A new star in 2019 : Innuos Statement Server
- Thread starter CKKeung
- Start date
Hi Popspin,
Well, it depends on your point of view
If you don't mind your files being in WAV, then the Innuos is actually doing you a favor by simplifying the copying process. WAV and AIFF files sound the same (to my ears), the difference lies basically in the fact that AIFF has a more comprehensive embedded metadata support than WAV.
AIFF files can be played natively, without conversion, with Roon, iPeng and every UPNP app out there, so again, I see no reason for the conversion.
The thing is that AIFF was created by Apple, while WAV is Microsoft/IBM's. If I had to take a side, I'd take Apple's, thus my preference for AIFF
cheers,
Alex
Well, it depends on your point of view
If you don't mind your files being in WAV, then the Innuos is actually doing you a favor by simplifying the copying process. WAV and AIFF files sound the same (to my ears), the difference lies basically in the fact that AIFF has a more comprehensive embedded metadata support than WAV.AIFF files can be played natively, without conversion, with Roon, iPeng and every UPNP app out there, so again, I see no reason for the conversion.
The thing is that AIFF was created by Apple, while WAV is Microsoft/IBM's. If I had to take a side, I'd take Apple's, thus my preference for AIFF
cheers,
Alex
asindc,
If you don't want your files converted to WAV (I wouldn't), you can just copy them over the network. I"ll have to double-check with the Innuos guys, but I don't recall their Import function actually doing any kind of conversion. But since Popspin's files were changed, I guess they do...
Either way, it's trivial to copy these files from NAS to Innuos over the network, and that's what I suggest most people do actually. If Innuos' internal Import function really does convert, then it must be avoided, and a simple network copy function used instead.
So, to recap and make sure the right information is available: All Innuos products, including the Statement, supports the playback of AIFF files, either from NAS or from internal storage.
What they don't do is RIP CDs to AIFF. That was my feature request to them, mentioned above. Seems they're not keen on the idea, which is a shame, but they DO support metadata in the WAV files, which is a plus, and my primary reason for not liking WAVs much.
Hope this helps
Thanks.
Hello,
I would like to report that I upgraded from the SE to the Statement (thanks Asiufy!), and it is indeed a substantial improvement. I have had it playing music for less than a week, but as good as the SE is, the Statement, in my system, has more detail, better body, soundstage, and lows. The music just seems even more real than it already did with the SE. I am very happy with the upgrade.
Cheers,
VPN
I would like to report that I upgraded from the SE to the Statement (thanks Asiufy!), and it is indeed a substantial improvement. I have had it playing music for less than a week, but as good as the SE is, the Statement, in my system, has more detail, better body, soundstage, and lows. The music just seems even more real than it already did with the SE. I am very happy with the upgrade.
Cheers,
VPN
When I had the Zenith SE, I compared the Ethernet output vs. the USB output, feeding my Totaldac Server, and the Ethernet output was vastly superior. So now I am using the Ethernet output of the Statement, but I have not yet compared it to the USB output of the Statement.
I brought my previous Zenith SE to the house of a friend who has the Vivaldi 2 stack and we connected it to the Ethernet input of the Vivaldi upsampler. It was a massive improvement vs. the server that he had there (please pm me if you want more deals), so I suppose that the Statement would be a great fit for your system.
I've tried the Statement on a Vivaldi (+Upstreamer), and both the owner and I preferred it through the network connection, with Roon.
On the Innuos Statement both Ethernet and USB outputs have been carefully optimised to minimise EMI/RFI, clock jitter and phase noise and power supply related noise. Which one sounds better seems to depend on a number of downstream variables including HW, SW, cables, interface optimisation etc. In my system the combination of USB with InnuOS sounds best, but that’s possibly because the entire USB chain into the DAC has been fully optimised. In another system the emphasis may be on the ethernet interface, in which case the Signature’s ethernet output would sound better
I may have missed this but has anyone actually compared the Innuous Statement to the Taiko SGM Extreme? Not interested in a thought experiment but a genuine A/B comparison? Considering the price differential, I'm curious if twice as expensive means twice as good.
2x agree, I've never heard FLAC sound better than WAV. In terms of uncompressed WAV size once the file is in memory and the SSD is no longer active, not sure why that would be relevant in terms of noise / sonics.
I'd be interested in a comparison of Statement to both SGM EVO and Extreme
I asked CKKeung before the same question. He compared SGM servers and Statement directly before. You may want to check with him.
Hi all.....well I’ve had my Statement since January, along with a bunch of Sean Jacob’s designed and built DC3s to power the entire network. I use Wi-fi isolation and a DC3 powered AQVox SE after the wi-fi extender and before the Statement...all wired with a Synergistic Research Ethernet, USB, power and speaker cable loom. The unit is installed stacked, on a single shelf of a Finite Elemente Pagoda Master Reference stand.
