Streamer for LTA Aero

Thank you, sdl4. I think that helps me eliminate the ZENith.

I love my Innuos Zen Mk3!  I remember when the Mk3 versions of both the Zen and the Zenith came out, and I was trying to decide between them. I watched a review by John Darko, in which he said that there was only a very slight difference in sound between the two (favoring the Zenith just a little) and that it still took him 2-3 days to be sure he even heard a difference. My dealer convinced me that the Zen was a better value because it had the best sound-to-cost ratio in the Innuos line. 

The other thing that Innuos has going for it is its music-player software, Sense 3.0. A lot of folks who have used both Roon and Sense think that Sense has better sound quality and stability in actual use. Roon has more features (and Roon Radio is very good), but Roon is designed to work with many different types of hardware and can't be tailored to squeeze the best performance out of a dedicated hardware line like Innuos does. 

Between the ZEN and the ZENith, what I'm taking away from the Innuos website as well as other reviews, is that the ZENith is a little more refined and mellow than the ZEN. If that's fair, and my current system lacks neither, I'm leaning towards the ZEN. Appealing to those who have listened to both, is that a fair assessment of the difference?

I understand your concern about possibly missing out on sound quality if certain tweaks aren’t applied, but I guess I have not heard that is necessary with the higher models of Innuos, or Aurender for that matter. Implied in my post, and based on your desire to avoid a highly technical solution, Innuos provides the ease of CD ripping combined with a well designed and thoughtfully evolving user interface. I was a software engineer for decades, so very technical, but I greatly value a user interface with good flow and visual appeal. I have found that with Innuos, I don’t think you would be disappointed. 

@jasonbourne71 +1 

I am happy with my Aurender N150

@bluethinker Same here.  I've ripped a number of cds that I can't stream, but I see no need to rip all of my cds.  Streaming is super easy and sounds great. 

I'm a big fan of the German band RPWL. I have around 11 of their cds and only 5 of these are on Qobuz.  I'm listening to a ripped copy now. 

@phaelon - Innuos Zenith III owner here. Very happy with it.
I thought I’d burn more CDs to the hard drive, but streaming with Qubuz is so good, my motivation to do so has dwindled. 

I’ve read that the Innuos Sense software sounds better than Roon, but I wouldn’t know. I’m curious about how some of the other steamers may present the music, but I see no reason to upgrade anytime soon.  

@soix +100 . 

e. My main caution with Innuos is the quantity of posts with owners describing the number of ancillaries they added to attain optimal SQ.

W.What are you even talking about here? You can add an LPS to something like a Zen Mini or Pulse Mini and get great improvements, but anything from the Zen on up already has an LPS so not required. If you wanna add a DDC you can do that to any streamer and likely improve sound quality, but that’s not unique to Innuos. Buy a used DDC and see if it works better and if not just sell it, but I doubt you will, especially if you can get the benefits if an i2S connection. Just my $0.02 FWI

Thank you, zlone. My main caution with Innuos is the quantity of posts with owners describing the number of ancillaries they added to attain optimal SQ.

What are you even talking about here? You can add an LPS to something like a Zen Mini or Pulse Mini and get great improvements, but anything from the Zen on up already has an LPS so not required. If you wanna add a DDC you can do that to any streamer and likely improve sound quality, but that’s not unique to Innuos. Buy a used DDC and see if it works better and if not just sell it, but I doubt you will, especially if you can get the benfits if an i2S connection. Just my $0.02 FWIW.

Get the N150. Spending twice as much is a waste of $$$$.

I can't find the words to express my appreciation to everyone who is responding. This is enormously helpful. I feel like my thinking is much clearer now. Thank you.

@phaelon 

Another vote for the N200. I haven’t put memory in it because the CD’s that are ripped on my NAS, sound fantastic to me.
 

And BTW, you can use almost any computer to rip your CD’s.

Here is a follow-up take on this, you can get by with less computing power since your LTA Aero has no DSD or MQA support.  
We all started somewhere, which mostly is not the same place we end up.  If you want to get your feet wet with a solution that provides good sound right out of the gate, for a modest cost, you could do much worse than this sonicTransporter i5, ultraRendu with 7V LPS bundle for just over $2K.  Add a 2TB SSD for $350 or 4TB for $600, plus a CD ripper for $240 from SGC, or for less than $100 from somewhere like OWC or B&H, and you have a total solution that would accommodate your entire CD collection for less than $3K. Since you would have separates, you could incrementally upgrade over time, if you even believe it is necessary.  Call Andrew at SGC and he will answer any questions you have about getting started and the support he provides.

