[makatech]

If you'd ever want to feed your HD6XX with an amp tailored specifically for them, our ZEN CAN Signature is the one. It's on sale for just one more day on Drop, but will return later on this year!

It's only the US version of the iFi audio iPower X power supply included with purchase?

 

[iFi audio]

It's only the US version of the iFi audio iPower X power supply included with purchase?

The version available on DROP has iPower X.

 

[makatech]

The version available on DROP has iPower X.

Yes, but is it only US electrical plug standard?

 

[iFi audio]

Yes, but is it only US electrical plug standard?

It should have several exchangeable heads to fit different outlet types, but I'll double-check on this.

 

[makatech]

It hsould have several exchangeable heads to fit different outlet types, but I'll double-check on this.

Thanks

 

[iFi audio]

Thanks

Sure, anytime!

 

[Sebasistan]

This is my first stationary dac/amp, so my experience is rather limited.
It has the necessary oomph to drive my Hifiman HE-400i's. Granted, it needs an external PSU to do so. But it does work pretty well.
I know the Zen Dac is marketed as a "beginner's item" and... I dunno, I'm pretty happy with it for what I need it for - an external source to run into my big PC to listen to music to. It does sound pretty good. Sure, other dac/amps have more bells and whistles and whatnot, but for my purposes it's pretty much perfect. Setup was actually easy plug & play, and so far I have no issues to report... But then I've only had it for two hours...

 

[iFi audio]

This is my first stationary dac/amp, so my experience is rather limited.
It has the necessary oomph to drive my Hifiman HE-400i's. Granted, it needs an external PSU to do so. But it does work pretty well.
I know the Zen Dac is marketed as a "beginner's item" and... I dunno, I'm pretty happy with it for what I need it for - an external source to run into my big PC to listen to music to. It does sound pretty good. Sure, other dac/amps have more bells and whistles and whatnot, but for my purposes it's pretty much perfect. Setup was actually easy plug & play, and so far I have no issues to report... But then I've only had it for two hours...

Het, thanks a lot for your feedback. I hope that the more hours you spend with ZEN DAC, the more you'll like it

 

[arnoldc]

I finally got my first MQA device and the motivation was to join the MQA party at the lowest cost. The Zen DAC is supposed to be a permanent fixture to my main system configured as Surface Pro 4 -> Zen DAC -> Hegel H190 -> KEF R300.

It turned out that I got to test the single-ended output first using some of my headphones/IEM - HIFIMAN HE400i, Audeze LCDi3, Sony XBA-A2, Flipears custom fit (with BA driver) and except for the HE400i, the Zen DAC volume is around 12 o'clock to 1 o'clock.

I don't use an external power supply at the moment, but I'm looing at Breeze Audio linear power supply.

I'm listening now to Metal - Tidal Master using the Tidal client on my Dell 5570 and there's no click during track transitions. I'm running firmware 5.3 and I've ordered the cheap **** 2-pin and MMCX 16 core silver plated 4.4mm cables.

 

[Amielcris]

Hi

Ive had my zen dac for 2 days so far enjoying it immensely, just a few questions:

1. What do you guys use as a player? Am using foobar and quite happy but is there any other alternative out there that can maximise this DAC?
2. Was able to make MQA work as indicated in on the ambient light however, whenever I play DSD it shows yellow rather than cyan. Do you guys know how to resolve?

Many thanks and more power to headfi and iFi!

 

[arnoldc]

Tidal for streaming, Audirvana for Tidal streaming and local files from my Synology NAS. I am able to play up to DSD128 from my Mac mini. I will try DSD256 later tonight using my Windows 10 Surface Pro 4.

 

[iFi audio]

1. What do you guys use as a player? Am using foobar and quite happy but is there any other alternative out there that can maximise this DAC?
2. Was able to make MQA work as indicated in on the ambient light however, whenever I play DSD it shows yellow rather than cyan. Do you guys know how to resolve?

1. Personally I'm happy with Foobar myself, but at some point you might want to try i..e HQ Player.
2. ZEN DAC's LED should be either cyan (DSD64/128) or blue (DSD256). It goes yellow in case of PCM data (176/192/353/384kHz). This thus means that what your ZEN DAC receives isn't a DSD stream but something PCM instead. In this case I'd double-check your player's settings and make sure that what it sends out is in fact DSD.

 

[Amielcris]

1. Personally I'm happy with Foobar myself, but at some point you might want to try i..e HQ Player.
2. ZEN DAC's LED should be either cyan (DSD64/128) or blue (DSD256). It goes yellow in case of PCM data (176/192/353/384kHz). This thus means that what your ZEN DAC receives isn't a DSD stream but something PCM instead. In this case I'd double-check your player's settings and make sure that what it sends out is in fact DSD.

Thank you for your reply! Will try HQ Player

Foobar says its DSD at the lower left part of the player-yet color doesnt change, any idea what else I can try?

 

[Zeka]

Foobar says its DSD at the lower left part of the player...

Thats a type of files, but you must put dsd as output in foobar.

 

[vladtm]

Got the zen dac as well, using Tidal on my macbook, windows and ipad, MQA albums are not gapless. When listening to a Master album, the music stops and usualy cuts the first 1-2 seconds of the following track before starting to play again.
Manual track play has same issue, the first 1-2 seconds are cut and audio starts afterwards.
I am using the latest firmware (but both of them have the same behaviour)

Looks like the buffering takes to much time with MQA, skipping through a song has a big delay in audio playback.