Innuos: A Cautionary Tale.



This post is a cautionary one in buying a Zen Mini used. I bought a four-week-old unit from a reputable seller. Unfortunately, the unit failed the first week and thus began a long and unfortunate set of events. If and this is critical one is to buy a used or second-hand unit the only way is from a dealer. Innuos customer service was next to useless and was simply dismissive. The lead designer could not connect with the unit, remotely, as the Ethernet port was the source of the problem, to reach him took multiple emails and a phone call, International,  over several days. After the unit was determined to have failed, several more emails were required to find out the next step. I was instructed, “go to the dealer you bought it from.” Hence the crux of the problem, I had no dealer to go to. I asked more than once to inform me where the unit was bought from, no response.

The seller would also not provide where he bought it from, so much for reputation. I was in an endless, time-consuming, and expensive circle. I reached out again to the lead designer, again after a clear and detailed email, explaining my dilemma, the response was clear: “send it to the dealer.” Fortunately, I was able to go through PayPal dispute the charge and receive a refund minus shipping costs.  

The unit when it worked was musical and engaging. My decision to go with another manufacturer was not a difficult one. So if one is to buy an Innuos please only go with a dealer.   Mike at Tweek Geek is a man of integrity and willingness to help.


lndryguru
@antigrunge2 - How did you connect the Roon Nucleus to your DAC when you compared it to the Innuous? Which Roon Nucleus were you using? Which Innuous were you comparing it to?

I'm using Roon ROCK on a fanless NUC with LPS and the way I have it set up now sounds quite good to me, but I'm always curious what might be an improvement.

My current config is EtherRegen with LPS with NUC on clean side connected using Supra Cat8. NUC to Denafrips Gaia using AQ Diamond USB, Gaia to Denafrips Terminator using Tubulus Argentus i2s.
I would avoid Innuous too.  Just look at the quality of parts inside the units.  Vastly overpriced like most of the audio servers out there. 
There is an unfortunate tendency for those who have not owned, meaning, lived with a product to make judgements and comparisons.  The Zen Mini is a fine product, a considerable improvement over a Node 2i, which I owned and enjoyed.  In my system, listening to the music I enjoy, the Roon is vastly superior. 
I have the Nucleus connected via USB, Anti-Cables, to a Border Patrol DAC. 
The Innuos was authentic...
Audio is not a religion, yet in these forums, there is equal dogma to it.  


I compared the Nucleus+ and Zenith Mk3 on Usb via Intona isolator and cables connected to an Antelope Zodiac Platinum with 10M clock. As I said, it wasn‘t even close regarding localisation of individual instruments on the soundstage, solo piano rendition and rhythmic snap. The difference actually increased further when switching from Roon to the Innuos server via Ipeng.