Keith, I’m really the worst customer for one of these things.
Not a natural, intuitive user. I love those varied doorstops called LPs, CDs, BRs.
There is just so much choice, from Oppo Sonica to Auralic Mini, Auralic Aries to Innuous Zenith, Zenith SE to Antipodes/Aurender/CAD, to SGM.
And plenty in between, Melco, Pink Faun, Audio AanZee, Fidata.
Etc etc etc.
For me, I have to balance a whole set of disparate tensions. Desire to even get into streaming converted to action to buy, price v performance, reputation/longevity/provenance/engineering know-how, back-up/networking in the U.K.
So, for me this means that if I sit here TRULY finding it hard to believe I can get a better digital or analog sound than my current cdp and tt without spending £25-35k on both (I truly believe my sources seriously punch well above their price points), what will £10k spent on Zenith/reasonable dac (eg Aqua La Voce) sound like in comparison, if it’s a step down, then I won’t choose to immerse myself in Tidal/Roon, more likely to stick w my current sources.
Additionally so much of my genres of prog and fusion are still best served by physical media, but OTOH I am aware there will be many gems on Tidal/Roon I’d love to hear.
And streamers like AudioAanZee, Pink Faun, Antipodes etc don’t exactly have any U.K. profile, and Fidata etc doesn’t support Roon.
Innuous Zenith seems to be the best compromise/balance, in having excellent SQ, maybe beginning to approach SGM levels, bulletproof U.K. profile/service, good competitive price point, and intuitive ease of use/good customer support.
Asuify has certainly encouraged me too to seriously consider the Zenith.
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What is Jason Kennedy like as a reviewer, can his words be reasonably relied on?