Another vote for the Innuos Zen Mk 3 as long as you have an external DAC to work with it. I've owned a Zen for several years, and it's been great. Ripping couldn't be easier. The HDD vs SSD issue has not been a significant one for me. The drive is off during playback so there's no added noise. The Sense app is wonderful, so I don't need Roon.
ZEN Mini S vs. Small Green Computer Sonic Transporter i5 music server/Ultra Rendu Streamer
Good evening forum members.
Looking for any experience and/or opinions on these two music servers/players/streamers.
My plan is to rip 3,000 rare and collectible CDs to FLAC files or better. I would also like to integrate Tidal and Qobuz into the mix using Roon.
The ZEN Mini S has a built in CD ripper/server/streamer ($3,548 total cost). The SGC Sonic Transporter server and Ultra Rendu streamer bundle does not have a built in CD ripper.
I'm leaning towards the SGC Sonic Transporter/Ultra Rendu Streamer because of the following:
- Cost. the cost for the SGC ST/Ultra Rendu option is $2,097, which includes the server and streamer, plus a linear PSU. The ZEN Mini S is $3,548 all up (ripper, server, streamer, etc.). This amounts to a $1,451 difference in price.
Subtract from this difference the cost of an internal 4TB SSD ($300), an external and portable 4TB SSD ($300), dbpoweramp ripping and music management software ($75), and a USB CD/DVD drive ($75) and the difference is now becomes $701 between the ZEN Mini S and the Small Green Computer solution. Significant.
- My preference is to rip the CDs using my Windows laptop (no additional cost), the portable 4TB SSD, a better, well-known software package, and a USB CD drive at my desk. This is it more significantly more convenient and ergonomically friendly to my bad back.
My plan is to transfer the ripped files from the portable 4TB SSD to the ST i5 internal 4TB SSD in my stereo cabinet when done, Going forward, I don't plan on buying any more CDs and will fill in the gaps and explore new music with Tidal and Qobuz.
- features on the ZEN Mini S ripping software are unknown. dbpoweramp is a well known product with a plethora of useful features.
- the CD Drive used in the ZEN Mini is $240 when bought separately. This is significantly more than a good USB CD/DVD drive ~ $75.
My main system is a Rotel Pre-amp, Rotel Power-amp, B&W 804 speakers, an Oppo 105 SACD/DVD-Audio/CD/Blu-ray player, EAT C-Sharp turntable and a Sutherland Phono Pre-amp.
Your thoughts on anything I've discussed above? I am not a DIY type and prefer an out of the box solution.
Thanks for your help!
Rich
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- 44 posts total
Thanks to all of you for your feedback an comments. Very helpful. I sent Andrew (SGC) a couple emails over the weekend based on your comments and questions that I had. At this point, I'm still torn between the ZEN and the i5 sonictransporter/ultra rendu bundle. I like having the convenience of using my chosen ripping software, dbpoweramp, on my Windows laptop connected to an SSD for the ripping part of this project. I only want to rip the 3,000 CDs once and want to make sure it's an accurate rip with all the artwork intact. The ZEN requires that I free up space on my desk where my router is. Just a bit clunky IMO. Also, the drives included with both products are marked up 2x. With the i5 I can purchase the exact same 4TB SSD at half price from Amazon. I'm kind of stuck with the HDD provided by Innuous when I'd prefer to use an SSD or Synology NAS for file storage and back-up. Hmmm . . . I'm on the fence about Roon. Seems like it's not necessary for the ZEN. Not sure about the i5. in short, I can start ripping CDs tomorrow if I choose the i5 path without buying a thing from SMC in the near term. Then I can transfer the files to the i5 once it arrives. If I go the ZEN route, I need to order the table top unit now and use a clunky ripping set up, overpriced HDDs, but a better file management app plus I'm not tied to Roon. Just thinking out loud a bit more. Feel free to constructively criticize my thought process. |
There’s a neat workaround for this. Buy a Wi-Fi extender from TP-Link, etc. and just plug an Ethernet cable from that to the Zen and you don’t need it to be on your desktop. All you need is an outlet for the extender. Many people here with $$$ systems have done this with great success. Hope this helps. |
i think you have your choice on this subject, and associated tradeoffs, well understood and well articulated - good job on that! i signed up for roon lifetime early on, so am bought into it... i enjoy it immensely as an interface, but also realize that in the meanwhile the better streamer hardware companies like innuos aurender auralic and so on have continually improved their software and the user experiences they provide for me, i enjoyed trying the value oriented piece-part options, doing it more ’a la carte’, if for no reason other than to allow me carefully learn each piece part and their associated impact on the sound quality for this reason, i have an i7 equivalent roon core machine (from esteemed a-gon member @elberoth in poland), installed my own internal ssd for stored music, have an outboard cd drive to rip when needed (and detach when not using), then i bought an optical rendu from sgc as well as an ether-regen and na muon to do lan and usb filtering to feed whatever dac or dac streamer i am using at any time |
- 44 posts total