ZEN Mini S vs. Small Green Computer Sonic Transporter i5 music server/Ultra Rendu Streamer

@jjss49 , thanks.  Looks like I have some homework to do.

Have a good evening.

I believe it’s often better to go for the best you can afford or save up your $ until you can buy what you really want & is good quality. 

You don’t always get what you pay for but you definitely don’t get what you don’t pay for!

I waited & saved for the Innuos Zenith  Mark III & couldn’t be happier! Works flawlessly, sounds great, their app for an iPad is excellent. Eventually ripping all my 1000 or so CD’s & Qobuz is lots of fun & often sounds outstanding. I think the lower tiered Innuos models are also really good. 
 

Best of luck!

@jonwolfpell, thank you for your comments.  I'm glad you waited and saved for the Zenith.  I just took a look at it on the Innuos website and it looks great.  I can only imagine what it sounds like.

I've now got to process all of this great information, do some research and make a decision.  I've enjoyed interacting with all of you on this forum.  I feel like I have gained a new group of friends for what is a very important part of my life - music.

Regardless of the outcome, thank you all for sharing your passion, knowledge and kindness.

I have a man cave that's about 1,000 sq.ft.  I think I could get by with one of the simpler models, agree?  Looks like I should be able to pick one up for ~ $20.  Do I need a minimum on terms of Mbps for data transfer rate?

Ugh.  So sorry to hear about your back issues.  That sucks and hope you feel better soon.  My guess is you can hook up the Zen where your most comfortable chair is, and as long as there’s an outlet available I’d think you could rip to your heart’s content without needing to be hooked to the internet, but that’s a semi-educated guess.  For the extender, as long as it’s not a large distance from your router or multiple floors away it should work just fine. Also, if you’re vying for Wi-Fi bandwidth with other people gaming, streaming movies, etc. in your house you might consider going with a Mesh system instead.  Anyway, here’s the extender I got just fyi.  It’s probably overkill and a cheaper one would probably work just as well, but for the few added $ I just splurged for the higher performance to help avoid potential issues.. 
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MR90E3A/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Also, I just saw this Ethernet cable highly recommended by another respected member here that’d probably be great to start running from the extender to your streamer and will save you $$$…

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VVFB8VX/ref=ox_sc_saved_title_6?smid=A1EA54VWB150Z7&amp=undefined&th=1

Anyway, hope this fills in some gaps, and best of luck in whatever direction you choose. 

I can’t speak to the Zen, but I have been running the i5 with UltraRendu for over a year. Terrific support from SGC. Coupled with Roon and Qobuz, my biggest problem is finding enough time to listen to all that I would like to hear. I skipped dBPoweramp and just use the ripping software in the i5 with a cheap DVD drive. I did add an Ultradigital from Sonare so I could use the I2S input of my Denafrips Pontus II. I use my laptop and an android tablet as interfaces. I bought an internal 4 GB SSD from B&H and it works flawlessly. I will admit that I used the Roon DSP to smooth out a little roughness in the upper mid/lower treble range. But this has lessened over time. Updates usually run smoothly, although a second reboot of the i5 is often needed, and you should keep the Roon app on your tablet or laptop up to date.

I use free metadata software to manage the files and keep everything easy to find. MP3tag works great for me.

Backup to my WD portable 4GB USB drive is easy and fast...I keep a USB cable plugged into the i5 and dangling around to the front. Connect the drive, open the Sonic Orbiter GUI, and start the backup. USB 3 is much faster than the 2. The only thing that takes a while is adding album art to my music files. Faster home network speeds help with this. I added a cheap Ethernet adapter to my laptop to avoid the WiFi, and it sped things up considerably.

Overall, I am happy, even if my rack looks like a Rube Goldberg contraption, with a bunch of little boxes, power supplies and cables.

I like the simplicity of the Zen, but it’s hard to imagine better support than you get from Andrew at SGC, and like yourself, the i5 bundle was clearly the most cost effective way to get hi res files, Roon and Qobuz to all work together seamlessly.