Right. And no issues with pointing your SonicTransporter to the music inside your Zenith?
The only issue is that music is processed in the Roon server. So if the music resides on the endpoint, then you are streaming music from the endpoint, processing and then back to the endpoint. this can put a strain on the network.
I have the music in 2 places.
All music is streamed to the RoonServer first, processed, and then streamed to the endpoint. If the endpoint is also where music is stored then, as I mentioned, it increases network traffic.
So, if Understood your posts correctly, the Innuos is both a place some music is stored and the endpoint you are playing to. When you play music stored on the Innuous, it is first streamed to the Core (Sonic Transporter), processed and then streamed back to the Innuous.
I meant my FLAC files are both on the Zenith and also on my SGC i9. That way I can play using LMS or Roon.
I understand, I was just letting you know for those files ON the Zenith, they will be streamed to the SGC first, and then back to the Zenith.
Roon is set to look for local files on the i9
The Zenith is set to look for local files on its internal drive when I configure it for LMS.
So there is no issue.
I have two complete sets of my local files. One on the Zenith and the other on the i9.
Ahh, sorry for the misunderstanding.
The problems referred to by Rugby (2-directional network traffic) are the reasons I’ve been looking at the opposite solution, making the Innuos (Zenith Mk3) core and finding a separate streamer. In general it makes no sense to me to need two copies of local files and to continually switch between players. But I haven’t yet found the right streamer (DAC-less) that can get to the sound quality of the upper tier Innuos hardware (Phoenix, Statement). Innuos are working on their own player, and it remains to be seen what the SQ will be and in particular how well it will work. Firmware so far has not been the company’s strong suit. Unclear whether LMS will continue to be supported.
I have 2 copies because I first tried my Zenith M2 as a Roon Core, but gave up do to performance issues on my iPad and iPhone. Nuno now says this was an OS issue that has been resolved. So, I use my Zenith both as a Roon Endpoint and LMS server. I can easily use the OS to switch between them. LMS is at the core of the Innuos OS along with Squeezebox Lite player. So, I doubt that will ever change.
Roon finds my music files locally on my i9. LMS finds them locally on the Zenith. I often listen to LMS controlled with IPeng, because I find the SQ better, although the Roon player is rapidly catching up. So, I don’t have bidirectional network traffic.
I suggested to Nuno that somehow they engineer the experimental mode they have with Roon Core for Endpoint. He said it doesn’t work that way
May I ask how you know this? Any source? Thank you
It’s been common knowledge since I bought the Zenith last year. I’ve heard it from Innuos (also from Nuno during recent bug tracking), from several dealerships, and seen it mentioned in forums. Current arrival date could be some time this year (2020). It hasn’t been hidden, just not specifically advertised. I’ve also seen commentary that Innuos are integrating RAAT and dealing with how it integrates with their own OS. I’d assume that refers to separate Roon and Innuos players.
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To contribute with my own experience using a recently acquired Innuos Zenith Mk3 connected to a DAC via USB:
- Roon as core and player: works robustly but sound quality is not as good as Innuos “out of the box” player. The difference is noticeable when making side by side comparative listening. Less detail, less space around instruments, less brilliance, less dynamic.
- Innuos “out of the box” player and Roon with SqueezeLite experimental mode: similar (same?) great sound - I can’t hear a difference.
- experimental mode: some skipping at the beginning of a file or during playing a file. It also happens with files stored on the Innuos (not only when streaming). So for me this mode is not usable.
It would be great if the “experimental mode” was to become “established” and robust as it gives great sound with convenience of using Roon.
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I agree with all your sonic assessments there. On the experimental bugs though. Make sure you’re on the latest firmware. It’s been getting more and more robust.
I had the same bugs with the experimental mode that you found but recently have not had these problems. FWIW, I’ve done two things (and don’t know which, if either, makes the difference):
a) as Hugo says, update to Innuos 1.4.5. The release notes don’t indicate whether there are relevant bug fixes.
b) If I stop a track before it completes, I reset the time cursor back to the beginning, by pressing the left back arrow on the time display, before starting a new album or track. (This is only because the skips and stutters always occurred near the start of tracks so one theory was that the software bug related to track initialization problems. I didn’t spend a lot of time testing it since the bug was random, but may experiment more later)
Hi this is interesting. I run a innuos as Roon core and connects to DAC via USB. Are you suggesting adding a streamer in between the innuos and the DAC eg like the AURALIC ARIES G1 STREAMING TRANSPORT?
cheers
H
Yes. I’ve been looking at what’s available. The Innuos should be okay as a Roon core unless you need substantial DSP, and it has SSD storage. It can also source files via a networked connection, using the proprietary player in the streamer. There are not many pure streamers around. At the moment the two I’ve considered are the Lumin U1 and the dCS Network Bridge. Of the two the Lumin with an upgraded power supply seems the better option (SQ, flexibility), though expensive for what it is. I’m interested in hearing if others have experience. I’ve heard from a few sources that Lumin has much more stable software than many others, including Auralic.