Thank you @NickMimi!
It is why it strikes me as odd when I read in reviews and impressions, doubt I would be able to discern these differences myself. I want something solid that works without needing constant restarts or odd connection issues.
It checks a lot of boxes and is priced more competitively than the comparable Lumin or Auralic options. Thank you again for taking the time to respond, greatly appreciate it.
So, you have a few thousand dollars sitting around burning a hole in your pocket and you want to upgrade your source and front end on your HiFi systemā¦
Great, letās talk about some Innuos products I have personal experience with.
Iām a 99.9% renter of streaming services. I pay for Quoboz, Tidal, ROON yearly.
I own a few hundred CDās which I took the time to download to a NAS drive, and a friend was kind enough to also dump his collection of music to said drive so I have some flac files too. I also own a turntable which I have used for a total of maybe 4 hrs and has since sat collecting dust, I think I own 24 records that did not come from garage sales, so I have plenty of Polka music to listen to should someday the urge hit me.
Upon my audio dealerās insistence and bold encouragement, (he surprise ships me things, I use them, and afterwards pay him best I can, sometimes he even takes payment in fancy baubles I own and am willing to part with, itās a great and intimate familiar relationship, more akin to a friendship than just business) 
I am the proud owner of an Innuos Zenith Mk3, a Pulse and a PhoneixNET Ethernet switch. After many months of regular use, I am also fairly intimately familiar w/ the Innuos Sense streaming software.
I like the Sense streaming software, it works well with their hardware. I find the audio quality just a tiny bit ābetterā than what ROON is capable of BUT I prefer the ROON interface and features hands down overall simply because the ROON software does a great job at finding me new music. This is an important feature to me because I am ignorant of musical knowledge and I have an extremely difficult time hunting down music I enjoy on my own. The ROON AI simply āgets meā and provides me hours of uninterrupted listening to fresh music. Using Sense I have to āwork for itā and Iām more often unsuccessful than not. If the few degrees of quality in clarity, general presentation and overall slightly improved musical presentation are that important to you the sense software simply works best with the Innuos equipment. Yes, it is that good in my opinion, as best as I can tell. 
YMMV
The Ethernet switchā¦Jesus, I canāt believe these things make as much difference in overall clarity and fine detail as they do in MY SYSTEMS. Donāt care if you want to fight me on this, 
Iām sure your PHD, & masters in EE and years of experience working in the field of your mastery tells a different story. I can personally hear a noteworthy and worthwhile improvement in MY SYSTEMS and will spend stupid amounts of money on fancy upgraded parts for my internet signal because the shit works somehow. To me, because Iām technically inept and ignorant, itās magic, and pure fairy dust and since itās my hard earned money and the internet is still like the Wild West, 
I boldly claim that SOME of this shit works. 
Now here is the big BUT, my PhoenixNET works great with my Pulse but NOT w/ my Zenith. The Zenith is USB only and once you add the PhoenixNET that shit picks up noise and spits it out of your transducers as a sporadic annoyance of mid-range āgrungeā that took me months to figure out and cost me more money than I will admit to, (even on this forum), to figure out and finally find a solution for 
The Innuos ZenithMK3, donāt purchase this unit if you donāt have the best USB hook-ups, or a good if not great DDC.This sucker is USB only and I am no longer particularly fond of the hoops I have to jump through or the cost of working w/ USB in general. To me the major worthwhile feature at the time was the ability to burn CDās and the storage. I am well beyond that need now and would happily trade mine for another Pulse, despite the monetary loss, simply because I now own both a NUC and NAS drive and have no need for the burner anymore, my own technical abilities have grown beyond my need for an all in one unit. Having stated this, there is great synergy between my Zenith and Lampizator B3, if ever I get rid of my B3 DAC the Zenith will head out the door too, otherwise this combo works really really well and thus, I keep it for the synergy. (Thatās real audiophile dedication! )
The Innuos Pulse is my favorite piece, it is versatile, the quality of the sound character is highly resolving and yet neutral. It does not impart any of its own color or character in any way that I have been able to discern after many months of use in a variety of systems. I have had zero issues with it or the software and Iām simply very pleased with its performance to dollar ratio. Itās not cheap but itās also no where near the cost of the big boys. If your transducers cost many multiples of $$$$, you need to look at equipment that costs maybe 6-10 times as much. (Keep costs relative)
I wanted to take time to write all this up in one post, I have owned these pieces for a good while now, there are newer and fancier streamers on the market, Innuos follows a particular philosophy and you should read up well on them before dropping your hard earned cash. My pieces were purchased new, technical services were needed years ago before the SENSE software was available. The Pulse took me mere minutes to hook up and put into operation and I am admittedly technically inept and my system is particularly complicated to me, take that for what itās worth.
