iFi Zen Stream: Setup, Tips, Tricks...

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I have 7TB on my NAS all in DSD 128 and it works perfectly... Well, it takes some effort and sometimes I have to take out the USB cable and put it back in and reboot for everything to work.
Server Twonky en WD NAS

Thanks for pointing out your use case!

Perhaps you could take a few moments to post a screencap of the folder structure on your drive, as I believe this is a very important part of good functionality.

I remember reading years ago that it was best to do something like this... CDRips/Artist/Albums by artist this has always worked well for me.

Cheers!!

 

[luiswu]

Thanks for pointing out your use case!

Perhaps you could take a few moments to post a screencap of the folder structure on your drive, as I believe this is a very important part of good functionality.

I remember reading years ago that it was best to do something like this... CDRips/Artist/Albums by artist this has always worked well for me.

Cheers!!

The structure is very simple, the NAS has a folder called music and inside there are the subfolders (30 at the moment) each one has the folders with the disks. I don't put more than 20 or 30 disks in each subfolder.
As soon as I can, I'll send a photo.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

The structure is very simple, the NAS has a folder called music and inside there are the subfolders (30 at the moment) each one has the folders with the disks. I don't put more than 20 or 30 disks in each subfolder.
As soon as I can, I'll send a photo.

Thanks, very much appreciated!

Cheers!!

 

[luiswu]

Thanks, very much appreciated!

Cheers!!

This is the structure in photos.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

This is the structure in photos.

Thanks again, I remember a long time ago when I had a ton of music on a hard drive and was trying to copy it to another drive (newer) and no matter what I did it would hang up. Through a process of tedious going back and forth it turned out that files were mislabeled in a way that would cause this to stall.

Since that time I learned how important it was to label things correctly, with none of the symbols and things that trip this process up!

Much appreciated

Cheers!!

 

[mwhals]

My Zen Stream now won't connect to the network hard wired or WiFi. I reset it multiple times. Used two different ethernet cables. Moved it from my home gym to my computer room and have it directly connected to the network with a cable. No lights will light regardless of how many times I press the right button. My network says it is connected with an iP address, but ifi.local refuses to connect. I am at a loss now. I did enter a ticket with iFi Support.

 

[mjstealey]

My Zen Stream now won't connect to the network hard wired or WiFi. I reset it multiple times. Used two different ethernet cables. Moved it from my home gym to my computer room and have it directly connected to the network with a cable. No lights will light regardless of how many times I press the right button. My network says it is connected with an iP address, but ifi.local refuses to connect. I am at a loss now. I did enter a ticket with iFi Support.

I bumped up against something similar to this and wound up doing a hardware refresh which did resolve the issue.
- WINDOWS ONLY <-- not emulated, not a VM, use a regular windows box or laptop as you'll need to install drivers, etc. to interface with the Zen Stream
- this fully resets your hardware and re-flashes the firmware, albeit an older version of the firmware
- once you get connected again you can update the firmware via the browser UI interface

Hopefully you don't have to do a full refresh, but if you do the instructions are pretty straightforward.

 

[mwhals]

I bumped up against something similar to this and wound up doing a hardware refresh which did resolve the issue.
- WINDOWS ONLY <-- not emulated, not a VM, use a regular windows box or laptop as you'll need to install drivers, etc. to interface with the Zen Stream
- this fully resets your hardware and re-flashes the firmware, albeit an older version of the hardware
- once you get connected again you can update the firmware via the browser UI interface

Hopefully you don't have to do a full refresh, but if you do the instructions are pretty straightforward.

Thanks! That worked!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Thanks! That worked!

Good to hear your sorted out, the refresh tool is a good to to when normal steps fail to work out. It's also good after a few firmware updates just cleans and resets everything.

It's tricky using resets sometimes, and unless you need to turn off the lights I recommended a long time ago to avoid the right button at all cost lol, just a personal opinion but I have always had issues with that method.

