Music Server Recommendation

Audiotroy,
I was at RMAF in early October and spent a portion of the early morning on Saturday in the two Innuos rooms and had a chance to talk to the owner and designer for Innuos and his wife as well as the importer: I was the only one in the room for a good period of time.  I must say they are very nice people and seem very knowledgeable and very passionate and were pretty helpful in answering questions.  Moreover, the Innuos room sounded very nice.   

They had the new Innuos $13,000 statement and the old MK II SE (the limited edition that is sold out and no longer available) and did a side by side comparison.  They both sounded nice, and they both sounded nice streaming tidal, which is hard to do at RMAF.  But there was virtually no difference between the two, despite the price difference: the MK II SE was around $7,000 and the new statement is $13,000.  I could not discern any meaningful difference between the two servers whether they were streaming tidal or playing music that was on the servers. Knowing that you have more access to servers than I do, I am curious why you think the Innuos statement will be the best server, and specifically why you think it will beat an aurender w-20 or other top servers, at least for sound.  I'm personally not as concerned with which one has the best app etc., but really mostly concerned with improving my sound. 

Also, you state up above, unless i misunderstood your post, and if i did i apologize in advance (I am trying to learn and not start an argument or fight) that the MK III will be the best server at its price point and it will be impossible for anything at that price point to beat it.  Again, have you compared it to others or what are you basing that statement on?  The second Innuos room at RMAF had the new MK III and an old MK II.  I heard the MK III and again it was nice, and the room sounded nice (which is an achievement at RMAF) but there didn't seem to be anything special about the MK III. 

Look forward to your response and thanks in advance. 

To update my post below, I received my upgraded DX3 back this summer, which can serve as both a Roon core and output - i.e., a one-box solution.  However, as with the EX and CX, the DX3 can also be used for Roon Core only with a separate endpoint connected by Ethernet.
I am currently switching between two endpoints - the SOtM triad (three boxes) described in my post below or Metrum's Ambre one-box endpoint.
I believe either of those (core + separate endpoint) options better the DX3 alone, but not by a huge margin.  Based on my listening, the DX3 with separate endpoint offers a bit more detail and dimensionality.  So far, I seem to like the SOtM triad endpoint just a bit more than the Metrum Ambre, but it is really close and the one-box Metrum being easier to set up and operate.  Sonically, the Metrum seems to have a bit more drive and leans more toward neutral while the SOtM (using the upgraded SOtM sMS-200 ultra Neo) seems to display a little more body and texture.   If I didn't have both, I would have been happy with whichever one I did have.

You know I'll just make this easy for all of you I won both the innuos and Antipodes ex

The EX is better. The work they put into making the CX and EX is superior than what innuos had done to date. 

Innuos is ok but I had to put all kinds of filters to get it to sound close to antipodes. Currently using the innuos as a server and EX to render. Eventually the CX will make its way here. 

I think even antipodes old products sound better than the innuos. 

Hehhaw, we have to comment on your statement as some of what you posted needs clarification.

First you have only two posts both denigrating the Innuous, you also make ridiculous statements like you won both how is this possible? Also the Innuous Zenith MK II is vastly outperformed by the newer MK 3 units.

Also there are no "filters" in the Innous that affect sound quality, they are Ethernet noise filters that eliminate the incoming line noise and then present a cleaned and optimized signal to the Dac.

In what way is Antipodes work and technology better?

Over the last five years Innuous has continued to grow with products which use all bespoke parts, the Statement uses a custom designed USB reclocker, as well as an Ethernet reclocker, all units use custom motherboards, custom cases, sophisticated power supplies, vibration reduction, incoming Ethernet noise filters, and outgoing Ethernet filters.
Add to that a great custom built setup software that makes the entire out of the box to a fully running product a five min chore.
Innuous is even working on their own Roon like operating software.

For all of these reasons we see Innuous continuing to grow.

In looking at verifying that claim Antipodes own website is very mum on what they actually put in their boxes, there is no mention of custom motherboards, power supply design, how the USB and Ethernet outputs are derived, clocking is accomplished,or how noise is eliminated.
Even the pictures of the current Ex in Positive Feedback doesn’t show much other than a copper heat pipe on the processor. and an Rcore transformer with a few smoothing filtering caps.

VS

Innuous Zenith which you can see an incoming ethernet filter, a large sophisticated mutli rail power supply with Mundorf caps and a huge amount of voltage regulators
https://positive-feedback.com/audio-discourse/antipodes-cx/https:
compare this to the entry level Zen model
https://hifi-ifas.de/test-innuos-zen-mk-iii-high-end-musikserver-highlight-sylvesterknaller
The higher end Zenith ups the anti with a three rail power supply, adds Mundorf capacitors, an SSD drive.

Then to the Statement
http://www.the-ear.net/how-to/power-supply-design-innuos-statement

Dave and TroyAudio Doctor NJ Innuous dealers