[daytrader]

If I may ask, is there anything in particular you like about it?

Quality of BT transmission of course! Anything up to 24/96, no cable needed!

 

[iFi audio]

Quality of BT transmission of course! Anything up to 24/96, no cable needed!

Thanks!

 

[MisterMudd]

Thanks a ton! Lots of things to like about this post



That was our goal

Is there anything in particular you like about it?

Everything. Great sense of space, airiness, and instrument separation. Implementation of bass boost is best I have heard - not intrusive to other frequencies at all - just fits right in there for that little extra "oomph". Love it. I obviously do not care to spend big bucks for gear, but do endeavor to find the best sound for me at modest prices, and have been happy along my journey. I am a music first consumer. But headphones aside, the Zen is the first piece of I gear bought that really made me think "Hi-Fi". And at such a modest price point. Holy Cow! Paired with my new Deva in balanced mode produces a stunning listening experience. There is magic in that odd shaped container, and I am eternally grateful. Kudos!!

 

[iFi audio]

Everything. Great sense of space, airiness, and instrument separation. Implementation of bass boost is best I have heard - not intrusive to other frequencies at all - just fits right in there for that little extra "oomph". Love it. I obviously do not care to spend big bucks for gear, but do endeavor to find the best sound for me at modest prices, and have been happy along my journey. I am a music first consumer. But headphones aside, the Zen is the first piece of I gear bought that really made me think "Hi-Fi". And at such a modest price point. Holy Cow! Paired with my new Deva in balanced mode produces a stunning listening experience. There is magic in that odd shaped container, and I am eternally grateful. Kudos!!

Fabulous, thank you very much!

 

[Selbi]

In context of this post: new cable finally arrived, and this time it's the 4.4-to-XLR one I ordered!

The good news is that it definitely doesn't sound worse, as you would expect from a balanced cable.

The bad news is that I'm kind of disappointed with the improvements. That is to say, I literally cannot here any when A/B-ing between this one and my old RCA-to-XLR cable. I went through various genres, making sure to pick songs that put a strong emphasis on 3D sound (mostly Prog stuff as a result, my go-to song was Porcupine Tree - Anesthetize). While it feels like the stereo separation is ever so slightly improved and the noise was reduced, I wouldn't rule out placebo effect.

That's not to say I'm here to complain, far from it! I still love the ZEN and I will obviously keep the 4.4mm cable (waited almost three months for it), but with such a miniscule audible improvement, if any at all, I'm kind of wondering why it was even included into the device. Just feels a bit superfluous and could've been used to bring down the price a bit, or at least save production cost on iFi's end. On the other hand, perhaps my speakers (JBL LSR305) simply aren't good enough to properly showcase the differences.

 

[Bazaar]

Interesting, what cable maker? (AliExpress is just the shopping site, I think?)

I just received a 4.4 <==> XLR 3-pin yesterday from LQi and did a quick listen on my Zen DAC Signature & Burson Soloist 3X. I definitely heard a bass boost compared to RCA <==> RCA analog connection; not sure about other aspects, I need to do some more listening tonight.

 

[Selbi]

Interesting, what cable maker?

BRZHIFI, I think. Not sure if it's just a rebrand though. In any case, this is the one I ordered (1.5m): https://aliexpress.com/item/33010445455.html

The only thing I could imagine is your typical Asian scam. Considering these cables may easily cost a good three digits in the west when ordered on platforms like Amazon but I only paid 21€, that's really the only explanation I got.

 

[Baten]

BRZHIFI, I think. Not sure if it's just a rebrand though. In any case, this is the one I ordered (1.5m): https://aliexpress.com/item/33010445455.html

The only thing I could imagine is your typical Asian scam. Considering these cables may easily cost a good three digits in the west when ordered on platforms like Amazon but I only paid 21€, that's really the only explanation I got.

Is the output louder compared to the RCA? If not, that cable might not be working right.

 

[iFi audio]

Is the output louder compared to the RCA? If not, that cable might not be working right.

The balanced output should be louder, yes. @Selbi what is your exact setup?

 

[Selbi]

Yes, it is louder, if only slightly. The knob is currently at 10 o'clock, where it was around 12 on RCA for similar volume levels.

My setup is Spotify Premium > USB > ZEN (no extra power supply) > the new 4.4-to-XLR cable > JBL LSR310S > JBL LSR305

 

[drhonk]

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.

I know this is an old thread that I'm responding to, but I thought I need to provide this information on the gapless issue with MQA is an iFi issue. We have this discussion on roonlabs community forum and confirmed it's iFi issue since MQA gapless works with other dac/amp such as SMSL M500 for example.

 

[askkshly]

Honestly a really solid amp/dac setup

 

[iFi audio]

I know this is an old thread that I'm responding to, but I thought I need to provide this information on the gapless issue with MQA is an iFi issue. We have this discussion on roonlabs community forum and confirmed it's iFi issue since MQA gapless works with other dac/amp such as SMSL M500 for example.

I'll ask internally about that, but we're aware that there are some issues with gapless playback.

 

[Palicka]

Hello All,

I decided to write in IFI despair as someone hopefully might be in position to help me decide. First off, I think of buying zen DAC for one peculiar reason. I already sold new Hip DAC for two particular reasons. ! clearly poor battery life, not near to the hours stated even at low volumes...I think this should be issued in version 2.
second. I really really wanted to like ifi sound. and for much I did. little background. My house and acceptable conditions for long time fatigue-less listening sessions ae pretty much used around wolfson DAC in ipads and sony dac/amps.
Its less detailed presentation, and less extention on bass end. I would say one thing. I am used to rather musical enjoyment and I depart from analytical listening both headphones and sources. I can afairly listen to youtube compression as well as flac etc...

for years i tried various cans until i set firmly on hifiman HE400 2020, for mostly violin and orchestra music, folk and all acoulstic staff involving singing etc....also grado sr60 for smaller acoustic venues and rock/metal music/ for tremendous pRAT punch and detail they bring,. ....
I can swap both pretty much with their weeknesses and strongs......
generally little recessed highs is my thing i guess...

