[Giangi]

They usually reply within 48 hours, aside weekends of course. When your ticket was opened? And if this happened days ago, can you please send it over via PM? I'll check what's up.

I'll send it this morning

 

[vwong99]

Hello All

I have just bought the Zen, and would like to get some help/suggestions on how to operates it.

1. Am currently outputting from iPhone 6. Via CCK, the Zen has no issues powering up and playback. But when connected with wall power supply, it does not power up and stated 'accessory using too much'. Does that means the Zen will not operates at such manner?

2. Read on a post saying it uses the USB 3 adapter for iPhone by plugging it the power supply to the lightning port. Tried this method, used another USB A cable to connect Zen with the provided cable, and supply power to Zen from wall socket. And it fired up and works perfectly. Does that means the iPhone needs additonal power supply in order for the Zen to use the AC input?

Many thanks for any help on this.

EDIT: Tried connect Zen with USB C devices (Samsung Tab A 8’’ 2019 and SR25) with DC supply plugged in, Zen is powered up and playback normally.

As such, with the above setup, does the Zen draws power from the source devices or from the DC supply?

Thanks again for any clarification/confirmation.

 

[G-rig]

I just got the iFi Zen DAC delivered also, impressions are pretty good for AUD$199! The power output concerns and lack of 5V dc adaptor aren't an issue as I'm using with an Matrix M-stage headphone amp & DT990 Pros, and USB 3 from the pc (the cable if fairly short but plugs into the usb on my dell monitor). After a windows driver update from the ifi-audio website I can confirm the MQA works using Tidal and indicated by the magenta light. All sounds pretty crisp, however can't imagine paying for Tidal hi-fi after the 3 month trial but this could change - been a happy Google play music user, not high-res lossless but convenient and fun. Apparently youtube music will replace it this year, may not like it we shall see. One or the other would be fine.

Haven't had a lot of time to listen yet but seems pretty good. I wanted something for a PC-as-source setup, and my original DACmagic is being used with some yamaha monitors. These days I expected that onboard PC sound would be a lot better, don't think it is up to the SQ tasks once you're used to something decent. Given the work from home situation and a new PC i decided to separate the gear .

I think for this price point it's a great bit of kit, especially considering I paid about AUD$300 for a Miere Corda 2Move (9v portable usb/dac amp) in 2008!

Not sure on any other tips/tricks, using the short RCA set of cables for simplicity, may check if the firmware is up to date.

Cheers,

 

[iFi audio]

As such, with the above setup, does the Zen draws power from the source devices or from the DC supply?

In this scenario ZEN DAC is powered only from a DC power supply.

1. Am currently outputting from iPhone 6. Via CCK, the Zen has no issues powering up and playback. But when connected with wall power supply, it does not power up and stated 'accessory using too much'. Does that means the Zen will not operates at such manner?

ZEN DAC connected to your iPhone 6 via CCK and powered by a DC power supply should work.

 

[vwong99]

In this scenario ZEN DAC is powered only from a DC power supply.

Thanks @iFi audio for the kind confirmation. Am loving the sound from it after letting it run continuously for 72 hours and still running...

 

[vwong99]

ZEN DAC connected to your iPhone 6 via CCK and powered by a DC power supply should work.

It works now with DC supply plugged in while removing the lightning supply to the iPhone via the USB 3.
But I noted that the ZEN DAC would not light up green immediately when power up as opposed to powering up with USB only.
It only starts working when started to playback and color is rotating normally per the file details.

Is this a normal process? Thanks!

 

[vwong99]

Sorry if I have to ask this silly question.

Aside from power supply, is there any other values using the ZEN DAC with USB only vs USB+DC supply?
Did a short test with the above, and I can hear there's more power and 'thumping' bass with the latter.

Don't get me wrong. Am loving the ZEN DAC as much as the Hip DAC I currently owned.

Just would like to know more of the differences from ZEN DAC owners.

Thank you!

 

[Giangi]

If I plug the 5v dc adapter, the bass boost and the power boost previously activated, increased much more

 

[Giangi]

Further, the headset amplifier with my 100ohm impedance, works much better!

 

[vwong99]

Thanks @Giangi for the information. Much appreciated.!

 

[iFi audio]

Further, the headset amplifier with my 100ohm impedance, works much better!

If I plug the 5v dc adapter, the bass boost and the power boost previously activated, increased much more

Aside from power supply, is there any other values using the ZEN DAC with USB only vs USB+DC supply?
Did a short test with the above, and I can hear there's more power and 'thumping' bass with the latter.
Don't get me wrong. Am loving the ZEN DAC as much as the Hip DAC I currently owned.
Just would like to know more of the differences from ZEN DAC owners.

Generally speaking, what limits output power of the product is the amplifier circuit itself, not its power supply. So the power supply shouldn't make any impact on the bass EQ function and how much power at max can be delivered.

However an external power supply may give a lower noise floor, which can make differences more easy to focus on and auto-suggestion may be at work there.

As for ZEN DAC's power boost, it's essentially a low/high gain switch, which works independently from power and its gain levels do not change with different power supplies.

 

[Highden]

ifi zen dac supports up to 24-bit/384kHz, but driver settings via win10 limited to 24-bit/192kHz. why? some MQA properties via Tidal service has 192kHz but ifi zen dac's control panel shows only 96kHz ( magenta led). uapp's software renderer has posibilities to unfold mqa in 96kHz maximum and I think mqa-supported device should do it better unfolding it to 192kHz or even 384kHz

 

[hamachan]

ifi zen dac supports up to 24-bit/384kHz, but driver settings via win10 limited to 24-bit/192kHz. why? some MQA properties via Tidal service has 192kHz but ifi zen dac's control panel shows only 96kHz ( magenta led). uapp's software renderer has posibilities to unfold mqa in 96kHz maximum and I think mqa-supported device should do it better unfolding it to 192kHz or even 384kHz

Use ifi's ASIO driver which supports full spec of ifi products.
https://ifi-audio.com/firmware/windows-usb-2-0-drivers/

 

[Joe Bloggs]

ifi zen dac supports up to 24-bit/384kHz, but driver settings via win10 limited to 24-bit/192kHz. why? some MQA properties via Tidal service has 192kHz but ifi zen dac's control panel shows only 96kHz ( magenta led). uapp's software renderer has posibilities to unfold mqa in 96kHz maximum and I think mqa-supported device should do it better unfolding it to 192kHz or even 384kHz

Furthermore, magenta is the official colour of MQA rendering according to MQA themselves and has nothing to do with the unfolded sample rate.

MQA is upsampled to the maximum sample rate of the device (384kHz with MQA firmware).

 

[Highden]

Use ifi's ASIO driver which supports full spec of ifi products.
https://ifi-audio.com/firmware/windows-usb-2-0-drivers/

I'm using it v.3.2 with 5.30 firmware . Default settings