimized signal to the Dac. In what way is Antipodes work and technology better? Over the last five years Innuous has continued to grow with products which use all bespoke parts, the Statement uses a custom designed USB reclocker, as well as an Ethernet reclocker, all units use custom motherboards, custom cases, sophisticated power supplies, vibration reduction, incoming Ethernet noise filters, and outgoing Ethernet filters. Add to that a great custom built setup software that makes the entire out of the box to a fully running product a five min chore. Innuous is even working on their own Roon like operating software. For all of these reasons we see Innuous continuing to grow. In looking at verifying that claim Antipodes own website is very mum on what they actually put in their boxes, there is no mention of custom motherboards, power supply design, how the USB and Ethernet outputs are derived, clocking is accomplished,or how noise is eliminated. Even the pictures of the current Ex in Positive Feedback doesn’t show much other than a copper heat pipe on the processor. and an Rcore transformer with a few smoothing filtering caps. VS Innuous Zenith which you can see an incoming ethernet filter, a large sophisticated mutli rail power supply with Mundorf caps and a huge amount of voltage regulators https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/antipodes-cx/https: compare this to the entry level Zen model https://hifi-ifas.de/test-innuos-zen-mk-iii-high-end-musikserver-highlight-sylvesterknaller The higher end Zenith ups the anti with a three rail power supply, adds Mundorf capacitors, an SSD drive. Then to the Statement http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/power-supply-design-innuos-statement Dave and TroyAudio Doctor NJ Innuous dealers |
