A new star in 2019 : Innuos Statement Server

[BaconBrain]

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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

Curious as to which SR mains cable you are using as I am also considering one for my Statement?

 

[Blackmorec]

Curious as to which SR mains cable you are using as I am also considering one for my Statement?

Hi BB,
Its the SR Black UEF HC.....it does take quite a while to run in btw. Before it runs in it tends to have a slight mid bass emphasis. I connected it to an oscillating fan for a few days and when i reconnected it, bingo!

 

[BaconBrain]

Hi BB,
Its the SR Black UEF HC.....it does take quite a while to run in btw. Before it runs in it tends to have a slight mid bass emphasis. I connected it to an oscillating fan for a few days and when i reconnected it, bingo!

Thanks for the response. I have been also looking at the UEF series and considering the Blue non HC. My understanding was that they already have 500 hours of burn-in at the factory prior to shipping but good to know!

 

[Blackmorec]

I’m extremely happy with the Black’s performance and the Blue should be better yet so should put a on your face. Be interested what you hear new vs a few days maturation. Let me know how it goes.

 

[G T Audio]

While this review is about the Innuos Statement, the background starts a year earlier when I sold my Sonus Faber + vacuum tube based system (it sounded great but generated too much heat in my small room) and replaced it with a Magico, Devialet combination linked with Synergistic Research cabling. Due to the fact that Devialet was making a major revision to its entire line-up I had to wait 3 months for delivery. Idle hands as they say. I had an extra shelf on my rack so before I knew it I had a Michell Orbe/SME Type IV/Ortofon Candenza Black on the way!
With the system installed, the TT carefully set-up and calibrated and a small collection on mint EMI and Decca vinyl purchased from a UK dealer I was obtaining exceptional results, however my original goal had been an all-digital system for local and remote streaming. After doing some considerable research and auditioning I purchased an Innuos Zenith SE server. Roughly 48 hours after its installation the Zenith was producing utter magic….which literally redefined what I thought possible from digital. The sound was rich, immersive, highly focussed and multi-layered with incredible drive and impetus and an amazing ability to engage the listener. Music I knew well revealed new depths of spaciousness and detail, while instrumental timbre was so rich and pure it sent shivers down my spine.
I set about ripping my entire CD collection. Prior to the Zenith I’d been a track picker, like a chocolate box picker only with CD tracks. I had my favorites and that’s what I played. With the Zenith there was an alternative way to play music…..random. I could pick pretty much any attribute… album, artist, genre you name it; so I kept it simple. Random tracks. That first listening session was amazing….incredible, compelling music that I’d literally never heard before. 18 out of 20 tracks new and including some of the best music I’d ever heard. How could I have owned this music for 20 years or more and never heard it? The second night was the same, and the third and so on. Each evening at the end of listening I clicked the save button and captured the entire random selection as a play list. I was amazed. I had music that sounded better than I’d ever heard and essentially I had a huge, brand new collection of it. Literally enough for years to come. To say the Zenith SE was delivering value would be a major understatement given that it had just brought my entire CD collection to life.
I carried on like this for several weeks, considering myself a very lucky guy. With everything run in I now had a situation where the Zenith SE was consistently producing magical music that significantly outperformed my turntable, even when said music was streamed from Qobuz, making the turntable rather pointless. So when Innuos announced the Statement a quick call to my dealer was all it needed and the TT was gone. Vinyl collection anyone?
I spent the 8 months between ordering the Statement and taking delivery in tuning my network, essentially obtaining a super clean, dedicated 200-250 Mbps bit stream based entirely on Sean Jacob’s designed MC3 power supplies. Sean designs the power supplies for Innuos so essentially my system including network is now based on the same power supply design throughout.
Ripping CDs on the Zenith SE or Statement is an absolute breeze. Decide if you want Wav or Flac format (I chose Wav), plug in a USB disc drive of sufficient capacity for back-up purposes and proceed to feed it CDs. It will rip the CD to the built-in SSD in under 5 minutes (a little longer if you want silent ripping), quarantine any duplicates or bad copies, obtain and store all the meta data from the internet and produce a back-up to the USB drive at regular intervals. In ripping over 2,500 CDs it detected only a handful of bad tracks, which were indeed faulty…otherwise ripping was completely stress and error free.
Before the Statement arrived I made a final back-up of my library through the my-Innuos dashboard, so restoring my library was simply a matter of connecting the back-up disc, clicking the appropriate ‘restore’ wizard and the unit rebuilt my entire library on the Statement’s SSD. Totally straightforward. Connecting to Qobuz involved inputting my account password and I was immediately streaming my favorites.
So let’s now move on to the Statement’s performance. Essentially what you have is a turnkey, easy to operate server with by far the best sound I personally have ever heard, analog or digital. Now I have no doubt whatsoever that the sound I have could be improved….better speakers in a better room, superior cables, cleaner power maybe, earthing perhaps but I do not believe you’ll find a better source; certainly not a better digital source and you’d need to spend one heck of a lot if you wanted to even approach the sound quality via a turntable and records. My own fairly reasonable turntable, arm and cartridge got nowhere near close to the Statement’s sound quality.
Poorly engineered and mastered recordings will of course still reveal their shortcoming, but in an average collection like mine, these distasterpieces are extremely few and far between. The vast majority of recordings range from perfectly acceptable and a joy to listen to utterly mesmerizing and stunningly beautiful. With a good recording, the sound is fully enveloping, filling the entire room and beyond. The air between performers has an acoustic texture that changes from track to track, giving each piece its own unique character and identity. Music has a vibrancy, energy and immediacy that will instantly remind you of why we all love live performances. Brass has a brightness, intensity and vibrancy, words that may often suggest pain and listener fatigue that in the case of the Statement are meant to convey a sense of liveness, realness and excitement. Violins resonate with energy and complexity, clearly communicating the virtuosity of notes shaped by masters of the craft. With flute you have a sense of air moving through the instrument, of the instrument adding its unique timbre and character and of the musician… breathing, blowing air over the mouthpiece, the keys opening and closing. With every instrument you hear its unique colour, its timbre, its mechanical operation and sounds made by each musician, just like you would in a live recital. This may all sound like characteristics of the Statement, but they’re not. The sounds I describe are characteristics of the recording that the Statement extracts perfectly, preserving the musical signal in its entirety for your enjoyment. Vivid, vibrant, music that’s full of natural energy and tonal authenticity, that instantly attracts and engages the listener; communicating all the skills and prowess of the musicians. Music that makes you excited, sad, tense with anticipation or joyful at its sheer beauty. The Statement lets you enjoy more of the intrinsic qualities and nature of the music. What you’ll come to appreciate with the Statement is that for certain genre of music, presentation is just as important as the musical content and interpretation and you’ll appreciate how the skill and artistry of the recording engineer is an intrinsic part of the whole performance. Certain recordings seem to actually modify the air in your listening room
Recently I’ve been thoroughly enjoying classical music streamed through the Statement. Piano that energizes the room with its intensity, acoustic complexity, resonance and haunting decay; solo instruments like bassoon, oboe, or french horn rich with their timbral complexity and the acoustics of their recording venue. Orchestras where you have the best seat in the house, every instrument making its own distinct contribution with a presence and clarity that’ll remind you of the live event. And what makes the profound enjoyment of this music all the more remarkable is when you consider its source. Internet radio at 128kbps for heavens sake. There are of course some deficiencies but only in comparison to streaming red book 44.1 kHz 16 bit, which offers greater soundstage size, improved layering and height information and a certain weight and heft that leaves the 128kbps sounding a little light weight and less spectacular by comparison. So why even listen to Internet Radio? The programming material of Radio Swiss Classic is an absolute joy. I can listen for hours, marvelling at the sound quality and discovering tons of new music, all of which is to my taste. The sound quality of the Statement is so good that sacrificing a little to obtain such beautiful music is definitely a price worth paying and hardly a downside.
Of course, this level of performance does require that your network be in the same ballpark, quality-wise as the Statement. If your network relies on cheap SMPSs and consumer-grade cabling there will be a marked difference between local and remote streaming; but if your network is based on high quality LPSs and carefully selected cabling, the differences are vanishingly small. For the average Statement user, spending a couple of thousand dollars getting the network absolutely right will pay back in spades, providing access to huge quantities of music with genuinely SOTA sound quality. For me, that’s what the Statement is all about.

