HiFi PiG’S LIN AND STU VISIT INNUOS HQ IN FARO, PORTUGAL

Lin and Stu head south to Portugal’s beautiful Algarve region and Faro, the home of Innuos, the Portuguese manufacturer of digital music servers, streamers and network players.

When Linette and I set off for Faro, I knew we’d be looked after, but we didn’t quite expect the level of care that awaited us. Restaurants had already been booked to accommodate my own slightly awkward, but self-imposed dietary requirements, which immediately told me something about the way this company does things. They think ahead, they anticipate, and they take care of the details that make a difference. That theme and their attention to detail ran right through the whole visit.

Innuos is a name you’ll have heard plenty over the last few years if you are a regular HiFi PiG reader. You’ll have seen the reviews on our pages and you will have read about their rooms at shows – always planned out and always on point. Amelia dropped into conversation that when they book a room at a show, they plan the room out at the factory so that when the team arrives on site, they know exactly where every backdrop, light, and piece of gear will go – no surprises and no unforeseen headaches.  

However, standing there in their factory, listening to Nuno and Amelia tell their story, it struck me just how far they’ve come. Back in 2009, Nuno and Amelia were in London, working at corporate jobs – Deloitte and Tesco respectively. In his spare time, Nuno did what many of us in this hobby can relate to: he started tinkering. He wanted a way to play his music without needing to boot up a computer or deal with clunky software, something that would just work with a switch of a button.

The thing is, this device worked. It worked so well, in fact, that they decided to try selling a handful online. Six months later they’d sold around 200 units. From there, the momentum built quickly, and by 2016 they had turned their kitchen-table (I’m being poetic, but Amelia did say at one point that their kitchen table at the time was actually too small) project into a fully fledged company, setting up their base in Faro. What makes the story resonate with me is that it was never just Nuno pushing buttons and soldering PCBs in isolation. Amelia has been there from the start, steering the ship, making sure the business side kept pace with the technical developments, and keeping the whole project sustainable as it grew. My take away from chatting to the two over the day at the factory was as follows: Amelia is the planner and the one that gets things done on the business side of things (though she is also an engineer at heart) whilst Nuno offers the same level of dotting the “I”s and crossing the “T”s to developing new products and the software and hardware that are part and parcel of the package. They are a team – two individuals with different skills that the other recognises and values, but who come together to form a whole that is greater than the parts. 

INNUOS HQ IN FARO

Their facility in Faro isn’t vast or intimidating, but it’s clever and well thought out. Walking through with Linette, we noticed how tidy and organised everything was – anti-static measures in place in key areas, workstations clearly set up for efficiency. But it wasn’t sterile or corporate; there was a sense of people working together, chatting, solving problems as a team. They even have a Feedback Zone, where suggestions from customers are collected and acted on. It’s not just a token suggestion box; it’s treated as a genuine part of their development process, with ideas carefully considered and, when they prove useful, turned into real improvements in their products. I was particularly interested in the attention to detail in the rooms where delicate components are handled. We had to put on special ESD protection coats and doodads to ground us before we were allowed in the sealed rooms. Every resistor, every capacitor is checked, given a barcode, and recorded. Nuno told us that this attention to detail gives individual components a longer shelf life that translates into products that last. It also means that if a product has an issue, there is full traceability. Clever stuff and the kind of forward planning that was evident throughout the day’s visit.

Then there’s the Listening Room. The room has been built with very deliberate proportions, and the acoustic treatment comes from Portuguese company Artnovion. It hasn’t been deadened into lifelessness, though. Nuno explained that they’d kept it just on the bright side so that any flaws in a system are laid bare. It’s a space designed for honesty rather than comfort, though it’s a lovely place to sit and enjoy some tunes – no coffee or biscuits allowed though! This last point is a joke (sort of) but it again highlights the forward thinking that has gone on with the design of the space – carpet tiles rather than just one carpet ensure that if there are spills, the offending tile can be removed rather than the whole carpet!

The system they use in there is jaw-droppingly good: Marten loudspeakers up front, driven by Gryphon amplification and fed through an MSB DAC, with of course Innuos’s own products at the core. It is a system designed to reveal everything, and it makes sense when you hear how they listen and test.

