Roon Nucleus vs Innuos

David Ten there is really no empirical evidence that separating a Roon Core and Endpoint are actually better on the contrary, you are now sending the data from the Core to the Endpoint which adds the variable of the sending data over the network.
We looked at the Roon Nucleus when it came out and we were not impressed by what Roon was offering for the price vs the Innous.

The Nucleus is an inexpensive Intel Nuc based device, the Intel Nuc is a powerful computer chip based mini computer, which Roon loads an optimized version of their software, the two models differ in having an external power supply.
Compare that with an Innous and you will see a very large difference.
The Innous products all use a custom built motherboard, use a custom operating system, the Zen model uses a two rail power supply which was designed by Dr Sean Jacobs an expert in digital power supply design, the Zenith use a three rail design with Mundorf caps, ethernet noise filters are used to eliminate line noise coming into the the servers as well as leaving the server in the case of an ethernet connected streaming dac, both devices use well shielded cases, and have been built to minimize noise and vibration.
Innous takes a very focused approach to their designs they are working to eliminate noise which can muck up the digital output of the sever.
For all of these reasons people have been raving over the sound quality of the Innous servers.
We have many happy Innous clients who report that the servers made a very noticeable sonic improvement

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innous dealers

The innous servers are designed as Roon Cores.

Out of the box to setup to music 5 mins.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innous dealers

Dep most people find that the Dac will only sound as good as what you feed it.

The Salk Streamer is a fine piece but would it be in the class of an Innous don’t think so.

The Salk steamer looks to be a mini pc running tweaked Linux and Roon. There is no mention on power supply design.

For the same money you can get an Innous Zen which uses a custom designed linear power supply, a custom built mother board, custom software, a shock mounted hard drive, an ethernet noise filter, full on line support, and back up from a company with more than one principal.

Many people are finding that the improvement in the server is just as important as the improvement in the dac.

The fact that even a high end streaming dac which would require nothing else other than an direct ethernet connection sounds noticeably better being feed by a cleaner signal from the Innous would invalidate that argument.

If you read the Innous Statement review the reviewer was floored at how much more analog like and more musically involving the sound from the same dac was with the superior digital signal being feed to it he said it was a breakthrough in digital sound reproduction.

We have currently on the floor an Innous Statement, a Baetis Reference, a Innous Zenith Mk II and we have had the Zenith MK III on the floor.

The same data sounds very different over an ethernet connection being feed to the same streaming dac, from all three of these servers, the Innous Statement made the streaming dac much better sounding. than the other two.

We are not saying that people shouldn’t invest in a good dac but they should also invest in a real server to feed that dac properly.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innous Dealers

We have used over the years Mac laptops, Dell PC, Mac Mini, moddified Mac minis and none of these devices sounds even close to a dedicated server.

The difference is quite audible.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innous dealers