Top music streamer for 2019? Aurender N10’s?

Here is our take and we were Aurender dealers until recently. 

We started selling Aurender when they came out and we had done demos vs the Mac Mini and moddified Mac mini and the difference between the two devices was quite audible, with the Aurender server sounding better increases in clarity, bass and dynamics were the most noticable.

Then we started with more expensive servers the Baetis Reference for example a $15k state of the art music computer, we took that unit to one of our clients who had an N10 and a Laufter Technik Memory Player both the Memory Player and the Baetis did sound smoother and more involving then the N10.

In the mean time we had the Innuous Zenith MK II which we compared to the $15k Baetis and the Baetis was better but the much less expensize Zenith a $4k server came pretty close. 

Now we have the new MK III Zenith a $4,200.00 server 1TB which sounds far better than the older Mk II, so what we are saying and agreeing with Granyring that Innuous is making the hotest line of servers on the market today. The Mk III may sound as good as the Baetis we have them in different rooms and we have yet to do this comparision, if the Mark III does then it should outperfom the twice the price Aurender N10. 

Also Roon is one of the major advantages yes you have to pay $119 a year or $500 life time for Roon but you have some major advantage with Roon over the Conductor software:

1: Roon allows you to upsample or upconvert your data a 16 bit 44k Tidal sample can be converted to 24bit 192k, 384, 768k, DSD 64, 128, up to 512 DSD,  your dac may sound signifigantly better running at a higher sample rate

2: Roon allow for custom room Eq

3: Roon has extensive Meta Data  with Roon radio allowing the system to recommend different artists based on what you like which is a great way of discovering new artists.

4: Roon allows house wide audio managment via many Roon compatible devices including Sonos, NAD Blue Sound, Chrome Cast, Airplay enabled devices,

5: Roon can be controlled by an Ipad, an Android Tablet, an Iphone and Android phone or via a Desktop application.

6: Roon has fantastic integration of a storred library with Tidal and Qbouz to augment what you allready have into one seemless browsing experience.

So for $4,200.00 you would get one of the best servers on the market

What makes the Innuous so good:

1: Custom motorboard designed to eliminate noise pollution and to minimize contamination from the CPU to the data buss.

2:Custom USB buss or higher end custom usb card on higher end units

3: Massive linear power supply designed by Dr. Sean Jacobs an expert in digital power supply design in the Zenith the power supply is a Linear Power supply with three stages of regulation with Mundord Capacitors

(the new Zenith MK III comes very close to the $7,500.00 limited edition  Zenith Se

4: Ethernet noise filter incomming to eliminate noise entering the server

5: Ethernet noise filter outgoing to provide a cleaner filtered ethernet data signal for ethernet enabled dacs

6: Shock mounted SSD drive. 
Optimised SSD with vibration and EMI treatment

7: Custom software and tweeking of the Linux core to minimize any processor noise

8: Aluminum case

So yes, please check out the latest Innous servers the Zenith MK III is fantastic and the new Innous Statement.is an unbelievable accomplishment that people who have heard it say it is the best sounding music server on the market although it is a $13,750.00 sever

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

We carry both the Zen and the Zenith and we have a Statement.

As you go up the line on a resolving system the sound just becomes lusher and more full bodied.  

The fascinating thing is how much better the Statement is over the Zenith you can acutally hear it over computer speakers in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sslybP0v5y8&t=507s


The removal of noise and cross contamination makes a huge difference in the digital data stream, and allows you for kind of like the first time to experience how good digital can sound.

One client who demoed the Statement in his system his wife could easily hear the difference from the other room vs anohter branded  $2600 server he previously had. 

The Zenith uses a more sophisticated power supply which is populated with Mundorf capacitors aside from some other improvements over the Zen. On a good system the music just flows better and is even warmer and fuller than the Zen. 

The Zen is a stunning server for $2,600.00 and we have yet to find another brand of server which can better it.

You can elevate the servers with even better isolation feet, power cord and a high end ethernet cable.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innuous Dealers

Nyev we are Innuous dealers and were until recently Aurender dealers so we are in total agreement with the wonders of the Innuous products.

