[Taz777]

I found this YouTube playlist that's pretty useful for getting a few things done on the iFi Zen Stream:



Apologies if it's already been posted.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Took this shot this morning, me thinks I'll be ordering a black antenna pretty quick! Not sure about the white one

 

[Taz777]

Just received mine. Mixed initial impressions as I set it up in my bedroom headphones system:

It's feeding a Topping D90 (non-MQA) DAC which feeds an Arcam rHead headphone amp. Anyway, here's some questions and impressions:

1. TIDAL Connect: works fine with my LG V30+ phone and I can see the first unfold on my D90, as expected. I know it's connected properly as I cannot control the volume with my LD V30+ phone. Audio quality is very high, but that's really down to the D90 DAC and headphone amp. Doesn't work with my iPhone or iPad. When I attempt TIDAL Connect, I just get the option of Bluetooth and Airplay speakers and the iFi Zen Stream appears as an Airplay speaker (I presume). There is no proper TIDAL Connect connection from either of my iOS devices so I need to look into this. I may need to try the selector on the back into the TIDAL position - it's a real pain in the backside having that knob on the back of the unit!

2. DLNA: My setup for this is an iPhone running Neutron Music Player. The Stream device takes ages to be discovered an a DLNA/UPnP renderer. Once it is discovered and selected, the connection was sometimes lost. Changing between tracks takes 15-20 seconds! On the positive side, the original song FLAC sample rate is preserved when it reaches the Stream. Still, it's not a very usable option and quite a disappointment for me.

3. Web interface: This is essentially the Volumio interface. Works okay for my local songs on a micro-SD card inside a USB adapter. However, I now recall the issues I had with Volumio back in 2020 where it doesn't work with M3U playlist files. It uses its own playlist format and you cannot import M3U playlist files. I remember writing Python scripts to take my M3U files and convert them into PLS format (or whatever Volumio used back then) with some success but it was a lot of effort for something that should be standard in Volumio.

4. Local playback: As mentioned in (3) it does work. You plug your external USB drive into the top USB slot and the Stream software (Volumio) reads your library and you can play songs very easily using the Web interface. Just bear in mind the playlists issue mentioned in (3).

5. The USB connection seems to be 'live' all the time, even when music isn't playing. This, in turn, causes my D90 DAC to stay on all the time and not enter sleep mode. I'll need to test this out more. If it stays live all the time then I have to manually switch off the Stream after listening to music.

I was hoping I could use my iPhone to stream TIDAL to the Stream using TIDAL Connect. I don't know why I cannot do this. It may be something that I am doing wrong. My iPhone and iPad don't seem to recognise the Zen Stream as a TIDAL Connect device. I'm running version 2.27.1 of the TIDAL app on my iPhone.

I was also hoping that I could use Neutron Music Player on my iPhone to play music using DLNA to the Zen Stream. This works to some extent but is generally unusable. This may be down to the Neutron Music Player app but I am not sure.

With all of the above in mind, I'm not sure I'll be keeping the it at the moment unless these issues can be fixed. All I want to do is stream my local files (under the Neutron Music Player app) on my iPhone and stream TIDAL to the Zen Stream at the original bit-depth and bit-rate. It doesn't seem to be that easy to do at the moment.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Just received mine. Mixed initial impressions as I set it up in my bedroom headphones system:

It's feeding a Topping D90 (non-MQA) DAC which feeds an Arcam rHead headphone amp. Anyway, here's some questions and impressions:

1. TIDAL Connect: works fine with my LG V30+ phone and I can see the first unfold on my D90, as expected. I know it's connected properly as I cannot control the volume with my LD V30+ phone. Audio quality is very high, but that's really down to the D90 DAC and headphone amp. Doesn't work with my iPhone or iPad. When I attempt TIDAL Connect, I just get the option of Bluetooth and Airplay speakers and the iFi Zen Stream appears as an Airplay speaker (I presume). There is no proper TIDAL Connect connection from either of my iOS devices so I need to look into this. I may need to try the selector on the back into the TIDAL position - it's a real pain in the backside having that knob on the back of the unit!

2. DLNA: My setup for this is an iPhone running Neutron Music Player. The Stream device takes ages to be discovered an a DLNA/UPnP renderer. Once it is discovered and selected, the connection was sometimes lost. Changing between tracks takes 15-20 seconds! On the positive side, the original song FLAC sample rate is preserved when it reaches the Stream. Still, it's not a very usable option and quite a disappointment for me.

3. Web interface: This is essentially the Volumio interface. Works okay for my local songs on a micro-SD card inside a USB adapter. However, I now recall the issues I had with Volumio back in 2020 where it doesn't work with M3U playlist files. It uses its own playlist format and you cannot import M3U playlist files. I remember writing Python scripts to take my M3U files and convert them into PLS format (or whatever Volumio used back then) with some success but it was a lot of effort for something that should be standard in Volumio.

4. Local playback: As mentioned in (3) it does work. You plug your external USB drive into the top USB slot and the Stream software (Volumio) reads your library and you can play songs very easily using the Web interface. Just bear in mind the playlists issue mentioned in (3).

5. The USB connection seems to be 'live' all the time, even when music isn't playing. This, in turn, causes my D90 DAC to stay on all the time and not enter sleep mode. I'll need to test this out more. If it stays live all the time then I have to manually switch off the Stream after listening to music.

