New (was back in 2021) iFi Zen Stream device

[Michael_Harris]

Shawn Ethernet or WiFi ?
And are you using Roon or other services

[Shawn_Williams]

Gigabit WiFi (Ethernet is not an option for me)

It works fine with Roon, but adding HQP to the mix it suffers significantly compared to using my iMac as a source

[Michael_Harris]

Fair enough you give it a go

[Mario_St_Laurent]

Roon can’t see my Zen Stream when I use the USB output (Roon bridge). Why? Thank you for your kindness and help.

[Varun_Khanna (VaRoon)]

@david_snyder

Awaiting your valuable response

[Michael_Harris]

Mario make sure you have the USB enabled in Roon Settings->Audio
Also make sure you’re Stream is either set to Roon mode or AIO mode on the wheel at the back of the device.

[David_Snyder]

@Varun_Khanna

Hey @David_Snyder,

Did you do the comparison of Zen Stream vs the Allo USB Bridge Signature Player.

Could you let me know if you found any substantial improvement / difference.

I’m using the Allo Usb-bridge Signature Player with Allo Shanti. It has Ropieee XL. I also have done the dynobot tweak to prioritise audio. Plus I have it grounded to the Shanti as well. Oh and I don’t have the optional Digione Signature board as I am using a pure USB DAC.

Btw - miss you over at FB. Glad to bump into you over here. Hope everything is good.

Hi @Varun_Khanna . Nice to see you here. As you know, I do have both the Allo USBridge Sig + Shanti, and I’ve senice purchased the iFi ZEN Stream. I’ve not done a direct comparison, but my impression is that the iFi is a substantial upgrade over the Allo. I tried a few different operating systems on the Allo, and the best sounding result was a clean install of DietPi. Sadly, the Raspberry Pi CM3+ module in the Allo does not have the horsepower required to run a real-time kernel, so DietPi a very lean DietPi seems to be optimal. I would expect that to perform better than trying to optimize RoPieee XL, but YMMV.

The amazing thing about the ZEN Stream is the physical switch on the back that allows you to select a dedicated Roon mode (position 2). This kills off processes not related to Roon, including the Volumio Web UI. I’ve logged in and verified that this actually works and meaningfully reduces CPU load as a result. Of course, the ZEN Stream has all of the iFi Active Noise Cancellation magic applied to outputs. Allo has their own ways of optimizing outputs, but iFi has pretty mature technology in this space.

If I get around to doing a more direct comparison, I’ll let you know. Results for stuff like this tend to be DAC-specific, but I expect to hear at least some minor differences.

[glc650]

@Shawn_Williams

Gigabit WiFi

No such thing unless you have all 6e APs and clients and even then both would need enough streams for true gigabit WiFi.

[Mario_St_Laurent]

I did a reset and voilà! Last question, my Zen Stream is connected to a Denafrips Pontus II. Even if I am playing cd quality, 24Bits/192kHz or DSD, the right light on my Zen is always green. I thought the light changed colors. Am I wrong? Thank you so much for your help!

[Michael_Harris]

Mario good news there.

To get different colours you have the music settings belowz so that means it thinks it is downsampled to 16/44.1 or similar.

Can you send over your signal path like below (my Stream is off at the moment)

Also can you send your settings for your Zen Stream so we can compare them.

[Mario_St_Laurent]

Hi Michael,

Everytime I write to you the problems get solve. May I write to you everyday?

[Michael_Harris]

Perfect Mario, glad I could help by sending good wishes your way

BTW I forgot to send my Signal path for DSD Upscaling and this gives a lovely Blue light on the right hand side

[Toolio]

@Aaron_Underwood

I know a lot of you are fans of this unit so far but future owners take into consideration that there is NO customer or technical service/support from this company if you have issues. They are poorly run.

I have several iFi products and have always found their support staff to be responsive and helpful.

[George_Petrovic (PETRO)]

The ZS is now on the sbooster 15v…stay tuned.

[Aaron_Underwood]

Again, I’m guessing they are answering questions they know the answer to. I finally got somebody to get back to me on my ticket and they just asked what firmware I was on and then nothing…

It’s so frustrating.

[George_Petrovic (PETRO)]

So some early impressions on the ZS and the 15v sbooster. It’s not something that’s immediately apparent, but once I had some alone time with no distractions I got the sense that I was getting more realism and a 3D effect. No added detail necessarily but perhaps a more open presentation that delivered sounds without tension, sounds floated around as opposed to being etched out on the soundstage. This may be called “air” in some circles.

That said, the original 15v that came with the unit wasn’t bad at all in comparison, but it did have a slight edge to the sounds, a tension that could be felt. The ipower x that I tried ultimately sounded flat to me, too smooth at the cost of dynamics. Also, you would think the massive sbooster would push the relatively small in comparison ZS to its limit and generate heat but it’s actually the opposite, the unit runs at room temperature with the sbooster, whereas it was warm to the touch with with every ifi ipower and ipower x that I had tried.

I’ll give it some more run-in time and see if these impressions hold up but so far it’s been a promising start.

[Varun_Khanna (VaRoon)]

Wow that’s very interesting David.
Thank you for your detailed reply.

Looks like the Zen Stream is quite good.

Will love you hear your direct comparison too altho from your reply it seems like Zen will best Allo here.

This has given me an upgrade itch which should have come later than expected

Thanks

[rudy_myers]

my Zen Stream just powers down, shuts off completely. all lights go out.i think this is a different issue than a connection issue. if the connection where to be lost it would appear that the unit would still have power, i.e. all lights would stay on? this has happened as well. my psu is a IFI Ipower 12v. could this power down issue be hardware or software related?
thanks.

[Paulb (Paul)]

@David_Snyder

If I get around to doing a more direct comparison, I’ll let you know. Results for stuff like this tend to be DAC-specific, but I expect to hear at least some minor differences.

Hi @David_Snyder,

Since a few months I own the magnificent Dynaudio Focus 400 XD, an active speaker with a DAC build in. It is fed with a Raspberry Pi / Allo DigiOne (coax) so I am looking forward to the results of your comparison.

Said that, I still can’t imagine how a network bridge like the Allo or the ZS is affecting the sound, after all it is a stream of bits.

[Michael_Harris]

Rudy that does not sound good.
They are supposed to work with a 9v - 15v from memory, so unless there is an issue with the power supply then it sounds like a faulty unit and I would try to get it returned.