Got the Drop DCA Aeon X Closed, they arrived last night. Currently they have been burning in for about 12 hours, and they really need it. Starting to sound better, but hopefully by the end of the weekend
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And what was expectedā¦ happened :
https://majorhifi.com/ifi-announce-neo-stream/
It has been a while since iFi released their NEO-IDSD Bluetooth DAC/amp. Now they are looking to launch its long-awaited follow-up, the NEO Stream, a new audio streaming device that looks to significantly upgrade your sound quality over wifi. It will cost $1,299, and there will be more information to come. For now, here is what you can expect from the new Neo Streamā¦
Not surprisedā¦ and not thrilled eitherā¦ expensive to have an āinsideā dac (which doesnāt interest me)
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Looks like the āZen masterā might have to start a new thread 
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Ha ha Iām happy for someone else to take this on.
Iām going off to take a look at this now, but I really donāt need additional equipment now 
Expensive but nice just as we were discussing.
What about Roon Ready timeframe 
We will all going to hope they have finished it this time before releasing it
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It already claims to be Roon Ready ( no real surprise there of course).
I guess we will seeš¤
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Got to agree thatās not a great start.
Maybe Roon working through the bridge function, but anything else requires Roon sign off.
Spec looks very nice though, but patience needs to be shown this time. Last time was sort of throw away money, this time definitely not 
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Nice share Stef, what are your thoughts?
@Atriya_Sen this seems to match the high end specs you were looking for. Are you interested?
It certainly does stream 32-bit/768Khz like I want. However this is a streamer + DAC. I donāt need a DAC; I already have one. Of course, I could use this as a streamer only, but I would be paying for functionality I donāt need and wonāt use.
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Ok fair enough, that does leave a bit of a whole in the market for a higher end streamer without a DAC and a huge price tag to match
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Yes, a Zen Stream 2, essentially. I discovered, though, that the SoTm SMS-200 Neo does do 32/768, and at a price point similar to the Zen Stream.
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Funny enough in our discussions that was the thought process as they really need two devices to cover all areas.
They might well release a Zen Stream 2 but it probably wonāt go as high on the spec side as this new streamer without going up significantly in price
Is that SMS Roon Ready?
sMS-200 Neo Network Player ā SOtM USA (sotm-usa.com)
Yes, it is, and also supports HQPlayer NAA, which I use.
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Very nice in that case 
(Going to visit the page now thanks)
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Like many users - still hoping to see a ZEN stream 2.0 coming. This device is absolutely great and an improved version can make things just even better.
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Now Roon Ready according to a Roon Labs Facebook message.
Whatās the general opinion on where this is right now? I seem to have read a lot of issues with this?
What does this give you over and above a Raspberry Pi? I mean, I can see the obvious differences i.e. a SPDIF socket but Iām wondering if there are any usability benefits? I am curious about this but Iām currently using a Pi4 with Ropieee and am trying to see if it could really be a justified purchaseā¦
There have not really been real problems for a long time to be fair (possibly WiFi quality aside), at least once we share solutions with people. Roon ready brought some strange decisions that caused some confusion for us. I often said in the past that the Zen Stream was released a year too early, without the software to match the hardware.
As somebody that was running multiple Piās with HAT,'s, good IFI iPower supplies and Audioquest Jitterbug USB protectors and expensive Audioquest USB cables, I still found a good improvement on USB and a bigger improvement on SPDIF, with the suppression technology and clean power that the Stream uses.
I still have Piās in use and they are great, but at what I was spending on accessories there was not a missive cost differential.
Some people have bought expensive LPS Power supplies for their streamās and have claimed big improvements but that puts the cost differential to a much higher level.
Itās a great low cost off the shelf solution that can be used with high end DACs and amps without having sound issues
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Confirmed here as Roon Ready, too. Good that itās going to be RR on day one (canāt recall many products confirmed as RR before an official product announcement!).
I have recently been thinking about getting a Neo iDSD as an upgrade to my Zen Dac and if the Neo Stream does come in at a decent price then I may be tempted to move the Zen Stream on and go AIO streamer and DAC. Ā£1200 sounds a bit on the toppy side (assuming it isnāt just a Neo iDSD DAC and ZS with a album art screen).
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Might want to back up a bit there, click on the Neo Stream and see where it takes you.
Not to the Neo Streamā¦
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