Here’s my take. The zen sounds better than my Cambridge CXn v2 that is double the price .
Attached to the same dac too.
More clarity with same dac
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I found that the improvement brought by the ZEN Stream to the X16 is smaller than with some of my other DACs, like the Khadas Tone2 Pro…where it helped quite a bit. Same goes for the Topping D90SE. It’s a better with the ZEN Stream than a VitOS RPi4 transport…but not $399 better.
While doing an A/B comparison of S/PDIF and USB out of the ZEN Stream into the X16, I occasionally heard faint clicking coming from one side or the other. While it’s possible to group both outputs on the ZEN into a single Roon zone, I’ve found that this is not 100% reliable. This frustrated my comparison efforts a bit.
Unrelated, but I’m doing an A/B bake-off between the Topping D90SE and Gustard X16 DACs…both truly excellent. I switched from the ZEN Stream to a pair of identical VitOS devices for my comparisons. This has proven to be a more reliable configuration, much as I like the ZEN Stream.
Edit: Also unrelated to the ZEN Stream discussion, if you have a Gustard X16 and are bothered by faint clicking/ticking during soft passages with DSD content, I have shared my experience updating the MCU firmware in ASR here.
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Thanks @David_Snyder , I have listened to a couple of pieces in DSD and everything is great, no clicking/ticking. For the moment I’m going to stick with RPi4 / VitOS. Maybe as a christmas present 
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Great. I was a fairly early adopter of the X16, but any that shipped after June won’t require the update. Enjoy!
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i dowloaded that latest firmware from Tidal and still having the same issues with the streamer. i thought i would stream Spotify today to confirm if this was a uniquely Tidal issue. about an hour into the stream on Spotify the music stopped and the ZS icon disappeared from the Spotify page, however the stream continues to play back on my MacBook. this appears to still be an issue with the ZS. are you still working on this? is there anything that you could suggest? have not heard a peep from IFI in awhile.
Sorry Rudy I have not seen this before.
Do you think that the ZS lost WiFi connection?
The left hand led would have changed colour if that happened.
I mainly use Roon and it works for hours at a time without fail.
no, the left light stay on “white” which would indicate a strong connection. sometimes both lights go out. the stream will continue one the Mac internal if i choose the built in option on the MacBook. the stream is very capricious, sometimes i can get a couple of hours sometimes 15 minutes. what’s frustrating is that it will quit abruptly without warning. i have contacted all parties concerned. music is part of my therapy. i am amazed at the diffidence that IFI has showed in resolving this. this has been going on for 2 months now. seriously thinking about a Ultrarendu or better option. i just want something that works, and i have the bucks. maney is not an issue with me. time is.
Thats a good looking stack. I got myself a Pre90 to pair with the SMSL SU-9 and Zen Stream and it sounds great. I did feel the Pre90 made the sound a bit more relaxed as compared to the SU-9s internal pre-amp mode!
Wanted to peek your thoughts on something, iva heard rave reviews about the Topping D70S as being better DAC than the SU-9 and I am thinking to go for the D70S…but dont know if that would be an upgrade. Whats your take based on your experience between these brands/ models (if any)…considering you have the X16 and the D90SE to compare from different companies but measuring similarly. Is there a noticeable difference at all…especially in a good speaker setup?
Thanks
As regards my take on the ZS, i did buy myself a Node 2021 and used its coax and optical out to the DAC (SU-9) and amp (NAD C298) into KEF R7s. All I can say is that the difference I personally noted was so significant that I returned the Node 2021, took the restocking fee hit and got 2 ZS units…one for my headphone setup and another for my speaker setup. I also experimented with Linear PSUs VS the iPower and preferred the supplied iPower brick over the Topping P50 LPSU as it was cleaner both on paper and in subjective impressions. I would classify the ZS (over say PC USB) as the most significant upgrade to my audio experience since I switched from built-in PC DACs to dedicated external DACs, just my personal opinion.
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I have to say i was quite surprised by the clarity of the Zen Stream,particularly for the price.
I agree that it performs better than the Node . It could also be that the USB out sounds better into your dac than coax as the Node doesn’t have USB out.
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Fully agree with this. The zen stream was a dramatic improvement vs both the node v3 and usb from Mac mini - all connected to my Hegel h120 amp.
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Thanks for sharing your extended experience. Now that more people are trying these devices it’s a good opportunity too see what is working great and what is not so good.
@davidh same for you as well.
It’s good to know how well they are working in both your setups
On that note, has anyone experienced light related issues where although the ZS is visible and playing music but none of the front lights are ON. I have my ZS connected via LAN cable and a 15V iPower charger that came with it. Thanks
Shoab not seen that issue at all.
Lights are always on when mine is playing music
My second week with my iFi Zen Stream. It replaced a Bluesound Node (3.0), in stream only mode. I am using it with an existing Mytek Brooklyn+ DAC.
And yes it does native ROON…BUT, only if you move the selector on the back to ROON. In the AIO position, it only support Airplay. I am using it in ROON mode and it performs just fine.
Noise floor on this is really surprising. It is so much quieter even than my Bluesound Node, WITH the custom DC power supply upgrade from PD Creative (Poland). This thing is really, really quiet.
So, far I am extremely pleased. Using it with SPDIF (COAX) out for now while burning in. Will test with USB out later.
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Gary thanks for chipping in, but in mode 1 (everything mode) Roon works perfectly for me.
Make sure you have not disabled it accidentally in settings
A long way further up in the thread I did testing for people switching devices and it worked perfectly.
Also doesn’t your bridge+ also have USB which can go to 384 as opposed to 192 and in my testing was slightly better (great to great+)
Apologies if this sounds obvious, but it’s pretty easy to accidentally press the right hand button that switches the lights on or off.
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Interesting. I spoke directly with iFi on the switch modes and that’s who told me that Mode 1 only supported Airplay. Since I asked them, I just moved to Mode 2 (Roon) and haven’t changed again. So, I never did much testing in AIO mode. I am Beta testing their new Zen Stream App now.
They did indicate that their Roon Ready certification, when it comes would ONLY be for Mode 2.
And yes, I do plan to test my limited library of 24/384K music via USB eventually. But I want to get about 100 hours on this with SPDIF first. And frankly, I am really pleased with the quality I’m hearing here already, as well as the deep noise floor.
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Thanks. Can you please share how to bring back the lights. I might have pressed some button accidentally as you said.
Good news that it is working so well for you.
When using AIO mode you can enable or disable the services as required. By default they are all on.
So far I have used Airplay, Roon, HQP, Tidal connect and Spotify Connect. All have worked perfectly and waiting for Chromecast support to come.
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