A couple of good points however were made by a few other posters:

1: The dac board of the Gryphon is a $5k ish upgrade. for less money you could get a Lumin T2 which is a remarkable $4,500.00 streamer however a good set of cables would add $1-3k so that would have to also be considered, then their is the flagship X1 which is a $14k streaming/dac which would easily match the quality of the Diablo. 

The issue is how good do you want your digital to be and at what price?

The Gryphon digital option should be auditioned vs some of the other really good options for similar money. 

So you could go with Gryphon Digital board + Innuous Zenith $9k or so

(advantage no interconnect and you get a great Roon sever)
Possible issue is how good is the Dac board, Ess 9018 is the older chip vs newer ESS 9028 and 9038 pro chip sets

                                   Lumin T2 Plus cable $4,500.00-$7,500.00 you can stream Tidal, Qubouz, you wouldn't get a Roon sever 

Advantage easy to upgrade separate streaming dac, newer double Dac 9028 pro chip set, probably better sound then digital board

                                 :Lumin X1 insane reference level streaming dac which matchs or betters most of the $25-30k plus digital front ends 
for $14k plus interconnect.

Just food for thought

Dave and Troy 
Audio Doctor NJ Innuous, Lumin, dealers

Mrdon, one previlent issue of comparing the Auralic to the Innuous is that if you want to run Roon, with an Auralic you have to have another device running Roon core.

Also with the Innuous you get a CD ripper as well.

So if you are comparing an Aurlic G1 you have to weigh in on the server issues do you want to run Roon, if so what device is going to run Roon?

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innuous dealer

Nyev Roon isn't for everybody and not everybody gets its brilliance,

What Roon does well is a number of things it is a lot more than just pick and artist and play music software yes it does that but that is not the core of what is does.

Roon is about discovering new music and discovering or rediscovering artists you love, personally we find that a stored library plus Roon and Tidal or Qbouz is paradise.

Your stored library is a memory device to remember all the artists you have ever purchased not to mention not all CD's titles will be on Tidal, or Obouz.  The streaming services will then also help to round out your library.

One feature we love is Roon radio which finds new music based on what you were just listening to and then plays it automatically.

Another cool feature through Roon is the ability to upsample or cross convert so you can upsample Tidal to 24/192 or 24/384 up to 768k and DSD to 512 depending on your dac and the server Roon is running on.

We have found that certain dacs sound amazing at higher freq or playing DSD.

Yes Roon is expensive, at $500 lifetime or $119 a year but $119 a year is roughly $10 a month, go to Starbucks twice and you have paid for Roon.

Roon spent over 10 years developing its software it was Soolos originally and the softwares meta data and enriched surfing experience is why most people buy Roon in the first place.

Roon requires a lot of playing time and using time to see just how amazing the software is. 

Roon may not be for you but many people find it fantastic. If you go for an Innuous they are Roon cores and really should be run with Roon vs iping or Squeeze player which Innuous also supports. 

The conductor software is very good, we find Roon to be vastly better, also if an Innous Zenith matches a Aurender N10 yet sells for half the price don't you still think you may have a better deal on your hands even if you have to purchase Roon?

Just food for thought

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ innous dealers

We have sold both Esoteric and DCS in the past. 

Personally we feel that Esoteric's products are very good but are being surpassed by things like Lumin's awesome X1 which is a reference class streamer/dac which is $6k cheaper then the Esoteric version and the Lumin still sounds better.

DCS is a sound which some people like others don't they don't sound particularly liquid the DCS sound is clean, quick, and very detailed. 

In terms of Dac's we are very fond of the Aqua Hifi Dacs for a number of reasons:

1: They are very liquid and analog like
2: They are the most up-gradable dacs on the market they are both FPGA based with R2R ladders and the dacs are built on all discrete cards for every function of the dac: analog boards, power supply boards, incomming data boards, outgoing dac boards, 

if you look at the $8k Lascala XHD it has a total of 7 individual replaceable boards, this allows the entire unit to morph into an entirely new product over time as the Aqua engineers figure out new tricks to boost sound quality.

Our ultimate flagship dac the $32k Light Harmonic Davinci is also upgradble and we have had clients upgrade the older Dual Dac to the ew MK II Dual dac for a nominal charge.

