Sep 25

Sep 25 Innuos ZENith Mk3 Music Server

I first heard an Innuos product and the considerable buzz about this fairly new Portuguese company—formed in 2016 in the sunny Algarve—at the 2018 Rocky Mountain Audio Show. The Innuos unit I heard at length was the Statement Music Server, the top of the line unit (up to $15,000—review unit requested). In fact, numerous Innuos units were placed in several rooms—all rooms sounding uniformly collaborative. I heard Innuos models serving products from Spatial Audio, QLN Loudspeakers, and Vinnie Rossi integrated amplifiers, amplifiers and preamps. They were all singing Innuos’ praises and the Innuos servers, right back at them. In fact, rarely have I been so engrossed in different showrooms playing digital content.

I enquired about a review unit of any of their products for our readers. Then came the typical, glacially-paced song and dance between reviewer, distributor, dealer and manufacturer after the craziness of a show. When we did finally connect, I found the Innuos chain, from US distributor Well Pleased Audio Vida to Portuguese home base, efficient and patient. As such, I’d like to thank Mark Sossa of Well Pleased Audio Vida and Mandy De Castro, Event Manager of Innuos, for their kind considerations.

The server under review is from the ZEN Series (3 models), specifically, the top of the ZEN range, the ZENith Mk3 1TB Black. MSRP is $4249. The names of the ZEN Series servers may be a little confusing, so be careful of mixed upper and lower case. It’s not consistent on the website.

My Use

Shipping was organized from Montreal across Canada to Victoria. It was delivered in a Pelican, the almost indestructible case of choice when shipping a much used component from reviewer to reviewer, to and from shows, for dealer demos, etc. Thus, the Mk3 arrived in pristine condition. And the unit was broken in.

As with all complex, multi functional digital products, best take your time with the setup. As a primarily analogue guy, this took me more than a few moments. Definitely, my problem, as the Innuos literature is well-written and easy to follow. A digital dynamo will be up and running in moments.

In any case, I was playing music via the Mk3’s UPnP support in short order. Yes, but what about Roon? Streaming, etc? Happily, in my situation, this ZENith got to play with a couple of my heavy hitter DACs, the $6000 Mytek HiFi Manhattan DAC II and the stunning MBL N31 CD/DAC ($15,400). There’s no screen on the Innuos or the Mytek, but there’s a Naim-quality screen on the MBL N31 CD/DAC. I like to see what’s playing in clear HD colour. Happily, the Mk3 comes with a CD ripper on the front fascia.

Cabling was courtesy of Nordost, a full loom of Frey 2 cables. They were beautifully neutral and allowed me to assess the Mk3 without interference.

Connection is simple. Required Network cable connection from the Mk3’s LAN port to my router, DAC USB to Innuos DAC port. Power cable provided is standard IEC, substituted with the Nordost.

You may add a separate streamer via a port on the rear.

It’s now you access the Innuos OS dedicated webpage. This step was necessary for me to configure Roon from UPnP. Simply, ‘Enable Roon’—check; ‘Use as Roon Core’—check.

Features

The Mk3 is feature rich and will keep you front and center of the ever changing digital world for years to come. As always with digital, choose and invest wisely. Even though Innuos is a young company, the designs and manufacturing suggest grey hairs and old souls are at the helm, or, at least in spirit. The Mk 3 features:

New Custom Motherboard with reduced EMI
Innovative Triple-Linear Power Supply with ultra-low noise regulators and premium Mundorf Capacitors
Asymmetrical isolation feet inspired by the ZENith SE
SSD Storage with newly improved vibration and EMI treatment
Medical-Grade Mains Filter

Dual Ethernet Ports for LAN and Streamer with dedicated isolation transformers
8GB RAM with 4GB In-Memory playback
Ultra-low Noise USB Audio Output
New Generation Quad-core Intel CPU

The proprietary OS allows for complete operation from your smartphone or tablet. Innuos describes its ability to ‘rip CDs, import music, edit album data (including covers), play, stream and backup your music library all performed by your smart device’. Importantly, InnuosOS can run in Roon Core or Roon Bridge mode.

The unit is 70 x 420 x 320 mm (H x W x D) and weighs a solid 9kg. It has a beautiful, angled fascia with the CD slot and LED power button (configurable in various colours; default is blue).