I was hoping I could use my iPhone to stream TIDAL to the Stream using TIDAL Connect. I don't know why I cannot do this. It may be something that I am doing wrong. My iPhone and iPad don't seem to recognise the Zen Stream as a TIDAL Connect device. I'm running version 2.27.1 of the TIDAL app on my iPhone.

I was also hoping that I could use Neutron Music Player on my iPhone to play music using DLNA to the Zen Stream. This works to some extent but is generally unusable. This may be down to the Neutron Music Player app but I am not sure.

With all of the above in mind, I'm not sure I'll be keeping the it at the moment unless these issues can be fixed. All I want to do is stream my local files (under the Neutron Music Player app) on my iPhone and stream TIDAL to the Zen Stream at the original bit-depth and bit-rate. It doesn't seem to be that easy to do at the moment.

If I were you with all the different things you want to do, why not just leave the "pita" switch in the back to position 1? That's the mode that is supposed to do everything, except for last night trying the Roon position, I have not had one issue streaming from any of my Apple devices, give that a shot.

I'm honestly not seeing or hearing any reason to take it out of that position.

Cheers

 

[Taz777]

If I were you with all the different things you want to do, why not just leave the "pita" switch in the back to position 1? That's the mode that is supposed to do everything, except for last night trying the Roon position, I have not had one issue streaming from any of my Apple devices, give that a shot.

I'm honestly not seeing or hearing any reason to take it out of that position.

Cheers

I've done all the testing with the switch at position 1 for my post. I've literally just now tried position 3 (TIDAL only) and neither of my iOS devices can find the Stream! If yours is working for iOS devices then I need to check my iOS settings to make sure that I've allowed the TIDAL app access to my local network, as it's odd that TIDAL works perfectly on my Android device.

[EDIT] TIDAL Connect working now with my iOS devices - had to allow network access to the TIDAL app in Settings --> Privacy --> Local Netwok. So TIDAL is sorted and sounds good!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I've done all the testing with the switch at position 1 for my post. I've literally just now tried position 3 (TIDAL only) and neither of my iOS devices can find the Stream! If yours is working for iOS devices then I need to check my iOS settings to make sure that I've allowed the TIDAL app access to my local network, as it's odd that TIDAL works perfectly on my Android device.

Yes that is odd, I'm feeling a little blessed here as I have not had any issues with things connecting that the devices was supposed too connect to, I'm in and out today and want to try my only Android tablet when I get home. But it's about 3-4 years old so we will see how that goes, lol

I don't know off this helps but in the beginning after I did "setup" I goofed something up, so I did a factory reset at the beginning, then set it up wired first, and then I enabled wireless inside the "" volumio made "stream app.

Hope that may clean things up for you, I did it because I remembered that volumio you had too do it that way then power cycle resets to have it take hold.

 

[Taz777]

Latest update: switch at position 3 (TIDAL only) works fine for Android and iOS TIDAL Connect. Just need to sort out 'casting' my Neutron Music Player app properly to the Stream.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

Has anyone heard a difference in sound quality using Tidal or any other lossless streaming service on an iPhone using the Apple CCK adapter into their DAC versus say Tidal Connect with the Zen Streamer?

I have been considering the Pi2AES for a while now. I planned to use it with Tidal Connect/Volumio using the SPDIF COAX output into my Bifrost 2. This Zen Streamer sounds like an easier solution, much like the Mercury Streamer is supposed to be when it comes out from the maker of the Pi2AES.

My hesitation has been the thought that I won’t notice any upgrade in sound versus my current setup. I have been using my iPhone with the CCK adapter as my source streaming Tidal for the most part and Apple Music recently on a 3-month trial. The rest of my chain is a Bifrost 2 > Quicksilver Headphone Amp > Verite Closed. It should be a pretty resolving setup, so I have been thinking the weak link is my iPhone as the source. It sounds really good at the moment, so I wonder if something like the Zen Streamer is worth the $400 expenditure.

 

[windplr]

Don't see any mention of Qobuz integration. Did I miss that?

 

[nlowran]

Don't see any mention of Qobuz integration. Did I miss that?

Qobuz streams through Chromecast and volumio has integration so I imagine this does too

 

[Sphere 57]

Don't see any mention of Qobuz integration. Did I miss that?

It has Chromecast, Airplay, Roon and DLNA, doesn't that cover the usual methods of using Qobuz with a streamer. What form of Qobuz integration do you have in mind?

 

[nlowran]

This is more or less a volumio pi in a ifi case so I can see if you want your stuff to all look the same this may be appealing. If not just build a pi load it with volumio/squeeze box+lms/moode and save a few hundo

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

This is more or less a volumio pi in a ifi case so I can see if you want your stuff to all look the same this may be appealing. If not just build a pi load it with volumio/squeeze box+lms/moode and save a few hundo

I will point out and I'm sure this won't be the first time,say to most people "just build a pi" they have no clue what your talking about! Or for that matter how to start our make it work, we the proud audiophile elite can build pi's in the dark! Lmao

Cheers

 

[nlowran]

With your savings get a hifiberry or allo Dachat and replace the ifi dac then

I will point out and I'm sure this won't be the first time, "just build a pi" they have no clue what your talking about! Or for that matter how to start our make it work, we the proud audiophile elite can build pi's in the dark! Lmao

Cheers

Lol started writing up about adding a dac hat and nas but saw this and stopped

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

With your savings get a hifiberry or allo Dachat and replace the ifi dac then

Lol started writing up about adding a dac hat and nas but saw this and stopped

Just build a pi.....