New innuos stream series vs the pulse ZENITH 3 is upgrade necessary

I owned the Zenith MK 3 as well as the Pulsar.  I talked to Innuos at Axpona  regarding the Stream 3  vs the Pulsar in terms of sound quality.   They told me they both sound essentially the same and that the Stream just gives you much more flexibility and features if that’s what you’re looking for. You will pay for those add-ons.  

My personal experience , as well as a good friend with the same Innuos upgrade path,  is that the Pulsar was a nice step up in  sound quality over the Zenith MK 3. The Stream will be a sonic upgrade also. This assumes you pay for the Stream 3 .

If you don’t need a dac, file storage and just want to stream, then a used Pulsar is the best value by far!  

Marco1  You are right it is the Phoenix USB board!  Thanks!  There was originally also a discount on the Phoenix USB module if purchased at the same time.  It is no longer shown.  I ordered mine right after the announcement--before the introduction, so I was told I was one of the first to place an order.  My dealer got his demo unit about two months ago, and I received my unit about a month ago.  I was really grateful when they honored the original pricing for my order because it had been placed at the lower prices.

@mike4597 that was me, not Marco1 :). I should get my Stream1 with PhoenixUSB board and LPS1 later today. I  ordered it just over 2 months ago. I have a 4TB M.2 SSD ready to install.

I have never used a music streaming service so this will be new to me. I plan on trying Qobuz though my wife subscribes to Spotify. I will put all my CDs on the installed M.2 SSD and back everything up on my NAS. I’m not sure if I should just convert all my ALAC files to FLAC and import them or go through the laborious process of burning them all over again direct to the Stream1. I have an external USB Blu-Ray/CD drive.

This will be fun to try and as a analog guy, I’m curious how it will compare to my vinyl setup that I absolutely love. 

@george_r 

fyi - Just made the comment below in another post, so will be very interested to see how the Stream1 stacks up.

“Very late to the party but I just heard something very interesting regarding the new line of “Steam” Innuos streamers.  Also there was another recent thread here that I commented in regarding the Pulsar and new Stream 1.  In that thread the comment was made that the Stream 1 was better than the Pulsar, which I found hard to believe.  This past weekend I attended the Capitol Audio Fest.  While there I spoke to two different Innuos dealers that both commented (unsolicited) that the Stream 1 with separate power supply sounded better than a Pulsar.  Still finding it hard to believe but take it for what it’s worth.”

I currently have the PulseMini with the separate power supply. I stream locally from a NAS, through the Pulse to a DAC via USB, not through a subscription, and I've been extremely happy with the sound quality. I was considering the Pulsar as a future upgrade, but it has now replaced by the Stream 3, which provides a few more options, like the Phoenix USB. But the price has really skyrocketed. Even the Stream 1 is nearly twice the cost of the Mini. My dealer has recommended I wait on any streamer upgrades. The technology and competition are advancing quickly, and I suspect there will be quite a few options on the market over the next several years. Many products are now coming out with built-in DAC and streaming modules, and the preference is for Ethernet streaming, not USB. But that requires a software hub, like Roon, or a laptop, which significantly affects playback quality. The Sense software is great for playback, but I find it tedious for file management. And it is proprietary. So, I'm going to wait and watch for now.