Steven you do not have to apologize to me as I am using the iFi ipower that was initially provided with the first batch of units, before all the power supply problems and changes happened.
My point was only that a number of people were certain of significant differences to their ears in listening sessions. I do not want to diminish what people hear as much as I follow more of a scientific method myself.
Yes this is important, as long as people can afford to spend their own money, then it is none of our businesses. I strongly dislike a number of threadās on this forum for the shaming of people that goes on in there.
The hopes of audiophile power supply manufacturers should not be disappointedā¦ iFi audio like TaĆÆko or JCAT.
In the end, itās all about properly powering circuits that are often 3.3v or 5v (like the Zenstream cpu card). iFi audio has apparently worked out this rectification aspect properly and talks about it in its marketing pitch.
High-PSRR, low idle current, low-dropout voltage regulators with soft start
Synchronous 1.6MHz high-speed precision power supply controller
But beware, the higher the voltage, more the circuits will be solicited. Above all, the amperage and therefore the power must be respected. Of course, this can work but if the power is too high, you end up with circuits that heat up (or not) and this can have consequences on other circuits (stability, linearity, EMI). (iFi specifications : 9V/1.8A-15V/0.8A).
The choice of components and circuits is made to minimize these interactions which become inaudible but this does not mean that there are none.
There are no protocols, measurements or elements that allow objectivity and in any case, the least reliable element remains the receiver: you or me!
Then itās a matter of sensibility or cognitive bias that is added.
The wine is better when we hear the sound of the cork and the label is beautiful (cognitive bias). We can choose the capsule to avoid the taste of the corkā¦ but when the wine is really good, we choose good corks and we leave the bad (wine) in bottles with capsules.
This is how we do it in my native Burgundy and as English is not my language, I hope that the nuance of my words is understandable
Whoops, sorry for my mistake! I thought you had said you had a VMV d3. The d1SE is a great unitāone of the best. Iām glad you said that because SMSLās VMV d3 measures horribly.
Iām going to retest my topping coax with a number of sampling rates to make sure I didnāt mislead you on MQA functioning in all scenarios and get back. Yours should be working.
No, Iām afraid I donāt understand the difference youāre alleging between power supplies with the Zen Stream. As far as the difference between power supplies in generalālinear, toroidal, switchingāI understand those quite well (I build guitar amps), and in amplifiers the choice of power supplies does make a big difference. Just not in streamers. They are just computers. Do you worry about what kind of power supply your alarm clock has?
Your English is terrific, and now I want to visit Burgundy! My husband is from the Mosel wine-producing areas of Germany and itās one of the places high on our must-do list
I tasted some interesting white wines in Friburg a few weeks ago but I must admit that when you taste Montrachet (Puligny is next door), you donāt believe in Godā¦ you have proof that he exists !
The prices are often managed $=ā¬, which is not always interesting (I would like to buy a Benchmark AHB2, often second hand at 2000$ in the USā¦ 3400ā¬ new in EU). For the ZS, the price is 399ā¬. In my case, I bought a ācustomer returnā from a distributor (320ā¬).
I had an RME ADI-2 that I did not resell but replaced with a Musician Pegasus. This one is being repaired due to a problem with the USB plug. So the Zen is on the RME and therefore limited to dop 128. The Pegasus works very well in native DSD 256/512 with an RPI4 or a USBridge.
Bummer that they charge the same 399 in Eurosāthatās odd since they claim to be a UK company (although all their products are produced in China).
Iāve eyed the RME countless times because I love all if itās on-board DSP functions and the integrated amp, and I really admire its measurements. But I unfortunately got on board the Tidal wave so early that half of my library would be limited by the lack of MQA. But I only have one setup, and Iām keeping it in mind for another room.
How do you find its hardware DSPs compare to Roonās?
The RME is a device that I bought, initially, after reading headphoneās forum. It is versatile but uncompromising. Thatās what I also liked about the RME forum. They have clear with an industrial rather than commercial approach. They try to make the best tools. āThis is what we want, what we have decided, what we will do and when we will deliverā. The follow-up of the firmware can be read on their forum. Some companies could learn from thisā¦
The equaliser, the volume control (I chose it for that too, not wanting a preamp), the loudness and the automatic level depending on the amp, are perfect.