Specifications

Digital Output: USB 2.0 supporting USB Audio Class 2, DoP, Native DSD and MQA; Dedicated Ethernet Streamer Port

Ethernet: 2 x rear panel RJ45—Bridged Gigabit Ethernet; USB: 1x USB 2.0 (DAC), 1x USB 3.0 (Backup)

Formats: CD—RedBook; Audio format for stored CDs—FLAC, WAV; Audio formats for streaming & playing—WAV, AIFF, FLAC, ALAC, AAC, MP3, MQA (with supported DACs)

Sample rates: 44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4KHz. 192kHz, 352.8KHz, 384KHz , DSD64, DSD128, Native DSD up to DSD512 on selected DACs; Bit depths—16bit, 24bit, 32bit

CD Drive: TEAC

CPU: Intel Quad Core N4200

The Mk3 is a digital wiz and will cover most of your digital home scenarios. Be sure to check out the specs page for the full picture. It’s a long and detailed list.

Sound

I used streaming services Qobuz and Tidal and ripped a few CDs (five minutes, on average) as the software basis for my review. Innuos has ripping CDs down to a fine art—quiet, fast and squeezing every last bit onto the unit’s SSD drive. I used the Roon app primarily, but also tried iPeng, an old favourite of mine for iOS. Using either, the interface is lightning quick. Flipping back and forth between review repertoire was made simple by the abilities of the Mk3.

Prior to the Inuuos’ arrival, I was using the MBL CD/DAC to play my small CD collection. The CD transport in the MBL is a cracker. Standard Red Book CD playback at its very best. And among a handful of digital gear that tears me away from my turntables. However, when connected to a Roon Core and streaming, the MBL DAC connects me to the music the same way it does via its CD drive. The much cheaper Mytek DAC is also very fine, has MQA support, and is what I used for the bulk of the review especially as it is a good price match with the Mk3. It did a very good job, the same as its done as my long time reference with my server reference, the Antipodes Audio CORE. The CORE is also in the same price ballpark as the Mk3.

Out of the box and before I could manipulate InnuosOS, the Mk3’s UPnP played a glorious Leonard Cohen track for me stationed on its hard drive, ‘That Don’t Make it Junk’ from Ten New Songs. It was a musically superb moment. Before a standard warm up time, the Innuos was producing beautiful sounds from its baseline digital function. I’m glad I fumbled with the initial setup—it gave me time to appreciate the basic functionality and quality of this unit.

What I was hearing was a pure, unencumbered digital signal. This mighty task can be heard to its greatest degree in servers and DACs by legendary Brits, dCS. And, for about fifty grand. The Mk3 and Mytek DAC could not match the dense musical experiences the dCS products (with Rockport Atria II Loudspeakers—review forthcoming—and Audio Research amplification) have given me, but in the realm of diminishing returns, the 10K pair gave me quite sublime musical experiences. As such, jitter and noise are curtailed to a minute degree. Servers really are both the here and now and the future for the very best in digital audio playback helped in no small part by the ingenious use of ultra quiet power supplies. The Mk3 scores big on this; even better than my reference CORE. Detail and musicality were marginally better on the Innuos, a real plum as the CORE has quite remarkable qualities.

Qobuz and Tidal were deights, with Qobuz’ HiRes files and Tidal’s MQA support. Both sounded fantastic streaming on the Innuos.

Dynamics and immediacy from Dorati/Minneapolis/Mercury FLAC Beethoven Eroica was as impressive as I’ve heard. This recording always shocks me, not for the Fines’ recording and production, but for the superb performance by a 1960s provincial US orchestra (for more provincial surprises, read Jim Norris’ Steinberg/Pittsburgh Beethoven cycle review on DG).

Staying with classical, although not my favorite Mahler symphony, Klemperer’s EMI with the Philharmonia of the Fourth on Qobuz via 96kHz 24bit was stunning in its beauty and information retrieval. There’s a super tricky ensemble moment mvt 1, the rit leading into bar 4, especially for the clarinets. Invariably, it’s either muddy or too quiet. The 96 FLAC file made clear every note; it was almost as if you could see the clarinets looking up and trying to follow Klemperer’s very wobbly beat, but looking at the Leader (concertmaster) instead; the first violins will follow him rather than the conductor. In any case, I’ve never heard it as clean or clearer and in the most beautiful sound. Due, no doubt, to the bottomless noise floor and jet black backgrounds.

Summary

The Innuos ZENith Mk3 1T Black is an exceptionally quiet, very musical server. Technically, it’ll keep your digital rear guard covered for the long term, an important feature set when the landscape seems to change daily. Pair it with a top notch DAC, and you are set for stored files of all types, ripping your CD collection bit perfect, and, most importantly, the ability to stream at very high quality.

I am very much looking forward to reviewing the Innuos Statement server and pairing it with my MBL DAC. At 30K plus for the pair, I’m betting it’ll be as good as digital can get. But for now, the sub $4500 Mk3 performs admirably and is very highly recommended.

Further information: Innuos