What do people think, playing local files off the Zen attached HDD leads to higher sound quality than say via Audirvana playing files off the PC? I can't see much, if any, difference. Love the convenience of having the HDD attached to the Zen so I can play easily my files via the web remote.
iFi audio ZEN Stream - Streaming elevated to a higher plane
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FooFighter
Headphoneus Supremus
Hmm, will try out later.
Of course Audirvana is allowing streaming too as an advantage.
If that doesn't matter the question is which interface is more convenient.
The latest Audirvana app update made it better, still browsing e.g Tidal native app is more convenient for finding and trying new stuff.
Other thing is either upsampling or using DSP plug-ins in Audirvana which ZS won't allow for playing local files.
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FooFighter
Headphoneus Supremus
What I'd find interesting is using ZS for hooking up the actual player via USB as an alternative for streaming, DLNA, UPNP input via network and thereby allowing any other streaming services like Apple Music or Amazon Music.
Not sure if that is even possible implementation wise.
The remaining USB port seems to support only file system based media, the USB-C seems to be some kind of maintenance port...
You could say why not hooking up your source directly then?
The point is that the USB port on the DAC will be blocked by ZS.
Thereby ZS would be needed as a hub or do you guys think that specific USB-hubs could work?
But even if, that could degrade SQ while without ifi purifier tech is applied?
Not sure if that is even possible implementation wise.
The remaining USB port seems to support only file system based media, the USB-C seems to be some kind of maintenance port...
You could say why not hooking up your source directly then?
The point is that the USB port on the DAC will be blocked by ZS.
Thereby ZS would be needed as a hub or do you guys think that specific USB-hubs could work?
But even if, that could degrade SQ while without ifi purifier tech is applied?
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Just when I got excited that this might be able to feed a Holo Audio Spring / May DAC with 1.536 MHz PCM, sent over the network via HQPlayer. Oh, well, maybe one day.
Also wondering whether Amazon Music via Chromecast will support all the right sample rates like it currently does via the Bluesound Node 2i and its rather clunky app. I think when I used Amazon Music HD with a Chromecast Audio it stubbornly produced 44.1 kHz audio no matter the material. Though that might be better with the Chromecast Audio specifically, it wasn't powerful enough to play 192 kHz songs from Qobuz without cutting out all the time.
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FooFighter
Headphoneus Supremus
just sent back Bluesound Node N130 which is the successor of 2i but as far as I remember no Ultra HD resolution was played there...
I remember Chromecast had a sample rate limitation in general if I am not mistaken - just googling it: 96KHz/24bit seems to b e the max there...
Currently the only higher res options I have tried flawlessly towards ZS are Tidal Connect or Audirvana over UPNP
...and of course playing local files on stick/hard disk
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I can play 192 kHz from Amazon Music via the TOSLINK out of the Node 2i just fine (my DAC confirms the exact sample rate, while the BluOS app just says "HR" for anything > 16/44 and "CD" otherwise). I have to start playback via the Amazon Music entry in the BluOS app (not sure if there is another way - doesn't seem like the Node 2021 is Chromecast enabled, either).
Some songs on Muddy Water's The Folk Singer are available in 192 kHz (e.g. You Gonna Need My Help), same with Beck's Sea Change (e.g. Paper Tiger). I don't know why it's inconsistent within the same album, but the Amazon app shows it the same way.
I bought both albums as 24/192 FLAC from HDtracks and every single song is 24/192 there. Wondering whether some of them were upsampled.
I remember 24/96 working better with the Chromecast Audio, but even that had cutouts at the time, possibly fixed now.
24/192 didn't seem completely unsupported, just buggy, and I remember seeing a suggestion that a future software update might fix it (one could imagine that the CPU was overloaded because of unnecessary extra software activity).
Googling a bit, I see conflicting information. The Chromecast Audio's output specifically is documented as supporting up to 24/96, however there are other devices out there that support 24/192 under the right conditions while conservatively specifying 24/96 as the highest supported. The J-Tech JTDSM0402 is one example, it handles 24/192 just fine with decent cables that are seated properly.
On the same page as well as the documented audio codecs for Google Cast it says "FLAC (up to 96kHz/24-bit)", but lists all other codecs without a specific limitation, including "WAV (LPCM)", so maybe 24/192 could be sent as WAV, but not as FLAC.
But then there's the open source mkchromecast program, where this claim was made:
This was resolved by a code change to allow sending 96 kHz and 192 kHz content.
It will be interesting to see what iFi can pull off, for both Amazon Music and Qobuz. Bit perfect, exact sample rate transmission of all resolutions via the respective app's Chromecast support would be very nice, and help make up for Amazon's continued lack of support for exclusive mode (and corresponding change of the output device's sample rate) in their windows app.
I'm also wondering whether iFi has to do anything special to support Spotify HiFi, and how quickly that will come to BluOS.
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bilboda
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Rocking naa DSD256 upsampling.
Eventually I will compare it with DSD1024 capable Spring3 KTE via USB or thru Matrix SPDIF2 and HDMI. PC maxes out at DSD256 with advanced filters anyway.
