![]() The Zen Mini MK3 starts at US$1249 equipped with 1TB worth of onboard storage, with more storage (up to 8TB) available for an additional cost. All of this comes in a compact, fanless package that should be simple to integrate into most any system. It also streams from Tidal, Qobuz, and Spotify, and can do internet radio stations too – some of which broadcast in lossless quality these days. It stores music on its internal drive but can also stream from a local network storage – whether that’s a dedicated NAS or just a network share on your PC/Mac/Linux machine. It works as a Roon Core or Roon Endpoint, as well as supporting UPnP mode and even a Sonos mode for people invested in that ecosystem. So just what exactly does the Zen Mini MK3 do? It’s a streamlined music server which runs a custom audio-oriented operating system for exceptional sound quality and ease of use. ![]() But I realize one person’s “extras” maybe someone else’s “essential features”, thus each reader must judge for themselves whether their needs line up with what Innuos has to offer. Rather, it focusses on delivering what I’ll call the “core” music server functionality, to the fullest and without too much additional complexity. The ZEN Mini MK3 is absolutely not a feature-light proposition. Innuos may have just the right solution in their ZEN Mini MK3 (US$1249/€999), the gateway to their ZEN range of server/streamers. without a directly attached screen for black-box library management and music delivery. These folks want a more straight forward device to serve as a dedicated digital transport, collecting and organizing their music library and serving it up headlessly i.e. I know more than a few music lovers who are plenty technically inclined, and do enjoy a streaming service or two, yet have no use for Bluetooth, AirPlay, touchscreen controls, WiFi or headphone outputs. Not all of these features are useful to all people. And despite vinyl enjoying something of a renaissance, and the compact disc still hanging around (more in certain regions than others), file-based playback is clearly in very high demand. Streaming and file-based-playback capabilities have even found their way into our integrated amplifiers, as documented by Phil Wright’s Ayre EX-8 coverage. ![]() Even more recently, our publisher spent some time with the Auralic Altair G1, which takes a somewhat different approach yet still arrives absolutely brimming with functionality. Not long ago, I reviewed the Nativ Vita – a powerhouse music server with large hi-res touch screen, support for over a dozen streaming services, and vast connectivity. ![]()
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