Innuos Pulsar ????

[Vangelis]

Well it appears the Pulsar is actually discontinued. I received mine as a part of the first US shipment May 15, 2023. Not even a two year of production availability cycle! Granted digital technology moves very fast, but retaining pride of ownership against a now diminished value of a product that had only a two year production cycle, does not garner loyalty. The Zenith MK3 and Statements series production averaged six years. When I purchased my Pulsar, I thought I, based on Innuos model history, I would have a comfortable three to fours years of production / market stability. My Pulsar does sound nice but this business model, is not good.

 

[matthias]

Not even a two year of production availability cycle!

It might be a poor consolation but these devices are based on computer parts and for example Apple change their Macbooks every year

 

[Paul1960]

I own a Pulsar too and have had the Zen and Zenith Mk3.
I also own a PhoenixNET.
I have used the Pulsar in every way imaginable, including stadnalone, Roon endpoint, HQPlayer NAA and so on and have occasionally tried to document my experience in this thread.
However, all Innuos products after the Pulsar, namely the NG series and the new Stream series, seem to clearly abandon the streamer only logic and go for the "do-everything" one as both accept NVMe discs.
The recent ability to also use Tidal Connect or Quobuz Connect among other things, also seems to be pointing towards a direction of more choices.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't disagree with that at all!
In fact, I feel that, if anything, this is an evolution and Innuos are clearly looking ahead.
But despite all that and despite the fact that the Pulsar does sound amazing, we are still consumers and I for one feel a tad left out.
To be honest, it's still too early to make any sort of meaningful comment without having seen how it'll all play out first, but hopefully Innuos will acknowledge the fact that their existing and loyal fan base need to be thrown a bone or two, from time to time...

Which way did the Pulsar sound the best? I like how mine sounds using the Sense app versus Roon using an Eversolo A8 as an endpoint but I would much prefer to use Roon over Sense which I think is buggy and minimal in terms of its functioning. I've thought about trying HQ Player and using the Pulsar as an HQPlayer NAA with Roon as the front end but it isn't clear to me that approach has better sound. I would appreciate your thoughts.

 

[tedwoods]

Which way did the Pulsar sound the best? I like how mine sounds using the Sense app versus Roon using an Eversolo A8 as an endpoint but I would much prefer to use Roon over Sense which I think is buggy and minimal in terms of its functioning. I've thought about trying HQ Player and using the Pulsar as an HQPlayer NAA with Roon as the front end but it isn't clear to me that approach has better sound. I would appreciate your thoughts.

In my system, it sounded best in standalone mode using Sense.

 

[matthias]

Innuos mentioned on their forum:
"Keep in mind that PULSAR -> Stream3 be more a gain in features/functions rather than SQ..."