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Thread: Innous zen mini mk2 review

  1. #91
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: Troon

    Posts: 2,476
    I'm tony.

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    best ive tried so far.....

  2. #92
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Seaton, Devon, UK

    Posts: 13,242
    I'm Adrian.

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    OK Tony, I think I am convinced by your thread that this may be a good option for me to sort out my digital library/CD's.

    Can you give me a bit of advice please, if you know the answer?

    I've been looking at the ZENMINI MK.II XL, ZEN MK.II XL, and ZENITH MK.II XL, and trying to get my head round the difference in audio quality. I have looked at the tech spec's on their site and cannot see much difference between then, the obvious difference is the price. Can you illuminate me please? Obviously I don't want to shell out unnecessarily but do want to get good music quality.

    I already have a large amount of CD's ripped to a NAS drive in AIF, Wav or M4P format, along with some MP3's and AAC and my understanding is that I can get these across to the ZEN quite easily, is that correct? Also any CD's not already ripped I can just rip using the ZEN and choose whether to copy to wav or Flac.

    The Caiman SEG looks like quite a good DAC for its price, what's your view, I notice they recommend a power supply upgrade, what did you go for?

    Once I have it and loaded every thing up to the ZEN then I can use the old NAS drive to back it up.

    Thanks

    Adrian
    Listening is the act of aural discrimination and dissemination of sound, and accepting you get it wrong sometimes.

    Analog Inputs: Pro-Ject Signature 10 TT & arm, Benz Micro LP-S, Michel Cusis MC, Goldring 2500 and Ortofon Rondo Blue cartridges, Hitachi FT5500 mk2 Tuner

    Digital:- Marantz SA-KI Pearl CD player, RaspberryPi/HifiBerry Digi+ Pro, Buffalo NAS Drive

    Amplification:- AudioValve Sunilda phono stage, Krell KSP-7B pre-amp, Krell KSA-80 power amp

    Output: Wilson Benesch Vector speakers, KLH Ultimate One Headphones

    Cables: Tellurium Q Ultra Black II RCA & Chord Epic 2 RCA, various speaker leads, & links


    I think I am nearing audio nirvana, but don’t tell anyone.

  3. #93
    Join Date: Feb 2014

    Location: Indianapolis, Indiana USA

    Posts: 779
    I'm Timothy.

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    Adrian, if I may just add a bit from my own perspective, and it isn't much really. I listened to the Zen Mini and also the Zen Mk2, and was set to just go cheaper and buy the Mini, but in listening tests, I felt the Zen Mk2 really sounded the better of the two, seemed to me to have more control, improved definition across the board. I prepared myself to really not hear a difference, but to my ears, it was there.

    Of course the blurb and those supposedly in the know will say it is down to the linear power supply that the Zen Mk2 has over the SMPS of the Mini. Okay, maybe, I really do not know, nor do I care at this point. I bought the Zen and figured it really was a sweet spot in the lineup, and took care of any desire to add a linear supply later on if I wanted to "upgrade". Later I heard the Zenith, and it too seems to give a bit more, but I stand by the Zen Mk2 being where I will probably stay.

    With my DAC and the Innuos, I am very happy with my digital setup. I guess another thing that helped is that my distributor gave me a price in which made the step up really a no brainer. There are obviously cheaper ways to skin the cat, for me, I don't want to faff about with computer BS, I am not into that one bit, I just want to listen to music and be able to easily rip my CD's. Job done. FWIW...
    Holbo TT-Nag 110-Croft phono/Innuos Zen MK2/LinnenberG Telemann DAC-Preamp/LinnenberG Allegro monoblocs/Duevel Venus/LinnenberG Maestro SE-Senn. 660S DH Labs cabling

    Croft Series 7 amps, WLM La Scala, Naim Uniti1, Naim Nait XS3, Naim ND5XS2, Guru Junior

  4. #94
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: Troon

    Posts: 2,476
    I'm tony.

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    Adrian,
    buy the innous zen mini mk2 then go onto amazon and buy a fire tablet-thats your remote control.

    orange squeeze app £3.05, the tablet has ab app store icon ready to go.

    you then need a usb dac-stans seg is fantastic

    usb cable between the two ...im 30 cm-so lets you indulge in fancy wires

    then feed the zen music...i have all my cds 500 plus-just started from ground zero to get it right from the off -time consuming but once done!!!

    best audio upgrade ive made....ive been round the block-honest!!!

    my PSU chat is icing on the cake.....Stan has pushed the audio bang for buck for years-the basic set up is a game changer.

  5. #95
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: Troon

    Posts: 2,476
    I'm tony.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Frazeur1 View Post
    Adrian, if I may just add a bit from my own perspective, and it isn't much really. I listened to the Zen Mini and also the Zen Mk2, and was set to just go cheaper and buy the Mini, but in listening tests, I felt the Zen Mk2 really sounded the better of the two, seemed to me to have more control, improved definition across the board. I prepared myself to really not hear a difference, but to my ears, it was there.

    Of course the blurb and those supposedly in the know will say it is down to the linear power supply that the Zen Mk2 has over the SMPS of the Mini. Okay, maybe, I really do not know, nor do I care at this point. I bought the Zen and figured it really was a sweet spot in the lineup, and took care of any desire to add a linear supply later on if I wanted to "upgrade". Later I heard the Zenith, and it too seems to give a bit more, but I stand by the Zen Mk2 being where I will probably stay.

