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

[twrr]

You are an employee of IFI and I know that it bothers you that people write about problems, which are by no means few, but that is not my problem. I did everything you asked for and wrote it down several times, bought several type of discs, formatting and other things. That doesn't work. Why Ifi? I thought if Rpi has updated Volumio and everythyng works since then without problems that Ifi is able to do it too but apparently not. I'm not attacking you , i just want something I paid fair and square to work properly.
I bought mine in Norway so I don't have time and I don't want to bother with sending it to the other side of Europe.
Ifi is also over-advertised, so I think that it is not necessary for them to hire people who deal with advertising on the payroll, but to hire a person who can and knows how to update existing devices.
The man asked for my opinion and I said, Do you have a problem with that?

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

You are an employee of IFI and I know that it bothers you that people write about problems, which are by no means few, but that is not my problem. I did everything you asked for and wrote it down several times, bought several type of discs, formatting and other things. That doesn't work. Why Ifi? I thought if Rpi has updated Volumio and everythyng works since then without problems that Ifi is able to do it too but apparently not. I'm not attacking you , i just want something I paid fair and square to work properly.
I bought mine in Norway so I don't have time and I don't want to bother with sending it to the other side of Europe.
Ifi is also over-advertised, so I think that it is not necessary for them to hire people who deal with advertising on the payroll, but to hire a person who can and knows how to update existing devices.
The man asked for my opinion and I said, Do you have a problem with that?

First of all, to set the record straight, I did not start "working for iFi" until about 1 month ago. I was asked to come to work for iFi because of my work here on this thread, and on the Main Zen Stream thread, you know the other one that you have never posted your concerns in as I suggested you should.

This thread was started on Jan 1, 2022 and the third line of it reads...

"**This Thread is not for bashing/complaints of @iFi audio or the product** This was long before I "worked" for iFi

The purpose of that line was to hopefully keep comments like "Ifi is also over-advertised, so I think that it is not necessary for them to hire people who deal with advertising on the payroll, but to hire a person who can and knows how to update existing devices" from being posted here as I was trying to keep this thread for "Setup, Tricks, and Tips" not "Hey iFi update your Volumio"

RPI has not updated Volumio, Volumio updated Volumio, as Volumio is something that is installed on an SD card and inserted into an RPI. Stream-iFi is a version of Volumio installed on the ZS, and independent of the Actual Volumio product.

So you have now told us that you don't have the time or want to bother with sending in your product for repair or replacement through Ifi's support system so I am not sure how anyone can help you here in this Non-Sponsored thread that I myself started not iFi.

So forgive me for pointing out you aren't following the simple guidelines I attempted to set out for this thread and the folks who come here for advice.

To be clear I do not have a problem with your "opinion", I have a problem with folks who bash a company over a problem that may or may not be the company's fault.

Cheers!!

 

[twrr]

Ok, I have problems with devices that don't work as they should or as advertised.

So tell me why Ifi cant upgrade their version of Volumio and solve bunch of problems, not just mine ? Where is the problem?
One more thing i mention power supplys to avoid answers like "maybe is crappy serial power supply".

 

[bagwell359]

A few things:

1. Mr. BubbaHyde was a helpful (very) poster. His role has changed, things will change but he still seems pretty helpful.

2. I can't see getting upset by the iSilencer announcement.

3. I did write here over a year ago about my perception that this product was released in an Alpha state (means not fully tested internally or externally), and in fact after my direct experience a few months ago it is at best a Beta level product - meaning its in the field, and customers are reporting issues.

4. I see a soft sell on the severity of this, and a defensive attitude.

Instead of defensiveness - how about iFi buys more cells, pc's, OS's, network devices, etc. and tests it in-house. Just because you cannot replicate a defect in-house is no reason to shrug your shoulders - if not, then your product deserves the reputation of not being stable, or well tested. A streamer that is advertised as being wifi ready should not have it as one of the first offered solutions to plug it in - useless to me.

As in the old classic Midas Muffler commercial from the 1970's tag line: "your muffler, FIX IT!"

Was the head of this thread removed? It starts in Jan '22, but the product was introduced well before that. Was there another thread someplace?

 

[AnotherBrick]

This one?

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ifi-audio-zen-stream-streaming-elevated-to-a-higher-plane.958391/

 

[AnotherBrick]

@twrr

Something you might have said triggered a memory of mine. I think you said that it's loading some of your files but not all.

