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Help - New to streaming and Zen Innuos

For reasons I won’t bore you with I have found myself very late in life moving my digital music from a CD player to streaming ( my age is such that a Garrard SP25 Mk3 was my first turntable). As such I am a complete novice and decidedly non-tech. I have a Zen Innuos Mini Mk3 which I’m using both as a streamer and server pending the delivery of a Naim streamer that is taking a long time to appear as Naim are having parts availability problems. I’m looking for links to useful articles etc to familiarise myself with the subject and the Innuos manual is VERY basic. Anything that might help my lack of knowledge would be great. I’m currently using the iPeng app on my iPad but understand the new Innuos app for the Zen mini 3 should be working on 28 July. I’m guessing that ultimately I’ll use the Naim app. As well as my ripped CDs I use the Tidal app although it’s functionality via iPeng isn’t great and also internet radio stations seem limited. I’m of an age that `I was used to kit coming with extensive printed manuals but those days are long gone. Anything I read needs to be understandable to non-tech novices. Sorry to ramble on but this has been a big step to take although I still have my vinyl to fall back on as well.
altoon
jperry
2,450 posts
 
That is an interesting approach.

You may also want to consider a good outboard DAC for the Innuos and adding the Innuos Zen mini mk3 Linear PSU, instead of adding a Naim streamer.

The new software replacing iPeng is a significant improvement
ghdprentice
7,047 posts
 
I am an old geezer as well and have navigated the digital transformation over the last twenty years. So, let me try and help.

The end game is high quality streaming. If you do that right, then the CD disk and/or storage is just an non essential intermediate step. In today’s world, unless you are really fond of getting up and changing disks… I am getting old. And am not. The highest quality streaming is the objective. You get higher quality music at a very low cost.

It is not too hard to get streaming as good as CD played an a player. A CD simply hasfiles on a disk (it is a file storage device like a hard drive)… alternative storage puts that file on a hard drive or network drive, streaming downloads on demand. The requirements of a good sound is a great streamer (CD player is a physical transport, streamer, and DAC), and DAC. So, the most cost effective solution is to get a great Streamer and DAC. Think of streamer as the turntable and DAC as phono stage. With the cost of a Qobuz or Tidal subscription at about one CD per month, you get a virtual infinite library and much of the content higher resolution than red book CDs.

So, I would reconsider your strategy and think about focusing all funds into these two components: streamer and DAC. Also, I recommend looking to Aurender for a streamer. If you want a combined streamer / DAC, they have those also, but just like most folks buy a turn table with separate phono stage, most serious audio folks go for separate streamer / DAC. PCs can be used for streamers, but they are noisy and not going to get high end sound.

I have simply communicated the highest level of info. Happy to talk a lot more. You can see my system by clicking on my user ID. There is nothing wrong with doing intermediary steps of cherishing the sunk cost of your CDs, or ripping them and storing them… but in today’s world they are unnecessary and costly. By the way, the only reason I have a CD player any more is that the Audio Reseach Ref CD9se is simply the best sounding DAC to me and is very synergistic with my system.

Also one additional note. most CD players are now sold as CD Player / DAC since manufacturers know CDs are on the way out and the DAC is now the center of attention. You simply have to look at the back of a CD player to verify it has “Digital In” connectors.


Also, one small thing. If your system is not near your router, that is not a problem in getting a physical Ethernet connection. You just get a wall wart WiFi extender and plug it in next to your system. The better the streamer the less subject to drop outs from network. I haven’t had any interruption of any kind for months. If your not comfortable with this, you can have a little local storage.
m-db's avatar
m-db
985 posts
 
ghdprentice, your last paragraph answered a concern regarding a mechanically noisy Xfinity modem/router residing in my home office.
I purchased purchased their xFi Pod which also has two RJ45 ports.
Thank you.

What's next is currently an exciting mystery. 
ghdprentice
7,047 posts
 
Happy to help. Also, as far as cleaning up WiFi. There are a number of Ethernet cleaning devices. The EtherRegen is a ~$640 device to clean up the ethernet signal, there are also much more expensive devices that are highly reviewed. My audio guy brought it over a EtherRegen box along with a major component, so I just put it in (between wall wart and streamer) along with whatever the major component was, so never actually did any comparisons with and without. But it gets good reviews.
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