It’s not yet certified but it uses Roon bridge so just works perfectly as soon as it starts up
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Roon works great but I can’t get Airplay or Spotify Connect to work . It connects and the respective apps show they are playing but no sound .
I’m stumped .
Hear ya davidh, I’ve had the same issue on two units and haven’t been able to get iFi to help with tickets. Trying to give them time to figure this all out but patience is running thin.
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Davud
I have used Spotify to test for one of the guys on the forum and it worked fine for me.
I did have some issues though with Tidal leaving it looked so I could not cast to it.
I think further back in the thread I run through some tests.
I’m back home this evening so I will run some more tests and I will include the iphone as well.
Are you sending the output to USB or SPDIF so I can try the same thing
Usb . I’m pretty familiar with streamers being a beta tester for the Squeezboxes so I’ve done many of the troubleshooting steps to no avail
Ok I will check it out again later on all the different services and let you know how I get on again
Well I got it to work . I have no idea what I’d did other than restarting it the 10 th time and now Spotify and Apple work.
I have to say the software is quite buggy at this stage . It reminds me of of the earliest stages of the Squeezebox streamers . For a current device , this should not be happening .
Other than that , the device sounds terrific
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So as a Roon Streamer it is pretty much perfect.
As a HQPlayer streamer the same.
But I have seen issues with other services locking the playback process.
If I restart it works perfectly, if I disconnect the previous service it works most of the time.
Tidal connect sounds really excellent, but I think I have started elsewhere that this should have had another 6 months work on it or been sold as early access service.
Though if you mainly use Room it is still a dream device.
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Yes flawless with Roon . Using other apps , like Spotify connect and Airplay, not so much.
I suspect these software flaws will be corrected down the road.
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So out of interest I just set up to test this and for the first time ever Tidal Connect completely failed to connect the first time and all subsequent times as well. Spotify worked instantly though and reconnected right away as well. A reboot failed to fix this as well. as did disabling and re-enabling the Tidal connect Service in Sources,
I am guessing that the latest firmware has broken this and the “failed to connect to the server” message is the same as you are getting?
But hopefully they get to work on making this software much better for people other than Roon and HQPlayer users.
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Yea it’s like beta software at this point
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You could do that or if you want a true hi-fi/audiophile setup and still use those speakers you could use an a/b switch in reverse. That’s what I did.
I have a Topping DAC and pre-amp sitting on top of my AVR. My AVR’s pre-outs go to the Topping pre-amp and the Topping pre-amp is hooked up to both of my amps (solid state (XLR) for HT and music and tube (RCA) for music). I then have an a/b speaker selector that I’m using in reverse to share a set of Chane 752s with both amps (the solid state and tube). I also have my subs y-cabled so both my AVR and Topping pre-amp can use them. This allows me to use my subs and Chane front speakers with the Topping DAC without the AVR being on or I can use the AVR as normal for movie/TV watching. I can also select which amp I want (thanks to the Topping preamp) for either (although I never use the tube amp for movies/TV and hardly ever use the solid state amp for music).
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The future Chromecast addition is interesting (if it ever comes and if it works properly).
I don’t know of any USB audio output Chromecast devices?
Not possible with any DIY Raspberry Pi.
Much respect that you have done that.
After quite a few years of listening to music through my HT system linked (even in pure stereo) I ended being given a Sonos Amp to test (pre release) and dragged some old speakers out of the attic and never looked back.
Ended up getting to keep the Amp as a thank you from Sonos, so spent the money I would have on those and bought a first pair of floor standers for 20 year’s and then a sub later. It was Bliss.
I’m a little sceptical of this as well as there seems little progress on the firmware improvements beyond bug fixes.
This device while great for Roon and HQP needs a lot of work in other areas.
If Zen can sort out the software then this is the killer all in one streamer.
It already does so much well…
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Software and firmware has long been a weakness of iFi in my experience.
Great hardware let down by iffy software/firmware. Going way back to even my old micro iDSD and iDAC
But lets hope it can get sorted as you say
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Also, Chord don’t seem to have had an exactly untroubled history with software either, as anyone familiar with the saga of their Poly and 2Go streamers can see. It seems very few companies have the expertise to do a really good job with hardware and software. Slimdevices were ahead of the game!
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I use my Zen-streamer mostly in Roon Bridge mode through USB. The Streamer is powered with elite-power but I also use an iUSB3.0 powered with Ifi ”dream team” and an Ifi iPurifier 3.0 before the Usb on my Devialet Expert Pro 220. I’m very satisfied with the sound.
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Play my Zen stream via COAX to the Hegel H390 Dac, got this advice from my dealer, Is this correct or is Usb better? Does anyone know this?
Peter try both and see which you prefer.
USB can go to a higher bit rate of 384 as opposed to 192 and jitter may be better (or worse).
If you are in a situation where you can swap them back and forth using Roon, you can see which you prefer