So, in the spirit and intent of this thread, I'm going to agree that this version of Volumio is old. Great, but that doesn't explain why it works for me and not you, so let's try to find why that's the case.

On my HDD, I have a folder in the root directory called Music. Within that folder I have a subfolder for each genre. Within each of those, I have subfolders for each artist and then album names within that. Finally, I have the actual music files.

I did this because an earlier player of mine (might have been in my car but that's not important) had a limitation of how many folders/files it would read. Before I did this, it would load some but not all of my files.

Is this how you've organized your music collection?

 

[twrr]

I have only folders in root and in each folder are flac files from each individual artist.
Tried with extra folder "Music" and subfolders.

 

[AnotherBrick]

How many files in the folders?

 

[twrr]

10-15

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

A few things:

1. Mr. BubbaHyde was a helpful (very) poster. His role has changed, things will change but he still seems pretty helpful.

2. I can't see getting upset by the iSilencer announcement.

3. I did write here over a year ago about my perception that this product was released in an Alpha state (means not fully tested internally or externally), and in fact after my direct experience a few months ago it is at best a Beta level product - meaning its in the field, and customers are reporting issues.

4. I see a soft sell on the severity of this, and a defensive attitude.

Instead of defensiveness - how about iFi buys more cells, pc's, OS's, network devices, etc. and tests it in-house. Just because you cannot replicate a defect in-house is no reason to shrug your shoulders - if not, then your product deserves the reputation of not being stable, or well tested. A streamer that is advertised as being wifi ready should not have it as one of the first offered solutions to plug it in - useless to me.

As in the old classic Midas Muffler commercial from the 1970's tag line: "your muffler, FIX IT!"

Was the head of this thread removed? It starts in Jan '22, but the product was introduced well before that. Was there another thread someplace?

@bagwell359

Thank you! My only intent for this particular thread was to be helpful and also to get away from the negativity that was taking place in the "Main" thread. At that time the negativity was more geared towards "bashing" iFi and not individual issues or problems, so I started this one in hopes to avoid and continue doing what I was doing.

This one?

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ifi-audio-zen-stream-streaming-elevated-to-a-higher-plane.958391/

Yes That is the Main "iFi" thread started in 2021 and produced by iFi, I was in that thread since June or July of '21

How many files in the folders?

@AnotherBrick , Thank you so much for trying to give him a hand. I don't think we have ever had someone with a library as large as he has.

From everything I have read structure is extremely important, with libraries like this, in an effort to also assist, I have asked for him to post screenshots of this structure, as maybe that will reveal some issue. I have also said I am no guru in this area but again this has been an issue in the past with Volumio based products from what I have been able to read about, here is a thread which is a bit older but has much the same discussion in another forum...

https://www.minidsp.com/forum/shd-series/17286-volumio-not-indexing-usb-drive

In an effort again to try and help here are the screenshots of my folder structure, now taken from my NAS but the structure is exactly the same on the SSD Drives.

Cheers!!

 

[AnotherBrick]

It's strange to me that it's not working for him. I have 31,300 songs and just under 3,000 albums (with another CD on the way to be added - woo hoo) so I don't see how it could be related to that. Very curious. After I post my question, I'll read that link.

Okay @twrr , I know you tried sub-directories in the past but currently, you have all your albums in one directory. How many albums in the directory?

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

It's strange to me that it's not working for him. I have 31,300 songs and just under 3,000 albums (with another CD on the way to be added - woo hoo) so I don't see how it could be related to that. Very curious. After I post my question, I'll read that link.

Okay @twrr , I know you tried sub-directories in the past but currently, you have all your albums in one directory. How many albums in the directory?

That new CD wouldn't be an original 1980s version of your Avatar, would it?

Cheers!!

 

[AnotherBrick]

Nope, got that one when the CD was first released. Ya, I'm old.

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Nope, got that one when the CD was first released. Ya, I'm old.

So did I!!!

But I have bought it probably 30 times in various forms since then, lol

Found an original on Ebay and couldn't be happier, to me it's still the best-sounding version, complete with the "Click" in Comfortably Numb"

Cheers!!

 

[AnotherBrick]

As an aside while we're waiting and to totally derail this thread, there are two of their albums - DSOTM and WYWH - that were redone on SACD for surround sound. An interesting listen if you get the chance. I never did buy their quad version of DSOTM when it was released on vinyl.

Edit: Although now that I think about it, it was supposed to be released on vinyl and wasn't which caused some controversy. A good reason not to buy it