I’ll offer a setup guide here!
- Decide whether you have an Ethernet connection option, which is optimal. If you do, you can leave the Wi-Fi antenna in the box. If not, attach it.
- Don’t worry about which voltage power supply you’re using; the ZS has a variable voltage internal power supply that will convert any input voltage from 9-15V to the correct operating voltage.
- Remember that the ZS is nothing more than a micro-computer that exists solely in the digital realm—therefore it doesn’t have a sound. It’s merely a computer acting as a network signal transport, so beware of applying analog terms to it such as “sound signature” or “soundstage” or “warmth”.
- Ignore any claims about “burn-in” or the benefits of pricy cables—these are as unlikely to apply to this unit as they would to your keyboard connecting to your desktop. Just get a decent Ethernet and USB cable and forget about them.
- Plug in your DAC but for now keep it off. Connect your ZS to your DAC either by USB or digital S/PDIF—for higher bandwidths and versatility, the former is preferred, but either will work. I have my ZS on top of my DAC, and my amp below that, but use whatever configuration you like, preferably with the shortest USB cable possible connecting to your DAC.
- Turn on your DAC first, then plug in the ZS. Push the right button on the ZS to boot it up. For setup, make sure the device’s selector wheel on the back is set to “AIO mode” or position one.
Wired connection: If an Ethernet cable is being used, your connection setup is done. Browse to iFi.local on a device on the same network, or to the IP address of the ZS on your network—make sure that the command line doesn’t add a port address at the end (such as :3030)! If it does, remove that port instruction and try again. You should see the ZS GUI pop up.
—Go to the System Settings first and change from simple to advanced settings.
—Go to Network Settings, turn off the Wi-Fi hotspot and let it reboot.
—Then turn off the Wi-Fi radio.
—Go to Playback settings and select whether you’re using S/PDIF or USB—if you choose the latter, it should automatically show your DAC as selectable.
—If you have an MQA-capable DAC, select “MQA Passthrough”. If you don’t, turn it “On” to complete the first unfold for Tidal Connect.
—Go to System Settings and perform a system upgrade—the latest “stable” release is 2.31.7.
—The latest beta version, 2.31.8, is perfectly stable. Browse to iFi.local/dev, and enable beta updates. It’ll just blink the screen when you select it—don’t worry, it’s active. Browse back to iFi.local and perform system updates again, to get 2.31.8.
—Go back to Playback settings, select “DSD Direct” if your DAC is capable. If not select “DSD over PCM”.
—I changed my buffer settings to 64 MB and 10% to buffer before playback; play around with these settings until you get no stuttering.
—I set DSD Auto Volume Level “ON”. Don’t select Volume Normalization if you want a bit perfect signal.
—Go to Sources Menu, and turn off all the streaming services you don’t need.
—Your ZS should be fully set up now!
Wi-Fi settings
—The app that is available on both Android and iPhone App Stores will take you through the steps of setting up Wi-Fi. Make sure your device is in position one, or “AIO mode” to perform the setup process.
—If you can’t find or use the app, use your phone to connect to the ZS hotspot—you’ll know it’s active if the right tiny LED is blinking.
—Once connected to the hotspot, browse to “iFi.local”
—Go to Network Settings and select your Wi-Fi network.
—Once it’s connected, the hotspot LED should turn off.
—Turn off the hotspot radio under network settings if not.
—Follow the steps for “wired” above from here, except omit the part about turning off the Wi-Fi radio!
Roon Setup
—Change the selector dial on the back of your ZS to “Roon Only” or setting “two”. You will no longer be able to access the ZS’s GUI, that’s ok.
—Open Roon on the same network as your ZS. The ZS should appear under the Audio setup menu. Enable it.
—Don’t worry about identifying the DAC attached to the ZS in Roon. The ZS is now acting as a Roon Bridge to host your DAC as its own Roon Endpoint.
—Go into Device Settings on Roon and verify that your DAC’s capabilities have populated correctly. If your DAC is a full MQA decoder, select both rendering and decoding in the Roon MQA settings, and under advanced settings enable the first software unfold. If your DAC only has rendering capability, select that accordingly and also enable Roon’s software unfold. If your DAC is not MQA capable, select neither in Roon but still enable the software first unfold. The maximum sampling rate you will be able to achieve with the software unfold is 96khz, sometimes 48khz.
—Then on the Roon’s Audio settings page, you should see a link on the top of the enabled ZS section that says “Device Info”. Click on it. A window will pop up showing your ZS firmware version and a hyperlink to “Configure Device” Click on that. A browser window will pop up allowing you to select whether your ZS is attached via USB or S/PDIF, to choose your preferred volume controls, and to select how you prefer the ZS processes DSD streams.
That’s it! Just be mindful that if you ever need to detach your DAC from the ZS, make sure the ZS is UNPLUGGED before doing so, or it can cause connection problems when you reconnect it!
A word on the LED lights (with firmware 2.31.8)—if you’re using USB as your DAC input, the devices will communicate bidirectionally. So, if your DAC is MQA-capable, you should see the following based on the input signal:
—Standard MQA—Green
—MQA Studio—Blue
—MQA with Roon DSPs added—Magenta (OFS/MQB)
For the latter example, if you add a PEQ or other DSPs to the signal chain, Roon will perform the first unfold, then convert to 64 bit float, insert the DSP, then convert back to 24 bit and send that signal to your DAC for the final unfold. If the original track is MQA Studio (provenance), it’ll indicate as such in the signal chain—but if you’ve added any digital processing, the light on your DAC and the ZS should still be magenta.
That’s why you need to enable the software unfold in the audio advanced settings, even if your DAC is a full decoder—if you don’t, Roon won’t maintain the MQA signal past the insertion of the DSPs, and your DAC won’t receive the MQA flag.
For those who experience challenges with Wi-Fi setup using the device’s hotspot, Mr. BubbaHyde over at Head-Fi (a forum that I otherwise try to avoid like the plague) has posted a helpful alternative setup guide that many folks have found useful. The link is here:
Best of luck 
