Is there a streamer front end that doesn't cost mountains!?

[christoph]

I would consider £4k rrp or so to be absolute max. Certainly £10k+ seems a little crazy. It's not that I can't afford it, I just can't see that it'd be worth it. I tend to buy second hand to keep the price down, so would be looking closer to £2k.

The Aries retails for a fair bit more than the Zen mini, have you compared these? Surprised it's not at a similar quality level.

Cheers, Tim

I would contact Lukasz Domanski (LDMS)

I'm sure he can cater your budget and arrange a home demo for you
His service is absolutely excellent. Also and especially after-sale

 

[shakti]

Also and especially after-sale

I try to avoid music servers with after sale service needs

 

[spiritofmusic]

Like people needing lifelong psychotherapy. Just ask them at a party "so, are you cured, or what?" Lol

 

[christoph]

I try to avoid music servers with after sale service needs

You don't want updates? Or possible upgrades?

 

[shakti]

You don't want updates? Or possible upgrades?

like with every gear I buy, I do prefer to buy a "complete and developed" unit and not an in-between status of a project to be developed finally,
and ongoing hard ware improvements in a way executed, that every serial number is a different box, so that for every box sold many upgrades can be sold on top of the original sales.

After sales Service on Music Servers I like, is discrete software updates in the background,
depending on your pre set: just with notification or with a manual start of the update.

I am more in analogue source, so digital just has to work on a fair and robust level. I do not need, that the owner or the guy from after sales becomes my best buddy....

 

[christoph]

I am more in analogue source, so digital just has to work on a fair and robust level.

So why be so vocal in a digital thread, then?

 

[shakti]

So why be so vocal in a digital thread, then?

as I had a similar question (as the threadstarter) to myself ....

 

[spiritofmusic]

We don't mind digital guys hopping onto analog threads.

 

[asiufy]

I try to avoid music servers with after sale service needs

Me too. And I'm glad the Innuos is a great product in that aspect, as it required next to no support on our part.
But servers are a wholly new category of product, and one that sometimes requires prior knowledge of non-audio related things, such as networking, file sharing, computers in general.
That's when my after sale comes in. Nothing to do with the product itself, more like the category of product in question. Things like moving files, optimizing a network, etc.
And sometimes, like in Marty's case, "after sale support" means fixing certain incompatibilities between server and DAC. Try as they might, it's impossible to support 100% of the DACs out there "out of the box", so sometimes an "after sale" session is required to install the required pieces of software into the server, to support the client's DAC.
Innuos updates and upgrades are otherwise performed automatically, by the client, without our intervention.

 

[DeadWax]

@asiufy As an Innuous dealer I'm curious how you'd describe the sonic differences between the ZEN and Zenith MK3. As someone suggested above, are the differences mainly a matter of preference or is the Zenith clearly better in your view? These units interest me but I do prefer a more a more dynamic, saturated, and organic presentation over clinical and analytical even with slightly better detail.

 

[Golum]

like with every gear I buy, I do prefer to buy a "complete and developed" unit and not an in-between status of a project to be developed finally,
and ongoing hard ware improvements in a way executed, that every serial number is a different box, so that for every box sold many upgrades can be sold on top of the original sales.

After sales Service on Music Servers I like, is discrete software updates in the background,
depending on your pre set: just with notification or with a manual start of the update.

I am more in analogue source, so digital just has to work on a fair and robust level. I do not need, that the owner or the guy from after sales becomes my best buddy....

Have to say a few words here - LDMS as per Chris advise and comments is exactly what you talk about - robust, reliable, with no different box but same box used for quite a while with nice choice set of front panels.
Upgrades Chris mentioned are on the voluntary basis ie producer informs you in a way: "i developed a tweak elevating your musical experience" and you have a choice yes/no and if yes thing is done usually in few minutes with no hustle.
Is it a small company - yes; but none of them started as a big from the start but rather with the customer approach LDMS has and i can easily call this product as complete and developed

Cheers;
G

 

[howiebrou]

Contact Lukasz of LDMS with your budget. Since he is local he can tailor one to your budget. If he can't you can then still go the mass produced way with the Lumin U1 mini or Innous Zen. I think you might get more bang for your buck with LDMS.

 

[analogsa]

Get a decent Windows machine with Roon and two JCAT PCIe cards - a USB card FEMTO and a NET card FEMTO.

Cannot think of a more sensible advice. Just add linear power supplies for all rails, make sure cooling is all passive, stop all non essential services and processes if using windows and you are 90% up there with the best. None of this is rocket science.

 

[Tim F]

As the Innuous is practically a PC with Intel based architecture, a dedicated power supply and optimised software, why is it that you guys think that a custom PC is that much better?

Concerns me somewhat when people start recommending top of the range processors too, given the microscopic load presented by an audio file.

I do have a high level of capability with PC's, I have specified and built a fair few of them. I can optimise my software if required as well, but I'm really confused as to why these should sound better.

 

[asiufy]

@asiufy As an Innuous dealer I'm curious how you'd describe the sonic differences between the ZEN and Zenith MK3. As someone suggested above, are the differences mainly a matter of preference or is the Zenith clearly better in your view? These units interest me but I do prefer a more a more dynamic, saturated, and organic presentation over clinical and analytical even with slightly better detail.

None of the Innuos products are clinical and/or analytical, so even the entry level already provides a great degree of smoothness and a fairly organic presentation.
The main difference between Zen and Zen are 1) power supply 2) use of quieter SSD drives. This accounts for the clearly better snap, focus and dynamism of the Zenith over the Zen.
If you want to save some money, the Zen will be fine in most systems. But I have no doubts the Zenith is quite a bit better, even more so depending on the rest of your system.

 

[DeadWax]

None of the Innuos products are clinical and/or analytical, so even the entry level already provides a great degree of smoothness and a fairly organic presentation.
The main difference between Zen and Zen are 1) power supply 2) use of quieter SSD drives. This accounts for the clearly better snap, focus and dynamism of the Zenith over the Zen.
If you want to save some money, the Zen will be fine in most systems. But I have no doubts the Zenith is quite a bit better, even more so depending on the rest of your system.

This is helpful. Thanks.

 

[Daverich4]

Just stream Tidal directly at the moment.

Sonore ultraRendu or opticalRendu might do the job for that.

 

[dwhistance]

I'm using a Fidelizer Nimitra and am very impressed with it. It uses a highly optimised version of Windows 10 and sounds much more organic than my previous dedicated, modified Mac Mini did. I think this is largely due to the use of Windows much though I hate to say it being a big Mac user. Despite me buying the Nimitra used the manufacturer has been incredibly helpful with any setup issues I have encountered and has remotely loaded up and optimised software for me with no charge. I know much better servers/streamers are available but this sounds really good for very little outlay!

David Whistance

 

[Jesus R]

The obvious trend is to blow wads of cash on a front end, as a general trend of just blowing money on everything hifi related typically is. I have a Lampi GG2 and this wasn't exactly cheap. My Auralic Aries Femto seems to be viewed as average. Although I'm very good with building PC's and setting them up that looks like a mountain of hassle and cost. Outside of this I've seen recommendations for £16000 front ends! This all sounds a bit nuts given the quality of my Dac. So what's a sensible front end that's better than the Aries?

Thanks! Tim

I read the posts above and based on your feedback an expensive music server seems inappropriate for just streaming Tidal. The Rendu series with USB output both new and used will all stream Tidal from the internet with no additional hardware except for a mobile device used as a controller. Please email me at sonorejr@gmail.com with any additional questions.

 

[Tim F]

Are you the Sonore dealer? I see no other recommendations for those units from the guys on here (not that they look bad!)