I’ve already covered in excruciating detail how the Statement sounds on an earlier page of this thread. This is about how the Statement can be improved from its base stage as it arrives from the OEM.
First, and like every piece of audio gear, the Statement responds to an upgraded power cable. I’ve bet the farm on Synergistic Research because I find their cables highly beneficial and most important, transparent, neutral and natural sounding. They seem to remove noise and produce a clarity and purity that adds to the Statement’s already prodigious abilities, without adding anything that I hear on every recording other than the positive attributes mentioned. The acoustics and soundstage revealed on some recordings is mind blowing or at least conscious altering. The sound pulls you in until that’s all that exists....no thoughts....just music. Mmmmm
Next major upgrade is a new pair of umbilical cables sourced through Innuos but designed and manufactured by Chord. Not cheap at just under £1000 I primarily needed them for some extra length so I could split the PS and head units between 2 shelves, but at the price I decided that the cables had to merit their cost on SQ alone. They do (at least according my audiophile-distorted value definition). I ordered 50cm cables, which will give me the opportunity to split the Statement’s 2 modules, but I only want to do that once everything is run in and I can hear what the difference is unambiguously from a stable base line that I’m fully accustomed to. The cables comprise individually screened conductors, are directional, look well made and take about 300 hours to run in (100 hours of active music playing time and 200 additional hours with the Statement switched on and receiving internet feed). I was a little sceptical and Nuno wasn’t raving about big sonic differences, so the 300 hours really tested my patience and belief that they may be better. But better they are...in a rather fundamental and rewarding way. Essentially that clarify and focus the sound stage yet further, reduce noise (which you can only hear by its absence), and add additional beauty, shape and reality to the music. They make the music even more believable, which is what I mean by ‘fundamental’. If you listen to the notes of well recorded instruments the note has shape, structure, dynamics, acoustic presence and beautiful attack and decay.
Next up is a freebie, courtesy of Innuos. innuOS operating system rev 1.4.3 brings significant SQ improvement. The overall effect is to make even more recordings sound beguiling and beautiful to listen to. I was listening to some old Cat Stevens and frankly (cliche warning) it was like I was listening to it for the first time, almost. Just that there was so much more spacial information, subtle detail like mouth sounds and deeply saturated timbral tones. Even the quietest notes have timbre. Likewise some Jan Garbarek sounded even more haunting and redolent of lonely northern lands, lakes and vast forests....more ‘atmosphere’.....you know what I mean. I also particularly enjoyed some Syro Gyra and its feeling of being live and played in big open spaces. Finally Space Hymns by Ramses....quite an old recording but beautifully and atmospherically engineered to create an atmosphere suggestive of Space (as in Cosmos) with tremendous use of all the space available in an audio soundstage.
To be tried....The next step, now everything has settled down is to try splitting the Statement’s 2 modules over 2 shelves of my FE rack. This rack has brought improvements to literally everything placed on it, but the Statement is a little different, so I won't assume anything and will wait until they’re installed. The good thing is that resonance control does not require any burn-in or maturation period and changes, both positive and negative can be heard instantly. Further its utterly trivial to reverse
Not yet tried....fuses. I know from experience that fuses can make a large and significant difference but I have a built-in resistance to paying substantial money for something that becomes completely useless the second it works as designed. Also a difference isn’t necessarily an improvement so I wonder if the manufacturers or their dealers offer a try before you buy service? Not sure I would, given the nature of fuses. Anyway, I’ll look into it a bit further once I’ve fully assimilated all the above but do let us know which fuses you’ve tried and the effect they had. Thanks
So there we are...one of the absolute very best in the world of servers can get better yet...can be tuned and improved on and the already mega-high standards make those improvements even more rewarding.
and one last observation.....during a few of my posts, I attributed a lot of the Innuos goodness to the Sean Jacobs designed power supplies. That still absolutely stands. But significant credit for the standard setting SQ must also go to the innuOS operating system. You’ll hear this immediately after making the rev.1.4.3 installation where its contribution is instantly, but of course only temporarily identifiable
I’ve already covered in excruciating detail how the Statement sounds on an earlier page of this thread. This is about how the Statement can be improved from its base stage as it arrives from the OEM.