IMO, Roon is an easy way to integrate your own ripped files with streaming services (I use both Tidal and Qobuz), and offers unmatched metadata as well as Roon Radio, from which I learn about new music almost every time I listen, but there are less expensive solutions.

At the very entry level, you could start with Roon’s own Nucleus One for $500 and run a USB directly to your Aero.  You could add a streamer like one of the Rendu options at a later time if desired.

There is no one right solution.

just a note of appreciation for the measured wisdom displayed by most posters and especially the OP….

Reaching for a CD allows you to play music without a functioning internet on your network Streamers will not. Are you ready to live with that? The only non network player was available for less than a year.

Moving on, the feature set is far more critical than "matching" any DAC.

You have managed to attract sales pitches.

We would recommend a 432 EVO server

Our Aon is the highest performing server/streamer we have tested and to date we have tested vs the innous statement Aurender n10 and n20 and the Grimm a lot these streamers are double or triple the cost of our Aeon.

We compared an Aeon to a Innous statement next gen $27k and found the 1/3^rd less expensive 432Evo aeon to sound just as good,

We tested vs a 12k Aurender n20 and we sounded better.

One client tested vs the grimm which is more expensive and slightly preferred the Aeon.

All 432evo servers offer a modular, fully- upgradable design with a 2tb ssd and a built in cd burner.

Unlike most competitors all parts of the server are physically and electrically separated from one another:

our CPU is a specially tested, low noise, high speed Intel multi core processor residing on its own board,

the clock card and USB  card are also separated and the cpu is powered by its own external Sbooster power supply, while the sensitive clock and USB cards are powered by their own external power supply the hard drive is even shock mounted of a proprietary laser sintered, floating suspension system.

The proprietary Operating system has been designed for low latency and to maximize Roons sound quality by utilizing the cpu’s multiple cores to maximize Roon's  sound quality: one core runs the roon program while another core runs the machines back ground processes and on yet another core caches the music files.

The combination of advanced hardware coupled with our operating system and custom software ensures a level of musicality that has to be heard to be believed.

Dave and Troy

Audio Intellect NJ

432evo dealers

Thanks mitch2. If I've given the impression that money isn't a consideration, that's my fault. I'm still working at 71 because of my passion for music. I just keep adding time to my sentence with each purchase. The Grimm was a serious consideration until I heard the Aero. I'm not sure that's a sensible combination. I haven't really considered Sonore. I'm confined to my living room

"a highly capable, yet sensible streamer" and "My interest ...is due mostly to their ripping feature ...I have a couple thousand CDs."

It sounds as if you are interested in a server/streamer with an easy CD ripping feature and also on-board storage of digital music files. 

IMO, considering the number of CDs you own, you are smart to look at the convenience of the ripping feature and you should also look at the convenience of managing your digital music files once you have them ripped files, i.e., will you be able to log in on any of your networked devices and manage your files?

You should also look at what you will be using to play files, i.e., are you planning to add Roon and use that to manage your streamed and stored music or will you be using another streaming program/app, or perhaps a proprietary program unique to the streamer manufacturer?  

Also consider whether you want a single box that sits in the same room as your primary music system or whether you might be interested in a separate server and streamer.  If you connect your server to your local network, you then have the option of using multiple streamers for different music systems in separate rooms or even a garage/outdoor system. 

It appears price is not your primary consideration since you have named a couple of $6K+ streamer/servers (Innuos ZENith and Aurender N200).  If your budget can expand a little, you might also look at Grimm MU1, or even MU2.

Another one to look at would be a server from Small Green Computer in conjunction with a streamer from Sonore (or another streamer).  The nice thing about Sonore's streamer line is not only that they sound good but that you can start with their lower priced ultraRendu Plus for only $1K or opticalRendu for $1.6K.  If you later choose to upgrade to their Signature Rendu SE Deluxe Optical at $5.4K, you can move the lower priced streamer you started with to stream music in another room.  Both SGC and Sonore offer very good support, IME.

Take your time and read these threads to learn as much as you can before you make your decision.

Lol, gkelly. I'll be calling you first.