I love also shure srh 840 for enhgaging mids. but i call them little too warm as far as the others.

recently i got rid of sony nwz a55 which i tried as well, but i could not accept that I had to use various filters to open sound. otherwise very nice dynamic sound with little digital presence in it....

now comes the HIP. before i read that mids are little present or agressive. Therefore I grabbed only HE400 - I was struck with details in sound, and overall pleasing qualities . I was shocked by analoguish or whatever you call bottom of spectum. Not most detailed for critical buffs but far far from worlds like bloating etc. Bass was precise, timing excellent only little colored, but pleasingly analogue....and truebass funkcion worked amazingly with popular and also critical genres if needed bringing even rumbles pleasingly. I loved detail in singing and timing together with efortless softness of the details around ....i could listen to youtube and switched back and forth for poor wolfson in ipad. it was not day and night but regarding details. hell yea.
it comes obvious - better record more pleasing....i didnt change original firmware, as on linux, but i could use hip on it no problem. but i did not want 5.3 more analytical sound as i read on forum,....

but i coudnt get off one thing. mids were kinda pushing too hard into me making it after some time kind of agressive that I coud not listen pleasingly no more / and i generally HATE lean sound and lean cans....hovewer he 2020 are not most dynamic sounding in the world...! when i listened high res material, dynamic sweeps of orchestra were delivered in spades....but some general folk music it was too much for me.... making it less enjoyable and i labored with hi gain low gain, low gain feeding hifiman at the limit ..... Im not sure where that uncomfort come from. im not sue if anyone can confirm similar thoughts or not , but I wish to ask those who could compare HIP and ZEN dac, if zen can be better idea. I really like the character of the sound overall....

or could you describe me whether ZEN is voiced little differently from hip.. please?

and last question, I read folks use zen DAC comfortly with usb mobile banks. ..but in that case how can I connect ipad into it please?

apology for long read.
all best thank you
Vlad

 

[Baten]

Hello All,

I decided to write in IFI despair as someone hopefully might be in position to help me decide. First off, I think of buying zen DAC for one peculiar reason. I already sold new Hip DAC for two particular reasons. ! clearly poor battery life, not near to the hours stated even at low volumes...I think this should be issued in version 2.
second. I really really wanted to like ifi sound. and for much I did. little background. My house and acceptable conditions for long time fatigue-less listening sessions ae pretty much used around wolfson DAC in ipads and sony dac/amps.
Its less detailed presentation, and less extention on bass end. I would say one thing. I am used to rather musical enjoyment and I depart from analytical listening both headphones and sources. I can afairly listen to youtube compression as well as flac etc...

for years i tried various cans until i set firmly on hifiman HE400 2020, for mostly violin and orchestra music, folk and all acoulstic staff involving singing etc....also grado sr60 for smaller acoustic venues and rock/metal music/ for tremendous pRAT punch and detail they bring,. ....
I can swap both pretty much with their weeknesses and strongs......
generally little recessed highs is my thing i guess...

I love also shure srh 840 for enhgaging mids. but i call them little too warm as far as the others.

recently i got rid of sony nwz a55 which i tried as well, but i could not accept that I had to use various filters to open sound. otherwise very nice dynamic sound with little digital presence in it....

now comes the HIP. before i read that mids are little present or agressive. Therefore I grabbed only HE400 - I was struck with details in sound, and overall pleasing qualities . I was shocked by analoguish or whatever you call bottom of spectum. Not most detailed for critical buffs but far far from worlds like bloating etc. Bass was precise, timing excellent only little colored, but pleasingly analogue....and truebass funkcion worked amazingly with popular and also critical genres if needed bringing even rumbles pleasingly. I loved detail in singing and timing together with efortless softness of the details around ....i could listen to youtube and switched back and forth for poor wolfson in ipad. it was not day and night but regarding details. hell yea.
it comes obvious - better record more pleasing....i didnt change original firmware, as on linux, but i could use hip on it no problem. but i did not want 5.3 more analytical sound as i read on forum,....

but i coudnt get off one thing. mids were kinda pushing too hard into me making it after some time kind of agressive that I coud not listen pleasingly no more / and i generally HATE lean sound and lean cans....hovewer he 2020 are not most dynamic sounding in the world...! when i listened high res material, dynamic sweeps of orchestra were delivered in spades....but some general folk music it was too much for me.... making it less enjoyable and i labored with hi gain low gain, low gain feeding hifiman at the limit ..... Im not sure where that uncomfort come from. im not sue if anyone can confirm similar thoughts or not , but I wish to ask those who could compare HIP and ZEN dac, if zen can be better idea. I really like the character of the sound overall....

or could you describe me whether ZEN is voiced little differently from hip.. please?

and last question, I read folks use zen DAC comfortly with usb mobile banks. ..but in that case how can I connect ipad into it please?

apology for long read.
all best thank you
Vlad

About iFi sound, they mostly all use the same chip (except the iFi zen blue which has ESS sabre) so the sound can be better/worse but the signature mostly the same. Most people dig the iFi sound but if it doesn't work for you, I would not recommend to buy more of the same.