[JohnFlowers]

ZS just arrived. Simple install. Plays with iFi Hip DAC and Harbeths beautifully. Exactly what I wanted. Anyone on the fence should get off and order now. Definitely notice an improvement in the music as well, however that’s mostly coming from a laptop and then Amazon tablet, so … a grain of salt for the low bar

 

[dsnyder]

ZS just arrived. Simple install. Plays with iFi Hip DAC and Harbeths beautifully. Exactly what I wanted. Anyone on the fence should get off and order now. Definitely notice an improvement in the music as well, however that’s mostly coming from a laptop and then Amazon tablet, so … a grain of salt for the low bar

Cool. Congrats! Welcome to the ZEN Stream family.

 

[Barone Birra]

Well, that's certainly strange. I don't remember our stuff being packaged with beyond a 12V! But hey, it will work great with a 15V!

I purchased my unit at the IFI shop on Amazon.it

 

[windplr]

I found that overall setting the unit up wired first, then doing the wireless setup from within the app itself, has solved so many issues for those that have done it that way. Why i do not know, other than I remember setting up other Volumio type things in that fashion.

So far all that have set it up that way have not had issues, so be it right or wrong it's what works best for this unit.

I did it this way and no problems at all. It simplifies things not having to start the unit as a hotspot, just for configuration. Once on your network (wired), Just http to the device and you can select the wifi and enter the password. Upgrade for me worked ok. It does take a little time and may appear to be stalled, but mine completed.

 

[FooFighter]

just trying Audirvana on my MacBook Pro the first time with the IFI Zen and it is indeed sounding sublime!
Lush, full, extended to base and upper frequencies without getting harsh.
Also very recognisable is that nice extra low base punch which isn't there without the Zen in-inbetween.
That's better than using direct USB connection as was stated before in another post, I didn't believe that before.
Testing with my Gustard A22 MQA DAC it seems that I need to select IFI ZEN Streamer as "MQA decoder" and not renderer as only then my DAC is showing the authentication "dot"-Symbol next to the initial incoming sample rate.
When selecting "MQA renderer" my DAC is recognising the MQA stream. but not showing the "dot".

 

[kaushama]

Sadly, that is not the case. Anything above PCM 384 is rejected. Same for DSD512 and even DSD256 in DoP mode. I have not been able to work out why this limitation exists, but it does. For example, Roon will detect that your Gustard X16 is capable of 32-bits, 768 kHz; however, when you try to play something upsampled to that rate, it will fail with this message (in Roon's logs):

RAAT__OUTPUT_PLUGIN_STATUS_FORMAT_NOT_SUPPORTED

Pretty annoying when my RPi3 has no issues with this and has a less powerful processor.

I have read somewhere it is due to the old Linux kernal iFi is using? If so, could this be a part of a business plan? But it is disappointing that ZS being a device with better hardware is limited in this to make it inferior to a Pi player.

 

[dsnyder]

I have read somewhere it is due to the old Linux kernal iFi is using? If so, could this be a part of a business plan? But it is disappointing that ZS being a device with better hardware is limited in this to make it inferior to a Pi player.

The crazy thing is that the Linux kernel on the ZEN Stream detects the hardware capabilities of the DAC (in this case, the NEO iDSD):
volumio@ifi-zen-stream:/proc/asound/Audio$ cat /proc/asound/Audio/stream0

iFi (by AMR) iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio at usb-xhci-hcd.0.auto-1.4, high speed : USB Audio

Playback:
  Status: Stop
  Interface 1
    Altset 1
    Format: S32_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000, 705600, 768000
    Data packet interval: 125 us
  Interface 1
    Altset 2
    Format: S16_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000, 705600, 768000
    Data packet interval: 125 us
  Interface 1
    Altset 3
    Format: SPECIAL DSD_U32_BE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000, 705600, 768000
    Data packet interval: 125 us

I have not yet found any obvious configuration settings that artificially limit the ZEN Stream to 384 kHz.

