thanks for the well wishes. guess I have been doing just that and will hope the oppo stays alive a while longer.
So here are my updates for the Zenith mk3. I have been listening to it for the past 4 days. LEt me also clarify this unit is fully burnt in.
The comparison is with the the bridge II connected to a Orbi Satellite via a SotM dBCl CAT 7 cable.
- The Zenith sounds cleaner, better clarity but also has more ātrebleā ->actually upon more listening it sounds warmer and richer. The vocals seem to be coming from much closer.
- The bridge II has an āanalogā feel to it, clarity is slightly less than the Zenith but the sense of space is more - sounds more relaxed. The vocals seem to be more distant - more airy.
- The CD ripping ability of the Zenith is really cool and works flawlessly.
I do however feel that I can listen to the bridgeII for longer, there is slightly less dynamism in the upper registers which makes it sound more laid back.
The tonality of the Zenith is definitely impacted by a decent power cord.
I wouldnt say it sounds better than the bridge II - i would say it sounds different. For a 1TB server + decent USB+power cord will be around $5000.
What i can say is the sound is not that much better compared to the bridge - which is $800 or so.
Ultimately for me - as convenient the Mk3 is, I cant justify the price increase (atleast thats what im thinking at the moment). Or can i !
I chose the Zen Mk3 over the Zenith Mk3. I did not see the need for the extra expenditure, even though I could afford it. I made the decision after a couple of conversations with the technical sales manager at Innuos, rather than seeking advice on a forum. I was basically looking for a Roon server with uPnP options as I was new to Roon and might revert to uPnP, and still have not bought a Roon lifetime subscription.
Firstly, Innuos have 10 years of experience in designing audio servers so have pretty much sorted the issues and provide a range of products where you are simply paying for more power supplies or improved components as you pay more. The Zen uses audio grade capacitors, so I saw no need for the Mundorf used in the Zenith. Itās a brand name. Good luck telling the difference. I donāt see the need for SSD as the hard drive is not active in streaming, the data is stored in RAM. I got my unit with 4TB of hard drive, doing that with SSD is hugely expensive. SSD is meant to be more reliable, but if the non-SSD drive fails it can be replaced, as long as data is backed up. The Zenith has a third internal linear power supply, Iām not sure what for.
I appreciate that DSD Sr users want to use the I2S input of their DAC, but when buying a Zen or Zenith Mk3 you are paying for a dedicated linear power supply to the usb output. The unit is optimised for usb output so it seems pointless not to use it. Whether you think the I2S is of benefit is up to you. Darko uses the DSD Sr as his reference DAC and from my recollection he is not convinced that I2S adds anything. I thought the Zen Mk3 usb output sounded exceptionally good, with a $60 usb cable from Chord.
Iāve used various uPnP software players before using Roon, but as my audio system is Roon Ready and I consider it a superb product, I use Roon and am very happy with it.
Because Innuos have spent so long developing their products, they have optimised the power input and an expensive mains power lead should not be necessary. I bought one by accident, so cannot say if there is any benefit.
The Octave is as yet an unknown quantity. The reality is that the experience of other manufacturers is that it takes time to get software right, and even experienced streaming manufacturers usually beta test new software for about 6 months or so. There will be internal testing, but getting into the streaming business is a long term commitment to software development. Paul has admitted this, so to some extent Octave users can expect to be guinea pigs. Iāve beta tested a couple of software packages and it can be quite painless, as long as the bugs are not persistent. Usually there is a beta version and a steady version, but you will not get that on a brand new system. So far as I know, the Octave hardware specification is an unknown quantity, but Paul has suggested it is close to release.
I considered Nucleus, Sonicorbiter, Antelope and bespoke servers before choosing Innuos. I had not used any of them before so had no preference. I did not consider Aurender as I was aware they are rather more expensive and I did not need its streaming capabilities.
I use the Innuos direct ethernet output, I donāt think that is an option with the DSD Sr.
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Steven, thank you for the considered answer. I appreciate your input. Joe
Hi - did anyone hear the zenith vs zen?
I have heard the Zen, Zenith, Phoenix, and Statement. As you move up the line the coherence, sense of space and transparency improves. Additionally the level of detail improves without becoming a distraction, or irritating. I went with the Zenith Mk III as I found it to be the sweet spot in their line-up. Partnered with a Phoenix, which I currently do not own, the Zenith MkIII is a extremely close to the performance of the Statement. I did compare with Lumin and Aurrender as well. I found the Innuos to suit my preference for a more natural sound partnered with an intuitive user interface. My focus was on a server with limited server capability, which Innuos provides.
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And with that Iāl place my order 
Thanks 
heaps
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Good luck, keep in touch as Iām curious as to your experience with it.
Most definitely. Happy to share my cell.
Thanks heaps for sharing your insights
THere is a Nimbie ripper that allows one to stack up to 100 CDs which can then be ripped to a server. Aurrender was using one at RMAF with the ACS10. You would still need to manually make metadata corrections as needed.
thanks. it is the metadata manipulations that have prevented me already having my CDs ripped.
That was what was holding me back as well. I finally bit the bullet and would rip 20-30 CDs per day. It was time consuming. My objective was for my CD collection to be portable allowing me to move it easily across three homes. Not so easy with my record collection. So far I am glad I did it.
Yes, I am sure I would be happier if mine were ripped but, still, doing all the metadata indexing, cataloging seems a daunting task. If I had the money I would pay someone to do it!
Iāve ripped about 3000 cds to my hard drive using dBPoweramp, I may have one or two that needed metadata corrections. Not daunting at all.
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Depends on your collection IME. The majority of mine are somewhat obscure artist released CDs with releases of 100-300 units. Usually they require manually entering all Meta Data, tracks, titles, and images.
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I have a lot of obscure titles and dBpoweramp had difficulty with so few I canāt even recall it happening. It is possible to have issues with day old new releases.
The amount of work required to adequately enter/correct metadata, cataloging, etc. depends primarily on the nature of your CD collection, and secondarily on your desired degree of completeness, etc.
I suggest picking a few representative examples from your collection and seeing how it goes. You will quickly learn if it will be easy to rip and catalog your collection, or whether it will be an exercise in tedium and frustration. My experience unfortunately heavily leans toward the later.
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thanks Elk. about 1500 CDs and roughly 1/3 of them classical so would expect those to be problematic. almost like any kind of plumbing repair. Nothing is āstandardizedā so each case is a solo endeavor. 
Iāve found this to be quite useful: http://www.jthink.net/songkong/
SongKong appears to inspire love or hate. There are horror stories from those who allowed the program to make changes to their directory of music and the undo command did not fix the problems created. Others have been very pleased.
I expect it again depends on what you listen to.