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Any Innuos users here?

A couple of dealers have tried to convince me of the error of ways, without success. One occasionally asks me to listen to his lates Naim doodad, but to date I've always preferred the inexpensive Pro-ject top loader I always ask to hear as well.

In truth of course, even if I did prefer the streamer, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of admitting it, but so far my conscience remains clear...
 
notevenclose said:
A couple of dealers have tried to convince me of the error of ways, without success. One occasionally asks me to listen to his lates Naim doodad, but to date I've always preferred the inexpensive Pro-ject top loader I always ask to hear as well.

In truth of course, even if I did prefer the streamer, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of admitting it, but so far my conscience remains clear...
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Stick with what sounds best to you, but what could you possibly have to gain by fibbing to your dealer?
 
notevenclose said:
n truth of course, even if I did prefer the streamer, I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of admitting it, but so far my conscience remains clear...
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I have been in the situ where a dealer has suggested I’m wrong. After a fair and honest conversation, I no longer use that retailer. I’m the customer. It’s my cash. At the end of the day it’s up to me where and when I spend it.
 
G T Audio said:
Or, they could have done a lot of research over the years and found a number of marginal gains in the replay of digital audio that can be heard and appreciated by their owners.
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Indeed. They could have. But had they done so, they could also have shown us objective evidence of the results of their work.
 
Strictly Stereo said:
Stick with what sounds best to you, but what could you possibly have to gain by fibbing to your dealer?
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Err... My comment was actually tongue in cheek.

The dealer in question just sometimes asks me for an opinion on a bit of kit, to be fair, he's well aware that it's highly unlikely I'll purchase anything – and he's also fully aware that I have a somewhat murky past, with a number of acquaintances, friends, and clients in the hifi industry, so sometimes it's just a general chat or asking if I know anything about something or other.
 
Andrew C! said:
I have been in the situ where a dealer has suggested I’m wrong. After a fair and honest conversation, I no longer use that retailer. I’m the customer. It’s my cash. At the end of the day it’s up to me where and when I spend it.
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That's a different scenario. Over the years as a customer I've only ever 'fallen out' with one dealer and one distributor, where I made a deliberate decision not to deal with either again. Obviously my preference is to deal with people I both like and respect, but that doesn't mean we always see eye to eye on everything.

I'm quite lucky in the bigger picture in that there are 2 or 3 companies who sometimes send me stuff and ask for an opinion. Knowing a bit about me and my preferences, nobody's ever sent me anything I've hated, but I've had stuff I wasn't overly enamoured of, in which case honesty is the only policy, else why bother (for both parties)? It's never been a cause of any friction, although in one case there's a running joke that if I do like a product they check it again when it comes back to see if it's faulty.

Flip side is the very occasional unexpected 'wow!' moment.
 
OK, if I may call a brief halt to 'dealer wars' etc... ;)..

I've now ripped all of my CDs. Have only used about 12% of the Innuos drive. Am in the progress of backing up to a 1TB portable USB drive at present. Just a trial run really. Also had a bit of a play at importing stuff which is going to need a lot of editing... later.. as well as editing the few library/metadata issues created by Innuos.

However.. I'm trying to convince 'er indoors' that she can also use the Innuos whilst sewing or whatever she does in the spare room upstairs. Question is, how do I achieve that?
She's not bothered much about SQ and there's not much space among all her junk anyway, so any sort of audio device that I can feed an audio signal into will do. I have a Tivoli Model One lying about which has 'Aux In' for eg.

Also available, a Squeezebox, and a completely unused Chromecast Audio.
I could employ ethernet and/or wi-fi...

Any suggestions?
 
Mullardman said:
OK, if I may call a brief halt to 'dealer wars' etc... ;)
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Oh, alright.

Bah.

So, in time-honoured fashion, nothing to do with your question, but if you've not heard this (audio interview with Innuos' lead designer), you might find it interesting.

https://darko.audio/2019/02/a-short-film-about-the-innuos-zen-mk3/


It's not really a product sector which interests me personally these days, but I suspect if I were to dip my toe in the water again, it would currently be Innuos who would be of most interest.
 
