Core, Innuos or NAS?

If you are currently happy using the NAS, why change, do the minimServer change? I have no experience of Innuous, but I am pleased with my Core, for ease of use and SQ. However, it’s ability with classical has been questioned by some. If you are convinced you need a change why not take a bunch of classical cd,s to the dealer and try on his ex dem Core, and the Innuous if he has one. If it does not handle the metadata as you would like, I think you then have your answer.

The innuos will act as a Roon server if that appeals.....

Stover posted:

Is there something new to Core, regarding rip and metadata handling? I can get one at a fair ex dem price. I have quite a lot of classical cd boxes. 

Any experience with Innous with the same metadata handling in mind?

So far I’m looking at installing minimserver to my NAS and continue using DBpoweramp. 

Thanks, Stover

The Core hasn’t really moved on much from the Unitiserve when it comes to metadata, so you are probably going to be happier with DBpoweramp and Minimserver. I do quite like the Innuos servers, but I haven’t investigated their metadata handling enough to form an opinion. 

Roon is another option you could consider. You can do the free trial, possibly on hardware that you already own, before deciding if it’s worth the quite large cost. 

A store-renderer, as Innuos and Core can be, removes the network from the equation when playing your own stored music - none of the network issues some people seem to have, no fretting over whether different ethernet cables, switches and switch power supplies make a difference. 

bought a Innuos Zen MK3....tested the MK2 version and was really pleased by the SQ and the ease-of-use! I never thought that a NAS can "improve" SQ.

I bought the Innuos Zenith Mk.3 after having a demo of the both the Zen & Zenith Mk.2...must say it is incredibly easy to use and the SQ is fantastic.

Regarding the metadata ~I am led too understand that you can set how it appears on the server by going into myinnuos.com though I must admit I have not done this as yet...one of those jobs I'll get round to one day once I have ripped all my CD's to it.

You'll quickly find out that MinimServer is much more flexible than the Uniti Core when it comes to things like tagging and metadate.

Thanks everyone. Nothing new then!

One option could be to purchase the Core and sell with minimal loss if it end so. Innous I have to travel to a dealer for a demo, about an hour by plane or 550Km by car. Innous sounds interesting...... and I may investigate further.

Based on your input I will until further hold on my NAS and install Minimserver (my next project after tuning the room acoustics).

S

Stover posted:

Thanks everyone. Nothing new then!

One option could be to purchase the Core and sell with minimal loss if it end so. Innous I have to travel to a dealer for a demo, about an hour by plane or 550Km by car. Innous sounds interesting...... and I may investigate further.

Based on your input I will until further hold on my NAS and install Minimserver (my next project after tuning the room acoustics).

S

You can but do not have to install MinimServer on your NAS. It is both easier and, in my view, meaningful to run MinimServer on a Raspberry Pi attached to your network or on a similar headless device. The data can stay on the NAS, of course. If you have classical music albums, you should probably go for MinimServer and you should certainly not go for the UPnP server that comes with the Core. You can probably use the Core as a NAS and, with a number of restrictions, as a ripper. But classical music data should be served by MinimServer, in my view. An alternative to server + renderer devices like the Core, the Innuos, the Antipodes and the Melcos is the Allo DigiOne Signature with MinimServer and upmpdcli running on its host RPi. If you prefer to run the server on a separate device, the Signature is also an excellent network player. It can be directly connected to a Naim DAC (or any other DAC with electrical S/PDIF inputs) via BNC or RCA.

With Innuos you are limited to LMS or Roon; and the spec isn’t great for Roon if you have a sizeable library. It is my understanding that Innuos doesn’t meet Roon’s recommended specs. As a disclaimer I have no direct Roon experience with Innuos. I tried Innous with iPeng. IPeng isn’t too bad, but I felt one shouldn’t be restricted to LMS if one isn’t into Roon...

Why limited to LMS (I assume you mean Logitech Media Server)? Is that pre-installed and the only choice (other than Roon) as library software? I ask because I hadn’t spotted that, though I admit my knowledge of Zen/Zenith is not great in depth.

Timo posted:

With Innuos you are limited to LMS or Roon; and the spec isn’t great for Roon if you have a sizeable library. It is my understanding that Innuos doesn’t meet Roon’s recommended specs. As a disclaimer I have no direct Roon experience with Innuos. I tried Innous with iPeng. IPeng isn’t too bad, but I felt one shouldn’t be restricted to LMS if one isn’t into Roon...

Ive been waiting for the new Zen models to be released so I can go listen. You can see their specs on the website, and they are certainly more than the minimum needed. 

