iFi audio ZEN Stream - Streaming elevated to a higher plane

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I already answered this ?

It is MQA 48k album ... after MQA Core Decode - becomes 96k (MQA upsampling filter).

Detailed general MQA discussion- please start a separate thread as previously discussed and i'll be happy to share the technical details by Archimago etc

Listen bud, please try to stop yourself from telling me to start a new thread about anything!

I'm not on this thread to play a game or tear down a product. I'm here because I believe it's one of the best streamers you can get in this price range. I am here to help not to confuse and dissuade. Why? So more people can experience better sound quality without spending more dollars.

If anyone else besides you has an issue with me, what I post or what I discuss, feel free to speak up and I will remove myself from the thread!

So other than that, "I'm you're Huckleberry"

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

do you think the ZS is still doing the 1st unfold with optical and digital coax as well? Because I only use SPFID out

I mean you cannot really answer to this question.
@Mr BubbaHyde if you have time can you please do me the favor to try SPFID out with Tidal and the latest firmware? thanks a lot

I'm sorry I will check this out for you today...

 

[flyte3333]

Listen bud, please try to stop yourself from telling me to start a new thread about anything!

I think you mis-understand my intent... not everyone in a Zen Stream thread cares about MQA. Or even cares about Tidal Connect.

General discussion about MQA that's not related to Zen Stream (like what is 1st unfold and why is John Mayer's 48k becoming 96k) are best discussed separately.

Nothing to do with you personally - it's because I am actually aware there are Zen Stream users who don't care about either/both Tidal Connect and/or MQA... so it's just courtesy to them.

I have no idea why you've taken such a thing personally?

I even said I would be happy to discuss these things with you in a seperate thread... where such discussion belongs...

Hope that clears up where I'm coming from.

Anyway I'll check out of here. All the best.

And enjoy the music

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

do you think the ZS is still doing the 1st unfold with optical and digital coax as well? Because I only use SPFID out

I mean you cannot really answer to this question.
@Mr BubbaHyde if you have time can you please do me the favor to try SPFID out with Tidal and the latest firmware? thanks a lot

Well, I have to say I'm sorry I cannot check this for you. I must have done something with firmwares back n forth. as my ZS now does not power on.Once I sort this out I'll get on it for you.

Perhaps @flyte3333 can do this test for you, hopefully with pictures so I can understand...lol

Cheers!!

 

[live555i]

I can see cutting iFi at tiny amount of slack as they aren't the only ones that get pulled into these Tidal and MQA shenanigans. I mean even Tidal itself only relatively recently supported MQA properly on android devices. Previously I say would have to use something like USB Player Pro and buy the MQA in-app license purchase for $10 or whatever and use Tidal from there to get my MQA renderer to play MQA. For a streaming service that heavily markets MQA as their differentiating factor they also didn't make much effort in clarifications of what works or doesn't work on their website or any marketing materials.

Nevertheless, it's certainly messy to have the zen stream be able to do one thing one day and then after a firmware update need to remove said capability. It doesn't surprise me too much as I had a raspberry pi with the Tidal Connect service doing the first unfold of MQA hooked and working well with my renderer which was all based on iFI's zen stream certificate for authentication. However that has since stopped working for me for one reason or another that I gave up on it. There's probably a fair amount of raspberry pis out there still posing as zen streams.

I've been overall pleased with the zen stream so far and believe it sure sounds better than my old raspberry pi.

 

[hash70]

I don't usally get involved in all the mqa nonsense but why has ifi removed the first unfold in the latest fw,I only use coax out to a non mqa dac,does this mean mqa decoding isn't working for me via coax?what about if I use roon who does the first unfold to a non mqa dac,I bought the zen because because it did this,so I'm not friggin happy if this has been took away

jst done some testing,mqa via roon appears to working OK,roon does the first unfold to 24/96 but I cant tell what my dac is actually receiving but the same track using Mconnect with tidal connect is broken and only outputting 24/48,we're on the older fw it was getting 24/96 via spidf like what my node 2 does,this is extremely disappointing and misleading ifi,I was under the impression the zen would do the first unfold like my node2

 

[rocky500]

I thought I read something along the lines of when someone installed one of the latest firmware's that spotify connect stopped working.
I can't seem to find it again on here as a friend just sent me a message
"The latest firmware doesn't work with spotify connect but tidal connect is ok. If i restore back to original firmware, spotify connect works but tidal doesn't."

I am sure I read it here somewhere. Does anyone know the fix if say you have a problem for the latest firmware & spotify?

 

[myshark]

I thought I read something along the lines of when someone installed one of the latest firmware's that spotify connect stopped working.
I can't seem to find it again on here as a friend just sent me a message
"The latest firmware doesn't work with spotify connect but tidal connect is ok. If i restore back to original firmware, spotify connect works but tidal doesn't."

I am sure I read it here somewhere. Does anyone know the fix if say you have a problem for the latest firmware & spotify?

Welcome to iFi Support.​

How can we help?​

****THERE IS A KNOWN ISSUE WITH CONNECTIVITY BETWEEN THE ZEN STREAM AND SPOTIFY. OUR TECH TEAM ARE WORKING ON THE PROBLEM. PLEASE DO NOT LOG A TICKET*****​

I thought I read something along the lines of when someone installed one of the latest firmware's that spotify connect stopped working.
I can't seem to find it again on here as a friend just sent me a message
"The latest firmware doesn't work with spotify connect but tidal connect is ok. If i restore back to original firmware, spotify connect works but tidal doesn't."

I am sure I read it here somewhere. Does anyone know the fix if say you have a problem for the latest firmware & spotify?

