iFi audio ZEN Stream - Streaming elevated to a higher plane

[srkbear]

Hello,

anyone notice SQ different between wired connection and WiFi on the ZS? When use Tidal connect. I’m now on wired so led light on the left in always white. So very stable connection. But I hate long utp cable.

regards,
Simon

None for me. I use Wi-Fi exclusively and get great performance—at least I do now with the firmware upgrades they rolled out (the their initial stock firmware I had network headaches constantly, that they seem to have fixed).

That being said, I have a very tricked out, rather expensive ASUS AiMesh network and one of the nodes is 8 feet away from the Zen Stream. It’s unfortunately too far away from it for me to go with an Ethernet connection, but as I said I haven’t needed it. I must add that in the interim between firmware updates, I turned on multicast in the router GUI, which may have also contributed to eliminating dropouts.

 

[simon740]

None for me. I use Wi-Fi exclusively and get great performance—at least I do now with the firmware upgrades they rolled out (the their initial stock firmware I had network headaches constantly, that they seem to have fixed).

That being said, I have a very tricked out, rather expensive ASUS AiMesh network and one of the nodes is 8 feet away from the Zen Stream. It’s unfortunately too far away from it for me to go with an Ethernet connection, but as I said I haven’t needed it. I must add that in the interim between firmware updates, I turned on multicast in the router GUI, which may have also contributed to eliminating dropouts.

Aha ok. Thank you. I will try WiFi tomorrow.

regards,
Simon

 

[Sean H]

Hello,

anyone notice SQ different between wired connection and WiFi on the ZS? When use Tidal connect. I’m now on wired so led light on the left in always white. So very stable connection. But I hate long utp cable.

regards,
Simon

I just recently switched from WiFi to wired after moving a node closer to my system so I could run a wired connection. Like you I use Tidal Connect as well. First off, the sound is subtly better to my ears with a wired connection. Oddly enough I started to have disconnections quite often with the wired where Tidal Connect would lose its connection fairly often. I wasn’t having disconnections issues with WiFi. I have always put the ZS in the Tidal mode and wondered if using AIO might be better. So I tried it and i have not had one single disconnection issue AND I actually think AIO sounds better than the Tidal mode! Ha ha. So, I keep it in AIO now with Tidal Connect with a wired connection and have zero issues and it sounds better to my ears.

 

[ctrlm]

I have my ZS set up to play tracks from my NAS and it works fine.

I also have the contents of that NAS on a 2TB Samsung portable SSD. In order to try out the SSD via the ZS USB input, do I have to discard the currently mounted NAS in the sources settings first? I did try just plugging it in but it started scanning immediately and looked like it was just adding to the library?

Edit: it's OK, I just went ahead and binned the NAS mount and now playing from the SSD.

 

[ctrlm]

It would be really nice to have the USB source and a network source as saved selectable options without having to delete/unmount the current source and re-scan. If I have a USB hard drive connected and then add my NAS, the ZS UI just combines the two sources including adding duplicate albums/tracks. My old Auralic Aries had the option to select either my NAS or USB external hard drive as the source at any time.

 

[stino83]

Hello everyone. I am building a headphone stack. So far i have a spring 3 kte, singxer sa-1 and clear mg. Now looking for a streamer. on My stereo set up I stream from my laptop of tablet using deezer most often (via devialet air protocol). I would like to still be able to do that. Next to that, i watch dvd concerts on my lg gx tv, often played from disc with my ps5.

could the zen stream handle both these inputs? Thanks for your help.

 

[esmse]

Hello everyone. I am building a headphone stack. So far i have a spring 3 kte, singxer sa-1 and clear mg. Now looking for a streamer. on My stereo set up I stream from my laptop of tablet using deezer most often (via devialet air protocol). I would like to still be able to do that. Next to that, i watch dvd concerts on my lg gx tv, often played from disc with my ps5.

could the zen stream handle both these inputs? Thanks for your help.

I'm a bit confused about your question and what exactly you're trying to achieve but I'll take a shot. The zen stream is a source so it doesn't handle input, it is an input. I'm gonna take a jump here and assume, since you mention all these, that you're looking for a way to use zen stream as a source for both headphone and stereo and still able to watch your DVD concerts from PS5 which is connected to TV and then TV I assume is connected to your stereo currently.

Also unclear what exactly that devialet device is you're streaming to via devialet air protocol, a lot will depend on what inputs that device has. I assume it should have at least an analog input and maybe a digital input so here is my 2 cents:

The easiest setup is to put the zen stream as a source for the Spring 3, then from the spring 3 to your headphone amp via balanced output and also to devialet device via SE output. The Spring 3 outputs to both when playing. You could leave the TV connected to the devialet device but also possible to send signal to Spring 3 via spdif to send all sound through the Spring 3 (which is maybe what you want with a +3k DAC), that way you could also listen your dvd's on headphone while watching them on the TV.

