Someone else posted the same thing in another post this morning.
I Know I said it previously but it is the protocol I like the least and stay as far away from it as possible.
It’s tough to though if you partake in the Apple ecosystem more than a bit. I wish iFi would hurry up and get the Chromecast signed off that that works much better, as long as your streaming service supports it of course (though I think they all do now).
Just received my new Zen Stream. Plugged it in via Ethernet. Connected to my DAC via both Coax and USB. Found the IP address and updated to the latest firmware (v2.29.6). Fired up Roon and cannot stop listening. Both USB and Coax connections sound amazing. Very clean sounding/no jitter. Listening through Jotunheim with HD650s. Used to have my DAC connected directly to my laptop via USB and can tell a definite difference in sound quality. Also no USB drop outs when switching between tracks which I used to experience frequently when plugged directly into my laptop. $399 might seem like a lot vs a Raspberry Pi offering. However, if you look at a plug & play Allo USB Bridge Signature + Digione Hat and low noise power supply you are well over $400USD. The fact you get both USB and Coax plus an ifi low noise power supply I think is a good value. Plus there is no loading and updating of DietPi to deal with. BTW my unit through my US dealer included the 9volt 2amp Power supply. No issues with my 9v PSU. I see some have received the 12 volt power supply as well. Anyway only have had it running for about an hour, and this thing is amazing. Thanks to all on this forum especially @Michael_Harris for all of the great posts/recommendations. I made sure I updated to the latest firmware before I did anything in Roon. I have left the input on the ZenStream to 1 on the back (AIO - all in one) for now so I can access the local IP address to do any updates required. Haven’t tried Tidal Connect yet, as I have a heavy Roon user, but I am sure it will work. Thanks All!
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And thanks for your excellent feedback.
We are trying to help out new users of the stream like yourself, so great that you found it useful. Though this thread has become a little long now for most new users to read through 
Great that you are enjoying the device so much.
BTW you can disable any protocols that you don’t want to use to give more of the machine over to just the one’s you want. I have not seen any difference in doing this, but it is good for people to know.
Thanks Michael! Are you talking about the mode selector switch on the back of the Zen Stream? Where you can switch from AIO, Roon only, Tidal Only, NAA, DLNA only? Do I need to power off the Zen Stream before I switch the mode selector? I’ll have to play around with this when I have a little more time, but for now the AIO mode is fine.
No you can do this on the settings page.
You can disable each service individually there. Sorry I am away on holiday at the moment or I would send you a screenshot.
It means if you want to keep for example Roon, Tidal and Spotify (in my case), you can disable the other services. In theory it should slightly reduce the memory footprint and processor usage (though again not sure it makes that much of a difference)
Perfect. I’ll take a look in the settings page and try them out.
Also, do you keep your Zen Stream on all the time or do you power it off when not in use? Thanks!
I tend to keep mine on most of the time.
As mine is in my study I recently started turning it off when not in use (90% of the time over a week)
It is on and ready in about 30-45 seconds from first button press which is before I am ready.
I have 2 Synology NAS, a Nuc rock server and another Ubuntu server so I was starting to get embarrassed about my carbon footprint.
Thanks I am away from home for the weekend so I shut off the Zen Stream. Not that it draws much power, but since I am not there I figured it would be good to turn it off.
Really enjoying the way it integrates with Roon. Very seamless, no issues with my NUC Rock Core or Synology NAS streaming local files. In fact I noticed the Zen Stream finds my local FLAC files much faster than my laptop does. There was always like a 10 second delay when my laptop had to stream a local file from my NAS when I started a listening session. Like the NAS was in standby mode and had to wake up. Once it started up it would stream much faster. With the Zen Stream streaming local files from Roon is nearly instantaneous.
Can’t wait to try out other features like Tidal Connect and Chromecast when it becomes available.
However, I think I’ll mostly be using it with Roon in my office Hifi setup. Might have to get a second Zen Stream for my living room home theater, but would need to get another DAC to hook it up to my Marantz AVR.
So far very impressed by the quiet noise floor and gapless plyback the Zen Stream is delivering. I was initially skeptical how much of an improvement it would make with my setup. To not have the annoying drop outs I had with my laptop when I switch tracks in Roon already makes the Zen Stream well worth it for me.
Can’t wait to listen further next week and discover new features of this device. Going to try streaming coax from my ifi Micro iDSD BL when I get back. See how it unfolds MQA with Tidal in Roon. Qobuz within Roon is working perfectly BTW streaming everything including 24/192khz tracks. Love how it changes from green to yellow when I play a 24/192k track. Super cool!
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Doesn’t your Marantz have digital audio inputs? Also, even when connected to analog inputs the audio will get re-digitized at some point for DSP (bass management, room correction, etc.) so using an external DAC in that case would be pointless.
I was about to ask if the green changes color because I’m using roon with my quobuz playback and I don’t ever get it to change from green after many hours of listening.
Ha! Always helps to play a file at that resolution! Just played an REM album and I got the yellow, it’s the little things. 
Happy customers are good advertising for Zen.
When I started this thread, I was on the fence if it would be an improvement over a Pi4 running rooopie or one of the other distributions, along with an expensive power supply and USB suppression and expensive USB cable (which for me was multiple of my setups). I was shocked at how good it sounded and had decided it was staying in my study within 24 hour’s.
Tidal and Chromecast connect both work great and I too would like the Chromecast feature available along with other future developments.
It’s not all sweetness and light though as there have been a number of people with dead units, a number bricked with firmware update issues and people with cheap power supplies swapped out. There also appears to be some Airplay issues for some users. But it does seem like things have picked up significantly for Zen and they seem to be off to the races with the Stream.
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my Zen Stream worked for about half a day without crashing after the latest update. thought i was out of the woods, than it has just crashed while playing music on Tidal through Roon. lights out. i pressed the power button and the network light confirmed a very fast connection but i could not find my DAC in Roon’s audio settings?
please let me know if you have any connection loss issues. my unit is probably an earlier version, but i do have the latest updates.
thanks.
IFI Zen Stream crashed again while streaming Spotify through Roon. IFI icon in Roon app. disappeared. however stream continues to play on Macs internal speakers. both lights on ZS are out.
Is it Roon ready yet?
no, sorry my mistake. happened outside of Roon, in the Spotify app. still many connection issues today.
The iFi ZEN Stream is the best sounding Roon endpoint solution I’ve found. However, it’s not so great for other protocols, like TIDAL Connect. I have been able to stream a feature-length movie on my MacBook Pro with AirPlay audio going to the ZEN Stream. No stability issues, and A/V sync was excellent. YMMV
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Thanks. Yes my Marantz SR5011 does have digital audio inputs. I think it has both coax and optical. I forgot that AVRs would resample the audio signal if I plug in an external dac to the analog inputs. But, correct me if I’m wrong. I could get another Zen Stream and connect it to the Marantz’s digital coax input. Then it would use the Marantz internal dac which I believe can play up to 24/192khz files. Might be overkill for the Marantz dac, but I do have Goldenear towers connected to the AVR. Connecting all of these devices together gets complicated.
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