Esoteric N-05XD and Innuos Server

[ihmeyers]

Good afternoon all. I just received the Innuous Zenith SE server I bought second hand to pair with my N-05XD. It seemed to be that it should have been pretty straightforward - Innuos (running Sense app) DAC out to Esoteric USB in. Simple, in theory. In practice, I can't get it to work.

All of the firmware on both devices are current. The Zenith sends the stream, and the Esoteric seems to "see" it (USB light locks) but no audio and the Esoteric doesn't see the bitstream rate. Every track played shows 16/44 on the Esoteric display, even DSD. I can get it to work using streamer out ethernet into Esoteric ethernet in but it sounds awful because it's bring everything across the network. I know in theory it shouldn't sound that bad but I had the same issue with a couple of NAS devices connected to my network. Right now the Esoteric has a Samsung 2TB SSD attached which sounds really good although I don't think that's the best way to store my files.

Do any WBF members have any ideas? I've contacted both Innuos and Esoteric support trying to figure this out. Thanks much!

Ian

 

[vrac]

Not sure if this has any significance but the Innuos server is Linux OS based. Perhaps the Esoteric unit may have a compatibility issue with Linux?
I know that Esoteric works great with MAC and PC based servers. Good luck!

 

[ihmeyers]

Thanks. That dawned on me. You would think Esoteric DACs should be compatible with Linux servers. I think many (most?) standalone servers are Linux based.

I hope that's not the case or I have a large paperweight.

 

[treitz3]

FWIW, my experience with Esoteric is that the connections to the rest of gear is uber sensitive. Before giving up, try other connections/cables and do not use adapters at all for said cables.

Tom

 

[GSOphile]

Have you contacted Innuos? Checked out their user forum?

 

[ihmeyers]

FWIW, my experience with Esoteric is that the connections to the rest of gear is uber sensitive. Before giving up, try other connections/cables and do not use adapters at all for said cables.

Tom

Thanks. I have tried AQ Diamond USB and the cheap USB the unit comes with. I have one other USB cable I can try, made by Final Touch Audio. Another thought I had which might be dumb, is that maybe the outboard clock I'm using with the Esoteric (Cybershaft) is a problem when the Esoteric is only a DAC and not the streamer. I'll try taking that out of the equation too.

You'd think it wouldn't be this complicated. It's not like Innuos is some home brewed untested server. I have never heard of an issue using it. I'm surprised if it's problematic with Esoteric DACs that I haven't read anything about that on the internet.

 

[ihmeyers]

Have you contacted Innuos? Checked out their user forum?

I emailed them yesterday morning and they opened up a ticket on the issue. I suspect I'll hear back tomorrow given that's it's the weekend.

 

[ihmeyers]

Unfortunately, neither switching back to the internal clock or swapping out to an FTA USB cable helped. Something about the handshake/data stream that's not quite right. The USB light doesn't flash which means the Esoteric sees something but there's no audio and the bitrate always reads 16/44 which is the default if there's no incoming stream. Again, you'd think if this were a known issue with Innuos or Linux servers there'd be reports of it. The dealer I got the Innuos from had never heard of this and sent an e-mail to both Innuos and Esoteric about this. Fingers crossed. Thanks all for the suggestions.