I managed to find a Pi which should be here in a few days as a backup for when it goes back plus an old Sonos Connect. Not sure what my streamer plan is if they refund it….
Reliability has been good in the last year, but there were some early issues.
There are other options like the Argon Solo, Wiim mini or Wiim mini pro. But the last two are not Roon Ready yet
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If anybody wants to connect ZS directly to the roon core.
For sure it works faster. Before I was connecting all in a switch (about 20m away), sometimes it was slow (when I was using upsampling to 125DoP).
I bought a USB-c to ethernet and connected with that the Mac mini roon core to the rest of the network (the switch). And from the Mac mini ethernet port I connected a 25cm cable to the ZS. Had to manually config ips for core ethernet (not the dongle) and for ZS. The downside is that the ZS it is no longer available on the main network, but I was using only ZS in roon mode anyway so for me it is the same.
It is an upgrade in speed clearly. Maybe is just my mind but 5% upgrade in SQ (ZS from Mac mini usb was 20%)
Next it will be to insert optical in the link between Roon Core and ZS
Thanks to @DanielAvasilichioaei here he posted all the config: Can a PC running Roon Core with dual network outlets be connected direct to my Lumin streamer? - #14 by DanielAvasilichioaei
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Just bought a Zen Stream and wouldn’t have beem able to set it up without help from this article. Thank you
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I’m glad it did work for you. Thank you for your kind words. I’m just late to the party, last to post.
Also thanks again to @Michael_Harris @Steven_Klemow and all who contributed to this threat and pls forgive me for not mentioning all the names
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Welcome to the Roon forums @Bernard_Fromson, that sort of help is the forum at its best. Kudos to @Traian_Boldea for the help and for generously crediting others. I might finally get around to buying one myself…
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I’m thinking of buying an iFi Zen streamer. Currently I use a PS Audio DS dac with the Bridge II streaming module. My understanding has always been that via Roon I get a full MQA unfold with that setup.
PS Audio now has a new dac that has no Bridge II option. PS Audio is developing their own streamer which will be completely separate from the dac and will not provide MQA support.
If I purchase the new PS Audio dac and use it with the iFi Zen, will I continue to get the full MQA benefit using Roon?
Thanks!
Hi Geoff and welcome to the thread.
Roon will do the first MQA unfold and pass it onto the Stream or allow you to pass the file directly to the DAC.
If the PS Audio DAC does MQA unfolding then yes you should get that, though I don’t remember if PS Audio DACs fully support MQA.
Thanks Michael. According to PS Audio, MQA support is a function of a streamer not a dac. I should say this was news to me.
PS Audio maintains that their Direct Stream dac never provided support for MQA and that the new one won’t either. They say it was their Bridige II – an add on to the DS dac – that provided MQA support. As I wrote, the Bridge will not be available on the new PS Audio dac so a separate streamer is required. The streamer they plan to offer – not yet available – will NOT offer MQA support.
As I understand your answer – given what PS Audio says about their dacs – if I pair their new dac with the iFi Zen I will get the MQA decoding provided by Roon but not the “rendering” that finishes the unfold.
Geoff yes I was afraid that PS Audio didn’t have MQA support. Roon itself will do the first unfold and then you get the following options for your DAC.
In your case I assume you would choose no MQA support, but that will give you some MQA processing.
Thanks again Michael. I’ll need to reconnect my original PS Audio DS dac (with the Bridge II) to see what Roon shows when I play an MQA file. My memory is that it does show support, but I’ll need to double check. It may take me a day or two to post again.
Give that a go and to you should see the 1st unfold and probably nothing more.
Good luck with this
Michael, here’s a screenshot of an MQA file playing through Roon with my original PS Audio DS dac and the Bridge II. It is showing “all unfolding, authentication and rendering steps.”
Is that not full MQA support?
Thanks,
Sadly Geoff I no longer have any MQA access to music to send a screenshot, but it does look like it. But that suggests that the DirectStream is doing some of the work (or at least decoding). Though I understood that was not possible.
Though it could just be playing the Roon Authenticated stream at double the resolution, which I also remember seeing before. MQA gets confusing sorry 
Thanks very much Michael. It IS confusing!
Slightly new question - how is the preamp element in the Ifi Zen DAC v2 Signature? I lost my preamp and it is unclear to me if I can use the DAC, paired with the Zen Stream, to run ROON through my amp and speakers.
- well it can be done but is it somewhat compromised compared to running the analogue out to a dedicated Pre amp?
An alternative could be the Matrix Element i2….but the disadvantage there is that its streamer is integrated into the DAC thus limiting a DAC upgrade path.
Is one Pre amp/ vol. control better than the other Re sound quality?
I have the Zen Dac v2 not the signature. I did use that as a preamp for some months. It did some cracking at the start of the circle after about 2 months of intensive use. So I stopped and started to use Roon for the volume. I now run the Zen Stream with Zen Dac v2 to a preamp and it sounds a little better. But as a step in your upgrading path I think is ok.
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You can use a DAC with the Zen Stream or feed it directly into your Amp if you have a SPDIF input on your amp (good for testing). Otherwise you can feed analogue out from the Zen DAC V2 Signature as that looks like a nice device.
Not going to get a much better option at that price.
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Hello Michael!
I use the Roon decode of MQA but never have gone for the second “render”. Can you come up with any thoughts as to the sound provided by the " render"? Differences in…bass, treble, soundstage, dynamics…?