First, and like every piece of audio gear, the Statement responds to an upgraded power cable. I’ve bet the farm on Synergistic Research because I find their cables highly beneficial and most important, transparent, neutral and natural sounding. They seem to remove noise and produce a clarity and purity that adds to the Statement’s already prodigious abilities, without adding anything that I hear on every recording other than the positive attributes mentioned. The acoustics and soundstage revealed on some recordings is mind blowing or at least conscious altering. The sound pulls you in until that’s all that exists....no thoughts....just music. Mmmmm
Next major upgrade is a new pair of umbilical cables sourced through Innuos but designed and manufactured by Chord. Not cheap at just under £1000 I primarily needed them for some extra length so I could split the PS and head units between 2 shelves, but at the price I decided that the cables had to merit their cost on SQ alone. They do (at least according my audiophile-distorted value definition). I ordered 50cm cables, which will give me the opportunity to split the Statement’s 2 modules, but I only want to do that once everything is run in and I can hear what the difference is unambiguously from a stable base line that I’m fully accustomed to. The cables comprise individually screened conductors, are directional, look well made and take about 300 hours to run in (100 hours of active music playing time and 200 additional hours with the Statement switched on and receiving internet feed). I was a little sceptical and Nuno wasn’t raving about big sonic differences, so the 300 hours really tested my patience and belief that they may be better. But better they are...in a rather fundamental and rewarding way. Essentially that clarify and focus the sound stage yet further, reduce noise (which you can only hear by its absence), and add additional beauty, shape and reality to the music. They make the music even more believable, which is what I mean by ‘fundamental’. If you listen to the notes of well recorded instruments the note has shape, structure, dynamics, acoustic presence and beautiful attack and decay.
Next up is a freebie, courtesy of Innuos. innuOS operating system rev 1.4.3 brings significant SQ improvement. The overall effect is to make even more recordings sound beguiling and beautiful to listen to. I was listening to some old Cat Stevens and frankly (cliche warning) it was like I was listening to it for the first time, almost. Just that there was so much more spacial information, subtle detail like mouth sounds and deeply saturated timbral tones. Even the quietest notes have timbre. Likewise some Jan Garbarek sounded even more haunting and redolent of lonely northern lands, lakes and vast forests....more ‘atmosphere’.....you know what I mean. I also particularly enjoyed some Syro Gyra and its feeling of being live and played in big open spaces. Finally Space Hymns by Ramses....quite an old recording but beautifully and atmospherically engineered to create an atmosphere suggestive of Space (as in Cosmos) with tremendous use of all the space available in an audio soundstage.
To be tried....The next step, now everything has settled down is to try splitting the Statement’s 2 modules over 2 shelves of my FE rack. This rack has brought improvements to literally everything placed on it, but the Statement is a little different, so I won't assume anything and will wait until they’re installed. The good thing is that resonance control does not require any burn-in or maturation period and changes, both positive and negative can be heard instantly. Further its utterly trivial to reverse
Not yet tried....fuses. I know from experience that fuses can make a large and significant difference but I have a built-in resistance to paying substantial money for something that becomes completely useless the second it works as designed. Also a difference isn’t necessarily an improvement so I wonder if the manufacturers or their dealers offer a try before you buy service? Not sure I would, given the nature of fuses. Anyway, I’ll look into it a bit further once I’ve fully assimilated all the above but do let us know which fuses you’ve tried and the effect they had. Thanks
So there we are...one of the absolute very best in the world of servers can get better yet...can be tuned and improved on and the already mega-high standards make those improvements even more rewarding.
and one last observation.....during a few of my posts, I attributed a lot of the Innuos goodness to the Sean Jacobs designed power supplies. That still absolutely stands. But significant credit for the standard setting SQ must also go to the innuOS operating system. You’ll hear this immediately after making the rev.1.4.3 installation where its contribution is instantly, but of course only temporarily identifiable
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My Innuos Zenith Mk2 standard responded positively to a Synergistic Blue fuse. The improvement was easy to hear - I heard greater clarity and a more space between images. Many Synergistic dealers offer a 30 day money back guarantee.
Thanks Kennyb, that’s the type of feedback I’m looking for. I’ll check to see if my dealer offers this kind of evaluation period....or find another dealer who does.
Funnily enough I bought the Statement without a demo because i was so confident in the engineering, having owned and thoroughly enjoyed a Zenith MkII SE. But now I’m much more cautious and don’t want to buy anything that in any way upsets or negatively impacts the sound I’m getting, so now I audition everything. At the moment there’s not a single thing about my system’s sound that I don’t like, so I don’t want to introduce anything, even if it comes with several improvements.
Funnily enough I bought the Statement without a demo because i was so confident in the engineering, having owned and thoroughly enjoyed a Zenith MkII SE. But now I’m much more cautious and don’t want to buy anything that in any way upsets or negatively impacts the sound I’m getting, so now I audition everything. At the moment there’s not a single thing about my system’s sound that I don’t like, so I don’t want to introduce anything, even if it comes with several improvements.
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