Full Innuos HQ system during our visit:

– Marten Coltrane Momento 2 Statement Edition speakers
– MSB Cascade DAC
– Gryphon Essence preamplifier and Mephisto Stereo power amplifier
– Transparent cables, including their PowerWave X power distribution
– Artesanía Exoteryc rack
– STATEMENT Next-Gen music streamer and server
– NAZARÉ flagship music streamer and server
– NazaréNET (prototype)
– NazaréFLOW (prototype)

INNUOS, FROM ZEN TO NAZARE

As we talked, Nuno and Amelia walked us through how the company has grown. The early backbone was the ZEN series (the ZENmini, ZEN, and ZENith) which put them on the map. Those units proved that servers could be more than glorified hard drives; they could be proper source component. Each generation (Mk1, then Mk2, then Mk3) moved things forward in a measured way –  always refining! 

From there they branched out with the Phoenix line. Now, a network switch or a USB reclocker might not sound exciting, but Innuos treated them as seriously as any other part of the HiFi chain. They tackled noise, timing, and power supply design head-on, and the results surprised a lot of people who had assumed those areas didn’t matter. It was a statement of intent: everything in the chain counts and harks back to the early days of Linn and their (paraphrased) mantra “Crap in Crap out” – essentially, this is saying that the source matters and what is lost at the source cannot be magically found thereafter.

The Next-Gen upgrades followed. The ZEN, the ZENith, and the Statement were all reworked, improved, and pushed upmarket. The Statement Next-Gen, with its separate, dedicated power supply, showed just how far Innuos was willing to go to chase performance. Suddenly, though meticulously planned, they weren’t just a company building servers; they were building products that could sit comfortably in the highest-end systems.

More recently came the PULSE series (the PULSEmini, PULSE, and PULSAR). These are very much a response to how many listeners are now primarily streaming their music. Not everyone wants to manage a library of ripped CDs or tinker with network storage. Some just want a simple, great-sounding streamer that drops into their existing setup. Innuos clearly recognised this and built products that made sense for modern listening habits. As Amelia and Nuno said a couple of times through the day, they identify gaps I the marketplace and build solutions to fill those gaps.

And then there’s their newest piece, the NAZARÉ, a proper flagship streamer. It feels like the beginning of a new chapter, pushing them further into the territory of serious high-end digital playback. This is a beast of a product and we got to listen to it next to the already excellent STATEMENT – the differences are not subtle and we all heard more air and more spatial cues in the music. There followed a bit of a discussion on how we perceive sound and whether we all perceive it the same way, which is a bit deep for our report, but the fact of the matter is, we all commented on the same differences in the sound and all agreed that the NAZARÉ was the better-sounding device. At 38K Euros it’s 18K more than the Statement to which I responded “Well it’s only 18K”, which sparked a whole new conversation about prices – another discussion that was a bit too in-depth to rehash here, but one that again indicated that these are a team that understand the intellectual importance and relevance of what they are doing. 

We were still listening to the NAZARÉ when the discussion turned to the design of the new product. If you know Innuos, you will know that their products have front plates that are angular and very stylish  – NAZARÉ is no exception. The story goes that Nuno had been working on the design for the front plate for months (he showed us all the hand drawn images and notes in innumerable notebooks) when he woke up one morning and said “Today is the day I have to make the decisions”, and so NAZARÉ was born. It’s a thing of beauty and that lighthouse-style beam of blue light that illuminates the front panel is stylish and understated – the epitome of quiet luxury! 

Over the course of our conversations, Nuno and Amelia hinted that their eyes are now turning towards the professional studio world. At first, it seemed like a surprising idea, but the more we discussed it, the more logical it became. If your products are already proving themselves in world-class listening rooms, then why not in recording and mastering studios? Having spent a bit of time in studios over the years, I’ll be watching this project progress with interest.

It would be easy to think of Innuos purely in terms of the metal boxes they ship out, but the real magic is in the software. One of the highlights of our visit was being introduced (albeit virtually, since they’re spread across different countries) to the software development team. Each developer has a clear role: one focused on the user interface, another on integration, another on the underlying architecture. Despite being remote, they spoke with the kind of shorthand and shared enthusiasm you only find in teams that genuinely know and trust one another. It was obvious that this wasn’t just a group of freelancers dotted around Europe; it was a proper, cohesive team, all pulling in the same direction. They have morning meetings, talk with each other, discuss problems and shared goals and some do meet up socially from time to time. 

