Fair enough, I have read about people buying crazy i9 systems and expensive graphics cards for running HQP but didn’t know what filters these are for.
Hopefully it can updated post launch as I don’t see why the limitation is there, unless iFi are not interested in driving higher than that.
Yes, those guys are likely doing DSD sampling and using heavy filters that need lots of juice. But, the good thing about HQPlayer is that you can fine tune and use the various filters to suit your existing device and ears. You can discover the limits of your machine and go from there.
I know it’s not an apples to apples comparison in terms of price and features, but I’d be interested to know how the Zen Dac/Zen Stream stack hold up against the Matrix Audio mini-i Pro 3? I also have the Zen Can and am a bit undecided on just picking up a ZS or instead putting that cash towards the Matrix Audio.
Alexander I think the MA Mini I-Pro 3 is probably my favorite piece of Audio equipment.
As well as being an excellent headphone amp it also feed’s my Sonos with upscaled music and gives it a noticable improvement in SQ.
I really like the Stream/Dac combo (study use) but sound wise the MA wins as it should given the price difference.
Add the Zen Can and iPowerX to the combo and they are on par …
I think that HQP users are missing out. There’s way more to sound quality than that last “octave” of upsampling. They don’t know what they are missing.
Much appreciated 
. I may have a further question about how you have it working with Sonos but I’ll ask that on a more appropriate thread to not sidetrack this one too much.
@Stephane_Yver interesting! I’ve already got the Zen Can which came with an iPower power supply (so not iPowerX) and purchased the ifi 4.4 balanced connector to the Zen Dac (v1). Listening with:
Sennheiser HD600
Meze 99 Noir
Campfire Audio Polaris (v2)
Moondrop Starfield
Shure SE215
Alexander feel free to PM me if you want to follow up on this
Happy to answer any questions
Great then you’re all set!
Got a balanced cable for the HD600 ?
Hello. This is first time posting and just wanted to share my experience with the Zen Stream that arrived today. I have a M-Scaler and TT2 connected via Wave Stream cables. This transport is by far the cheapest and most value adding component in my system. After incorporating it as a Roon bridge, it finally brought the system together.
For me, it tamed the brightness paired to a set of beryllium speakers and headphone. I got the Wave cables a month ago, and they reduced most of the harshness but not all. For instance, without the Zen Stream, I would use the AutoEq (jaakkopasanen) convolution filter to listen to my headphone through the M-Scaler / TT2. With the Zen Stream, I don’t have to use the filter to control the brightness, which sacrificed the dynamics of my headphone.
The Zen Stream was definitely worth the wait and headaches. Since my first unit got bricked during factory reset. Altogether I couldn’t be happier to getting one step closer to my end game.
Thanks to everyone in this thread for sharing their trials and tribulations to setup the Zen Stream.
Nice post and thank you for the honest and thoughtful review.
Kenneth great to hear that, and that is some setup you have there, for that little Stream to drive.
Just a note have you updated the Stream to the latest 2.2.8 firmware now it seems to be working. Just to save you getting caught by the factory reset bug in the future.
Mine too ended up bricked from a faulty PS.
Still on the fence about ordering another one but maybe I should.
May I ask what you was using to stream with prior to the Zen?
Michael,
Thank you for the heads-up. I saw that firmware update and this time I used Mr BubbaHyde’s recommendation over at head-fi to configure the Zen Stream via AIO with ethernet connection. The first time when it got bricked, I tried connecting via wifi. It took me multiple attempts to update the firmware but it finally went thru. Recommend being patient when the firmware progress bar is stuck at 40% or 60%.
If anyone is considering using the wifi option with Nest routers, be advised that for me, the wifi strength on the ifi configuration page did not indicate that it had any strength. That was the reason I attempted a factory reset the first time and ended up getting it bricked.
The second time around, after configuring and downloading the firmware via ethernet, I attempted the wifi connection again but the strength indicator showed zero again. But I was able to connect and the yellow box popped up indicating wifi restart. Since then, I changed to Roon exclusive mode and have had no issues with using the Nest mesh wifi.
ifi updated their manual where they highlight that a factory reset can brick the unit if the power is cut to the Zen Stream during the rest process that can take ~5 minutes.
Kevin,
I didn’t have one. The M-Scaler was connected via USB straight to my spare laptop. I read Martin_Kelly’s post about his Stack Audio Link II making an improvement to his system. I was ready to buy it until I saw the Zen Stream press release. Figured I take a chance with the Zen Stream and have no regrets. It’s also my first ifi product and their customer service promptly resolved my issue with the first bricked unit. They responded within a day and luckily I was able to get a replacement unit from the local dealer in three days (includes shipping the bricked unit to them and the dealer shipping a replacement back to me). The customer service support happened in tandem overnight before shipping out the bricked unit.
I’ve changed my Chord DACs from Hugo 2 / 2 Go (maybe the first transport I had but didn’t realize until recently) to Qutest / M-Scaler and now with TT2 / M-Scaler. All of my upgrades revolved around the M-Scaler. It’s the only thing staying constant in my upgrades with DACs, amps, speakers, and now cables. For me, I am now content with my headphone setup and not tempted to stretch for an upgrade to the Dave. I’ll start focusing on headphones instead of DAC/amp combo upgrades.
Since my first ever post on this community, my wife found about my new purchase and is asking me about it now. Thankfully the Zen Stream’s price is reasonable compared to my other components but she doesn’t know about the Wave cables yet. She’s coming back in a week and this might be it for me on this community…
I certainly hope we see more of you here.
But I think I recognize you from headfi and yours and my posts in the zen stream thread over there.
At least your story sounds familiar to a poster there.
And iFi did respond quickly and told me I might have been responsible for bricking my unit.
When I pointed out that they needed to update their manual and instructions to reflect the potential for bricking that a factory reset could inflict, they quickly back tracked and agreed and changed the documentation.
I just went with a full refund from my dealer for now but we will see if I try again.
Yes I saw that multiple times, which is why I posted it in case anyone was nervous.
Ethernet is always recommended for updates in my mind as well (as well as playing music if possible)
I still think it is early days for this device so hopefully reliable firmware updates come on a regular delivery schedule soon.
I haven’t posted there yet and I created my account a month ago but Head-fi makes me want to stick to headphones only 
I’m sorry to hear that it didn’t work out for you but I think it’s part of the headache for being an early adopter of new products.
Hmmm. Can you expand on what you mean here? I’m probably misinterpreting.
Maybe dumb it down (for me) please
Ah ok, my bad.
Well there was a member there with exact same problem as you described so we were not on our own…lol.
