I’m just about to trial a Innuos Zenith MK3 server having had the excellent Lumin U1 Mini, just upgraded both my DAC & Speakers and decided I would try the Zenith having read the excellent reviews across the board from well known respected reviewers etc.
Hey Martin! I’m going to move this over to the Innuos section so other MK3 owners can weigh in. Before I send you off, be sure to read the pinned post.
Innuos products are not supported because they don’t meet the minimum requirements to run Roon. If you’re looking for an alternative, we recommend ROCK (the DIY route) or Nucleus (turnkey).
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Enjoy! They have a great reputation for sound quality. I will be demoing one soon to use with or without my Nucleus+ depending on the results.
Hi Mike, yes I’ve done a lot of research and everyone seems to say the same thing, Dario, Hans etc along with forums plus the new update to their Sense App is supposed to be similar to Roon which I love. The Lumin App while sounding very good is very poorly designed otherwise I would stay with Lumin Brand. The only Other option is the Aries G2 but it has a on board DAC which I don’t need as I have a MSB which is sublime having heard the DCS Bartok, far more Analogue sounding.
Anyway appreciate your reply in a never ending search for Audio Nirvana?
One another subject Mike what are your thoughts on the Nucleus+ , one of my friends where I bought my new speakers really rates them.
The Nucleus is a good and quite good looking fit-and-forget solution that sounds better than a fanless NAS with everything non-Roon disabled, even with its stock power supply, though it is significantly improved (at a price) by a good linear power supply. I use one made by Sean Jacobs who is the guy who also designs them for Innuos. Indeed it was my respect for his competence that sparked my interest in the company.
The construction quality of the original Nucleus was weak in a few areas, mainly the on/off switch and fitting of the LAN ports. The later version also benefits from an improved layout though insufficient thought has been put into facilitating the installation of an internal SSD. The high-quality Samsung models work very well with it.
I have had both the first and b versions but with a short period without either in between while the first went back for a service due to a problem with the BIOS firmware. I can’t therefore make any reliable comment about whether the later version sounds any different from the first one. Both could be improved by making it easier to select a folder for backups, but otherwise work very well and quite reliably.
The crunch is on the sound quality front, with opinion seeming to be very firmly that things sound better with Innuos - certainly with the Zenith SE, 3 and Statement. Some, however, find that Roon sounds better with Innuos when it is on a separate core so when I finally get round to auditioning the Innuos gear I will try it three ways: with the Nucleus as Roon core, using the Innuos as the Roon core and without Roon, seeing how the new version of the Innuos software compares with Roon while also evaluating the sound quality using the Innuos only.
The whole thing will be further complicated by experimenting with Chord Electronics products as potential alternatives to my Naim 500 system, sparked by the fact that the sound quality from the Innuos is supposed to be quite a bit better via USB output rather than ethernet, with the Naim only using the latter as an input. Plus I’m quite simply curious to audition the Chord Dave, which seems to have built up quite a following.
I’m now looking for a dealer who can provide me with a good home audition since I really need to hear the alternatives through my speakers in my room.
Hi Mike , from what I’ve read I agree the sound quality is supposed to be better using their Sense App however I love the new Roon 1.8 update as it offers some fantastic useful features especially like the radio stations such as Smooth Jazz Radio out of Monterey California which unlike most of the UK stations have stupid adverts every 5 minutes which I hate.
I’ve have the Zenith MK3 arriving shortly so will be interesting to compare to my current Lumin U1 which to be fair sounds awesome on their App but has the most horrendous navigation which is a real shame compared to the Roon which to my mind is like Apple products- it just works and a dream to use. ‘ I’ll wait for the abuse of liking Apple later”.
If you need a contact of where you can home trial let me know as I’ve used this company for over 5 years and always offer outstanding knowledge and support.
I look forward to reading your findings. I very much like the Roon Discover and new Daily Mix features for discovering new music/performances. It would be great to hear you recommend for a dealer - I’m in the South-East of England. The dealers I’ve been with for years aren’t really clued up on streaming yet.
Speak to Mark at Elite Audio - he’s excellent especially with streaming plus does 30 day trial
Thanks I agree they’re great people. Sadly they don’t do Chord Electronics and I’ll need to mess around with these permutations simultaneously…
I’ll let you know what I think once it’s been in my system for a week or so, my speakers still need at least another 2 weeks also. Will arrive by early next week direct from Innuos apparently.
Mark as you say doesn’t do Chord, I was using HiDiamond from Italy which were incredible especially for the money although upgraded to Jorma in January which are on another level albeit so are the prices.
Actually, I’m not mad about Chord cables, finding they tend to lower the noise floor at the expense of instrumental texture and also tend to explode individual instruments across the soundstage.
It’s the Chord Electronics stuff I’m curious about… (Dave DAC, MScaler, Ultima amps)…
Anyway, I look forward to hearing what you make of the Innuos and hope you enjoy it…
I’ve tried a lot of the so called top cables from Nordost, Townsend, Audioquest and Tellurium Q Statement which I heard through the Avalon Transcendant speakers in my system and while they were very good just too bright, HiDiamond and recent Jorma use very high quality copper which is night and day better as it just sounds natural and analogue which is what I want not digital. To be fair my pre amp has upgraded vintage Brimar tubes which made a huge difference to the standard ones fitted having read online what other people used. Most important thing to me is I like the sound in my room not listen to the so called experts say, so much nonsense usually from people with zero experience in trying certain products such as Ethernet or USB cables who say they all sound the same which just is not the case. I recently added a product from Les Davis called 3D-2 isolation discs which was developed initially for sound proofing the Airbus A380, look like small pads only around 1mm which I put under my Mono amps & DAC plus server- crazy but they really work in a subtle way making the sound just more refined and cleaner. Great small investment upgrade.
I’ll look those up 
I also prefer good copper cables.
I sent you an off-topic PM. Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
For those who do not like our native app, Lumin offers support for the widest selection of UI, including Roon (via Lumin Roon Ready support), OpenHome control apps from Linn and Bubble, UPnP control apps, JRiver, Aurdirvana, etc.
Tidal Connect for using Tidal app with Lumin U1 (mini) / T2 / X1 is imminent. We are also ready for Spotify HiFi (that requires development work, not any old or open source Spotify Connect implementation).
Thanks for the information Robert, I’ve only started using the Lumin App recently because the dealer who set up my speakers asked why I’m using Roon all the time when the server Apps tend to sound better as they are using their own software inside not Roon which I my case is in a Apple IMac which is 6 years old albeit high spec model.
It’s mainly because my new speakers are so much better quality and the addition to the MSB, Jorma cables etc that I can hear bigger differences in the sound quality .
I didn’t realise Lumin had other Apps which are compatible which is really useful for me to have a look at
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Just configured Audirvāna on my system so will do so will do some A-B testing later, I did use this App over 4 years ago when I had a the SOtM streamer which was a fantastic piece of kit. Although again there App was a little basic recent updates are drastically better.
Tidal’s recent added features such as Dailey’s , most played looks really slick also.
If you’re interested I can send you a firmware update to use Tidal app via Tidal Connect.
That would be fantastic -much appreciated