Innuos Pulse Mini reviewed and compared 

Thanks! Yes, English is not my first language and I've never lived in any English speaking area so that's why my accent is strong.

I’ve commented on this before, your English is amazing. The considerable change with character set makes what you do fantastic.

I totally agree! Absolutely love your reviews.

Thanks for your support!

me to, but my Bluesound into my Pontus is pretty good

@@xstensl8823….well…my Mercury Streamer "should" be a significant step up in sound fidelity from the Bluesound Node Streamer…but your Blue Sound's interface blows Volumio out of the water I am SURE!! 👍🏼 Volumio has a decent interface…but the lags drive me crazy 😵‍💫…LOL!

I completely agree. The crystal oscillator in the mini is bottom rung whereas usb is asynchronous and doesn’t depend on the clock on the mini. You would need a reclocker if you really need SPDIF.

I did add LPS to the Innuos Pulse and yes, it takes it to a much higher level. Try it, you won't regret the upgrade :)

Oops. Scratch the previous comment please. I was confusing this with another video I just watched. ✌️

Thanks for your support man! 👍

Welcome!

😄

Thanks for loaning it to me and making this review possible. 👍

What external DAC are you using Vladimir?

@@PP-nh1lv I'm using an Atoll dac board DA200, with the AKM4490 dac chip. It's installed into my IN100 Sig amp

@@vladimirjovanovic2803 👍

@@vladimirjovanovic2803How is the SQ of that onboard DAC? I like a nice integrated amp w/a well matched onboard DAC. And Atoll sure seems to get a lot of love from a lot of people. 🙂

It was just my line of thoughts at the moment. I belive that very few buyers will actually use it that way, but I'm just thinking out loud here without any actual statistics. Anyway, that's how I saw it...and my comment reflected that. But of course, if you're actually using that feature then it's 100% important to you personally, so there's that.

I am glad you mentioned that the Sense app was designed like that; the loading was my only concern on the Pulse Mini, but still I like it better than my Node (N130). The Node's app is good but sometimes it just does not connect when you open it and I have to reboot the Node. Never had to do that with the Pulse Mini. The Eversolo looks interesting, but I still would have gone with the Pulse Mini mainly because of the Innuous' customer support aspect, which I have used and it was excellent, and the Sense app seems to be more pleasant to use according to iiWi.

@@roig8578 Absolutely, the Innuos software and streamers are solid and a joy to use. Glad you enjoy using the Pulse Mini. I have had my Zen for 3 years and never had an issue, it is always on, works every time I use it. Just a great product. Cheers.

I'm currently looking for a streamer. That constant loading is an absolute deal breaker for me, lol. Everyone has their preferences, I guess.

@johnvalatos4073 @donnowak4304 So now application lag is a feature? LOL, you can't make this s up. Application lag is intentional to improve sound quality? sNAKE Oil must have been on sale that week, the koolaid is strong in this one.

@@bumpsy2358 The client software disconnects from the Innuos unit when you are not using the client software on your PC, tablet, phone after a certain time. There is obviously some lag when you go and reuse the client software as it reconnects with the Innuos unit. So it is the disconnection, not the lag, Innuos have found improves the sound. They tested it and noticed an improvement, take it up with them don’t call it snake oil if you don’t have the data. They would really be silly to do this if there is no improvement, just saying. In the end it does not bother me, usually playing a album or playlist so one or two seconds to reconnect is not a big deal. Also the software is great so no need to pay for Roon 👍.

I think the looks are dreadful compared to the Eversolo! 😄…but of course there is no right or wrong here. 👍🏼

@@bobb.9917 good thing we are not married!

The DAC will have more impact in my experience so I advice putting bigger chunk of the budget towards that.

Long story short - no, digital platforms don't sound the same even though they should in theory. In reality, every device connected to your HiFi can introduce some kind of noise, jitter, etc. that is carried alongside the digital data and influences the analog signal that way (not through the data stream that is perfectly preserved in its digital form). So connecting your DAC to PC will sound different than connecting it to a dedicated low-noise digital platform. And those digital platforms will also sound slightly different from each other. All of this said the scope of that difference is not nearly as big as when you change your speakers or your amplifier... but once the whole system is of a very high quality, it's noticeable enough in the resulting sound that many audiophiles take care about these digital transports too. It's not intuitive and people with shallow understanding of this topic, or not used to critical listening, are prone to ridiculing audiophiles for claiming to hear those differences. That would be as concise an answer as I can give in this short amount of time and space. My advice is this - if you're not deep into this hobby, chances are it will not make a significant difference to your system, and investing in better gear like speakers, amps, and DACs... is still a better idea. This is more like adding racing tires to the fast racing car - the last touch that brings small improvement that might not be noticeable to an average person but is very important to the racing driver no matter how small it is.

