Now there´s good stuff to watch from youtube.
Innuos new Phoenix usb reclocker,might even beat our loved Matrix ,but it´s around 3150usd. Even without it the Innuos / YG / Boulder room was the most intimate…etc…
And Tekton Moab´s ,maybe my next speakers after Double Impact´s,they just rock 
Just watched the first 5 mins…more later,enjoy the show review.
The Innous Phoenix - Zenith Mk III combo was fantastic sounding, but at a price, approximately $7,750 for the combo.
Innuos told me that they don’t consider servers should reclock. It’s the job of the streamer or DAC. The Zen and Zenith units have a linear power supply dedicated to the USB output. This Phoenix unit is probably an excellent unit, but whether you need it is probably more dependent on the rest of your system. I use the Zen ethernet output anyway.
If your system is up to it and has the resolution the addition of the Phoenix was a very noticable improvement on the Zenith Mk III. The difference was not subtle.
As Innuos explained it it is the Statement USB and powers supplies in a separate box to be used with the Zenith Mk II. It can also be used with other devices from Innuos or manufacturers.
How do you connect ethernet output from Innuos to dsd dac? Have you found that route better than usb with Matrix or similar ?
Too bad they didn’t think to put an I2S output on it…
I haven´t seen the back panel of Phoenix,but if there´s no i2s out ,it´s their loss.
Easier to purchase their Statement streamer ,price difference is not that much up there in around 10K ,with all that fancy usb stuff in it already. And then put Matrix i2s out.
Innuos said that their Statement sounded worse with Phoenix than without,because of extra cables. Go figure…But I´m pretty sure it sounds better with Matrix with all extra cables and external lps and so on…
Don’t use USB. I connect my Innuos to the Devialet expert streaming input directly using a 1m Ethernet cable. Devialet then reclocks.
Several servers provide an Ethernet signal output.
I have tried the usb out on the Mk3 it is very good.
What I do not understand is that if you look at the PS Audio PWD MK2 DAC page (I had one) it says that the Digital Lens processes the usb input in such a way that the quality of the input is irrelevant as the Digital Lens will provide a jitter-free signal to the DAC. I used it via USB and was happy with it.
So I don’t understand what the point of I2S is and why a device like this Innuos should improve the DSD DAC, which I assume also has a Digital Lens.
Im glad to have moved past USB, as it is a computer protocol not ideal for audio.
I must say I do find it a bit annoying that PSA creates names like Digital Lens, Gain Cell and Analog Cell, they don’t mean anything, I can’t remember was the Digital Lens did and Paul was kind enough to explain that the Analog Cell was a FET input buffer stage, but all Class D amps have these in one form or another but other manufacturers are rather more specific.
Rant over, this Innuos unit is consistent with their policy of not having reclocking in their servers and I suspect for some systems it will be a very useful device.
I wonder about other manufacturers implementing I2S as there is no standard for it. Possibly why Innuos did not consider it.
According to Wikipedia there’s only three or four companies that use I2S, I think because it does not have a standard protocol. Roon Nucleus only has usb output, one reason I did not choose it. Aurender have optimised AES/EBU, BNC, Coaxial and Optical over usb. Innuos provide optimised usb and direct Ethernet outputs. There is no possible reason why Innuos should consider I2S.
The only I2S server is apparently from Wyred4Sound. It actually has a button to select PS Audio’s protocol. There is a fairly extensive discussion towards the end of this review. Darko prefers usb rather than I2S into the DSD Snr DAC. He has another DAC on which he thinks I2S marginally better, but he prefers the Innuos server and his is Mk2, not the latest version that has a better power supply.
Great summary, appreciate it.
PS Audio published the most common cable standard some years ago free for all to adopt
I2S is the protocol, it’s the cable and pinout choices that vary.
Other than Wyred 4 Sound I am not aware of any other manufacturer that has adopted it. Nor am I aware of it as an accepted IEEE communication standard.
https://standards.ieee.org/standard/1164-1993.html
PS Audio uses the LVDS standard, others use 3.3V logic, either can use HDMI, RJ45 or BNC and probably others but these are the most common.
Sonore published this compatibility table some time ago. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1h5PMUBkldkpt1rCnAR4ZHYGZNeCe-vwIFyKWYMZWsX0/edit#gid=0
@Paul can undoubtedly add more and correct anything I’ve misstated or misunderstood
Thanks, I stand corrected. Really did not know.
You can’t use BNC for I2S…you have to have enough separate signal lines to support the I2S signaling.
https://www.criticalsound.co.nz/assets/Uploads/i2s-Dac-chart.xlsx
Very nice, except not distributed in the UK. Curious why you have a (wonderful) server that has an ethernet direct output and a DAC with I2S input and you use usb!
Hi Steve, thanks, but what do you mean?
Till now I prefer the short way with no extra boxes …