To me the Core sound better than the HDX-SSD + NAS I used before. I dont know - possibly it generates less high frequency grunge in the rack.

I also prefer it with a 4Tb Video HDD (compared to Samsung 2Tb SSD). Or maybe its just time for me to get out of hifi-mode and go back to music.

Some people hear a difference between a Core and a standard NAS, others don't. If you already have a NAS, get a Core on loan from your dealer and compare. Rich 

Thanks again for your input. Since there`s nothing new to Core since last time I was "on", I have decided to follow the NAS route and change to Minimserver. Cheapest solution and it may be most convenient way also.

Thanks, S

Steinar- I’m not sure what nas you have, but if it’s a QNAP you may want to try Asset. They are designing a version for Synology too. A downside with Minim is that you have to install MinimWatch on a computer to configure it. Another thing is that it doesn’t rescan automatically for new albums. Asset rescans automatically, and if you link it to the screen of your iPad you can fiddle with settings, such as the browse tree and transcoding from the Pad. It’s not quite as flexible for classical though. I’m sure either will be fine. There certainly seems no point getting the Core, so the money can be used for better things, like holidays!

I have a Synology ds213 which seems to have given up the ghost. I have been using it to store music (and serve it to my Nova), movies and lots of photos. Can I use a Core or Zen to do all of this? If i need to buy a new machine anyway, I might as well bite the bullet and have the added benefit of ripping capability. 

What that confuses me is that in the end it seems that all mentioned solutions have their restrictions or lack of usability in some way. I have a Synology DS212J NAS with Mediaserver software. I have been thinking of buying av Qnap with Asset as I have read Asset is easier to come around with metadata, but to be honest, I don`t know. I  studied the Minimserver software for Synology some months back and to my head it`s not a simple forward.

S

Stover posted:

What that confuses me is that in the end it seems that all mentioned solutions have their restrictions or lack of usability in some way. I have a Synology DS212J NAS with Mediaserver software. I have been thinking of buying av Qnap with Asset as I have read Asset is easier to come around with metadata, but to be honest, I don`t know. The Synology could be used for other things such as photos.

S

What do you feel to be the restrictions or the usability drawbacks of running MinimServer on a RPi connected to your network?

ChetBaker posted:

I have a Synology ds213 which seems to have given up the ghost. I have been using it to store music (and serve it to my Nova), movies and lots of photos. Can I use a Core or Zen to do all of this? If i need to buy a new machine anyway, I might as well bite the bullet and have the added benefit of ripping capability. 

The Core and Zen are proprietary devices that do not have the flexibility of a regular NAS. You cannot run third party apps on a Core, although you could in theory store non-music files in its downloads folder and allow a computer to access them. 

If you really want a Core, I would run a regular NAS to back it up, and use that for any non-music purposes. 

I'm very pleased with my Innuos Zen MK2 mini easy set up excellent sound and integrates well with Sonos. I didn't need to know what to do with a server at all..it just works really well!

ChetBaker posted:

I have a Synology ds213 which seems to have given up the ghost. I have been using it to store music (and serve it to my Nova), movies and lots of photos. Can I use a Core or Zen to do all of this? If i need to buy a new machine anyway, I might as well bite the bullet and have the added benefit of ripping capability. 

That ripping capability comes at a high cost -- both financially and with respect to lack of metadata management functionality. Me - I'd buy a new nas box.

Does the Innuos not allow easy metadata management? (I ask simply because I don’t know)

To me the key is library/playing software that is not too fussy about metadata, when one can sort metadata on a computer after ripping or downloading before sending to the store, whether a NAS or a store-renderer, so my focus would be more on what the library/player software is like, how easy to use and how it lets me access things that might have imperfect metadata (whether it is a fixed product or allows a choice of software  is not so important)

incidentally, a similar storage device is Melco, usable either as a store-renderer, or store with a dedicated (non-network) ethernet link to a player, or as network server. I recall someone doing a thorough comparison of Melco N1A and Innuos Zenith and concludingblatter sounded better - I think that was as a store-renderer, so no network considerations. 

Innocent Bystander posted:

Does the Innuos not allow easy metadata management? (I ask simply because I don’t know)

 

 

 

I have an Innuos Zenith, it allows you to check and change the meta data it has found before you rip, but it is also possible, although not best practice, to edit after ripping.

You can rescan minim from your ipad or phone by accessing the ip address of your nas with port number 9790 (default value). But you need a pc to configure it, as Hungryhalibut states.

example: 10.0.0.1:9790