REVIEW

As a server and streaming transport only, with no analogue output stage, a DAC is required for analogue conversion and so it follows that the chosen DAC will impact on the final sound. That said, as observed with my previous Auralic Aries G1 - the server/transport matters. How good a job it does to hand off the signal to your DAC impacts the final sound - this has been my experience after countless comparisons across multiple combinations of streamers and DACs. It is analogous to a baker selecting better ingredients that go into the final mix and bake. Power delivery, shielding, clocks, damping, RAM/Processing, and quality of output connections – not to mention the performance of the application to run it - for me all add up to performance, which brings me back to the Pulse’s integrated high-quality PSU implementation.

I flipped between listening to Qobuz streams and Hi-Res files on my NAS direct to my Hegel 190 and then the Pulse connected to the Hegel’s internal DAC (both via Roon). Going back and forth is easy with both wired to Ethernet so I was able to compare with various types of music and at different times of the day and found, overall, that I preferred the Pulse acting as a streamer.

Next, running the Pulse in Standalone mode I found the Pulse to sound marginally cleaner, weightier and a very small touch more resolving particularly in bass, than via Roon where the NUC Core is doing the library processing and then passing data to the Pulse. Tracks like Zero 7’s Simple Science were a very close-run thing, but the Pulse just had the edge for me in impact, bass weight and top end refinement – again it’s subtle, but all those little improvements add up across the chain. Listening to Dexter Gordons Tanya, realism and immediacy were a notch improved over running via Roon – detail and cohesion were superb and the relaxed emotion of Gordon’s sax was conveyed well. Timing and energy are on point without ever over-spilling at the top end or sounding too glassy or sterile. There are no delays to streaming, there were no skips or glitches and the process felt easy and relaxed.

Coming to the control app itself (something that streaming products can live and die by) the Innuos Sense app is well put together, offering great outthe-box integration with Qobuz, Tidal and internet radio stations. There are quite a lot of options, but most are intuitive. You can pull existing playlists or favourites from Qobuz (or Tidal) or create new ones in the app across both cloud services and local NAS storage, and it offers curated “smart” mixes for you. Output sampling preferences such as DSD and MQA handling are easy to find, as is the choice of Standalone or Endpoint mode. The latter offers you Roon, HQPlayer and Squeezebox integration, while the former offers UPNP control of other devices should you desire - but it’s not at Roon level in terms of polish and ease of navigation, library sorting or that immersive biographical aspect you get and I do feel it has a little maturing to do versus the extensive Auralic LDS app for example. That said, as I am preferring the Pulse in standalone mode, I am finding it very capable and very intuitive to use. And it’s free…

One niggle is the Pulse cannot be woken up from the app, once shut down you need a physical button press to start it, however, the Sense app has been the most consistently stable I’ve used for some time where others suffer (Auralic a case in point).

Conclusion

From opening the box to setting up and using the Pulse I’m really enjoying the experience. Build and looks for me are superb, the technology and investment made in the internal implementation are of high quality and the connectivity, control and integration are all without fault. Sonically this is going to be subjective based on your DAC and I’m very happy with how it performs and sounds – a lot of that I contribute to the power implementation and quality of digital output connections.

The application worked flawlessly for me and offers a good level of features albeit not at market leading level yet.

The Pulse is probably a bit of a sweet spot for users like me, price and performance wise and offers extensive future and backwards compatibility as well as being able to connect to a lot of existing home systems from TVs to networked amplifiers so I’m not locked in.

At A Glance

Build Quality:

High across aesthetics, choice of materials and