ZEN & ZENith Next-Gen Trade-Up Campaign

[Stephen Healy]

Hi everyone, just so you know we have announced a trade-up campaign to promote the next ZEN Next-Gen and ZENith Next-Gen:

Trade-Up Campaign - Innuos - Next-Gen

Trade in your existing ZENith Mk3, PULSAR or ZENith SE to earn a fixed percentage discount off the RRP of a new ZEN Next-Gen or ZENith Next-Gen.

innuos.com

If you were considering moving up to one of these and already have a ZENith Mk3, PULSAR, or ZENith MkII SE then this may be of interest.

EDIT: If you need help identifying which year your unit was manufactured, then the first 2 digits of your serial number will tell you this. For example, if you have a serial number that begins with 21, then it was built in 2021.

 

[Malc.]

Hi @Stephen Healy good idea, the marketing attachment only references one UK dealer, will the trade in offer will be available at all UK Innuos dealers ?

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi @Stephen Healy good idea, the marketing attachment only references one UK dealer, will the trade in offer will be available at all UK Innuos dealers ?

At present, we are only listing dealers who have an actual ZEN or ZENith Next-Gen unit already on demonstration in their store right now. For UK dealers i would actually expect this number to increase to at least 5 or 6 over the coming weeks as they take on demo units, but the idea is they must have a unit on demo to be able to participate in the promotion.

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi @Stephen Healy good idea, the marketing attachment only references one UK dealer, will the trade in offer will be available at all UK Innuos dealers ?

In addition, dealers do need to be willing to participate in the campaign due to the handling of the part-exchange nature of how it works. Not all dealers want to be involved in this, so that's why it is also an opt-in on their part. But we do require them to have Next-Gen on demo so that they can confidently advise on the new benefits of the Next-Gen units and can testify to (plus demo!) the improvements for customers.

 

[Malc.]

Let's hope that a sufficient number of dealers opt-in so that Innuos customers can experience the benefits of Next Gen and access the current offer running to 31st December.

 

[tedwoods]

Please allow a couple of questions:
1. From a sound quality perspective alone, do you think it would it be "wise" to participate in the trade-up programme and trade in my Pulsar for an Innuos Zen NG (I'll be using the unit as a streamer only)?
2. Also, could I possibly order one without an output board (and get the PhoenixI2S Lite Board, when it's released)?

 

[Stephen Healy]

Please allow a couple of questions:
1. From a sound quality perspective alone, do you think it would it be "wise" to participate in the trade-up programme and trade in my Pulsar for an Innuos Zen NG (I'll be using the unit as a streamer only)?
2. Also, could I possibly order one without an output board (and get the PhoenixI2S Lite Board, when it's released)?

Hi Ted,
1. Yes, i think this would still be a good upgrade due to the significantly improved mainboard, the NGaN regulation plus the AudioCore and RTK.
2. You can indeed order it with no output module at all and just use one of the on-board USB outputs (still very good), then add PhoenixI2S when it releases which should not be too far away now.

 

[tedwoods]

Hi Ted,
1. Yes, i think this would still be a good upgrade due to the significantly improved mainboard, the NGaN regulation plus the AudioCore and RTK.
2. You can indeed order it with no output module at all and just use one of the on-board USB outputs (still very good), then add PhoenixI2S when it releases which should not be too far away now.

That's a plan then...
(provided of course I get my dealer to participate...)
Regardless, this trade-up programme was a brilliant idea, that sets a very clear upgrade path for all, as was "educating" Innuos clients on the merits of the NG developments.

 

[frank7036]

Hi @Stephen Healy ,
I saw on another forum that Frank Prowse HiFi in Perth , Western Australia will be having a show, listen and discussion with the Next Generation products and someone from Innuos will be attending.
I live in Adelaide South Australia, do you happen to know if the event in WA is an early stop of a tour of the NG products around Australia state capitals? I haven’t yet heard of any others.
I’m one of the community that would like to hear the comparisons and then decide if the upgrade path is a consideration. Unfortunately, Adelaide to Perth is a minimum 5hr (each way) flight and not inexpensive.
Any further information would be very helpful.
Regards. Frank

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi @Stephen Healy ,
I saw on another forum that Frank Prowse HiFi in Perth , Western Australia will be having a show, listen and discussion with the Next Generation products and someone from Innuos will be attending.
I live in Adelaide South Australia, do you happen to know if the event in WA is an early stop of a tour of the NG products around Australia state capitals? I haven’t yet heard of any others.
I’m one of the community that would like to hear the comparisons and then decide if the upgrade path is a consideration. Unfortunately, Adelaide to Perth is a minimum 5hr (each way) flight and not inexpensive.
Any further information would be very helpful.
Regards. Frank

Hi Frank, not that I am specifically aware of but let me check with the respective sales manager to see what the Australian distributor has planned.

 

[Stephen Healy]

Hi @Stephen Healy ,
I saw on another forum that Frank Prowse HiFi in Perth , Western Australia will be having a show, listen and discussion with the Next Generation products and someone from Innuos will be attending.
I live in Adelaide South Australia, do you happen to know if the event in WA is an early stop of a tour of the NG products around Australia state capitals? I haven’t yet heard of any others.
I’m one of the community that would like to hear the comparisons and then decide if the upgrade path is a consideration. Unfortunately, Adelaide to Perth is a minimum 5hr (each way) flight and not inexpensive.
Any further information would be very helpful.
Regards. Frank

Hi again Frank, it might be best to directly contact the distributor, Max Media, to see how they can best accommodate you. I don't think any dealers in your area have so far expressed a plan to take Next-Gen on demonstration, but Max Media will have better insight on this than I.

 

[frank7036]

Between myself and Max Media we were able to make the comparison happen in Adelaide (thank you to Cameron) and the result is I’m about to become the proud owner of a Zenith NG.
We did comparisons at my house and it was obvious of the improvements from Zenith mk3 to Zenith NG.
Couple of questions:
I’ve backed up my system using the protocols/software inside Sense 3.1. When I create my system on the NG from this backup I assume the new database/music files are an exact copy of my original system , ie there will not be any change in music quality / it is a bit-perfect copy?

When I wish to play a DSD file via a non-DSD compatible dac (pcm chip etc.) Sense allows for conversion of DSD-to-FLAC; how is this accomplished, is the software an Innuos in-house development or is it a commercial product and if so can you confirm which one? I’m wondering if it might be better to undertake the conversion offline and then load the final pcm file into memory or be happy with in-built conversion?

Regards.
Frank

 

[Stephen Healy]

We do have a Transcode to FLAC option which is built into Sense, and comes with LMS/Squeeze. In terms of calculation it is relatively straight forward to do because usually DSD can be calculated down to a PCM multiplier quite easily.
Would it sound better to natively convert those DSD files to PCM ones permanently, and play those instead? Perhaps, you could try doing it to a couple of tracks and see if you feel there is a benefit. I suspect it would be pretty marginal at best, so becomes a question of its worth the labour involved. Plus, you may end up switching to a Native DSD DAC at some point in the future anyway?
Yes, when you restore your library into the NG it will all be bit-perfect; when data transfers like this are not reliant on the real-time domain in the way the live audio playback is, you don't need to worry about this kind of problem.