    With my DAC and the Innuos, I am very happy with my digital setup. I guess another thing that helped is that my distributor gave me a price in which made the step up really a no brainer. There are obviously cheaper ways to skin the cat, for me, I don't want to faff about with computer BS, I am not into that one bit, I just want to listen to music and be able to easily rip my CD's. Job done. FWIW...
    on the money assessment...i will go off the grid and see if the zen plays nice with a car battery!!!

  6. #96
    Join Date: Feb 2014

    Location: Indianapolis, Indiana USA

    Posts: 779
    I'm Timothy.

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    Why not? I am sure it could be quite interesting really! Keep us posted.
    Holbo TT-Nag 110-Croft phono/Innuos Zen MK2/LinnenberG Telemann DAC-Preamp/LinnenberG Allegro monoblocs/Duevel Venus/LinnenberG Maestro SE-Senn. 660S DH Labs cabling

    Croft Series 7 amps, WLM La Scala, Naim Uniti1, Naim Nait XS3, Naim ND5XS2, Guru Junior

  7. #97
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Seaton, Devon, UK

    Posts: 13,242
    I'm Adrian.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by wee tee cee View Post
    Adrian,
    buy the innous zen mini mk2 then go onto amazon and buy a fire tablet-thats your remote control.

    orange squeeze app £3.05, the tablet has ab app store icon ready to go.

    you then need a usb dac-stans seg is fantastic

    usb cable between the two ...im 30 cm-so lets you indulge in fancy wires

    then feed the zen music...i have all my cds 500 plus-just started from ground zero to get it right from the off -time consuming but once done!!!

    best audio upgrade ive made....ive been round the block-honest!!!

    my PSU chat is icing on the cake.....Stan has pushed the audio bang for buck for years-the basic set up is a game changer.
    Thanks Tony, it sounds like the linear power supply or using a battery with the Zen Mini make the improvement from what you say and what I can find on the net, don't think the Mrs would suffer a 12V car battery in the lounge though.

    So it sounds like the Caiman SEG is he one to go for and I will have to work out what to do on the Zen front based on your and Timothy's comments. I already have an iPad so can use that as remote.

    I have just had a play with my Mac and Audirvana and just going straight into the hifi using the stand audio out, mainly to compare the improvement over iTunes and there is one, obviously the DAC would make a bit difference. However I think that a Zen and Caiman SEG is the nice solution with control from iPad.

    Thanks for all your help,
    Listening is the act of aural discrimination and dissemination of sound, and accepting you get it wrong sometimes.

    Analog Inputs: Pro-Ject Signature 10 TT & arm, Benz Micro LP-S, Michel Cusis MC, Goldring 2500 and Ortofon Rondo Blue cartridges, Hitachi FT5500 mk2 Tuner

    Digital:- Marantz SA-KI Pearl CD player, RaspberryPi/HifiBerry Digi+ Pro, Buffalo NAS Drive

    Amplification:- AudioValve Sunilda phono stage, Krell KSP-7B pre-amp, Krell KSA-80 power amp

    Output: Wilson Benesch Vector speakers, KLH Ultimate One Headphones

    Cables: Tellurium Q Ultra Black II RCA & Chord Epic 2 RCA, various speaker leads, & links


    I think I am nearing audio nirvana, but don’t tell anyone.

  8. #98
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: Troon

    Posts: 2,476
    I'm tony.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by AJSki2fly View Post
    Thanks Tony, it sounds like the linear power supply or using a battery with the Zen Mini make the improvement from what you say and what I can find on the net, don't think the Mrs would suffer a 12V car battery in the lounge though.

    So it sounds like the Caiman SEG is he one to go for and I will have to work out what to do on the Zen front based on your and Timothy's comments. I already have an iPad so can use that as remote.

    I have just had a play with my Mac and Audirvana and just going straight into the hifi using the stand audio out, mainly to compare the improvement over iTunes and there is one, obviously the DAC would make a bit difference. However I think that a Zen and Caiman SEG is the nice solution with control from iPad.

    Thanks for all your help,
    im lucky that i have a cellar bellow my listening room....car batteries dont have much waf factor

    regards the SEG Stan has a new very innovative power supply, the Dorado....well worth reading up on it

  9. #99
    Join Date: Dec 2015

    Location: Coppull

    Posts: 147
    I'm Robert.

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    Quote Originally Posted by wee tee cee View Post
    mine is sitting on top of my amp/dac...30cm usb is a lavri.

    reckon mine is settling down....very good indeed!
    Lavricable arrived this morning.

    It's a very nice improvement over what I had been using. Very nice.

    Thanks for the recommendation.

  10. #100
    Join Date: Feb 2011

    Location: Troon

    Posts: 2,476
    I'm tony.

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Rob1969 View Post
    Lavricable arrived this morning.

    It's a very nice improvement over what I had been using. Very nice.

    Thanks for the recommendation.
    glad it worked out for you....give it a 100hrs to settle down!

    Im feeding the zen a battery supply-Stan helped me source an adaptor....another incremental improvement sonically.

    dorado psu enroute....will report back my findings

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