[Ninja Theory]

@Ninja Theory Help me out here, you've got the majority of people telling and saying to you that this is a stellar product with superior sound quality, vs. a few bad examples of incorrect power supply, 1 or 2 defective units (out of how many good ones), and what could be improper setup or user error, that has yet to be determined, as some of these posters of issues seem to pop in, complain, someone provides an answer or a question for clarifacation, and they op back in a day or so later with another complaint acting like they were not addressed.

So when you say you decided to go with a more expensive product that I have never heard of, and quite frankly I probably have allot of products people never heard of, it prompts my interest, especially given you had the added expense of a PS, but call it the safer path. Could you please enlighten me as to this product briefly, as I do not want to derail the thread, and please without bashing the Zen why you thought this was the better path?

Oh and just so you know i wasn't kidding about products people may not have heard of, my zen stream is feeding this as I type right now...

I don't bash products - as audio enthusiasts, we have different audio preferences and budgets etc. and as such I find it rather futile to bash a product. I think the Zen Stream looks like a great product. I was 80-90% of the way to my purchase decision - which is why I contacted a recommended reseller in my country today. I was on the brink of reserving one from his incoming shipment. The thing that stopped me from pulling the trigger was partly the lack of external reviews but moreso that unexpectedly a friend of a friend happened to put his mint (and upgraded) SMS-200 with LPS up for sale at a very fair price.

Regarding the lack of external reviews, this is a personal thing. I enjoy researching a product I intend to purchase. I form my decision on multiple factors such as brand sentiment, audio friends sentiment, forum sentiment and reviews (like Head-Fi and AV Forums), external reviews (written and YouTube), specs, tests, aesthetics etc. This culminates in a gut feeling on which way to go. My gut on the Zen Stream was to take a chance on it but I really wanted the SMS-200 with LPS, however, the new price was a little beyond my current budget as I have recently set in motion a DAC and amp upgrade.

Where I live, the SMS-200 is a (very) well-known and trusted device. Many audio enthusiasts with high-end systems had or still have the SMS-200 (with LPS) and cannot praise it enough. The reason I bought the SMS-200 is because as mentioned above, I was unexpectedly offered it at a good price. Also this is my first foray into streamers, so my reference to "playing it safe" was related to the abundance of positive sentiment for the SMS-200 in my country, coupled with the lack of first hand experience with the Zen Stream (no-one I know has it).

I will add that the issues being experienced with the Zen Stream are only a minor concern for me and I have confidence they will be ironed out (I know it's a minority of users). I will wait to receive my SMS-200 and for external reviews to come through for the Zen Stream. If it turns out to be a SMS-200 killer then I may well sell my SMS-200 and jump onboard the Zen Stream train!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I don't bash products - as audio enthusiasts, we have different audio preferences and budgets etc. and as such I find it rather futile to bash a product. I think the Zen Stream looks like a great product. I was 80-90% of the way to my purchase decision - which is why I contacted a recommended reseller in my country today. I was on the brink of reserving one from his incoming shipment. The thing that stopped me from pulling the trigger was partly the lack of external reviews but moreso that unexpectedly a friend of a friend happened to put his mint (and upgraded) SMS-200 with LPS up for sale at a very fair price.

Regarding the lack of external reviews, this is a personal thing. I enjoy researching a product I intend to purchase. I form my decision on multiple factors such as brand sentiment, audio friends sentiment, forum sentiment and reviews (like Head-Fi and AV Forums), external reviews (written and YouTube), specs, tests, aesthetics etc. This culminates in a gut feeling on which way to go. My gut on the Zen Stream was to take a chance on it but I really wanted the SMS-200 with LPS, however, the new price was a little beyond my current budget as I have recently set in motion a DAC and amp upgrade.

Where I live, the SMS-200 is a (very) well-known and trusted device. Many audio enthusiasts with high-end systems had or still have the SMS-200 (with LPS) and cannot praise it enough. The reason I bought the SMS-200 is because as mentioned above, I was unexpectedly offered it at a good price. Also this is my first foray into streamers, so my reference to "playing it safe" was related to the abundance of positive sentiment for the SMS-200 in my country, coupled with the lack of first hand experience with the Zen Stream (no-one I know has it).

