Hi Michael, when you state the ZS wifi isn’t good, do you mean soundwise or regarding signal stability? I’ve used mine hardwired for two years but recently tried the wifi and was surprised with the excellent sound and stability, to the point that I’m now using it with wifi only. However, I have a mesh unit very close to the ZS, so I wouldn’t know how it behaves in more challenging conditions.
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I am talking purely about network stability, mainly when the WiFI signal isn’t great.
A close by Mesh AP for both of us makes it work great for us.
Ethernet definitely works better if you don’t have good WiFi
I have had my Stream since week one and I love the sound it produces 
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Did you try using the WiiM Pro+ just as a streamer without the internal DAC via coax? I think it sounds as good as the ZS this way.
I would feel bad to sell something that is obviously not functioning correctly. I might do if ifi decides to release a stable FW update.
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No I couldn’t as the Zen DAC Signature 2 only has USB, but I believe it might sound as good with suitable equipment and sounds excellent with the FIIO K5 Pro through Toslink
I feel that it’s dependent on network stability and luck, if I can run mine at DSD256 and it’s stable over WiFi and @Vitor_Goncalves has also been lucky, so maybe the person you sell it too is also lucky with WiFi or is using Ethernet
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After months and months having issues with some skipping and stuttering, I decided to do some deep research into what could be causing this… which lead me to a volumio forum post on buffer… someone there suggested LOWERING the buffer % and size as too big of a buffer could hog the resources of the CPU and cause issues… which is the OPPOSITE of how IFI describes those settings…
So I have my box set at 8mb 10% and persistent queue OFF. Seems like it has elminiated my issue, and the sound quality is still fantastic.
Posting hoping this might help someone else.
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Did you ever change these from the default settings?
Just curious if that is the default, but I don’t currently have access to mine to look at.
Though I have factory reset my device a couple of times.
Mine is working…I don’t update it, I didn’t even breathe on it… Just in case
Same here since I updated yesterday
This could actually be the cause of the problem because when I just checked, I realized that the update had reset all these settings to the lowest value (2MB/10%). I now changed them to the recommended value (8MB/20%) and test if this solves the problem.
I tested all the different buffer sizes. It seems that a larger buffer makes the problem appear less frequent, but it still appears. I’d say that iFi messed up here.
I’ve been using the Zen Stream for 2 years and never had dropouts or stuttering. I’m on the latest firmware and currently use USB out to the Zen Dac V2, mostly as a Roon Endpoint.
maybe it is a matter of connection? I am using coax out because my pre amp has a nasty USB bug that causes issues with music (PC works) and because I also need USB in for the PC
If by connection you mean COAX out, I’ve used mine for some time using COAX out to an integrated amp (Hegel H120) without any issues. To be honest, I never had any issues with my ZS. My internet connection is about 500 Mb and rather stable. I’ve always used IpowerX 12v to power the unit. Have you tried a different coax cable? Sorry, I guess I’m not being very helpful, but can’t think of anything else.
I don’t think it’s the cable. Everything was fine until I installed the latest update. But I may test if the bug also affects optical out.
There’s no optical output
Have you tried changing the output settings to 24/96 in Roon.
I had lots of issues with small dropouts at 24/192 but never any at 24/96 after I made that change on coax.
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You are right. I misremenbered it because I was using a Hifiberry Digi+ before. Maybe I will get that up and running again and just wait until iFi fixes the firmware.