I know this was an old post but what phono stage were you using?

 

[the sound of Tao]

The soon to be released Innous PhoenixUSB reclocker looks interesting. They will be doing AB demos at RMAF. Looking forward to hearing how it goes. They must be confident that it is easy to demonstrate the benefits.

I was wondering if anyone had heard more about these other than this pre release announcement. Alex aka asiufy just seeing if perhaps you had the opportunity to have heard one yet or if there was any inside chatter on it.

It apparently has twin linear power supplies spec’d at Innuos Statement level. Looks a bit tasty

Innous Phoenix USB details here.

 

[asiufy]

Haven't heard it yet. This is truly fresh off the production line
The commentary is that it indeed is valuable for folks with Zen and Zenith, since it narrows the (huge) gap between them and the Statement.
Hope to have one soon to try out!

 

[the sound of Tao]

Thanks Alex,
Looks at a good price point if it steps sound quality up in a good way for USB based dacs. A high quality reclocker close to the Dac with top quality linear supplies sounds like a great approach. Very much looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

 

[justubes]

USB reclockers have been around for quite some time, i guess for matching looks would best be for innous users with a nice integrated power supply in a package.
There should be no doubt that there will be improvements for any USB transmission server, but how does it sound compare to the other usb reclockers out there would be interesting.

 

[Blackmorec]

I know this was an old post but what phono stage were you using?

