monteverdi

Innuos missed the promised rollout! Their insights on their webpage is pretty discouraging (especially for MkII owners) and they promised a new OS 1.4.9 for today which is not available. I don't get why after discussion with them for 3 years they are still not able to deliver!

Interesting review of InnuOS 2.0. I had more than 2 years ago several email/service exchanges with Nuno where he was talking about useable U.I. but nothing happened! I was ready to give up on Innuos but then I still like its sound quality especially with the recent upgrade to 1.4.8.. I use Innuos only for local files (no need for ripping anymore) and Qobuz. I am using Spotify connect direct with my Devialet. Recently Apple and Amazon are getting into lossless which one can not use with Innuos. Spotify will follow! So I am not so sure that Qobuz and Tidal will be relevant in the near future. I can imagine that it is difficult for small companies to adjust to fast changing paradigms of music distribution and develop appropriate OS and UI

I agree with you, I was interested in finding new music first, then report of new developments and technical background. I always appreciated measurements because the subjective opions of reviewers are theirs and not mine in general

That avoiding early reflection from furnitures for measurements but not for listening is an interesting observation. Our brain can use these early reflection to have an acoustical map of the space around us but on the other hand direct sound from the loudspeaker and secondary sound generated by (edge) diffraction or early reflections will be merged if sufficiently short (5-10msec, I was reading slightly different numbers). So I am wondering also how much the direction of these reflection plays a role in its discrimination of direct and reflected sound. I was reading that coffee tables in front of the listener that have an audible influence and my limited experience it may be true (I have my table on the side).

Thanks for your response, Toole and also in a similar version Geddes are proposing to use multiple subwoofers spaced over the room to allow wider zones of bass correction (with specific phase corrections). I wonder if that is something Dirac can do and if that leads to a significant improvement compared to standard 2 woofers/subwoofers? Of course that adds a lot of complexity to the setup both computational and room design wise. REW room simulator shows some benefits but I wonder how real these simulations are?

I wonder why the corrected step response shows much more ringing than the uncorrected. As far as I can see it is at around 20kHz. Is it an artifact of Umik with step transitions (I see similar ringing just measuring my Wideband drivers using Umik) or is it introduced by the DSP? I understand digital speaker correction which is what basically Dirac is doing at higher frequencies but I can not understand how the interaction of bass frequencies with room modes can be corrected by just altering the woofer output (past a single point in space). So I am looking forward to learn more about active bass management!

How well our senses can differentiate is a matter of training. That applies to vision, sound and taste. Harman Research (Toole and Olive) used extensive blind listening test to establish objective evaluation of loudspeakers. It is clear that trained listeners give more reliable information than untrained. If someone can not hear a sound difference but other do under blind conditions it would indicate lack of auditory training (or auditory deficiency). Many can not differentiate wines whereas persons who care about wine can.

Great review. There was very little development in driver design for decades except membrane materials. There have recently a few smaller companies developing iron-less motor systems to reduce loudspeaker distortion (THD & IMD) which is for most loudspeakers magnitude higher than any other component. Purifi has on their website some very interesting technical comments https://purifi-audio.com/tech/ They also came out with an even small 4" driver but I wonder why not something larger like 8". Larger drivers require less cone travel for the same displacement (their tech notes explain that more mass only decreases sensitivity) so using their technology could also improve drivers designed for lower cross-over points

I don't understand that statement. You mean you should have everything Spotify has or how you define mainstream service?

In had a French account which got switch to US and I lost the ability to play around 40% of my favorites (which are often not main stream). Looking at the unplayable albums I doubt that these are based on rights issues but on user frequency. So I think the US version is a more dumbed down version for at least classical and esoteric taste. I might get an European subscription when mine expires even if it would be more expensive or forget about Qobuz!

That is not completely correct. Amazon's "ultra HD" can give me high res as I can check the sampling rate on my DAC. But it is not quite consistent. I found that a single song of an album is 96khz the rest is 44.1. If it would be only upsampling through the app it would be plain fraud!

I have mayor issues with access to music the US I can find when I am in Germany (I have a vaction home there). It is not a small percentage but 40% of the music in my favorite list. I understand that getting all the rights in the US is costly work but at it present form I consider the US offering a dumbed down version of the French or other European subscriptions. A lot of these albums which are not available with a US subscription for streaming are also not available for purchase. So Sublime + is a waste of money for me. So I will not renew my subscription if there are not significant improvements. I am also testing Amazon Music and initially I was not impressed but I find more and more music (also in high res) I find interesting. I am using Qobuz via my Innuos using Logitech Media server or Ipeng on my iPhone. Searching on these interfaces is not working very well and so I have to put anything I want to stream in my favorites on the Qobuz app or webpage and then find it under favorites in the UI working with my Innuos (I tested Roon early this year but had mayor issues). My Devialet has Spotify connect and that allows to search for music on my computer (or phone etc.) and stream it direct on my amp (no Innuos used as it does not improve the sound). I prefer not using my computer or phone/pad as a music source but only for UI that also means not UPnP, Airplay etc..

I had a Qobuz account for years which they changed to France when I could not download some music apparently not available in the US. I also subscribed to their Sublime + and enjoyed to find a lot of interesting music, lot in hires. I recently asked them to change the langue to English or German as my French is very lacking so the account got changed to US. Now around 40% of my favorite list is inaccessible mostly the more interesting and obscure albums. After contacting support they made 2 of these available but that is little help for my selection. So I am quite disappointed with US version of Qobuz. I just testing Amazon HD and I am not amazed by the availability of music in certain areas. Spotify has still the best catalog and maybe the best thing Amazon HD will do, is inducing Spotify to make lossless streaming available. My attempts to stream "ultraHD" have failed. Using the Amazon music app on my Mac it tells me the res of the album but refuses to play it at more than 16/44.1. And also tied to use it on my Astell&Kern but unto now it completely refused to play anything (no issues with Qobuz and Spotify)

Thanks for that reply. I tried before just to change language but I think I could not figure that out with a French account. I could use Qobuz with my Innuos via Logitech media player but it is not so elegant. I had a Roon trial and using Quobuz worked great until Roon updated itself and it just did not worked never again in spite spending 2 month with Roon and Innuos support to solve that problem. I can understand that Qobuz has not the full catalog in the US but I feel the US catalog is severely dumbed down (I never thought Tidal has interesting music). I think there is since today even more pressure on smaller Streamer services, Spotify may react to Amazon by having a CD-qality or higher service.

I have subscribed to Qobuz (Sublime+) and enjoyed to discover a lot of interesting music ( a lot in hires). My account was in French and I asked them to switch to English or German. So they changed my account to US and roughly 40% of my music favorites becomes unavailable (streaming and download). I contacted Qobuz and Sebastian from Qobuz helped me to get access to some of them again but I am amazed that such high percentage of albums (which are not exactly mainstream but then why you need a streaming service for the obvious) are restricted. This also makes me think that my searches will omit a lot of interesting music I could find before. Just today Amazon announced its HD service. I still have to figure out how I can use it with my equipment (Innuos Zenith) as I want to keep my computer away from my music system and test Amazon sound quality and music selections. I hope Qobuz figures out how I can access the full catalog or it will become irrelevant.