iFi Audio Neo Stream Notes Part 1 of...?
My new dedicated Headphone listening area...
I have had the new iFi Audio NEO Stream for a few days now, and I have been putting it thru various scenarios, but I have decided that I am going to take this slow, and step by step. Lessons learned from being a Zen Stream owner for over a year now, so there are a few things I won't be doing right off the bat. I am not going to be comparing the NS to the ZS, not yet anyway, Nor am I going to be checking this that or the other settings or any of the does this or that work, not in the first two weeks or so anyway.
This will be simple to follow and contain most parts relevant to this unit, probably the main exceptions being DSD, and HQplayer, it's not that I am not a fan but I do not understand the premise or benefit of these Upsampling scenarios, and I also do not own a ton of Music in DSD, so I am sure others can fill in that gap, and from them, I am willing to learn about its greatness.
I would also like to thank
@ctrlm for all he has offered here, His observations are spot on, and I am in complete agreement with his observations thus far.
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In the first part of my evaluation/review of The new Ifi Neo Stream I plan on taking a straightforward stance, I am going to Treat the Neo (or NS for short) as a stand-alone or new product. My reasoning for this approach is simple, it is a new product, in a different line, and bringing to the table an offering in the Mid-line or close to a higher-end Streaming solution, and I think comparing right out of the gate to the fantastic, and also lower-priced Zen Stream would to me be a bit Short-sighted on my part.
Although I will address and compare it to the Zen Stream (or ZS for short) that will come at a later time, at least for me in my evaluation process, and also in my reviewing of the NEO Stream.
That being said the first part of what I am planning on putting together is going to be simply related to the basics, first up an attached hard drive using the Stream iFi app to play music thru its built-in DAC, and out to my Drop THX-AAA 789 using the balanced output of the NEO and iFi balanced 4.4mm to XLR cable.
After following the simple setup video on iFi’s YouTube channel, connecting a straight RJ45 cable and the included iPower X power supply, as I said, straight forward basic review to start. The only thing extra I did was verify I was on the latest firmware, from within the app, and after a few minutes everything was a go, with my IP address on the screen, and a white light next to the dial showing a good connection, we were off!
I have an SSD with about 80GB of music on it all FLAC files, all ripped from CD. After plugging it into the rear USB port the app started reading the drive and populating the library. In a minute or so I could browse through the files, and select and play anything I wanted. Very straightforward forward and everything worked as it should in this process. I am a Zen Stream owner, so it was second nature in both setup and operation. Speaking of the Stream-iFi app it remains a very basic offering, but gets the job done for file streaming and also setup options of the NEO, I do not look much further at it than that as its intended purpose is not to be anything more than basic streaming and adjustments of the settings of the NS, so in that case its very functional.
I must say right off the bat, that I was very pleased with what I was hearing from the built-in DAC, so much so that I immediately recognized that I was not only very satisfied with the sound, but I was not “wanting” for anything, and by nature, I am a bit of a fiddler and a tinkerer. I found myself just enjoying what I was hearing, and as a note, this is going to be a recurring theme, mainly because I didn’t feel the need to immediately start hooking it up to all of my other DACs. This is a rarity, especially with the Drop amp, which at times I feel can be a bit lifeless, the NEO was giving me all I needed to be satisfied.
For me the interface, and artwork, all worked as they should in AIO mode, for those that aren’t familiar with the ZS this is an all-encompassing mode that allows you to perform any functions of the unit, like Roon, Tidal Connect, and Spotify Connect, or simple SSD streaming, without getting into exclusive modes.
I spent the next three hours listening to various albums, I had no hiccups, no glitches, and everything just worked. My wife is fond of telling me that she knows within 20 minutes whether a new piece of equipment is staying or "meh". She knows this because if she looks over at me and my eyes are closed, I’m in the zone, meaning I am not twisting knobs, looking for wires, or scrunching my eyebrows in a perplexed way, that we might have a keeper!!
Well, we do have a keeper…
Next up Spotify Connect…
Cheers!!