New user here! I have been reading some of the recent posts regarding Innuos streamers with great interest since I am thinking of taking the plunge myself. I am however curious as to whether there would be any real advantage to me doing so.
Currently I have a 2017 MacBook Pro acting as a Roon Core, streaming via wifi to an atom (which is connected to the router through an ethernet cable). I am thinking of replacing the laptop with an Innuos ZENmini mk3 which would connect directly to my router, and then link the Innuos and atom via the streamer ethernet output. In general I have had no issues with the laptop, but I have been hearing all these great things about the Innuos streamers (and having a CD burner would be an advantage)! Would the ZENmini improve the sound quality of my system? Due to very limited space, I would not want to move up the range to e.g. a Zen.
It might, it might not. Not using wireless wil make it more stable overall and faster to respond. It’s a fairly low powered device to use as a Roon core. As long as your not running multiple endpoints and heavy DSP it will perform fine.
I would be running a single end point with no DSP (I haven’t really noticed much difference using Roon to upsample the output), so hopefully the ZENmini processor would be able to cope.
I use an Innuos Zen as Roon core and have no difficulties running two endpoints, both Novas. Can’t compare the Zen with a MacBook as have never used mine for music, compared to the Unitiserve I used to have in my set up I like the Innuos sound better.