I have the worst case of whataboutism when considering Purchase of a new piece of gear. Spend many a sleepless night, hoping what I Won’t be disappointed. Being a complete Luddite, computer stuff completely freaks me out. One can imagine my apprehension Awaiting the arrival of my INNUOS. All I can say is that this was one of the most simplest set ups to date. The way they got these things working these days. It’s practically a plug and play. I was going to say hopefully you have a similar experience, but now it’s just you are going to enjoy your experience.

Thank you, jonwolfpell. I'm particularly happy to hear about your experiences with customer service. I'm pretty sure I'll need a little extra guidance. 

@phaelon I suspect that some of the boxes that you see people adding are more of an attempt to boost the performance of their dac rather than a shortcoming of the Innuos.  I have a Gustard U18 ddc, but I bought it so I could use the i2s input on my dac, not because I felt the Innuos needed it.  You'd be going USB out to USB in on your dac.  I don't see you needing any additional boxes. 

The only server I’ve ever used & thus heard in my system is the Innuos Zenith Mark III & I’m very happy with it. It’s well made, sounds great & it’s proprietary app for your phone or tablet is very easy to use. Their customer support was very responsive & helpful when I had questions early on. I got the 2 TB version so I could rip somewhere between. 1000 - 2000 CD’s which I’m slowly doing. It’s me who is slow, it only takes a few minutes to rip one.  It’s an excellent product which I highly recommend. 

Looks interesting, jrgvliw. I've already committed to a DAC, so a streamer/DAC combination won't serve my needs.

I have the LTA aero. I’m very please with my Eversolo DMP-A6 ME. You can also rip your cd to an internal ssd. I advise you test it out

Thank you, zlone. My main caution with Innuos is the quantity of posts with owners describing the number of ancillaries they added to attain optimal SQ. One poster added five elements, three of which I never heard of. If I was more technically capable, I might find that challenging and even fun. As I’m not, it’s a concern. It’s not that it won’t sound wonderful as stock, it’s that I’ll always be wondering.

I owned the Aurender N10 for awhile and the sound was excellent, however the user software was not my cup of tea. I also had opportunity to work with their support team, who were responsive, but not able solve my system issues. 
 

I switched to Innuos  Zenith Mk III, and I have been very pleased with the solution, too to bottom. Their software is good, and solid, and comes across as more cutting edge in terms of design and progress. 
 

Whatever you choose, invest in a quality USB cable, it makes a difference. 

I'm using the Innuos with a Gustard R26 r2r dac which is paired with a LHY ock-2 clock. I suspect your Aero is it's equal, or more likely better.  I had mostly been using my Denon DCD-1700NE sacd player and preferred it to streaming with a Node or with the Gustard renderer.  After purchasing the Innuos, my preference changed to streaming.  Innuos makes more expensive streamers, but I don't feel the need to spend more to potentially get something better.  I was fortunate to find a like new Innuos that still had a year of warranty remaining.

I did some cable swapping to get things where I really like them.  I'm pretty happy with where I've ended up.

I'm in my 6th decade, so I'm also thinking of things in terms of a final step.

Thank you, sls883 and audphile1. With my current system, the only thing I’m missing, that I’m aware of, is that level of detail and resolution that’s needed to suspend disbelief and allow total emersion into the music. I just want to avoid the pitfalls. Over the years, I’ve witnessed so many friends, who sought maximum detail, wind up with systems that sounded more real but somehow felt less real, if that makes any sense. I probably should have mentioned that I’m currently using a ModWright Sony CDP. In sure that during its seventeen years of faithful service, digital technology has advanced enough so that it wouldn’t be difficult to take a significant, incremental step forward. Into my seventh decade, I’d like this to be more of a final step.

@phaelon it's been a while, but I have Jennifer Warnes - The Hunter ripped and it's available on Qobuz. I think both were equally excellent.  I haven't ripped much that is available to stream. 

I have the N200 feeding Bricasti M3. I used it with PS Audio DSD MkI and Chord Hugo TT2 and Marantz SA-10 as well. The N200 is optimized for USB. and you can’t go wrong with it. I never compared N200 to N150 but if you think you will get essentially the same sound from N150 at half the price I can’t tell you if that’s what you’re gonna get (I doubt it though). If your goal is to never reach for a CD again, the N200 accomplishes that. 

Thank you. Have you ripped and then compared any CDs with Qobuz for sound quality?

I'm very happy with my Innuos Zen Mk3 streamer. I have ripped some cds to it.  Mostly stuff that isn't available on Qobuz. 

The Sense app that Innuos provides is a selling feature, imo.