 

[kaushama]

The crazy thing is that the Linux kernel on the ZEN Stream detects the hardware capabilities of the DAC (in this case, the NEO iDSD):
volumio@ifi-zen-stream:/proc/asound/Audio$ cat /proc/asound/Audio/stream0

iFi (by AMR) iFi (by AMR) HD USB Audio at usb-xhci-hcd.0.auto-1.4, high speed : USB Audio

Playback:
  Status: Stop
  Interface 1
    Altset 1
    Format: S32_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000, 705600, 768000
    Data packet interval: 125 us
  Interface 1
    Altset 2
    Format: S16_LE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000, 705600, 768000
    Data packet interval: 125 us
  Interface 1
    Altset 3
    Format: SPECIAL DSD_U32_BE
    Channels: 2
    Endpoint: 1 OUT (ASYNC)
    Rates: 44100, 48000, 88200, 96000, 176400, 192000, 352800, 384000, 705600, 768000
    Data packet interval: 125 us

I have not yet found any obvious configuration settings that artificially limit the ZEN Stream to 384 kHz.

Some unseen iFi coding? Or hardware limitation?

 

[sabloke]

Just wanted to confirm that the update worked like a charm after a reset to factory settings. It only took a couple of minutes and everything was up an running. Had to add the wi-fi settings, that's all. Used the browser app on my PC to get it done.

 

[srkbear]

I noticed yesterday that there was a Zen Stream iPhone app that allegedly claimed to be the “official” GUI for the unit, but I didn’t recognize the developer. Alas today, it has mysteriously vanished from the App Store.

Any word on whether iFi plans on releasing such an audio player app to complement their streamer, similar to existing offerings from Fiio, Roon, Audirvana, DTS, HiBy, Shanling, Onkyo, Radsone, EarStudio, Denon, Sony, Lotoo, Astell&Kern et al? Seems like it would be a competitive option for this new entry into the streaming market (nudge nudge)…

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I noticed yesterday that there was a Zen Stream iPhone app that allegedly claimed to be the “official” GUI for the unit, but I didn’t recognize the developer. Alas today, it has mysteriously vanished from the App Store.

Any word on whether iFi plans on releasing such an audio player app to complement their streamer, similar to existing offerings from Fiio, Roon, Audirvana, DTS, HiBy, Shanling, Onkyo, Radsone, EarStudio, Denon, Sony, Lotoo, Astell&Kern et al? Seems like it would be a competitive option for this new entry into the streaming market (nudge nudge)…

I'll have to check but that is the app I believe we all downloaded, basically the same thing as ifi.local in a browser just more responsive and a little easier..To me anyway

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I noticed yesterday that there was a Zen Stream iPhone app that allegedly claimed to be the “official” GUI for the unit, but I didn’t recognize the developer. Alas today, it has mysteriously vanished from the App Store.

Any word on whether iFi plans on releasing such an audio player app to complement their streamer, similar to existing offerings from Fiio, Roon, Audirvana, DTS, HiBy, Shanling, Onkyo, Radsone, EarStudio, Denon, Sony, Lotoo, Astell&Kern et al? Seems like it would be a competitive option for this new entry into the streaming market (nudge nudge)…

Yepper, that's the right one called Stream-iFi, not sure why it is not on the App store anymore, perhaps @Sebastien Chiu can let us know.

I still have it on my phone and it is functional.

Hope that helps!

 

[srkbear]

Yepper, that's the right one called Stream-iFi, not sure why it is not on the App store anymore, perhaps @Sebastien Chiu can let us know.

I still have it on my phone and it is functional.

Hope that helps!

Thanks! I still have it too—but it’s oddly buggy for an official app. Has misspellings, like “Steam-iFI” on the initial splash screen. I was concerned it was a third-party app under cover of a licensed iFi product…it got pulled awfully fast…

My iStream arrives tomorrow, so I’ll give it a try.

 

[sabloke]

How stable is this streamer? I played Paradise FLAC for over 5 hours straight today and not once it paused or stuttered. Never managed more than 15 minutes with Roon off my PC. Same story with Qobuz and local files. Rock solid!

 

[tesarpa]

How stable is this streamer? I played Paradise FLAC for over 5 hours straight today and not once it paused or stuttered. Never managed more than 15 minutes with Roon off my PC. Same story with Qobuz and local files. Rock solid!

Roon is extremely sensitive to network dropouts. I had to upgrade my network switch, powerline adapters and wifi routers completely to fix it's behaviour. Now I can play radio via Roon all day long (at least usually). Compared to Roon, Volumio (and all streamers on this software base) play radio very reliably even on lesser networks.