G T Audio said:
Indeed, and what I have been saying about ordinary computers vs dedicated audio music servers for years and why I became one of the first Innuos dealers in the UK... One look inside their Zenith back in 2016 and I knew they knew what they were doing...
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Indeed, and I knew they knew what they were doing when I took one look inside one of their Innuos Wave Ultimates back in 2013.

big_catalogo_1416505350_1492.jpg

http://www.innuos.com/en/catalog/go/innuos-wave-ultimate

IIRC, £700 for a Cubox in a hobby box powered by a linear PSU. Nicer case work these days but much the same philosophy.....

"Using a massive audio-grade transformer and banks of Nichicon KG audio capacitors (the same used in the much more expensive Naim upgrade PSUs), it results in a wider, more focused sounstage with added realism that will make you want to stay and listen to your music for hours and hours."
 
Emlin said:
You're listening with your eyes again.
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Over 40 years of repairing high-end electronics and listening to practically every brand of equipment made, plus a vast experience of audio circuit design is enough to tell me how a unit will sound, or how good it will be just by looking inside at the circuit and the construction. This has served me well over the years enabling me to introduce my own brand, as well as other brands (AcousticPlan, Avantgarde Acoustic, Allaerts, Cessaro, DeVore, DPS, EERA, Garrott, Lindemann, LYS, Musical Affairs, Ocellia, Oyaide, Polestar, Reed, SAP, Schröder, Shelter, Thales, TW Acustic, J.C.Verdier, Zerodust and ZYX) into the UK.
 
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So anyway... I got a surprise yesterday.
I ripped three CDs which were transfers of vinyl from the D'Agostini 'Jazz at 33' series made using my Yamaha CDR. I was fully expecting them to come up as 'Unknown Album' needing me to manually add track info and go off finding album covers. To my surprise, the ZenMini 'found' the metadata..which I'm pretty sure wasn't on the vinyl disc. So how does that work then? I believe the 'Jazz at 33' series is from digital masters.. is that it?
OK. slightly wrong cover for the Sarah Vaughan, but very quickly fixed and all the track info was present and correct. Everything completely in order for Shirly Horn 'Travellin' Light'. Same with 'Getz-Gilberto.. except it wouldn't rip past the first track and had to be 'Force Eject' ed. That one really needed re-recording anyway.. as there's a couple of 'ticks' on it which need sorting..maybe a wet clean..we shall see.
 
notevenclose said:
Oh, alright.

Bah.

So, in time-honoured fashion, nothing to do with your question, but if you've not heard this (audio interview with Innuos' lead designer), you might find it interesting.

https://darko.audio/2019/02/a-short-film-about-the-innuos-zen-mk3/
Click to expand...

Interesting video thanks, except that the guy did what all tech obsessed(and especially 'New Tech' obsessed) people do.. and talk too quickly in a secret language, about much of what can be done with such kit. That said, I did like his grasp of the pragmatic side of using the Zen products. If you don't know, or 'can't be '***ed' to find out how to do all this via PCs and separate hard drives and stuff.. this is a great solution.

What resonated mostly with me was his subjective assessment of the SQ of the Zen products he was discussing.. which are admittedly not an exact match for what I'm using. He basically seemed to be describing a 'rich, full sound' or 'more meat on the bones' as he put it. This is pretty much what I'm finding with the ZenMini through my LFD Zero and Rogers Studio3/AB3 set up, using the Zen's onboard DAC. Bass seems deeper.. but also a bit ploddy and 'one note'. However, the sound is still very listenable. It will be interesting to see what happens when I run the Zen via my Benchmark DAC1.. but I have a bit more ripping to do first before I get into comparing the Zen with discrete DACs and of course my CDP.

The video has also got me a bit more interested in power supplies and wondering just how much improvement might be had from the optional PSU. Ever since I discovered what can be achieved by fast but 'light' power supplies as used in my LFD.. I'm a bit less convinced that great massive toroids and banks of posh 'caps' are the way to go.. But ultimateley my ears will decide.
 
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