Streamer/Server to replace Innuos Zenith

a grain of salt is also needed in interrogating the stability of tge network, changing IP addresses, wifi etc… Many problems start there… of course some hardware and support teams vary widely in fixing it….

I want to clarify my prior comments about Innuos:
1. I want to also confirm that in my journey with Innuos that their tech support people were responsive and detail oriented. I have no issues with Innuos support. 2. My motivation was in helping others. I went to AXPONA and spent time in the Innuos room. I spoke with the reps and listened to the Zen, Zenith and Statement with headphones in their setup there. The reps explained to me that they use these (under powered) chips in the Zenith to reduce EMI. It was all about sound quality. But when I bought a Zenith Mk3 I also bought a lifetime Roon subscription. I love Roon and I think in my system and room the SQ is great. I used the Zenith as my Roon Core. BUT with the Zenith Roon remote was crashing frequently. Tracks would skip on their own from one to the next to the next. I could not use Squeezlite. When it did play it sounded great. But that is when it DID play. This was not a trouble free experience. That is why I did my experiment with the miniPC and parts I bought at Amazon to make a NUC-like Roon Core Server. I wanted to see what would happen if I had a faster processor in a fanless case separated from a streamer and how that would sound. Well I found that the SQ with the miniPC Roon server was great. Maybe better than the Zenith. My streamers were an UltraRendu and a Lumin U1 Mini. BUT the reliability, no crashing and ability to DSP without the unit skipping tracks was off the charts great blowing away the Zenith. Not even close. This lead me to believe that the Innuos sales reps fed me a bunch of bull. I was played. Ripped off. They don’t use the underpowered processor because it’s quieter. It may be quieter. I don’t know. But the REAL reason to me is that those parts are CHEAP! Roon won’t even certify the Zenith! So I am shouting from the proverbial rooftops to all Zenith owners to just try this experiment and see for yourself. You may be surprised like I was as to how good the miniPC Roon Core server sounds and how much better it performs with Roon and Roon remote. You do it and don’t like it? Dismantle it and send the parts back to Amazon for a refund. You like it? Congratulations. You can sell your Innuos gear and buy the other truly great component that delivers on it promises.  Which leads me to MY conclusion based on MY experiences, that Innuos is hype and not worth the money. You can accomplish what it should be doing with less expensive gear. Often in our hobby we find that you do get what you pay for when you buy gear. In MY case my experience with Innuos I have found that to NOT be the case. This is not the norm. Again normally we do get what we pay for. I just want my fellow audiophiles to know my experience with Innuos and see if it matches up with their impressions. Alternatively, if they aren’t married to their Innuos gear they should know that there is a less expensive but perhaps better alternative. If you have Innuos gear and you like it and it performs well for you then congratulations. My offer experience has been different and want my colleagues here to know about it hoping that it was helpful. I am not evangelizing. Good luck to all. I have stated my case and am done with this unless someone asks me a question directly. Thanks. 

I did try a Roon Nucleus, Apple Mac mini, Nuc and the Zenith just walked all over them in terms of sound quality.  Now that is based on what sonic attributes are important to me. I value tone and a sense of ease to the music.  I am not a huge detail or dynamic impact freak. 
Honestly, it was not even close to my ears.  But, none of this matters if the Innuos is not working for you.  I have had no issues in my home, but you are and I would also be frustrated. 
I take care on building a noise free digital front end with Network Acoustic cables, filters, English Electric switches and several linear power supplies.  

A few weeks back I logged a ticket with Innuos about anomalies with Tidal integration. I’d been seeing inconsistencies with playlists, favorites, missing tracks and other unusual behavior. I got an email from Nuno at Innuos saying issues similar to the ones I reported have been fixed in 2.0.6. I updated my Zenith mk3 a couple days ago and am happy to report that fixes have in fact been made. Seems like there are some improvements with server connectivity as well? The connection seems to be more persistent and reconnects are faster. Still a long way to go to get to Roon functionality, but good on them for the updates and progress; very encouraging.

Innuos are quite clear that they use lower powered chips to achieve lesser noise interference and better sound quality. Obviously that will run counter Roon‘s processor-heavy design including DSP. The fact of the matter though is that Innuos Squeezebox implementation using IPeng or InnuOS 2.0 sounds better than Roon driven by their own Nucleus+  So those married to Roon have to account for the above.