Since then I have switched to software solutions by choice (HQPlayer, convolution by a brilliant Frenchman - https://www.homeaudiofidelity.com/) but the RME remains an extremely efficient tool (I prefer the term) (and mine is AKM inside).
Very interesting discussion. A little side step about D1SEā¦but after trying many DACs ā¦the Tube mode on this unit is just sublime. Emotional is the word Iād use for the output. Some say it acts like a good Tube pre without the hassle of using tubes by adding 2nd order harmonics from within the ESS DAC chip itself. I certainly use it in Tube 2 mode and I have not heard anything like it.
Rocking it with my ZSā¦my system sounds at least 7-8 times of what it costed me, based on my last visit to the Toronto Audio Festā¦
I have the Pro iCAN Signature, and I agree with your fondness for tubes. Mine came with GE NOS 5670s, which iFi apparently chose because they acquired a huge treasure trove of unused stock (military base? some Woolworthās in BFE? who knows), and they sound quite good. But apparently the crĆØme de la crĆØme of this valve style is NOS Bendix 6385s, and sure enough I found a strong, perfectly matched pair among the supplies Iād accumulated from building guitar amps.
Rolling them meant opening up the unit (and not only voiding the warranty but risking fatality by touching undischarged filter caps), but I think it was worth it. They sound sublime. Depending on the genre and choice of music Iām listening to, I switch back and forth between SS and tube, trading between detail and warmth. The amp also has a ātube+ā mode that uses the valves but filters out post-ringing (supposedly emphasizing even-order harmonics), but I think the setting sounds anemic and obviates the benefits of either SS or tube sound signatures. Itās the one thing about the amp that I think is gimmicky.
If you are a tube fan, Orange used to make a very straightforward, exceptionally accurate tester called the VT-1000, that was very reasonably priced (good Hickok testers are incredibly complicated to use and cost thousands of dollars). The VT-1000 has the two most common pinouts, requires no calibration and gives you invaluable info about power output, shorts, gas, and matching, by the push of a buttonāand covers the majority of commonly-used tubes in the amplifier realm. You can find one of them every so often on Reverb or eBay, and I highly recommend them!
Thanks. Not an EE myself, I have to admit that some of the information just went over my head. I am not into tubes as such yet. Will need a significantly more expensive system to do justice with those if I were to really hear an upgrade to what I have alreadyā¦money I havent earned yet!
Interesting discussion about PSUs above. Makes me wanna compare my P50 Linear PSU with the ifi iPower 15V PSU again. Technically, the iPower should be 1000 times quieter to my P50ā¦my first impressions around blackness of background seemed to corroborate last year.
In my headphones rig, I did notice a noticeable difference to my HD800Ss (now sold) when i changed the supplied SMPS with the THX 789 to a BRZ HiFi Linear PSUā¦the latter sounding much more beefier and having better transients although THX folks told me it would not make a difference to the amp. But there you goā¦
@SHOAIB_AHMED1
No problem, was just trying to walk across the burning bridge. By the way Iām not an engineer either, just a hobbyist like yourself who just happened to catch a bug about trying to grasp whatās going on under the hoodā¦
Iāve now had 4 ifi Zen stream devices and in my system they all sounded amazing via spdif and yet everyone has just ceased to work after a short time.
I turn on the system and it is not discovered, anywhere. I plug in an old squeezebox touch and music plays straightaway.
I bought the 15v x power and it did make a significant positive difference but Iāve just come to the end of my tether.
I just want to sit down and listen to music but my experience with the ifi zen stream does not allow that, infact Iād like to smash it into a million pieces itās that infuriating.
I never imagined something could be quite so infuriating for such a minor task.
IFI you aināt getting a Christmas card.
Wow that is unlucky and then some. So if you plug Ethernet in do they start to work?
What debugging have you done, as I saw a number of early failures, but things have generally been great for people over the last 6 months or so.
Be good to get your feedback
