[yeboyi]

Hmmm, we need to stop here a bit... if this is true it's really, really bad, a true dealbreaker for lots of people? Entire Zen Dac high gain mode noisy regardless of volume or are you talking about really high volumes more than 3 o'clock (on the high gain mode)?

You are able to hear audible noise yourself (?), which headphones have you been using? Or are you looking at measurements from ASR? I assume most amps distort as some level but question is when and what level?

This would mean all headphones more difficult to drive (between approximately 100 - 300 ohm) should be avoided together with the Zen Dac? At least for people utilizing the amp section of the Zen Dac (I'm currently using it as a Dac only).

Low gain mode is more suited for IEMs or headphones really easy to drive. I assume a majority of all Zen Dac owners also utilizing the high gain mode (but I am not sure).

Hopefully @iFi audio will comment on this one.

Sorry if i wasn't clear. High gain is noisy with very sensitive iem. It has no noise with Ananda which is 25 ohm and 103db sensitivity which means it's ridiculously sensitive yet have no noise. So Zen Dac's high gain is fine.

Yes i can hear myself. The noise is always there with sensitive iem, noise gets louder if you turn the knob. If you have some cheap old iem laying around you can try it yourself.

It's not dealbreaker because you can't really use high gain with sensitive iems because it's too loud.

Difficult to drive headphones have no problem. They don't pick up noise.

I don't know the exact model of my old iem btw. It's one of the old cheap and bad Sony iem.

 

[makatech]

Sorry if i wasn't clear. High gain is noisy with very sensitive iem. It has no noise with Ananda which is 25 ohm and 103db sensitivity which means it's ridiculously sensitive yet have no noise. So Zen Dac's high gain is fine.

Yes i can hear myself. The noise is always there with sensitive iem, noise gets louder if you turn the knob. If you have some cheap old iem laying around you can try it yourself.

It's not dealbreaker because you can't really use high gain with sensitive iems because it's too loud.

Difficult to drive headphones have no problem. They don't pick up noise.

I don't know the exact model of my old iem btw. It's one of the old cheap and bad Sony iem.

Cool, thanks for clarifying, I was a bit confused, understand now you were referring to your sensitive IEMs

 

[bOO9OO]

I want to use the Zen Dac with Linux Mint. Is the firmware straightforward to set up and what music player works well. Any advice & recommendations gratefully received.

Works fine with Linux Mint 20 and qmmp audio player and it's eq

 

[vonbonds]

I can confirm Ifi Zen works with Linux Mint 20 and it's a big improvement over the Audio quest black 1.2 it replaced so it should work well with all recent Ubuntu based distro's.
I've connected the included usb 3 cable into a usb 2 port, whether that makes a difference or not ? The cable is too short to reach my usb 3 ports.

I’m a Debian user and it works fine with Buster (10). Have you tried using PulseAudio? I use it for EQing and it works really well.

 

[bOO9OO]

Good to hear it also works with Debian, I use QMMP player with EQ, it has plugins for Alsa and PulseAudio i've tried both but didn't notice any difference in sound quality.
I listen to cd quality internet radio flac streams there's a few radio stations offering this now.

 

[vonbonds]

I’m a classic rock fan so virtually everything I listen to is CD quality as well

 

[bOO9OO]

Here's Paradise Radio's rock stream: http://stream.radioparadise.com/rock-flacm

 

[itman]

Hi people. I have two questions about the Zen. 1. would it drive the Audio Technica Awkt? And 2. I have the Sony zx300 with the Sony WM connector. How do I connect it to the Zen?

Thank you.

 

[BobG55]

Hi, hope someone can help me out with my question. I listen to CDs not downloaded or digital music. I really like the Ifi Zen DAC because of it’s price & the fact that it has a Burr Brown chipset. What it doesn’t have is an SPDIF/ Coaxial input at the back.

And here are my dilemmas : I also have a Coaxial to Toslink Digital Audio Converter, so, would it be possible to connect the CD player’s Coaxial out into the the converter & the USB input from the DAC into the other side of the converter in order to get the Ifi Zen DAC to replace the CD player’s internal DAC ?

And if that works, then,I also use an EQ [JDS Labs Subjective 3 &/ or Schiit Loki] so would I use the DAC’s RCA connectors for the EQ or the CD player’s RCA. The other two RCA connectors on the EQ are for my WA6-SE 2nd gen headphone amp.

God, I hope this is clear because I can’t explain it any better and I’m not tech savvy. As a matter of fact I’m sort of stunned that I was able to write what I did above.

Thanks in advance to anyone who, one : understands what I’ve written, &, two : can help me out.

 

[Zeka]

Yes I could connect my CD player to the DAC using the RCA connectors ...

No, you could not connect CD player that way, because DAC has only usb input.

would it be possible to connect the CD player’s Coaxial out into the the converter & the USB input from the DAC into the other side of the converter

You can connect CD player to converter, but can't connect converter to DAC, because DAC has no coaxial/optical input.

 

[BobG55]

No, you could not connect CD player that way, because DAC has only usb input.

I understand that part now but there’s more to my question than this. Thanks for your help.

 

[iMongui]

Guys, I have a dx3 pro but I’m not very convinced about it, I have for a very good price this model. I have all my equipment balanced plus the desk stereo system which has their own amp dedicated, but I would like to use this zen as a main of everything, is there someone that knows if this is better than the dx3 pro? Just to go for it or search for a better one

 

[letlive]

How long is the included USB cable?

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

How long is the included USB cable?

I believe it is 50 cm!

 

[yeboyi]

Guys, I have a dx3 pro but I’m not very convinced about it, I have for a very good price this model. I have all my equipment balanced plus the desk stereo system which has their own amp dedicated, but I would like to use this zen as a main of everything, is there someone that knows if this is better than the dx3 pro? Just to go for it or search for a better one

Topping all in ones are not good. All of them have high output impedance. Zen Dac alone is fine but not good either. It stacks nice with Zen Can though. I would like to have all in one from Ifi with parametric EQ and preamp/headphone switch.