Thanks to @mjstealey for the help!

Cheers!!

 

[SiF123]

FIXED!
After having my zs for 18 months, I have had the constant WiFi dropout and discovery options that so many complain about. I just use Tidal connect, and it can take 10 mins to find the zs, and is unstable once connected. I am also on my second device after replacement by ifi. The latest firmware hasn't improved things, and an ethernet to a WiFi adapter was no better. My WiMi Pro on another system has no issues whatsoever.

However, on the 99th attempt to resolve, I found an old WiFi adapter that has a switch to hard set either 2.4 or 5 GHz. I set it to 2.4, connected it up through ethernet and ...... Tidal immediate discovered it, and connected at the first attempt. After a week of restarting, connecting, using different devices, etc, it is rock solid and will stay connected for days.

So it appears to be an issue with 2.4/5 GHz tunneling. And oddly, sounds even better, with greater separation (WiFi is now also disabled, but it is subtle but noticeable).

Shame that I hadn't found out sooner and I would have bought another....

 

[Daniel4IEM]

All of a sudden zs won’t work with Tidal either on desktop or mobile. No problem with Spotify.

I’ve power cycled, updated the configuration, checked I’m on latest firmware but nothing fixes it.

Anyone else having issues with Tidal and ZS?

 

[brandtacious]

All of a sudden zs won’t work with Tidal either on desktop or mobile. No problem with Spotify.

I’ve power cycled, updated the configuration, checked I’m on latest firmware but nothing fixes it.

Anyone else having issues with Tidal and ZS?

I just had a great Tidal session! The last couple of days, though, I had trouble with Tidal. Usually I can delete the app, reload it, and be good to go. Not this time…
So, before my session tonight, I turned off my iPhone as well as my router/wifi gizmo for a few minutes. Turned both back on, turned ZS on, signed in to ifi.local, and I was good to go all evening!
Just remembered - Tidal had an update a few days ago, so may want to visit App Store and make sure your using the latest and greatest version of Tidal…

 

[brandtacious]

I just had a great Tidal session! The last couple of days, though, I had trouble with Tidal. Usually I can delete the app, reload it, and be good to go. Not this time…
So, before my session tonight, I turned off my iPhone as well as my router/wifi gizmo for a few minutes. Turned both back on, turned ZS on, signed in to ifi.local, and I was good to go all evening!
Just remembered - Tidal had an update a few days ago, so may want to visit App Store and make sure your using the latest and greatest version of Tidal…

Also, please note when I start having trouble, I usually bust out the 50 foot ether cable and go wired, which I did this evening…

 

[Sazalirazak]

I had Tidal conection issue everytime after starting up the Zs...to solve this I use the ifi local settings app, refresh internet connection and refresh output to spdif configuration ... abit incovenient but solves Tidal connection issue everytime

 

[Sazalirazak]

FIXED!
After having my zs for 18 months, I have had the constant WiFi dropout and discovery options that so many complain about. I just use Tidal connect, and it can take 10 mins to find the zs, and is unstable once connected. I am also on my second device after replacement by ifi. The latest firmware hasn't improved things, and an ethernet to a WiFi adapter was no better. My WiMi Pro on another system has no issues whatsoever.

However, on the 99th attempt to resolve, I found an old WiFi adapter that has a switch to hard set either 2.4 or 5 GHz. I set it to 2.4, connected it up through ethernet and ...... Tidal immediate discovered it, and connected at the first attempt. After a week of restarting, connecting, using different devices, etc, it is rock solid and will stay connected for days.

So it appears to be an issue with 2.4/5 GHz tunneling. And oddly, sounds even better, with greater separation (WiFi is now also disabled, but it is subtle but noticeable).

Shame that I hadn't found out sooner and I would have bought another....

Can you share the wifi adapter model you are using ? Also.how are you using the wifiadapter to connect via an ethernet cable to the Zs?