INNUOS Zen MK3

 

Bernd Weber  |  HiFi IFAs [Germany]

December 2018

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Conclusion
"The Innuos ZEN MK3 is a music server with a high "want to have" factor. With its great design, it fits perfectly with your home audio system. It runs silently while you enjoy your music and offers intuitive operation.

 

The ZEN MK3 paints timbres with the finest strokes. Voices, as well as instruments are reproduced fantastically naturally, and with an ingeniously spatial representation. The bass 'rolls clean and dry' through the listening room.

 

The ZEN MK3 is an excellent example of how the utmost care pays off in terms of sound when reading and playing digital music"

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"The musical performance and practicality of the Innuos ZEN MK3 hits our rating scale hard ...6 out 6 !! This is another real HiFI IFA "Hammer" ! A New Year's Eve bang that brings the 2018 hi-fi year 2018 to a wonderful close"

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Howard Milstein  |  The Sound Advocate

July 2020

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Performance & Sound

"In theory, streamed audio should be identical to audio sent via a hard-wired ethernet connection. This allows you to have fast, reliable, low-EMF internet access without having to connect via WiFi. This is typically done with your modem, an ethernet switch, and ethernet cables. My listening room has a direct ethernet wall plug connection to my cable line, so this was extremely simple to set up.

 

The Zen Mk.3 was evaluated for about one month and during that time, it offered me some of the most exceptional musical enjoyment I’ve recently experienced. The gratification of being able to just visit any piece of music available on Qobuz with all the genres of music it offered was supremely satisfying.  

 

Having transferred them to the Zen file storage, I was able to make virtually an exact comparison between the streamed files and the stored files.
For the most part, they were indistinguishable. The sound was, lush, smooth, dynamically neutral in all areas of the frequency spectrum. Excellent detail and transparency were preserved in its midrange response and it kept all previously observed qualities of my system intact. Stage width, depth, stereo image preciseness, and instrumental tonality— (naturally dependent on the program sources) were exceptionally reproduced with this streamer. Tight mid-bass and voluptuously deep bass orchestral drums were transmitted without a trace of hangover or loss of quality.

If this is not a music server/streamer to relish than I surely don’t know what is !

 

Furthermore, and a bit unexpectedly, I was very impressed with how responsive and secure ZEN Mk3 proved to be. The unit was bouncing into action as soon as it was turned on. This was a confidence booster and showed how the quality of its build and steady performance attributes let me just listen to music and forget about everything else going on. Although the Innuos does not have a fancy display screen like models from Auralic or Aurender, I say quite personally, “forget about it”!

The Innous is more impartial on balance, and produces a much greater sense of overall lucidity in its musically smooth and luxurious sound presentation.

 

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Summary

"In the current world of premium, highly-priced enthusiast audiophile components, it is somewhat rare to work with a product like the Innuos Zen Mk.3 as it just does its job so wonderfully well and uncomplicated– indeed, you may be a bit flabbergasted at what you are getting vis-à-vis its price - $2849 USD For a 1TB version.

It does just about everything you will ever need, and it does this combined in a neat, lovely, and self-effacing package.

 

Along with its ripping drive, fully embedded Roon platform, broad deference with other components, effortless operation, and extremely competitive price, the Zen Mk3’s quality, and overall stability are firmly established.

 

Most importantly, it reproduces music and sound with the utmost authority, naturalness, and “live’ performance characteristics, while exhibiting a sense of ease and distinct listening gratification.

 

This music server simply puts a smile on your face as you listen to it perform. What else can anyone ask for? A spectacular value !"

 

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Frank Hakopians  |  Fairaudio [Germany]

November 2019

 

 

Conclusion
"High functionality, the uncomplicated operating concept and an attractive, company-typical design are common to all Innuos music servers. They make streaming almost as easy as using a CD player. That alone leaves a good impression.

 

But in terms of sound, Innuos by no means offers 'home cooking', but rather great potential. This also applies unreservedly to the new Zen Mk3. Its performance brings it very close to the Zenith Mk2 tested in 2017, showing that the extensive update the ZENmini Mk3 and Zenith Mk3 have since benefited from is obviously bearing fruit.

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I operated the Innuos Zen Mk3 on the reference chain in my listening room for many weeks, and more than once completely forgot that my Innuos Zenith SE was not responsible for the sound. I can hardly give the Zen Mk3 a bigger compliment"

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