Innuos Zenith ripper/streamer

[Confused]

A couple of point regarding Innous products. The first is power supplies. Many Innuos models feature LPSU's designed by Sean Jacobs, who is a recognised specialist with respect to audio LPSU's, his power supplies have a reputation of being amongst the best in the world. I think this is a critical factor with any kind of streaming devices. If you look at the link per Antoine's post #106, the guy who has got superb results from his "cheap" NUC is using maybe $2600 or more worth of LPSU and cables. Also, there are now many reports from users of microRendus, SOtM kit, NUCs and more, and the theme is the same, better power supplies typically equate to superior SQ. So Innous may "only" use carefully selected off the shelf components, but they are paying proper attention to decent power.

Then we have AudioLinux, complete with "Ramboot" via USB stick, this is reckoned to be a factor with respect to decent SQ from a NUC. The AS poster @Austinpop (again per Antoine's post #106) actually managed to get his Innuos SE running AudioLinux and passed details back to Innuous. So who knows, in due course, this could be something that Innuos offer to existing customers.

Finally, the Innuos is an off the shelf turnkey solution with product support, with built-in music storage etc. The NUC is clearly for the DIY market, so different things for a very a different user base. Both are good in there own way, and as it happens, I have not listened to either of them! So I can make no comment as to which sounds best.