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Innous Zenith MKII and Roon DSP

I purchased an Innous Zenith MKII about 6 months and configured it to use Logitech Media Server.  I had used LMS for whole house stereo for many, many years.  I finally decided to use Roon instead, and while Roon doesn't meet all of my whole house stereo needs, the interface and music management capabilities are far superior to LMS, IMHO. 

Before enabling Roon, I reached out to Innuos tech support about the fact that Roon does not list the MKII as a recommend device.  From Innous tech support, " The MkII can run Roon very well, the only reason they suggest such a high system spec is for performing DSD upsampling which is by far the most intensive process Roon has. For normal usage and bitperfect playback, the MkII can easily run Roon, no problems there."

I'm not doing any DSD upsampling.  I am trying to use Roon's DSP capabilities, but I've experienced dropouts when I do.  Other than this problem, I'm quite OK using Room with the MKII when playing DSD, FLAC, and WAV files through a MyTek Liberty DAC, as well as, streaming Tidal MQA directly to my NAD M12 BluOS module.

I want to take advantage of Roon DSP capabilities and keep the MKII.  I leaning towards buying an Intel i7 NUC to run Roon Core and strictly use the MKII as my network media player/NAS.  Thoughts anyone?
128x128oldschool1948
oldschool1948's avatar
oldschool1948 OP
502 posts
 
@jsqt.   I'm not sure what you are using DSP for if you are not doing upsampling, but it is true that DSD upsampling is the most memory-intensive operation. EQ and headroom probably would not cause as many issues as the upsampling to DSD 64.
I want to experiment with DSP, in general, to see where it can take me.  With the Zenith alone, I was unable to do that.  With the sonicTransporter, I will certainly try upsampling. 

I've spent a lot of time reading Roon documentation and blog posts.  I realize I have A LOT to learn about the software, and with so many capabilities and options, I'll have to invest a fair amount time tweaking and comparing setting changes.  I'm kinda sorta retired so I have much more time on my hands these days to play with Roon and, hopefully, take my overall system SQ up a notch or two :-).


david_ten
5,480 posts
 
@oldschool48 "Did you experience any loss of SQ running Core on the sonicTransporter?" 

Not at all, with my i7 unit. Same with my previous gen i5 and i7 sonictransporters. Also, no hiccups running Roon Core on my current unit.
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
Running it (or any similar device) off of a linear power supply will reap benefits. The LPS can be a basic one. DC cabling from the LPS to the SGC will also improve SQ, as will basic isolation solutions.
oldschool1948's avatar
oldschool1948 OP
502 posts
 
I did looked at the power supplies on the SGC site.  The only one I saw for the  i7 sonictransporter was the 200W version, which seems like overkill for only one device.  Do you know of any other options?
david_ten
5,480 posts
 
Check with Andrew at SGC to find out what he recommends for minimum power needs.

I use the HDPlex 100W unit, which is no longer made. I have no issues running the i7 unit out of the 19V output. I am also using two other power outputs, simultaneously.

The advantage of a multiple output LPS is that once you realize the upside from it with one unit, it makes sense to power your other computer related peripherals from it. The extra spend on the higher Wattage units with multiple outputs is worth considering.

If you want to be a stickler, then a single output LPS would be the way to go. Downsides are that it gets expensive if you want to power more than one unit and means more power cables to the extra LPS units you have, as well as the extra rack space.

The 200W unit that SGC sells is the HDPlex 200. There are other options for a LPS if you want to save a bit. I have found HDPlex very responsive as a company. They swapped out a unit for me. Andrew is terrific with customer support as well.

There are higher performing units out there, but they come at much higher costs.
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