just quit again right in the middle of Saint Seans 3rd. really getting ■■■■■■ off. TREO in Singapore said something like they will get back to me on an Authorization which sounds like BS. i may have to play hard ball and file a dispute with my CCC. hate to go down this road. i have been in high end audio for 50 years and have never had such a hassle. dealt with all the blue chip companies over the years.
Hey Rudy - any chance you can try another power supply? Maybe grab one off amazon and return if it ends up being the ZS itself that’s the issue.
i can get a cheap $10 Chinese one locally. i also have the generic one that came with the ZS both 9v. i thought about trying that to see if there was a problem with the Ipower. but no returns for the local Chinese one. Amazon takes forever to get to me where i am plus shipping+import taxes.
sorry, both 12v. i switched out the Ipower to the generic 12v. that came with the ZS
Rudy - to understand you correctly, you’ve tried both 12V PSUs, the one included with the ZS and another generic unit, and you’re getting shut-offs in both cases?
i bought a separate 12v. IFI Ipower and also have the 12v. unit that came with the ZS. i am trying the generic 12v. that came with the unit now to see if it makes a difference. i well have to wait and see if i have the same problem. its only been an hour.
FWIW, I was seeing exactly the same behavior before I replaced my power supply (well, different music playing, but Saint Seans 3rd is great). I pulled out my digital multimeter and measured the output of the iFi supply. It measured about 6.3V when I first plugged it in, but over a period of about 20 minutes, it slowly dropped to under 5.5V. I think it’s this gradual decline in voltage that is creating the behavior that you and I experienced.
I was impatient, so I just had Amazon send me a new iPower X adapter overnight, and that solved the issue. I then reached out to Sebastien Chiu on head-fi.org, and he helped me get a replacement power supply (which I’m not using, but nice to have). No need to RMA the entire unit or even send the defective SMPS back. I just tossed it into recycling.
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If the ZEN Stream brings an improvement, it probably won’t be night and day. There’s no issue with the stream of bits, but one theory is that elevated ultrasonic noise from the transport can result in higher levels of distortion on the analog outputs of the DAC. Both iFi and Allo have their own ways of reducing this noise…and all good DACs do their best to reject it on their inputs. Even so, some folks will notice a difference. I have to imagine that this is measurable, but Amir over at ASR claims he does all of his measurements from a noisy and heavily loaded desktop PC and sees no issues. So…YMMV.
The Allo is a good unit, but if you feel like experimenting, the iFi ZEN Stream is good too. May be a nice option if you have a 2nd system you can use it in. 
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i have now switched out the 12v. iPower unit that i bought at the same time and switched in the 12v. generic unit that came in the box and i am now testing it to see if i have power loss or connection issues. could a slight decrease in voltage cause the unit to disconnect from the stream, but still have sufficient power to keep the two lights on? could a further drop in power cause the unit to shut down completely? in other words could a defective psu be the cause of both issues? not sure if i want to chuck a $65 iPower unit in the bin. would rather have a replacement. also i thought that the consensus was that 12v, was determined to be ideal after all the voltage wars a couple of months back…
thank you
Might be a mad lad using a lps that costs the same as the streamer itself - I have no direct comparisons to high end streamers like the lumins, but the sbooster really elevated this little streamer from great value to sounding truly high end. The sense of realism I’m getting is far more than just added detail or smoothness.
Looking forward to someone with “high end” steamer experience trying out the ZS/sbooster combo and letting us know how it stacks up.
i was thinking the IFI Xpower cost as much as the Sbooster. so why not just get the Sbooster? having said i am pretty happy with the iPower when its stable. there could be a QC issue with the Chinese subcontractor IFI uses that manufacture their PSU’s i find this surprising that they do not test these prior to shipping?
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Hmmm…last time I looked, Sbooster supplies were well over $300. iPower X is $109 here in the US.
ok, i was mixed up. wonder if its better than iPower? any comparisons? could get one for my NAD DAC as well. thanks. ifi its’ the iPower that is defective i could return it for an upgrade?
I tried the 9v, 12v and 15v ipower x and they all sounded flat to me (ie: too smooth at the cost of dynamics) compared to the 15v ipower that came with the unit - but that one had a slight edge to it.
I’m not entirely sure if the ipower x line has the same sound signature to it or if it’s just my experience with the 3 units that I had tried, but I didn’t really see them as an upgrade. Other users here including myself have used linear power supplies and noted having great results, 15v seems to be the preferred voltage.
That said, If you’ve determined that it’s the power that’s caused the random shut downs, at the very least I’d ask the dealer for another ipower, 15v if they have it. If you decide that you truly like the unit and want to get more out of it you can look to a linear power supply down the road.
it could be that the Ipower devices are poorly regulated and this could be causing voltage fluctuations and power drops. on the other hand a regulated linear PSU could be a good choice. MCRU makes some good ones btw. still testing the generic in the box 12v. that came with the ZS now. thanks.
Rudy you can get some dual output lpsu units, which could potentially run both the Stream and your NAD Dac.
No experience myself but I think someone mentioned it earlier in the thread.
have you compared the ipower to the X?
hello
spent the day with the Zen Stream using the supplied 12v. adaptor not the I-power, it just stopped after the album ended and i can no longer see the NAD DAC as an output source in Roon to reconnect. it asking me for a system output. both lights are on, not possible to select my DAC. i can select speakers on the MacBook and the stream will play. in order to reconnect the DAC i have to pull power on the Zen Stream, plug power back in and press power on. the Zen will recycle and the NAD DAC will again appear in the Roon audio selection page. so could be the ZS at fault. although was got about 4hrs of seamless streaming before this happened. thought i was out of the woods?
thanks.
It really does sound like you have a faulty unit or power supply given the constant issues you are having.
This at least doesn’t sound like a power issue. Have you done the firmware update over ethernet? New update came out yesterday too.
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