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

[Mr BubbaHyde]

See, that's the problem, I don't want to have to use Alexacast, Chromecast or any other third party app. Just one app like Wiim. I don't know if ifi can't do it, or just don't care to.

This is exactly what we are currently developing

Please share your suggestions here...

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/crowd-design-for-ifi-app.967869/

Cheers!!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

so ifi sent me the firmware software to unbrick my stream. now its working perfect. Yhank you ifi!!

i use Mconnect with the stream. i have my qobuz and tidal in the app and it sees what ever is hooked up to the stream. so Ifi really doesnt need to. develope more software. plus their ifi local works pretty good with a drive i found. just my 2 cents point of view.

what really made my stream sound amazing was a SBooster power supply.

Glad you are up and running again!

Keep us updated!

Cheers!!

 

[TBMY]

Hi! Running Tidal Connect on ZEN Stream (2.31.7) via ethernet 1Gb/s from updated Tidal App (HIFI+) on iPhone 14 Pro to Rockna Wavelight DAC on USB connection. New Tidal functionality was released a few days ago with FLAC (Max) support in stead of MQA (Master). This test album should give 192kHz out from ZS, but I "only" get 96kHz for some reason, Everything is set to max resolution and the DAC supports 384kHz over USB. Strange. This is the album I am testing on: https://tidal.com/browse/album/175019081
Do you see the same problem?

Cheers!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Hi! Running Tidal Connect on ZEN Stream (2.31.7) via ethernet 1Gb/s from updated Tidal App (HIFI+) on iPhone 14 Pro to Rockna Wavelight DAC on USB connection. New Tidal functionality was released a few days ago with FLAC (Max) support in stead of MQA (Master). This test album should give 192kHz out from ZS, but I "only" get 96kHz for some reason, Everything is set to max resolution and the DAC supports 384kHz over USB. Strange. This is the album I am testing on: https://tidal.com/browse/album/175019081
Do you see the same problem?

Cheers!

Tidal had not yet converted everything to HiRez FLAC only about 6 million I thought was the number. So there will be a mix of MQA and FLAC for awhile.

Also I have seen many instance of there being multiple versions off an album on Tidal with no way to select them.

I will check this for you as soon as I can to see what I can find out, perhaps someone with Roon could check it before me.

Cheers!!

 

[TBMY]

Thanks!! Hmm. Maybe Tidal Connect is "the bad guy" here that does not support higher than 96kHz?

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Here are the results of what I found...

As you can see by this screenshot Roon, Tidal and Qobuz both have several versions of this Album

How you choose which one using the Tidal app itself I do not know.

Here is the Tidal app using Tidal Connect playing to my ZEN Stream and into my SMSL DAC

As you can see the resolution in the app is set to "MAX" (new settings), and here is the resulting pic of this

So if your DAC is only indicating 96 khz I would suggest talking with them, or you have something wrong in your settings. As you can see there is a green light indicating MQA and my DAC reports 192khz, if your DAC does not support MQA I would suspect that is why you are seeing 96 as this album as of yet has not been converted, on 44.1 available in FLAC.

Hope this helps...

Cheers!!

 

[moriez]

so ifi sent me the firmware software to unbrick my stream. now its working perfect. Yhank you ifi!!

Same here! Having run into connectivity issues a few days ago I opened a ticket on Friday and received instruction on Monday. The instruction appeared time consuming to say the least but it went ever so smooth. Big up iFi. Ofcourse sound also improved a lot

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Same here! Having run into connectivity issues a few days ago I opened a ticket on Friday and received instruction on Monday. The instruction appeared time consuming to say the least but it went ever so smooth. Big up iFi. Ofcourse sound also improved a lot

Awesome! I will pass along your comments!!

Cheers!!

 

[TBMY]

Here are the results of what I found...

As you can see by this screenshot Roon, Tidal and Qobuz both have several versions of this Album

How you choose which one using the Tidal app itself I do not know.

Here is the Tidal app using Tidal Connect playing to my ZEN Stream and into my SMSL DAC

As you can see the resolution in the app is set to "MAX" (new settings), and here is the resulting pic of this




So if your DAC is only indicating 96 khz I would suggest talking with them, or you have something wrong in your settings. As you can see there is a green light indicating MQA and my DAC reports 192khz, if your DAC does not support MQA I would suspect that is why you are seeing 96 as this album as of yet has not been converted, on 44.1 available in FLAC.

Hope this helps...

Cheers!!

Aha! This explains it!! Thanks!! My DAC does not include MQA, so thats why as you say!
Quite irritating that you can not see in Tidal if it is FLAC or MQA hires tracks that are playing.
I took it for granted that this was FLAC, since Tidal has converted from MQA to FLAC on hires and marked these tracks as Max and not Master.
Bad assumption... Again thanks for the effort to shed light on this!

 

[tald]

Hi, i am using the ifi stream with external usb ssd disk. On the "Artist" and "Albums" sections the ifi stream app won't show albums of wav files, only flac albums are shown.
I can see and play the wav albums in "Music Library" section but thats too much browsing.
Now at the scaning option i can see how many albums were found so i know that it aware of the wav albums but still won't show them.
Any idia ? Tnx

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Hi, i am using the ifi stream with external usb ssd disk. On the "Artist" and "Albums" sections the ifi stream app won't show albums of wav files, only flac albums are shown.
I can see and play the wav albums in "Music Library" section but thats too much browsing.
Now at the scaning option i can see how many albums were found so i know that it aware of the wav albums but still won't show them.
Any idia ? Tnx

I would think it is possibly related to a "tagging" difference between the way the WAV files and FLAC files are tagged, but I do not know for sure.

I would put up a ticket to support to see if they perhaps know off-hand. Of course, others may chime in and shed some light as well.

https://support.ifi-audio.com/

Cheers!!

 

[tald]

I would think it is possibly related to a "tagging" difference between the way the WAV files and FLAC files are tagged, but I do not know for sure.

I would put up a ticket to support to see if they perhaps know off-hand. Of course, others may chime in and shed some light as well.

https://support.ifi-audio.com/

Cheers!!

You right. I didn't had this problem with roon, bluesound and jriver but i guess that ifi stream work in a different way.
What i did is i converted all the wav files to aiff

 

[Vangelo]

You right. I didn't had this problem with roon, bluesound and jriver but i guess that ifi stream work in a different way.
What i did is i converted all the wav files to aiff

I could never get this to work reliably. Every time I switched the unit on I would have to go through a ritual. Sometimes it would find all the files, but more often than not, many were missing. This was using a 1TB SSD.
I had better luck storing the files on SD card in phone or tablet, and using DNLA & Bubble....but I wasn't keen on the bubble interface.
I did solve the issue using a radical approach

 

[TBMY]

The SSD connected direct to ZS with wav files and cover art works great out of the box for me
I have organised on SDD with folders for category -> artist -> album -> tracks and cover art

 

[tald]

The SSD connected direct to ZS with wav files and cover art works great out of the box for me
I have organised on SDD with folders for category -> artist -> album -> tracks and cover art

Can you explain please? because i can't get ifi stream to show wavs albums on album tab