It ultimately comes down to the sound quality and feature set you are looking for, all products in this discussion are excellent it will come down to personal preference.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Aqua, Lumin, Light Harmonic dealers

Thanks Nyev, we do a lot of evaluation on a lot of different products and tweeks. 

Roon supplanted Jriver as being a better more user friendly platform with a supeior user experience. 

The nice thing about Roon is that the product keeps on evolving, hopefully that will gain Spotify, we would also love to see XM radio intergration one can only hope.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ

Pop you have a few choices:

1: Aurender No Roon, no native CD ripper, priced from $2700-$16k

2: Innous: Roon Server, CD Ripper, suberb sound quality from $1,200-$13k approx. The new Statement is one of the finest digital servers on the market today expensive but mind blowing

We sell a lot of the Zenith the $4300 model because of its fantastic sound qality and price point.

3: Nad M50.2 good streamer with back up raid drive but not a huge upgrade from a Vault.

4: Lumin  U series from $2200 to $6k fantastic OS, no native storrage very good sound quality if you want to run Roon you need another device

5: Auralic Streamers: good OS, good sound quality, does not hold Roon so again you need another device. 

6: Antipods and Wolf: we don't know enough about these units to make a good assesment.

7: Baetis servers: can be expensive very good sound quality Roon servers and CD rippers

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innous, Batis, NAD, Lumin dealers

Wouldn't do the swap myself at all.  I would go through an Innuous dealer to make sure the upgrade doesn't mess up the OS. 

Rugy please contact us we can find out the cost of the upgrade for you it is likely not to cost that much. 

We sold a lot of SE so the unit may be from one of our clients.

Dave and Troy
Audio Doctor NJ Innuous dealer

Jriggy OCD hifi guy is a nut, do you notice how he denigrates a product he hasn't heard, based on looking at pictures of it on the internet on a product that he doesn't sell nor has not persoanly tested?

He also incorrectly rails against the power of the CPU when it says it is an Intel quad core, and yes it runs Roon with full DSP, the only thing it won't do is DSD 512. 

As per off the shelf motorboard it isn't, the entire motherboard is custom designed and built by Innuous.

As per Mike or anyone else building a super computer with high end off the shelf parts that will challenge this again we call bull, how do we know because we have one at the shop the very same incrediblily well built high speced product:

We sell a $15k music computer, which uses an Sotm USB card, an outboard plex power supply, aluminum case, extensive emi shielding and custom silver cables, with an Intel 7 and a lot of ram, the Zenith MK 2 sounded nearly as good, and the Mk III is in the same league.

Notice that Mr Powell complains that the Innous device could be built for less money and that over priced servers are a scam we could easily say the same thing about his cabling:

How about his Verastar cables and the prices he charges for them, gee 
we found silver foil going for

From an Internet search for pure silver audio foil:
 

     Pure Silver Foil

-> Thickness of 0.05 mm
-> Width of 30 mm
-> Cross section: 1.5 mm², resistance: 10.6 mΩ/m (at 20°C)
-> Purity at least 99.99 mass percent (4N)
-> Coarsely crystalline
-> Rolled surface
-> Cryo-treated

Price:  €39.-/m     from 10m:  €36.-/m  gee 36 euro a meter is about $40 for 3 feet so an eight foot pair of silver foil speaker foils should cost you about  $100 for 2 2.5m lengths if you used 2 pieces per speaker cable you would still have a cost of $200 not $2,150.00 for an 8 foot pair of his speaker cables. 

therefore his speaker cables like the Grand Ilusion 2 which we found in a 2015 Six Moons Review showed a price of $2,100.00 for an eight foot pair quite a bit of mark up from the price of a high quality silver foil encased in a woven sleeve

By the same logic you can say that his Verrastar cables are a scam as well. 

The reality is we haven't heard them, and his cables may be really good, but you can't attack another manufacturer's product until you know all the facts and details about the kind of silver foil, the type of materials used construction variables, time and testing, and most importantly you have listened to in and compared it to other class leaders.

To even post a video without having the actual product in for evaluation is very unprofessional and wrong.

Dave and Troy