This emphasis on software explains a lot. These are not static products. They evolve. Features appear, the interface improves, bugs are ironed out, and the whole experience becomes more polished over time. Innuos treats software as a living, breathing part of the system. It is as much a product of theirs as any power supply or server chassis. Everything is planned to the nth degree and you can hear in the enthusiasm in Nuno’s voice that this is where he is happiest. Anyone who reads my reviews and articles will know that I’m not really interested in the whole measurements and tech stuff behind the products, but this was a fascinating insight into how the UI we take for granted is meticulously planned, refined, and implemented. And the support side of things was interesting. Every reported problem (ticket) is recorded and acted on, and every valuable bit of information is put on the knowledge database that users can search. One interesting point here was a user that had just bought a (iirc) Sony Bravia TV and plugging it in to the system he’d found a problem with playback. A solution was found (unplug the TV and reboot) and that was logged so that anyone else having this very specific problem can find the solution and have it solved in moments that otherwise could have turned into hours 

INNUOS AND THEIR LOCAL COMMUNITY

What really stayed with us, though, was the way Innuos sees its role in Faro. They’ve made a point of investing in their community. One initiative that stood out is their work helping underprivileged young people get through university – a chance at an education that could change the course of their lives. Beyond that, they support local social projects, giving time, resources, and money where it can do real good. It’s not something they make a big song and dance about, but it matters. You can tell by the way they talk about it that this is not window dressing, it’s a genuine commitment. And it feeds back into the atmosphere at the factory itself. You feel it when you meet the staff, when you see the way people interact, and when you notice the pride they take in the work they’re doing. Every year, all the staff are brought together and put on a coach to an unknown destination. One year, they went to a local centre for kids and cleared the outside space into a usable space for the residents, and another year, they were sorting six tonnes of carrots for a social food program. We were shown photographs and you can see that this kind of team-building exercise works in bringing the people in the workplace together. 

Spending time with Nuno and Amelia makes it clear that Innuos is built on partnership. Nuno is the engineer and the dreamer, always thinking about new ways to improve digital music playback. Amelia is the organiser, the one who makes sure those dreams become a business that actually works in the real world. That balance between technical vision and practical management is what keeps Innuos moving forward with focus and purpose, ensuring that each new step is properly thought through and fully realised before it is actioned. It’s a cool dynamic to watch in action; something that is hugely complex and with many moving parts to organise as one appears to be effortless – a point that comes up several times is the concept that “making something easy is actually hard to achieve”.

TEAM INNUOS

Today, Innuos has a presence in more than 40 countries, with teams in Portugal, the UK, the US, and Europe. Their products can be found in some of the most ambitious HiFi systems around. And yet, walking through their factory in Faro, it doesn’t feel like a global corporation. It feels like a community, a place where people know one another and where the company’s success is shared by everyone involved.

For Linette and me, the visit was more than a tour of a facility. It was a chance to see the people behind the boxes, to hear music in a room designed to tell the truth, and to understand what drives a company like this. It reminded us that HiFi is not just about the equipment on the rack or the specifications in the brochure. It is about people, ideas, community, and values. We got it completely, and it seems that the ethos of Innuos is very much aligned with our own core values here at HiFi PiG.  

From a dining table in London to a purpose-built base on the Algarve. From selling servers on eBay to designing flagships like NAZARÉ. From building hardware to building communities. The Innuos story has already travelled a long way, and after spending time with Nuno, Amelia, and their team, I suspect there are many more chapters to come.

I had a thought whilst we were walking around the factory and seeing all the important little bits that go into making the whole, and that was that it would be a great experience for anyone who looks at a HiFi product that costs tens of thousands of Euros and suggests they can build the same in their shed for four pounds fifty! Get those people on a tour of this factory, and they will see that pulling all this together and building a successful company that employs 50 people, builds great products with great after-sales provision, and an ever-developing user database and GUI is no one man or one woman job; it takes expert vision and planning, along with superlative organisation skills to motivate a large team to create world-class products. Think simultaneously spinning plates whilst juggling chainsaws, AND herding cats, AND nailing jelly to the wall. Add to this actually having the bottle to quit successful careers at a time when you are starting a new family.

We’d like to extend a huge thank you to Amelia, Nuno, and the entire team at Innuos for their splendid hospitality and for taking the time to spend with us. On a final note (and I think this is indicative of how this company operates), Amelia sent us a list of everyone we met on the day and who is involved in the business. From this action alone, it is clear that Amelia and Nuno value the team as a vital and valuable organism that works as one to get the job done. 

Linette and Stuart Smith

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