compared the ifi Zen Stream with external power supply from ifi ipower Elite with the Lumin D2 with modified Sbooster BOTW, ifi was more detailed, more depth, slightly brighter, wider stage…in short, just better, not much…but still.
2 Likes
Peter, how significant was the jump from the stock PSU to the ipower Elite?
1 Like
More than I thought, I also considered the ipower X but was able to buy the Elite from a friend for little.
1 Like
Well given that the Zen costs about the same as just the power supply for the Sbooster that is interesting findings
ifi Zen Stream with external power supply from ifi ipower Elite!
Together they are better than the Lumin D2 with the Sbooster Botw, price one third!
Have to say the Auralic Aries G1 sounds a little bit better.
1 Like
Thanks Peter it’s great to get your feedback and especially with your high end equipment.
And the Sbooster’s are very good.
Yes I have one on my Roon Rock server.
It cost almost the same as the Zen Stream, hence my surprise.
But you have also compared it favorably to more expensive equipment, so I guess you are less surprised than me.
I would agree that the G1 sounds slightly better but look at the cost of the G1 ! I have one.
Heres my list in order of best sounding streamers ,best being no 1 that i have listened to:
- Auralic G1
- Auralic Femto with a Sbooster
- Ifi Zen Stream,really close to the Auralic Femto)
- Ultrarendu with Sbooster
- Volumio Primo(very good for the money ) stock power .Probably tied with Ultrarendu
- Cambridge CXN v2 (overhyped)
- Pro-ject Ultra tied with Cambridge
8)Bluesound Node 2i
1 Like
For the money, the IFi stream is the best value. And all of those streamers are still in my house.
Brighter= more resolution is my hunch . They always say this about Benchmark dacs too.
Thanks it’s always good to get views from people that have tried a lot of systems 
Of i forgot the Auralic Mini. I would put that at 6 or so on the list even with a sbooster.
1 Like
I’m so over this pile of trash.
2nd unit and having the same issues, thought everything was okay at first but now after a few days I"m back to not being able to use airplay. Roon is fine on ALSA but can’t get a consistent connection with airplay for apple music or spotify. Is everyone here using only Roon? Because I’m on two units with the same issues and my retailer had the same issues on the unit I sent back.
Mostly Roon for me though I have played Tidal connect a lot and Spotify a small amount. Also I have played HQP a lot and have yet to have a problem with any of them.
I have played a few Airplay track’s to test but generally I don’t use Airplay at all on anything and I have never liked it as a protocol. Most of my house is on Android so we prefer things that work cross platform.
If it doesn’t work for you then return it and get something that does work for you.
You need an Allo device 
with one of their linear power supplies. With the ZS price point, would be interesting to see where something like a USBridge Sig or Digi Sig falls on your list.
I had a allo usb bridge . Not as good as zen mini I’d put it below volumio primo . I did not have a lps with it
Cool. The volume pot on my THX AAA 789 is getting noisy, so I’ve been considering the A90.
For similar monoblocks, check out Orchard Audio. SINAD is ~107 dB. Excellent, as speaker amps go.
1 Like
Hey Aaron, are you connected over WiFi or ethernet?
Ethernet. Opened a ticket with iFi again to see if they have found an answer to this because my retailer said they’ve had a few people with the same issues, but I haven’t heard a thing from them.
1 Like