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Innuos Zen MK3 or Zen Mini MK3

Killersteve said:
Could be. I will try it with the Zen after I got it.
Click to expand...

As an aside
I have a StackAudio Link feeding into the Isis USB - the Link has the option to have the USB powered or not.
For the Isis DAC to be recognised it needs to be in the powered position.
 
rn82497 said:
As an aside
I have a StackAudio Link feeding into the Isis USB - the Link has the option to have the USB powered or not.
For the Isis DAC to be recognised it needs to be in the powered position.
Click to expand...

I don‘t know to power the usb port of my MAC. Maybe I should try the different ports? I am not sure if the Zen will power it, but I will try and let you know.
 
I have the exact same Zen mkIII 1Tb black. The main reason for me to buy was the need to replace a QNAP Nas which had to be located in the living room due to the network connections in our current home. The QNAP worked perfectly well but the fans sounded like a cessna idling. The Zen costs about the same as a replacement silent NAS.

I am using the Zen as a combined Roon core and endpoint, feeding a Chord TT2 via USB. I am very happy with the sound but have not done any comparisons to other alternatives.
 
What I could say at the moment is, that WAV sounds (a bit more) better to my ears as FLAC. Also the Innuos is a hughe upgrade to the MacBook I used before. Sounds more relaxed, details are clearer now. But the used absorber could also have an influence. The MacBook have had stood on the floor without Absorber.
 
Thanks for sharing. I thought I would try a test with my old vintage Macbook from 2009 which has an old copy of Audirvana on it. It plays fine through the built in speakers but I got CPU error message when I tried to play through my DAC. At that point I gave up. It looks like I either need a new mac or new software to compare against the innuos and that isn't going to happen.

One day when I feel inclined to mess around with cables again I can try a shootout between my innuos and my Auralic Aries mini.

Perhaps you could try putting your mac on the same footers as the innuos to eliminate that as a parameter causing the difference?
 
Just one new point:
I tried to connect the Innuos to the DAC of the Isis, but it didn‘t worked.
Same problem as with the MAC. Only way to compare the Isis with the Innuos
is now to connect the Isis to the Teddy DAC and see what's happening.
 
Killersteve said:
Just one new point:
I tried to connect the Innuos to the DAC of the Isis, but it didn‘t worked.
Same problem as with the MAC. Only way to compare the Isis with the Innuos
is now to connect the Isis to the Teddy DAC and see what's happening.
Click to expand...

I’m not sure I follow you here. USB always has an A end (host) and a B end (peripheral). The Innuos Zen server goes at the A end. The DAC is typically at the B end. Some DACs also have A type connectors for use with USB storage devices (hard drives, memory sticks etc) but you won’t be able to use those to connect to the Zen.
 
Strictly Stereo said:
I’m not sure I follow you here. USB always has an A end (host) and a B end (peripheral). The Innuos Zen server goes at the A end. The DAC is typically at the B end. Some DACs also have A type connectors for use with USB storage devices (hard drives, memory sticks etc) but you won’t be able to use those to connect to the Zen.
Click to expand...

The Isis needs power on the USB input.
 
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