I made the classic mistake of buying a £12,000 Streamer/Server (Melco N1-S38) without demoing it first.
The tracks stored on the Melco’s SSD sounded no different to the same tracks played from Kobuz in Mosaic. I tried this with, and without a Melco Switch. Many other members have commented on this fact, to the point where don’t hardly use their Melco Servers anymore, as the quality of streamed music is so good. I was obviously wondering, why I’d just spent big bucks on what was essentially an expensive NAS.
I have just demoed an Innuos Zen Next Gen at my dealer, I was impressed. However, the speakers used were Avalon PM1.2, double the price of my Kudos Titan 606s.
My question is…Can Innuos owners hear any difference between streaming Qobuz/Tidal from Mosaic on their dCS, and the same track stored locally on the Innuos SSD? Irrespective whether you use LAN or USB
If there is no difference, is there any point in paying for such a server? May as well get a WiiM.
If you compare stored tracks( e.g. ripped CDs) back to back from ,say, Qobuz they may sound different. However you may not be comparing like with like. If they DO always sound the same then you might have problems. Same title, same artwork but different recordings. . I am not necessarily talking of clear distinctions like remastering or standard v. hi-res but the subtler changes between different masters or copies thereof or recordings mastered by different third party houses ( record companies no longer do all of the technical stages themselves). So two recordings of what is nominally the same may often sound al indifferent if the two compared are from different sources e.g. from, say, the UK record label and the other from the French label even if both are nominally on the same label.
Qobuz should sound, when listening blind ,that you are hearing the original as far as you know. BTW, downloads from Qobuz may sound slightly different to the stream but only if compared directly back to back. Myself I don’t spend much time playing spot the difference.
I have used Presto and may go back to them and re-buy some titles where Qobuz or the record label supplying have screwed up the metadata. However as these errors occurred over several labels including those known to be reliable, I think Qobuz was the likely culprit.
BTW I did need some technical assistance from Presto and spoke to a real person !!
I have now spent some time looking in detail at their streaming service and can see a few possible technical issues from a dCS owner’s viewpoint. The solution would be if they have an API and dCS added them to Mosaic. Fat chance but I will tag @James with a vague hope.
Hi David
As you know I have the melco n1s38 and I think it’s fantastic . I ripped all my CDs using dbpoweramp as uncompressed files. When I compare the music on the melco to a streamed song , to my ears the streamed song sounds thin. Although I take Pete’s point that the track may not be like for like . I have gone through 3 melco servers and only upgraded when I could hear a difference . I’m using a Rossini apex into ch precision amplification into stenheim Alumine 3 speakers . As always it’s important to demo at home where possible .
Could you just confirm the devices/connections in the Melco chain vs in the streaming chain please? By connections, ideally this info will include cable lengths and types. A sort of Device A > Cat 9 Cable B 2m > Device C > Nodust 2m > Rossini Apex summary might be easiest.
I have a melco as you know, hardly use it these days as streaming from the vivaldi is just so good.
My melco has all my ripped cd’s on it, plus downloads from qobuz, etc on it that I have purchased over the years, plus other music I have managed to get over the years, so I wouldn’t be without it but at the same time don’t necessarily need it
I find streaming absolutely great and matches anything else digital i put thought the dac.
But why not just use the streamer you have already? As don’t you have a rossini or bartok.
I buy an album from qobuz and store it locally on Innuos’ internal SSD. Now, when playing both sources (streaming vs local playback) I’m not able to hear a difference. MAYBE streaming sounds slightly more “light” with less punch…
Yes Duncan, I have the Bartók Apex and a new SIA-025!
I have some albums that are not available on Kobuz, so I feel I should put them on a decent server, which has a great UI.
I have a Zenith Next Gen with 8TB and would buy it again. Imho the big difference SQ wise btw. the different Innuos lines come with the use of USB connection/port. I stepped “back” from Statement Next Gen and moved to Zenith and couldn’t hear a difference when using it as server for streaming (upnp). Innuos and Melco are both top notch so you can’t go wrong with these systems. As a compromise, I wouldn’t buy the top lines (Nazare f.ex) but would 100% stick with a dedicated audio server (vs qnap, synology etc). My 2cents
Cheers @T38.45
I guess to be fair, your comparison is between your Zenith SSD and the pre installed Qobuz app on the Zenith. Is that correct? If so, the Zenith is working its magic on both the SSD files and Qobuz on the same machine.
Whereas, I was comparing Qobuz in Mosaic on my Bartók vs stored music on the Melco. Two different machines.
Without opening a can of worms…again! what was your preferred connection from your Zenith?
Sorry, maybe I didn’t answer your question correctly.
I used Mosaic to compare local SSD (Innuos) vs Qobuz (use Mosaic for critical listening vs roon) and I preferred LAN/upnp services over USB. Two control SW stacks (Mosaic and roon) are enough for me, didn’t test Innuos SW for playing music that much (but I like the build in functions like backup, upgrades etc)
I will just add this. As my upsampler is away to be fixed at the moment, I am once again using the melco to stream qobuz. Obviously I have lost the upsampling and that Obviously makes a difference and a difference i like. So its my melco n1zs mk2 ssd into the vivaldi dac, obviously its running on USB as this is the only way you can use the built in streamer in the melco.
Now I have a CAD usb mk1 cable, so its a nice cable. The melco app to run qobuz and access the stored content is poor. It’s certainly not very nice to use against mosaic, but more importantly the sound quality is just not the same, it’s nowhere near as nice.
This could be the fact that the melco isn’t as good as a streamer, or it could be the USB, as we all know dCS say ethernet is the way to do it. But whatever it is I can’t wait to get my upsampler back as right now streaming isn’t as good as my other digital sources and that’s not the case with the upsampler in.
I certainly don’t think I would want to use USB unless I am forced to do so and if I was going to use a difference streamer then it would have to be using a different input.
It may be horses for courses. With the Innuos ungraded PhoenixUSB board they recommend USB. I don’t understand the tech stuff, but USB is a direct connection..,apparently?
But really there’s nothing to fix here as far as streaming goes. The one in the bartok will work and sound fabulous as it is.
If you want storage then many options to choose from from cheap to expensive. I like how I can play stored music from the melco over ethernet and to other devices in my home.
However, the speakers used were Avalon PM1.2, double the price of my Kudos Titan 606s.
so …
what was your preferred connection from your Zenith?