My pieces are also backed by my dealer, not that I have ever had a reason to call him with an issue. They have been trouble free for me and a pleasure to own. Innuos technicians walked me through my initial issues years ago and they were fairly easy to work with, but again I repeat that was BEFORE Sense existed. Lastly, they are NOT ROON certified, they do NOT work well as a ROON core. @dB_Cooper built me a NUC and a NAS drive and had to integrate them into my system for me. Fair warning, Iāve listed the good with the bad, and plainly state that I would happily purchase another Pulse for my own use.
Love this, because itās so @NickMimi life vs. reality. Itās been an interesting journey youāve taken over the years to get where you are now though, tubes and digital; Always enjoy a good happily ever after love story.
Iām currently using a SR purple 2.5A fuse in my DNA stellaris, but was wondering if I could get by with trying it in my Innuos Zenith Mk3. Iām not hearing a huge difference, I donāt think lol. Iām still early on in this process, maybe 100hrs or less. Recently I think it was a bit harsh and I flipped it around and I feel itās a bit better, smoother and maybe a bit more bass and texture. I had the SR going in the direction of the power cable into the amp but I think it needs to be flipped, SR away from the amp (how I have it now). Looks like the Innuos does it that way too.
It states the following:
Stock = Slow Blow, 2A, 250V
Trying a audiophile fuse, recommend a step up to a 3.15A rated fuse
Has anyone tried a 2.5A in a few Innuos?
https://innuos.com/kb/replacing-the-fuse-on-innuos-products/
Itās baffling how much of a difference digital signals can make. Itās supposed to just be ones and zeros, but Iāve had similar experiences. Definitely some crazy, woo-woo stuff happening on the digital end.
Iām trying to understand how the Innuos pulse works. I understand itās a streamer but how do you access your flac/local music? I have my Roon nuc, does it tap into that so you can use your files via the sense app?
Using it as a Roon endpoint is pretty clear to me but just wondering how it worked with sense.
Since the Pulse does not have storage space for music you direct it to where your music files are stored over your network. Same with the ZenithMk3. I keep my files on it as back up but direct it to my NAS drive for all my stored music.
Best I can describe it. Again, Iām technically inept but I believe this is how my own units are set upš¤·
No, that makes sense. I have my music stored on my PC and Zenith. Just didnāt know if the pulse could talk to the nuc since itās a Roon thing. I guess it would have to talk to the PC.
The Zenith will work as a core (?) for Sense and then you just add as many Innuos pieces to the system as you want and that works as your baseā¦ or something like that. I think thatās how it was explained to me. sorry, Ill shut up now to make sure i donāt give bad advice.
Yeah, I use my nuc as the main Roon rock/core. Just was wondering how the pulse would work with it outside Roon. No worries tho, itās not that big of a deal. 
Forgive me if this has been discussed here, I did peruse this thread but didnāt see it specifically (or totally missed it). Has @NickMimi or anyone else compared the streaming quality of an Innuos server (ie Zenith mk3) vs an Innuos streamer (ie Pulse)? Iām talking strictly streaming, not local file playback.
Currently I have an Innuos Zen mk3 which Iāve absolutely loved since I bought it new some time ago. I use it as an all in one: Roon core, music server and streamer. However, Iāve found that Iāve evolved to 100% streaming only (Tidal via Roon). So Iām wondering if I would benefit from using the Zen as Roon core and getting a separate streamer, such as a Pulse. Or would the sound quality essentially be the same as using the Zen as streamer, which Iām doing now.
With all the tinkering with equipment @NickMimi does, Iād be shocked if he hasnāt. He also pretty much only streams so wait for his answer here.
I will say that as a Roon Server the Mk3 is not ideal. Itās perfectly fine as a core but one of the things he did talk about (and thereās commentary from Innuous about the same) Is that it does suffer sonically as a Roon Server and itās not a recommended.
Iāve read lots of pros/cons on using the Innuos units as Roon core/server/streamer. In the link you cite, Innuos specifically recommends against using upsampling or using DSP to multiple endpoints if you plan on running Roon core. I donāt do either. But when I bought the Zen, I was using a Mac mini for Roon duties and in that context, the Zen was vastly superior. However, my specific question for anyone with firsthand experience is if there is a big quality difference in streaming only. As in, using my Zen for Roon core + streaming vs the Zen for Roon core and the Pulse for streaming.
In light of this question of streaming quality, I tried out the Sense app for the first time in a long time. Itās come a long way in features and UIX since I used it last. And damn, it sounds pretty good! Without doing an A/B, just from memory, it seems noticeably better than Roon. But it also makes me realize how good the features and UIX is in Roon. In particular, I already miss the Play Radio feature
Iāll be quick here @tunahulk
In my opinion and based on my own best use case:
The Innuos units top off in sound quality with the Sense software when streaming.