First I have to complete my evaluation of the Holo vs Sonnet Morpheus which is proving quite difficult. Differences are very hard to find. Gonna have to use headphones, I think, speakers are quite happy with either set up.
Zen Stream has had problems with different USB cables. I don't know much about the cables that don't work except that they are boutique, Holo and Matrix. Generic USB printer cables seem to work fine.
Eventually I will compare it with DSD1024 capable Spring3 KTE via USB or thru Matrix SPDIF2 and HDMI. PC maxes out at DSD256 with advanced filters anyway.
First I have to complete my evaluation of the Holo vs Sonnet Morpheus which is proving quite difficult. Differences are very hard to find. Gonna have to use headphones, I think, speakers are quite happy with either set up.
Zen Stream has had problems with different USB cables. I don't know much about the cables that don't work except that they are boutique, Holo and Matrix. Generic USB printer cables seem to work fine.
The Chromecast function from the Amazon Music app only works in what Amazon calls standard quality (320kbps), even if you are paying the HD premium.
The Qobuz app does play lossless over Chromecast, but I don't know if it will go up to 192khz, it maxes out at 96 on the Primae NP5 I use for Chromecasting audio.
On this Primare streamer, Qobuz sounds significantly better via DLNA/UPnP apps (Bubble or mconnect) than the Chromecast button in Qobuz's app. Plus Chromecast is not gapless (unless with Roon I believe). Chromecast is a great 'convenience' feature that sounds better than Bluetooth, but it is not satisfactory for high quality music streaming in my experience.
It would be great if iFi squeeze more or of Chromecast-built-in than Primare or Naim, but I see no reason to expect that.
h1f1add1cted
1000+ Head-Fier
Just joined the ZEN Stream club, works perfect 
Makes sense, I only have experience with Chromecast via official Google endpoints (Chromecast / Chromecast Ultra / Chromecast Audio). If existing Chromecast-enabled streamers don't do better, then there's little hope.
For usability it would be great if you could just use the official apps with a "but play it on that device instead" mode (like Spotify Connect, etc.) while retaining maximum quality, but it seems that that's a tall order and cumbersome alternatives have to be employed that make Hi-Fi less accessible to newbies. Oh, well.
The NP5 is a step up from a Chromecast Audio dongle, and I am sure that Chromecast on the Zen Stream will be too. On the Naim forum, one of their engineers explained the Chromecast streaming puts more strain on the hardware than DLNA/UPnP, I would guess that this is true for any streamer. So it's not a case of not being able to improve Chromecasting, but that it will lag behind inherently less noisy methods.
I don't think that Google, Amazon and Apple are interested in niche audiophile gear. Big selling systems like Sonos get their attention, but anything smaller than Bluesound is not worth their time and effort. Fingers crossed and hoping that Tidal and Qobuz don't go bust, they are the only streaming services that give a damn about our hobby.
I would strongly prefer a somewhat noisy, bit perfect transmission of up to 24/192 FLAC over anything downsampled, or even lossy compression, so getting 24/192 over Chromecast to work would be an achievement, especially for Amazon Music, which doesn't seem to be available via most third party apps. It would also be interesting to see how much of that noise is still measurable after going through TOSLINK and my MUTEC MC-3+ USB (totally possible that it's a actually worse this way).
But if that requires Google's support I agree that chances are slim.
For a given song that is available on Qobuz and Amazon Music HD, I can see why you would prefer, say BubbleUPNP and its Qobuz integration. But when I checked out Qobuz last time, its catalog was severely limited, and that wasn't changing all that quickly. Tidal is out of the question for me because of MQA.
For me convenience is still a major factor, so it's mostly Spotify, and occasionally Amazon Music HD via Node 2i if I feel like suffering through the slow, spartan interface in BluOS. Being able to use the Amazon Music app directly would be a nice improvement.
It would be interesting to hear how bad Spotify Connect (with lossless audio) is in terms of CPU load, compared to DLNA and Chromecast. I imagine it's somewhere in between.
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dsnyder
100+ Head-Fier
Playing local files works, but, IMHO. that's not what this device is for. It works because the OS image is based on Volumio, but the ZEN Stream is a streamer, not a media server. You will get better sound streaming to it via DLNA from Audirvana or BubbleUPnP. Better sound still streaming via R.A.A.T. from Roon. The experience using the control apps from Audirvana or Roon will be nicer too.
FooFighter
Headphoneus Supremus
btw I find the perceived web radio sq also quite decent.
Right now listening to Radio Paradise Mellow Mix and besides quite long start up time for the stream to play it sounds really nice once it's going - I almost fell from the chair as the track started playing after 1 min without any reaction...
Right now listening to Radio Paradise Mellow Mix and besides quite long start up time for the stream to play it sounds really nice once it's going - I almost fell from the chair as the track started playing after 1 min without any reaction...
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stu667
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I don't know where you get that from but local files on usb ssd works like a charm. It is not necessary to add a PC and other layers of software to make it sound good unless you want us to definitively buy roon and audirvana. I mean, it's pretty obvious that you are pushing a lot those softwares. I'm getting a bit suspicious
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