There is no problem with the original fw

 

[gibby]

I'm not off to a good start. WiFi setup was a bit convoluted, but I interpreted the directions in the app and got connected. I enabled the Stream in Roon, started streaming and saw it said AirPlay. Why? I then decided to change the AIO to 2 for Roon. The Stream is now off line. I switched it back to 1 and it came back online. Did a factory reset, flipped switch to 2 for Roon. Stream will not show up on my network.

Edit: did another factory reset and got connected. I setup WiFi and checked for updates. Currently restarting after another update unless the reset reverted it back. I'll try turning it off and setting the AIO to 2 for Roon and see if it comes back up. I'm using SPDIF to a DAC for what it's worth.

Edit #2: I turned off the Stream, set the AIO to 2 for Roon. Turned it back on, the left light is white saying it is connected, I can ping the Stream, but the web interface does not allow connectivity. Roon does not see it as an audio zone to enable.

Edit# 3: IT'S WORKING lol, I looked again at devices in Roon and there it was staring me in the face. I didn't realize the web interface gets turned off when selecting Roon. Also, to add, this does sound pretty great.

This looks better too. I might try USB next.

 

[Big man on the Fox]

I have virtually the same issue . I just received my 2nd ZenStream for bedroom system. Running Mac mini-WiFi to Zen with Roon. AIO also shows AirPlay and works fine with Roon. When switching to 2 -Roon Exclusive, Roon no longer sees it as an audio zone? Not a deal breaker, but with Ethernet on other Zen, Roon Exclusive sees :Rockchip SPDIF ALSA

 

[rlw6534]

I'm not off to a good start. WiFi setup was a bit convoluted, but I interpreted the directions in the app and got connected. I enabled the Stream in Roon, started streaming and saw it said AirPlay. Why? I then decided to change the AIO to 2 for Roon. The Stream is now off line. I switched it back to 1 and it came back online. Did a factory reset, flipped switch to 2 for Roon. Stream will not show up on my network.

Edit: did another factory reset and got connected. I setup WiFi and checked for updates. Currently restarting after another update unless the reset reverted it back. I'll try turning it off and setting the AIO to 2 for Roon and see if it comes back up. I'm using SPDIF to a DAC for what it's worth.

Edit #2: I turned off the Stream, set the AIO to 2 for Roon. Turned it back on, the left light is white saying it is connected, I can ping the Stream, but the web interface does not allow connectivity. Roon does not see it as an audio zone to enable.

Edit# 3: IT'S WORKING lol, I looked again at devices in Roon and there it was staring me in the face. I didn't realize the web interface gets turned off when selecting Roon. Also, to add, this does sound pretty great.

This looks better too. I might try USB next.

The web interface only works in AIO mode.

 

[gibby]

The web interface only works in AIO mode.

Now you tell me lol. I did not see details on when to switch to 2 for Roon.

https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ZEN-Stream-User-Manual-Ver1.01_ok-1.pdf
https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ZEN-Stream-Quick-Start-Guide-2.0.pdf

 

[srkbear]

I'm not off to a good start. WiFi setup was a bit convoluted, but I interpreted the directions in the app and got connected. I enabled the Stream in Roon, started streaming and saw it said AirPlay. Why? I then decided to change the AIO to 2 for Roon. The Stream is now off line. I switched it back to 1 and it came back online. Did a factory reset, flipped switch to 2 for Roon. Stream will not show up on my network.

Edit: did another factory reset and got connected. I setup WiFi and checked for updates. Currently restarting after another update unless the reset reverted it back. I'll try turning it off and setting the AIO to 2 for Roon and see if it comes back up. I'm using SPDIF to a DAC for what it's worth.

Edit #2: I turned off the Stream, set the AIO to 2 for Roon. Turned it back on, the left light is white saying it is connected, I can ping the Stream, but the web interface does not allow connectivity. Roon does not see it as an audio zone to enable.

Edit# 3: IT'S WORKING lol, I looked again at devices in Roon and there it was staring me in the face. I didn't realize the web interface gets turned off when selecting Roon. Also, to add, this does sound pretty great.

This looks better too. I might try USB next.

If you send me a PM i can help you with the setup; my ZS is working perfectly with Roon as an endpoint, not as AirPlay and I have a few pointers.

 

[srkbear]

I think you mis-understand my intent... not everyone in a Zen Stream thread cares about MQA. Or even cares about Tidal Connect.

General discussion about MQA that's not related to Zen Stream (like what is 1st unfold and why is John Mayer's 48k becoming 96k) are best discussed separately.

Nothing to do with you personally - it's because I am actually aware there are Zen Stream users who don't care about either/both Tidal Connect and/or MQA... so it's just courtesy to them.

I have no idea why you've taken such a thing personally?

I even said I would be happy to discuss these things with you in a seperate thread... where such discussion belongs...

Hope that clears up where I'm coming from.

Anyway I'll check out of here. All the best.

And enjoy the music

Tidal Connect and MQA are integral features of the Zen Stream and I see no problem with him addressing these concerns, specific to the ZS, in this thread.

I think you might be coming across inadvertently as a gate keeper, and I’m wondering why you’re troubled by content here that you have no obligation to read? No offense, it just seems an unnecessary battle. Let him ask—I’m interested in the topic and I imagine some others are as well.

I hope I’m misjudging you, but I make up that this might be about overarching political qualms with MQA, which I don’t think belong in any forum at this point. It’s here to stay and no one is obliged to use it; nor should anyone be hassled if they do. And that goes for manufacturers who have adopted it as well.

 

[gibby]

A couple observations when learning how the Roon setup goes. I noticed that the Linux kernal seems rather old compared to ropieee. Also, my HiFiBerry Digi+ is recognized, but Roon does not have the Stream listed yet. Other iFi devices are though, so it may just be a matter of time. Also, I am bummed I got a regular power supply.