I will add that the issues being experienced with the Zen Stream are only a minor concern for me and I have confidence they will be ironed out (I know it's a minority of users). I will wait to receive my SMS-200 and for external reviews to come through for the Zen Stream. If it turns out to be a SMS-200 killer then I may well sell my SMS-200 and jump onboard the Zen Stream train!

Thank you for that, I appreciate it! So should I just search for reviews on this SMS product or could you point me to a trusted source, I too like to research, with the iFi I kind of took a leap of faith and as you can tell by my pic, sometimes you gotta just try something, thats when the magic happens, lol

Cheers!!

 

[Ninja Theory]

Thank you for that, I appreciate it! So should I just search for reviews on this SMS product or could you point me to a trusted source, I too like to research, with the iFi I kind of took a leap of faith and as you can tell by my pic, sometimes you gotta just try something, thats when the magic happens, lol

Cheers!!

SOTM SMS-200 Streamer and SOTM SPS-500 LPS - there are plenty reviews on the interwebs and YT. Btw I often take leaps of faith (based on research) but I rarely buy anything over a few hundred dollars without reviews - I was however prepared to take a leap of faith with the Zen Stream.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

SOTM SMS-200 Streamer and SOTM SPS-500 LPS - there are plenty reviews on the interwebs and YT. Btw I often take leaps of faith (based on research) but I rarely buy anything over a few hundred dollars without reviews - I was however prepared to take a leap of faith with the Zen Stream.

Yes I did look at it on some site that claimed to be from the US 450 US dollars I believe, sorry to say but i think people were calling the Zen Ugly Sheesh, lol

I'm going to check it out thanks for the tip, Now back to the Zen...

 

[windplr]

FYI weird glitch last night. I was listening to something and glanced at the ZS, the LED that shows active streaming was off. Yet I was hearing music. When I tried to power the unit off using a long press on the button, the unit would not turn off. Re-powering by pulling the out the power cable fixed both issues. Note, I am running the unit in Roon exclusive mode.

Also, updated firmware this morning. Update was quick and no issues whatsoever.

 

[ClieOS]

Will do.

Got words back from the retailer, basically nothing meaningful to add to the situation other than that (*not iPower*) adapter is what supposed to come with the Stream and they have no other info otherwise.

As said, I have no problem with the stock adapter so I'll keep using it as it is. I do plan to get a dedicated iPower for the Stream, but there is no rush. I do want to point out to iFi - if you guys didn't intend to make iPower as the default adapter for the Stream, don't put a sticker on the box to confuse your customer.

 

[Currawong]

Got words back from the retailer, basically nothing meaningful to add to the situation other than that (*not iPower*) adapter is what supposed to come with the Stream and they have no other info otherwise.

As said, I have no problem with the stock adapter so I'll keep using it as it is. I do plan to get a dedicated iPower for the Stream, but there is no rush. I do want to point out to iFi - if you guys didn't intend to make iPower as the default adapter for the Stream, don't put a sticker on the box to confuse your customer.

I just had a look at the iFi web site, instruction manual and the box I received. The iPower is only mentioned on a sticker added to the box of the one I received. There is also a serial number sticker on mine which includes "JP", presumably meaning that the version I received was for the Japanese market. This suggests to me that different markets will receive different versions, some without the iPower.

If iFi are sending retail boxes out to markets that are not going to receive the iPower with the Zen Stream, then the box should definitely not have an iPower sticker on them. Otherwise, iFi should send customers whose boxes have 'iPower included" on them, but didn't get the iPower, a free iPower.

More so I don't understand why iFi would create this confusion by having some include it, and some not.

 

[kaushama]

Any update on iFi apps? Android version?

 

[innocentblood]

just wanted to share that the update to the latest firmware went smoothly for me. I am on wifi mode by the way and currently on the AIO mode while listening to Roon mostly, followed by Spotify. looking fwd to the eventual Roon certification

 

[sabloke]

Same here. Very happy with the sound and stability. Can't wait for Chromecast streaming to be turned on. Even better, get that Spotify high res streaming already as Spotify Direct implementation of the Zen Stream is flawless.