In terms of control you only need to control the streamer and maybe the input on the DAC if you have multiple sources connected to it. For Deezer, I'm not sure you want to go the zen stream route. If you're using roon its ok (but not deezer support so guess not). If you're on android you might want to wait until chromecast support turns from promise to reality or look elsewhere, if you're an apple user, you can use airplay. Don't bet your money on the native apps, seeing your gear you want quality components that work well and there still is a lot of DYI feeling to it. Just controlling it from 3rd party apps like Deezer via Airplay/Chromcast is much easier and convenient then.

You could also output directly from zen stream to spring 3 and devialet (if it has digital input) but there are buts... When using the USB output on zen stream (or USB on any streamer probably) the USB output locks and is the only one outputting signal. When using multiple outputs and one of them is USB, switching via UI is required. A bit of a PITA if you ask me. You could output to both devialet and spring 3 via spdif (coax and optical), not sure if switching is required then, probably not.

 

[stino83]

I'm a bit confused about your question and what exactly you're trying to achieve but I'll take a shot. The zen stream is a source so it doesn't handle input, it is an input. I'm gonna take a jump here and assume, since you mention all these, that you're looking for a way to use zen stream as a source for both headphone and stereo and still able to watch your DVD concerts from PS5 which is connected to TV and then TV I assume is connected to your stereo currently.

Also unclear what exactly that devialet device is you're streaming to via devialet air protocol, a lot will depend on what inputs that device has. I assume it should have at least an analog input and maybe a digital input so here is my 2 cents:

The easiest setup is to put the zen stream as a source for the Spring 3, then from the spring 3 to your headphone amp via balanced output and also to devialet device via SE output. The Spring 3 outputs to both when playing. You could leave the TV connected to the devialet device but also possible to send signal to Spring 3 via spdif to send all sound through the Spring 3 (which is maybe what you want with a +3k DAC), that way you could also listen you're dvd's on headphone while watching them on the TV.

In terms of control you only need to control the streamer and maybe the input on the DAC if you have multiple sources connected to it. For Deezer, I'm not sure you want to go the zen stream route. If you're using roon its ok (but not deezer support so guess not). If you're on android you might want to wait until chromecast support turns from promise to reality or look elsewhere, if you're an apple user, you can use airplay. Don't bet your money on the native apps, seeing you're gear you want quality components that work well and there still is a lot of DYI feeling to it. Just controlling it from 3rd party apps like Deezer via Airplay/Chromcast is much easier and convenient then.

You could also output directly from zen stream to spring 3 and devialet (if it has digital input) but there are buts... When using the USB output on zen stream (or USB on any streamer probably) the USB output locks and is the only one outputting signal. When using multiple outputs and one of them is USB, switching via UI is required. A bit of a PITA if you ask me. You could output to both devialet and spring 3 via spdif (coax and optical), not sure if switching is required then, probably not.

Thanks a lot for yoru reply.

My apologies i was not clear enough on my set-up. The stereo system is in another room from the headphone set-up. So re-using the devialet 440 pro is not an option.

I could indeed connect my tv directly to the Spring 3 using a spdif - thank you! That means i just need a solution to send my Deezer playlists to the Spring. I was unaware that Chromecast is not yet supported. Seems i have to wait for that or go for another route.

Many thanks for talking the time to help me out here. It is highly appreciated and I whish you a pleasant day!

 

[daytrader]

iFI,
Have you added Amazon HD Music native yet? Waiting with my finger on the [buy] button.

 

[mblain]

iFI,
Have you added Amazon HD Music native yet? Waiting with my finger on the [buy] button.

I'll piggyback this question and add have you added or planning on adding Apple Music native yet? Lossless streaming?

 

[antastik]

I'll piggyback this question and add have you added or planning on adding Apple Music native yet? Lossless streaming?

Me too!

 

[daytrader]

At $400 retail, the above should be added without a price increase. I think?

 

[mblain]

At $400 retail, the above should be added without a price increase. I think?

I would think that would be the case since the OS is updatable.
@iFi audio let is know what the plan or thought it since the streaming services keep changing.

 

[Wakalaaa]

I just bought a second-hand d70s, and it works perfectly with zen stream. I use roon to transfer all files to dsd. Due to the limitation of ZS, I can only upscale to dsd256. I hope ifi can update the firmware to support dsd512.

 

[rudy49]

i received my replacement Zen Stream a couple of days ago. it is still shutting down. sometimes powering down completely, other times the lights will remain on. when the Zen Stream powers down, no lights i can usually just press the power button to get it to power up. however if go back into ROON and restart play the track will play but without sound. so, i than go to Spotify where i see the IFI icon has also returned. i re-select the ZS as the output device and commence play in Spotify. track will play with sound. now if i go back into Roon/Tidal the and commence play the the track will now play with sound. strange. if the unit stops playing but with the lights still a blazing i than have to physically disconnect the DC connector to re-boot it and initiate the start up cycle process again. red light, white light ect.