iFI Zen Stream to Peachtree Nova is DSD Native Possible?

Audio Gear Talk iFi
21

Hey @Rugby with this zen combo the native max I can get is DSD256. Not that I have any albums up to 256 but it’s good to know it now opens that option up.

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22

Ian that’s good news and glad I was able to help.

It might be worth looking at one of the Zen Signature Dacs do which have had good reviews. They are more price matched with the Peachtree Amp and have had some very good reviews.

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23

You read my mind, the new zen signature v2 is very appealing with some awesome reviews. :+1:

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24

If anyone can provide the USB VID PID of the Nova (via Windows driver properties or any other means) , I can help check whether it’s recognized by Linux kernel for native DSD support.

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25

I will check today when I have time.

26

Just double checking. My DAC can handle native DSD. Are there any settings in the ZS to set in order to get native DSD (no DoP)?

Thanks

27

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Hi @DancingSea just make sure you have DSD Direct selected in the playback setting and you should be good to go.

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28

Thanks for the tip. I tried it but the ZS won’t let me save direct dsd in the settings. It switches back to DoP after I hit save.

I’m 100% sure the Marantz does direct DSD as it did so with an Aurender.

Any ideas?

29

It’s not enough to have Marantz supporting Direct DSD, the other party (Zen Stream) would need to support it for a specific DAC. And with the old linux kernel it’s basing on, that’s rather unlikely…

For sure it doesn’t support native DSD for my Marantz.

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30

You can only ask ifi audio for a new kernel/firmware.

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31

I had exactly the same issue connecting the zen stream to my Peachtree amp. It kept switching back to DoP.
That’s what made me purchase the zen signature dac and go directly into that and then from the dac into my amp. Might be worth considering getting the zen dac too. It’s a really good dac at average good price, sounds a lot more expensive. For me it sounds more open and wide than the Peachtree dac.

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32

@ian_rothers thanks for the idea. While native DSD holds interest to me, but not sufficiently to replace my Marantz SACD 30n with a different dac. I’d be more inclined to first ditch the ZenStream for a different streamer, like a Lumin.

33

Lumin does NOT support native DSD playback of Marantz / Denon, nor Peachtree.

Lumin outputs DoP to Denon / Marantz.

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34

@wklie good to know. Then it will be Aurender once they complete the process of adding Roon.