Hi Graham,
The phonestage is/was the Devialet 440 CI Expert Pro .... designed by Matthieu Pernot, the amplifier is almost totally silent in operation, allows very precise matching to the cartridge in terms of RIAA equalisation, resistive and capacitive loads and sounds very musical, with excellent PRaT and listener involvement.

 

[Al Stewart]

I own the Innuos Statement and posted a review of it over on A-gon. It replaced an Antipodes DX3. Based on the responses over on A-gon, lots of folks have heard the Statement and rave about it. However, one person is adamant that the CX+EX combo betters the Statement (in his opinion). Yet, so far I haven't heard of anyone else who has actually directly compared the Statement with the CX+EX combo. I'm happy with my Statement and not looking to change, I'm simply wondering where are all the people who have heard the current Antipodes flagship?

 

[Pb Blimp]

May I ask if your comparo between the DX3 and Statement found the Statement to be equally superior via both usb and ethernet?

 

[Al Stewart]

The answer is yes, the Innuos Statement was superior to the Antipodes DX3 using USB (IMO). I did not compare them via ethernet because my DAC (Rowland Aeris) does not have an ethernet input.

 

[moby2004]

Hello

Maybe I can jump in as I have the Antipodes CX+EX combo ( and since very recently the SGM Extreme). The same dealer is also doing Innuos ( Lumin and Memory Player as well ) so comparison is easy.
My ranking:
1)SGM Extreme
2) Innuos Statement
3) Antipodes CX+EX
And I used to have Melco MK2,Aurender N10,Lumin A1/S1/U1.
The long story:
I was looking for a server to replace my Melco/Lumin combo. At that time I compared Antipodes combo vs older models of SGM. SGM was better but not by a wide margin and given the price difference I went for Antipodes. Beyond the sound quality, very versatile in terms of software ( roon,Lumin,bubble,hqplayer etc...) and storage capacity can be easily extended. Innuos Statement was not available at that time. I was eagerly waiting for that model but it took a long time for it to be released. Once released I compared it to the Antipodes. It sounded very organic,very smooth, low noise floor but I was not 100% convinced it was a substantial upgrade vs what I have and the price difference.
Then I heard the SGM Extreme...Ouch, this server is on a completely another level , probably not as smooth sounding as the Statement but in terms of dynamics,resolution,image there is no comparison. ( the price is different as well...)
To go back to my ranking, to me the gap between the number 1 and number 2 is much much wider than between the number 2 vs number 3.
So if you can afford it, swallow the pill ( it took me 6 months...) and order SGM Extreme, you will be done.
If not, order the Statement or the Antipodes, you will be extremely pleased as well. I would say here is more a trade off between price difference between both units in your country,versatility ,design ( Antipodes looks like a computer) than significant gap in terms of sound quality.

Alex

 

[Ron Resnick]

Dear Alex,

Would you please elaborate on your post that the SGM Extreme is not as “smooth sounding” as the Innuous Statement?

In your audio parlance what would be the sonic opposite of “smooth sounding”?

Are you writing that the Innuous Statement shaved off high frequencies or low frequencies? Did it sand down transients or details?

Would the sonic differences between, for example, a dCS system and an Aesthetix Romulus reflect an analogous difference in sonic characteristics as between the SGM and the Innuous?

Is the Innuous Statement more vinyl sounding and the SGM Extreme more tape sounding, perhaps?

 

[moby2004]

I will try to elaborate but I have no experience in analogue so can not give any reference point on that area. I found SGM Extreme giving very high resolution, extremely detailed, fast transient but definitely not sharp or bright. It “just” sounds right with any kind of music. Of course if the recording is poor,sharp,bright the Extreme will present it like it is. The Statement is a bit more forgiving and can sound a bit “mellower” in comparison. Again the Statement is very good you need to compare it directly vs the Extreme to realize the difference.
In terms of analogy to stay in the digital area a bit like Aurender sound vs Melco sound or in terms of amp, Dag vs CH P ( but to me there is no area where the Statement is better than the Extreme whereas in my previous examples it’s not one brand systematically better than the other one ). To appreciate the gap it’s a bit like comparing two different lines within the same brand : Progression line vs Momentum line, CH P A1.5 vs M1.1, YG Hailey 2.2 vs Sonja 2.2, Magico S3 vs S5 etc...

 

[Ron Resnick]

Thank you, Alex!

 

[asiufy]

Which DAC was the comparison done in? USB?

 

[moby2004]

In 90% of the case with Totaldac reclocker and Totaldac D1 direct. From time to time with Aqua Dac), Lumin X1 and once with Chord Mscaler/Dave. Always with USB output except with the Lumin where the Ethernet output was used.

 

[spiritofmusic]

Moby, how did the Chord sound compared to the others, and can you describe the effect of the MScaler? I ask because we're not exactly blessed w great streamer/dac combos at UK dealers, but the Innuos/Chord pairing can be heard in a few places close to me.