 

[Louisiana]

For me, the update via WLAN also ran without any problems.
Something completely different is preoccupying me right now:
I've been using Roon for a few days, and I'm happy with it, so all I need is a Roon Bridge - and now we come to the problem.
If I use the ifi stream as a bridge, that's basically almost a waste.
For comparison, I installed Ropieee on the Pi4, and to be honest, I don't hear any difference in terms of sound.

Now I'm wondering whether it's even worth keeping the ifi stream or not.
Seen in this way, I even have the advantage with the Pi that I can upsampling to DSD 512, which is not possible with the ifi stream.

Difficult Decision.

 

[rudy49]

I don't bash products - as audio enthusiasts, we have different audio preferences and budgets etc. and as such I find it rather futile to bash a product. I think the Zen Stream looks like a great product. I was 80-90% of the way to my purchase decision - which is why I contacted a recommended reseller in my country today. I was on the brink of reserving one from his incoming shipment. The thing that stopped me from pulling the trigger was partly the lack of external reviews but moreso that unexpectedly a friend of a friend happened to put his mint (and upgraded) SMS-200 with LPS up for sale at a very fair price.

Regarding the lack of external reviews, this is a personal thing. I enjoy researching a product I intend to purchase. I form my decision on multiple factors such as brand sentiment, audio friends sentiment, forum sentiment and reviews (like Head-Fi and AV Forums), external reviews (written and YouTube), specs, tests, aesthetics etc. This culminates in a gut feeling on which way to go. My gut on the Zen Stream was to take a chance on it but I really wanted the SMS-200 with LPS, however, the new price was a little beyond my current budget as I have recently set in motion a DAC and amp upgrade.

Where I live, the SMS-200 is a (very) well-known and trusted device. Many audio enthusiasts with high-end systems had or still have the SMS-200 (with LPS) and cannot praise it enough. The reason I bought the SMS-200 is because as mentioned above, I was unexpectedly offered it at a good price. Also this is my first foray into streamers, so my reference to "playing it safe" was related to the abundance of positive sentiment for the SMS-200 in my country, coupled with the lack of first hand experience with the Zen Stream (no-one I know has it).

I will add that the issues being experienced with the Zen Streamaare only a minor concern for me and I have confidence they will be ironed out (I know it's a minority of users). I will wait to receive my SMS-200 and for external reviews to come through for the Zen Stream. If it turns out to be a SMS-200 killer then I may well sell my SMS-200 and jump onboard the Zen Stream train!

does anyone know if a review for the Zen Stream is in the works from the likes of Hans Beekhauysan, Stereophile, What HiFi?

 

[ClieOS]

does anyone know if a review for the Zen Stream is in the works from the likes of Hans Beekhauysan, Stereophile, What HiFi?

Shouldn't you ask Hans Beekhauysan, Stereophile and What HiFi instead?

 

[Louisiana]

Difficult decision, but that's the way it is now: My ifi Stream is up for sale.

 

[RipVanWinkle1989]

I just had a look at the iFi web site, instruction manual and the box I received. The iPower is only mentioned on a sticker added to the box of the one I received. There is also a serial number sticker on mine which includes "JP", presumably meaning that the version I received was for the Japanese market. This suggests to me that different markets will receive different versions, some without the iPower.

If iFi are sending retail boxes out to markets that are not going to receive the iPower with the Zen Stream, then the box should definitely not have an iPower sticker on them. Otherwise, iFi should send customers whose boxes have 'iPower included" on them, but didn't get the iPower, a free iPower.

More so I don't understand why iFi would create this confusion by having some include it, and some not.

I don't think this is market specific, because my unit is from Singapore (without a iPower), but I'm pretty sure I recall someone in Singapore get the iPower. It might be related to those faulty iPowers we saw users getting initially in this thread, which they would have had to replace quickly, but iFi can say for sure.