@@iiWiReviews , thanks very much for taking your time and providing such a comprehensive explanation. Your are right, I am not too much into audiophile, but rather into a high fidelity sound equipment, which satisfies my ears and brain :) Will definitely look into the digital signal distortion topic a bit deeper to better understand the impact here. Also cannot wait for my Eversolo DMP-A6 to be delivered to check it out with my setup. Thanks again and keep your channel members excited!

It's a tube DAC that I made myself. It's similar to Lampizator DACs because it's based on the project of their creator Lukasz Fikus, but built like TOTL product. I'll make a video about it sometime.

@@iiWiReviews yes. Thank you. Would love to see a video about that. Keep up the great reviews.

I used it with a default one but also with iPower X power supply. But that doesn't matter much because both benefit equally with better power supplies, with performance gap staying the same.

I did an A/B with a linear power supply. (Overkill, had it on hand. 12V, 13A so beefy). The USB output didnt really change that much, if at all. The coax output made a big difference, It removed a layer of grunge. Hard to quantify - just that for me, it went from not being able to listen prolonged time to where it was competing with the USB output. USB output was still cleaner but was less exciting/dynamic than the coax output. The coax output was now listenable. I am pleased with the rock solid innuos sense app and expect it will be supported for a long time. That to me means that the innuos pulse mini is a keeper and I am less interested in the Eversolo because chances are the company would probably come out with a new model and drop support for the DMP A6. Its just a different philosophy - wouldnt mind if it was $100 but for 1k, I want it to have a 5 year lifetime minimum

I also compared it to my reference streamer - a W4S modified Sonos connect which is an amazingly good sounding streamer, much better than the sonos port, blueound node. Thru the USB port, it was very close. The W4S connect was livelier with better defined midbass thru the coax and the pulse mini seemed a bit cleaner in the highs, more reserved (less dynamic) and not quite as full midbass. The slight lack of midbass that was referred to in the review holds true whether the innuos output is USB or coax, which makes me tempted to compare with the Eversolo

I haven't tried Teddy Pardo PS but Eversolo is comfortably better than Node. I just don't see any situation where Node is able to catch up.

@@iiWiReviews How about when you add the SMSL SU 1 to the Node to achieve a cost conscious quality sound as I did?

Yes, it would. If you don't mind using 3rd party apps with Gustard, I can recommend Bubble UPnP (one time $7.99 purchase for lifetime licence). It has pretty and fast UI, can stream Tidal, Qobuz, radios, and local network storage.

I haven't had a chance to listen to those so can't help you there.

Going by memory and some intermediary comparisons, it feels like they are roughly in the same tear but PecanPi+ might have an edge in terms of resolution and fine deteil retrieval. I wouldn't be able to go into more detail without a fresh and direct comparison.

@@iiWiReviews Thanks.

Renderer inside the R26 and A26 is really good but it's kinda on analytical side of things, lacking just a bit richness and tone timbre. Because of that I preferred using it with external streamer. On the other hand, the DAC part is so good and thanks to that it can easily pull ahead of Pulse Mini and DMP-A6 as a whole device.

@@iiWiReviews OK, thanks for that. I very much appreciate your opinion.

R26 has HQ Player integrated

​@@iiWiReviews there's an adjustment in HQ Player that fixes your complaint about sound ( most of the streaming needs an adjustment in the lowering of its digital volume) some do a 3db drop check box other have to be done manually!!!!

@@thinkIndependent2024 Hey, thanks for your comment! I haven't explored HQ Player yet. It looks kinda complicated and I'm not the most tech savvy guy. Once I (if ever) finish my never ending home remodel project maybe I try playing with it. I understand it integrates well with Roon.

I can't recall with certainty at the moment but I belive Pulse Mini uses higher voltage (9 or 12V) so it can't be used with Shanti which is 5V. You should check its specs. iFi iPower X or elite, or Sbooster all produce PS with those higher voltages.

@@iiWiReviews Looks like you are right i checked as well. Too bad as I already have a Shanti powering up my RPi streamer. Thanks!

Eversolo is better if the rest of the system is good enough to show it. Wider and deeper soundstage, cleaner overall.

Similar to Lampizator DACs, by same creator too. I'll make a video about it at some point.

Great review btw! :)

Listen carefully to 17:40; it depends on the person's experience. I see both great options for various reasons - one of my concerns about the EverSolo is the support and future updates. Wouldn't be a surprise if EverSolo released a new update version and then leave the current version behind.

If it's $400 more in your case then it's not worth it, especially if you only need a digital streaming part. As I said DMP-A6 is even better digital streamer. But price difference is not so straightforward... For example, I need to order DMP-A6 online and pay import fees and tax which puts it at the exact same price as this one bought locally from the dealer (tax included). Louding is annoying and I didn't downplay it, I talked about it, I even recorded it in action... I did the same for EverSolo app shortcomings so everyone can decide what's more important or more annoying to them.

What a clown.