I stopped using my Zenith Mk3 as a ROON core a long time ago I was personally having too many issues and was spending more time resetting things as opposed to listening but itās been close to 2 yrs. Once DbCooper set me up with a NUC and computer core I never looked back.
When I want to squeeze out the most detail and resolution out of my stream I use sense. The other 99% of the time I use my NUC and ROON specifically for the features and because itās damned good enough nowadays. 
If your Innuos is working as a core well enough and you donāt mind paying for ROON leave it alone, when i stopped using it as such it was mostly because of drop outs and inability at the time to use LMS.
If you just want to stream out of the units and donāt mind losing the extra features of ROON go to Sense, save the money and also get slightly better performance
Thanks. So Roon is running off a NUC and youāre using your Innuos units as endpoints only. No doubt thatās the best way to do it.
As an aside, since Iāve been trying the Sense software for the last day or so, Iāve noticed a pretty noticeable perceived improvement in SQ vs using Roon, so thatās something else Iāll need to think about.
But I guess my big question remains ā I wonder if youāve had the opportunity to compare the streaming quality from Zenith vs Pulse? So, regardless of underlying software (Roon or Sense), all else being equal, Iām just trying to gauge IF thereās a noticeable improvement in streaming quality from the Pulse over the Zenith (or in my case the Zen). Note Iām only referring to streaming from something like Tidal or Qobuz etc, NOT any local file playback.
I am unable to recognize any qualitative difference between the streaming sound quality of a Zenth mk3 and their Pulse unit on either of my systems.
There can be a difference between using USB vs AES & SPIDF in minor performance metrics and sound character variations but it is so very difficult to figure out which character trait to attribute to each piece depending on the resolution of the overall system and room characteristics which all play a major role in differences this particular IMHOš¤·
This is what I was looking to determine, thanks for the insight. I was wondering if I should be feeling a little FOMO since Iāve moved into streaming exclusively vs listening to local files, and was considering replacing the Zen with the Pulse. You may have just saved me some money. I saw there was a Pulse thread on head-fi too (and some comments by you there) I might pose the same question there to get more feedback
Makes me wonder a bit though, since the Zen and the Pulse are about the same price (and the Pulsar is actually considerably more than a Zenith), what is the argument for buying anything in the Pulse line if the equivalently priced (or even cheaper) Zen/ith sounds the same but can do more? I might drop Innuos an email.
The pulse has their newest parts AND has AES, SPIDIF outputs. The Zenith, and mine is already 5 yrs old, was their original design philosophy w/ USB. The next level up, due to the separate power supply, is also $10K more, their statement series. When I got it I required the CD ripping capabilities of the Zenith, the Pulse is my sweet spot.
I have not tried their smaller ZEN model BUT I assume as far as streaming quality goes it too is similar, the power supplies is where all the money is and if your system doesnāt necessarily have the resolution to take advantage of the benefits or you personally havenāt developed an ear for the nuances power upgrades supposedly make for some ā¦.
Personally, I think itās nuts to spend more than $1K on a streamer but it doesnāt mean I didnāt do it in hopes of getting the most I could get. Beyond this I see folks speaking of $25K ++ streamersā¦
. My tastes are not that refined yet nor is my wallet.
Between pulse and Zenith Mk 3 if you require the added outputs my personal vote is for the Pulse BUT, I also use a PhoenixNet, and upgraded electrical circuit direct from my panel for that combo so itās never ever an actual direct comparison. Sorry about that.
My Zenith gets fed via Fiber, and the USB Lampizator combo I use it w/ has known synergy. I just think I happened to max out their performance. That may be a thing tooš¤·āāļø
Lastly, I donāt know how to distinguish things like cymbal hits, decay off instruments, Iām not sure what perfect pitch, tone, timber or other many qualities of perfect music are. My focus tends to be on things I understand dealing with space, bass quality, and pleasurable listening experiences so YMMV focusing too heavily on what I say.
No I canāt HEAR a difference between a Zenith Mk3 and a Pulse in performance or quality when streaming. The Pulse is cheaper by $2k and offers multiple outputs. The Zenith offers storage, is ROON core capable but NOT recommended and can rip cds along with being optimized for usb output. My vote goes for a the Pulse between the 2. Good luck and happy listening @tunahulk
Cool cool. Appreciate the follow up. Honestly not really sure where (if anywhere) I decide to go at this point. Iāve actually really been enjoying Sense lately (vs Roon) as it seems like the sound quality is better. I do miss the Roon feature set and Radio feature which is one of the ways I find new music, but Iāll use Sense for a few more days to get acquainted before I switch back to Roon for comparison.
Maybe ignorance is bliss in this case. Sticking with my Zen for now, using Sense, plus I just upgraded my amp and headphones, so maybe Iāll enjoy things for now while I contemplate my next move. Youāve been helpful 