Thanks for the feedback though.
OK. I hope I can arrange a test at home with the local dealer to test this.
Thomas & Stereo talks about the Zenith MK3 in the video below - and he says the only requirement is that the DAC should have Mac usb drivers already built in. (towards the end of the video).
More & more people are talking about the Innuos gear⌠and all are saying good things. Must be a good sign?
The funny thing is the Pro reviewers at Stereophile really, really like the Innuous gear, but in their own systems they use Roon Nucleus+ servers to their DACs.
That always sticks with me as the N+ is under $2500.
I thought I made that clear. Innuos has been around longer than Roon and the Innuos devices are not dedicated to Roon, whereas the Roon Nucleus is. You can put other things like iPeng on Innuos devices and that Experimental thing. As Iâve only used my Innuos for Roon, I have no knowledge or experience of the other options available on Innuos devices.
AFAIK, like the rest of us, they buy what they can afford which isnât always the best they have heard.
I have watched those Stereophile reviews too what AL referred to,and they found Roon Nucleus+ better sounding than using Innuos Statement so it wasn´t about cost but purely SQ.
Then again Innuos sounds a lot worse using Roon no matter how, is it experimental mode,core,player etc⌠vs streaming straight Tidal/Qobuz or playing cd rips or DSD downloads.
Forget Roon when and if we care only about SQ. Is there even one Innuos streamer owner who really thinks using Roon makes it sound somehow better?
Innuos zenith owner here. I definitely donât use Roon - experimental or otherwise
Same here. I tried Roon with all before mentioned options and cancelled after that because it made no sense to use something that I don´t need and makes sound worse than what it otherwise is. 
Yes, me. And a load of other people. According to the Innuos UK sales director, most people buy Innuos to use with Roon and are delighted with it.
Compared to Nucleus, Innuos has Ethernet output, a quieter processor, better power supply, bespoke hard drive formatting, a CD ripper, internal and external vibration insulation and is not limited to Roon.
Yes I believe many people are happy with Innuos ( or whatever ) and Roon and I can understand that,but they are not interested in SQ then. Anyone who compares the two with any interest in terms of how it sounds will never choose any Roon mode. It´s more a matter of whatever user convenience for those who use it.
But then again my point was that do you really think Innuos sounds better with Roon than without? When did you try it last time without Roon if you so much like it? The difference was not small when I tried it and I would never go back using Roon in terms of SQ.
Before latest 1.4.4 FW not so many were delighted with Innuos and Roon because it had all kinds of problems. For me it was a no go for user experience as well as SQ.
If I were sales director for Innuos I would say it is the best thing on earth.
I used an Innuos with v1.4.3 and Roon for 6 months and had zero problems, literally zero.
What issues are you referring to? Outside of âexperimental modeâ, which comes with disclaimers warning of instabilities Iâve also not heard of other issues.
That experimental mode was best sounding Roon option and like you said it was problematic. Skipping tracks,no sound etcâŚunexpected behaviour. All well documented by many users under Roon/Innuos forums.
But still far away from sounding like without Roon.
I was not referring or pointing out problems. Just that if you use Roon you lose in sound. Whether you care about it or not. I care and no Roon for me.
Is there anyone who feels like Roon improves SQ?
My Euphony server can operate in many different modes.It offers a mode called âSylusâ which loads entire tracks or entire albums into memory before playback. It is said to offer the very best sound from the server. It has various Roon modes as well, I use Roon + Stylus which allows me to play through my Matrix pile. Last week I listened to the server without Roon. I listened to five tracks. It sounded particularly good to me. Then I switched to Roon + Stylus mode and listened to the same five tracks. Again, it sounded particularly good to me.
So in my experience I disagree with your statement that if Roon is involved the sound suffers. YMMV.
You said there were all kinds of problems, so what you meant was just related to sound quality and not âall kinds of problemsâ?
You also said Roon was a no go for you because of user experience, I think youâre in the minority on that one but I do respect that one personâs UX is not the same for everyone.
Agreed, Euphony and Roon sound very good to me.
Sorry but not sure how you can speak for others about SQ. If you donât like Roon fine but donât try and tell others what they like. If Roon was so bad you wouldnât have to speak about it because no one would use it. None of the streamers and DAC companies would use it as well.
Youâve even get @michaelhifi 's back up, so I really think you are barking up the wrong tree.
Roonâs success speaks for itself. If it screwed with the sound quality people wouldnât use it. Subscribers into 6 figures and a large and growing number of manufacturers are Roon Ready. The main reason is it is unbeatable control software (even Paul admitted that the other day) and hardware customers are happy to pay the subscription.
I have used a number of streamers over the last 13 years with incremental improvements. My Innous replaced an Auralic machine. Innous and Roon has worked faultlessly with Roon Ready Devialet Expert for the last 18 months.
I donât use any filters and as far as Iâm aware Innuos/Roon sends out a bitperfect stream of the source data, and if you are using the Statement or Phoenix devices with usb it reclocks as well. Itâs not messing with the data like MQA, which has been an almost complete failure (a disruption technology that singularly failed to disrupt anything or anyone).
I still haven´t received a single answer to the only question and point that I think is important to me and all I´m saying about Roon. All I get is Roon users alarmed if I dislike Roon because a) with INNUOS even the best sounding experimental mode didn´t sound that good and had playback problems. b) There is no b ,it ends there.
Is there anyone who thinks any Roon mode makes any INNUOS !! streamer sound better than without it? Simple Yes or No is enough.
And please if you happen to like Innuos + Roon SQ and I don´t. Just get over it. 
No one is saying you should like Roon. Heck that is your choice just like everything else in your system.
But the notion that anyone who cares about SQ can only like what you like is crazy. I think your last sentence sums it up perfectly.
Historically, people are willing to give up a great deal of sound quality for convenience: MP3, iTunes, iPhones with ear buds, etc.