thank you for this very informative review

How to use it with phone, what cable I would need

Nice review! Must ask your advice. Have Drop HD6xx phones. Want to use my iPhone 7 to stream tidal to a Dac. Was going to pull the trigger on a Zen Dac. Would a Modi 3 sound better? Will have a Drop CTH amp or Emotiva Bass X A100 amp (surprisingly good) and Apple camera adapter cable.

Streaming from an iPhone either requires the CCK adaptor or Bluetooth, so you'd need to consider that when buying a rig.

Thanks Currawong. Was going to use the CCK adapter. Would the Modi 3 sound a little better?
Have very limited funds so need to get this right!

Seems interesting to have those plugs at this price, but the improvement in performance over my current daily use Fiio Q1 doesnt seem to be that much.
Its better to save up and buy a THX Amp and invest for the future.

Have you tried driving an MDR Z7 with it? How does it perform with the Zen?

Its a shame you did not try the 4.4 balanced output. It has more power. I bought mine for use at my beach home listening to Tidal with Oppo PM 3s or Senn HD 660s using Norne custom silver cables with 4.4 balanced termination.