Unitiserve, the predecessor to the Uniti Core
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But then so, in my experience, was a QNAP fanless NAS and even more so the Roon Nucleus+… (but in my case vs. the later Uniti Core).
The ER with good LPS (Sean Jacobs DC3+) very definitely does not improve on the Statement in my system. Quite the reverse. The Statement is in another class.
Considering the cost, I’m sure a dealer can be found to demo both the Statement and a top-end Melco. My ears and Melco’s like different things.
I described the PN as the icing (and more) on the cake because the Statement is very, very good. But the PN brings a very desirable improvement
It turns out it’s best not to have the PN in the final run. Both it and the Statement may I think work slightly better away from the main kit or above a gap shelf on the Fraim, but there’s not much in it.
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That’s a good point. I think one would have to listen to work out whether source first applies more or less than 500 magic in this case. Suffice to say that with a little setup care, the Statement and PN bring some real added magic to the ND555.
I don’t understand one thing. You said earlier that, when connecting the Nd555 to the Statement, the sound was average. You found the PhoenixNet as really improving over your system.
Then you discovered that connecting both the Statement and Nd555 to the PhoenixNet, gave the best results.
So why do you think now that having only the Statement would be a great upgrade for Nigel?
Sorry, something is not clear for me. If the Statement acting as a switch is not the best, Nigel should keep the ER, or buy the PhoenixNet also?
UnitiServe.
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I judged the Statement in UPnP mode controlled by the Naim app too early. I should have left it running unmolested for longer, so that it’s OXCOs could warm up and stabilise properly. And I shouldn’t have confused the issue by connecting the Statement to the PhoenixNet as I did.
On it’s own, with the network connected to the Statement’s LAN port and the ND555 connected to the Streamer port, it works much better than the Nucleus+ with SJ PSU + 2xEtherRegens with SJ PSU. Installing the PhoenixNet between the network (without EtherRegens) and Statement, connecting the network to the PhoenixNet IN port and the Statement’s LAN port to a PhoenixNet OUT port, and then connecting the ND555 to one of the other PhoenixNet OUT ports lifts things still further.
I was on a learning curve and apologise for having confused things. I hope it’s now all clear.
When I had everything connected up and working properly with the Statement and PhoenixNet together, both properly warmed up (or almost), Nuno very gently suggested reevaluating the Statement on its own while he was remotely setting up the LMS workaround that allows one to evaluate the Innuos Sense app. He’s superbly unassuming! Anyway, all the pieces then clicked into place to understand things better.
The Statement and PhoenixNet use the same clocks. As Nuno put it: they talk very well together.
Anyway, that’s also why I did the whole Chord audition twice, just to make sure I’d given everything a fair hearing.
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It does much more than that 
Many thanks or doing the test with and without the ER.
Much appreciated.
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Perhaps also worth mentioning that the LMS workaround that lets you use Sense with Ethernet connected devices won’t play back WAV files (though the UPNP server can).
That’s fixed Monday I believe.
Am I right in saying that Sense is the Innuos control software, comparable to the Naim app? If so I don’t see how the use of Sense can improve SQ, but I am out of my depth here.
It also seems that Sense is not yet optimised for UPnP. Does using the Naim app degrade things to any real significance? Do you know when Innuos will have Sense optimised for UPnP?
Latest update to include this due Monday 13th
Not as far as I am aware. This is all that was stated in the last Innsight blog post:
“This update will essentially feature bug fixes and performance improvements but to show you all we are listening to you on the Feedback Zone, we’re also including one of your requested features: Ability to sort the Albums by Artist on the Albums View.”
The improvement in sound quality is derived from lots of things on the server side and in part in terms of how it communicates with the app far less often.
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Yes that’s right. Sense is the front end to their InnuOS operating system, both on PC/Mac and the apps. I think Sense is more than just the App front end, however.
I don’t know how it improves SQ, but this is not just my impression, it seems to be what most people are finding. I believe some of it is related to entire tracks being replayed from cache - a bit like Naim also do on the ND555. But I’m not really the best guy to answer on the tech stuff. It’s taken me over a week to simply work out how to connect this stuff up and position it to best effect!
Replay by UPnP controlled by the Naim app sounds very good, but not as good - there’s a but more noise in there, timbres aren’t as pure, clarity lags a bit, microdynamics lose a little etc. but its still very organic and lifelike.
Innuos have not to my knowledge set a date - even a vague one - for when full Ethernet support for Sense will be implemented.
My plan here, after comparing Qobuz SQ via all the various different Apps (Naim, Sense, Roon) is to just listen for an extended period without any more futzing about. I’ll quickly restart the Statement before that to get the LMS workaround for Ethernet as stable as possible and then report on how things go.
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I know. The Melco I have is much more than a switch too. But now it’s clearer, as you said that the Statement gave much better results after a long burn in vs your initial impressions. At the beginning you were considering only the PN.
There are two things running in broad parallel. Implementation of ethernet and implementation of full Tidal integration. Latter is running at Tidal speed rather than Innuos. Former will start be addressed full on after today’s update. The hope is that today will end the connectivity issues most have had when minimising Sense and bring absolute stability. Once that’s sorted then the aim is to do the same for ethernet within the next quarter, possibly two.
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FWIW Sense using LMS via Ethernet is less flaky than I thought. One of the problems was with starting a track before the one playing had finished and it turns out this is an unrelated problem that has nothing to do with the Innos. Just wanted to set that straight.
I’m not certain the update will incorporate all changes being discussed, UPnP etc, I was referring to his statement “If no issues are found in the meantime we will issue the update on Monday 13th September”
But going back and reading again I see this is unlikely.
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