The setup really isn’t all that difficult. I posted a step-by-step guide up there somewhere that is detailed enough for baby howler monkeys to follow, a week or so back.
As far as the sound quality is concerned, it’s a streamer—it exists solely in the digital realm and it has no sound. It functions great as a network transport device and it has built in “reclocking” tech to reduce whatever jitter may exist in the USB port, if you believe in such a thing.
When it’s paired with Roon, it’s great. The reason it’s great is the fact that for $399, you get a beautifully-integrated Roon Ready Bridge that automatically populates all the capabilities of your attached DAC, 384/32/256 bandwidth and Native DSD, plus the ability to shut off all the nonsense circuitry that no one needs in this configuration. There is no other streamer-only option that does all this for anything less than double its price.
iFi made a fantastic product because they told the truth about what cost is required to do this job as good as it gets. Every other manufacturer out there offering streamer-only options is taking folks for a ride…
We’ve all been asking ourselves that question since April. Many folks out there are beginning to suspect that the next official version will be the Zen Stream Signature
Steven,
I said that the process has been difficult “for some”. Why did you feel the need to compare them to monkeys? Was your post of Apr 5 a problem for monkeys?
I’ve discovered a new issue with my ZS since upgrading the firmware to the new “Roon Ready” authentication. When I have the ZS set to “All-in-One” or the universal setting on the back, Roon recognizes it and populates the correct settings in the Audio setup—max PCM of 384, 32 bit, DSD 512 (although technically it can’t process higher than DSD 256). However, when I switch to the “Roon Exclusive” mode on the back, s uddenly the maximum PCM is 192 and 24 bit.
I’ve attempted to submit an ticket to iFi, but their Wordpress website has a bug currently that won’t allow me to open one. Has anyone else experienced the above behavior since installing the latest firmware on the ZS?
However good a product the Stream is now, its' rollout has been a bit of a mess.
-Power supply issues (selling substandard ones with the product when there were supply chain issues)
-Roon Ready issues
-Audio source issues
-firmware issues
-ifi quality control/customer service
As far as SQ, the ZS seems to be the best bang-for-the-buck hardware out there as far as sending an undegraded signal to a DAC. Users seem to love it. But while other audio companies (Hegel) get excoriated for their problems, ifi seems to be made of Teflon.
Markus The Zen Stream is a streamer, I don’t think it has volume control as such as it doesn’t have a pre Amp. But have you tried to set the volume level to digital in the audio settings.
I have never tried it myself though as I have always had a Zen DAC with a volume control.
Edit: I had a look at this when I got home, and on mine the Digital/DSP volume is not there.
I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about, but I’m not reading all this. Regarding the post of mine you copied, that was when the unit was still in beta and yes, it had problems then. They’ve been solved, definitively.
I posted a step by step guide on setting up the ZS, with its latest, flawless firmware, as a courtesy to others, despite the fact that I and many many others have had no problems with this unit since they released the final firmware months and months ago. Nevertheless I was being playful, not insulting, when I made the silly monkey joke and it certainly wasn’t directed at you.
As for your comment about Hegel, they deserve to be strung up because they’re charging felonious prices for their products. They’re criminals. So are NAIM, dCS, PS Audio et al in this segment.
If you don’t like the ZS then by all means don’t buy one, or if you have it already, return it. Go buy an RPI unit, install Volumio or Ropieee and achieve the same endgame the ZS offers with several dozen more hassles. I have no clue what you’re looking for in a streamer at this price point or what your beef is with the ZS, but it works perfectly for me so we must have different expectations of it. Peace!
I would love to know what percentage of the servers across the web are occupied by folks ranting about a product that won’t do things it isn’t designed to do, or by endless consumer complaints from folks who just refuse to read instruction manuals. I wonder how much of this thread is comprised of same? This thing has been working perfectly for months, and it’s cheap! I guess you can’t please everybody…
My point wasn’t about the streamer—the person who alleged that Hegel is getting grief while iFi is smooth sailing made a fallacious point comparing the two brands. Hegel sells integrated amplifiers, and the H95 has a streamer, so I guess that’s what he’s referring to in comparing Hegel to iFi? But Hegel’s prices are over the top—if they make a streamer it better be flawless…
PS I fixed it for you. Besides that nit pick, let me know if you want to have a meaningful discussion about the topic at hand.
With Roon supporting 8 channel USB audio routing, does anyone know if the iFi stream via USB supports multichannel routing of stereo signals using Roon.
I.e. for a multichannel active crossover, either IIR or FIR.
I run a JBL M2 setup, which requires 2x2 convolution active filters. I currently use a Pi4 running ubuntu/bridge, or Ropieee for this. Its sounds great, feeding a Motu Mk5 Ultralite, but wondered if the iFi might do the same?
So far tested devices that will do this include:
Pi4/Ropieee/Ubuntu/Bridge
PC/Windows/Linux Ubuntu
I have tested/or confirmed via manufacturer:
VitOS no good
Confirmed SOTM ultra is only 2 channels
VitOS M1T only 2 channels
Sonore Rendu is a maybe (But I suspect it wont play ball with the Motu)
So I was finally able to see full potential of Zen Streamer DSD256 with ifi NEO iDSD, can get to 256DSD with no problem. The issues was that it was not able to do native DSD256 with my DAC-60, only DSD128 on DoP, but now is fixed working with a Windows NAA with Accuphase ASIO drivers at DSD256 on HQPLAYER. @Steven_Klemow@Michael_Harris
So I ended up with 2 DAC’s feeding my Accuphase and I noticed good audio performance on MQA files using Zen Streamer with Roon settings and also great performance with Flac High Resolution Files on HQPlayer with my DAC-60 at DSD256 too.
So I switch from balanced sources (Roon/ ifi Zen Streamer DSD256/ ifi NEO iDSD) to direct Source (Roon/HQPlayer/NAA/DAC-60) depending on play list and moods .
Hi Moises and thanks for the update, though I have been following your progress in the HQP threads. It is fair to say that you have made fast progress through this so credit to you.
You have a great system there and hopefully you are getting in lots of listening
To be clear, I am not responding to your “criminal” comments to get into a polemic about pricing but I am giving you advice that not accuse any person or company of being felonious or have criminal intent - You could find yourself in legal jeopardy.
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