That’s what I want to see. I thought the iFi sounded better than the node with the same DAC but I didn’t to a ton of side by side.
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Ricky do you have the same instability with the original power supply? Is it worth swapping back for some testing.
Sounds like you have everything set up perfectly to be honest.
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Something to keep in mind with the node is the is the digital outs. Even though it does seem that the software/firmware is years ahead of the ZS last time that I checked the usb out on the note, new or old version, is not yet functional. It was always there but not meant as a digital out, they intended on making it functional through a firmware update. I guess most of the streamers in the market are a work in progress.
That said, usb out is the main digital out for streaming for me since I use the coax on my dac for a cd transport. Also, given how the the node usb was never meant to be a digital out and is now being modified through firmware to be one, that didn’t really give me a lot of of confidence that it would be as good as the one on the SZ, which is why I chose to roll the dice with the SZ in the end.
i do not see the same attention to digital noise issues with the Node that where applied in the Zen?
The problem is an intermittent issue, occurs from time to time with both power supply’s, I do not think the unit is faulty. I can live with a crash from time to time, is that none of the others have this behavior, Also sometimes losses the IP for example when I restart the router and does not recover the ip without a power off.
Not something that is realy bad but is annoying behavior, it’s not the network cable I already changed the cable, even tested the audioquest Diamond network cable from the NDX2 on it. Yes a good cable makes the IFi better, but the Diamond is too much for this streamer.
I will wait for new software updates. This is not the only streamer with bugs, it’s the only I have that gives me the need to force a reboot from time to time.
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IFi sounds better than the Bluesound with an external dac, I never used the internal dac of the Bluesound, I do not even think the Bluesound has noise reduction.
The advantages of the node is that it simply works, has solid software package, supports a lot of services, the node is an all in one exelent product that does everything very well, it does not support dsd unfortunately, and have a dac that is a bonus.
But the IFi sounds better out of the box, give to the IFi a better power supply and a good network and usb cable and the sound improves a lot.
IFi is roon tested (bad IFi) and Bluesound is roon ready, IFi is buggy and Bluesound is stable. IFi software is not that great, Bluesound software is better than the average even better than Naim app and is available for all operating systems.
Ricardo Yes it does seem that you have an interesting issue there.
Have you tried giving it a fixed IP address just to see if it has some compatibility issue with your router.
I have mine set up with a reserved IP address on my router and never have an issue, though these days I turn it off when not in use as it is driving my office headphone rig.
I think I know what it could be, maybe a incompatibility with the Denon dac, I will have to try with the pro iDSD an see if this is a compatibility issue, after power on the amp sometimes The dac in the Denon is not recognized by the IFi, that is why it need a reboot.
I come to this conclusion because roon has always present the spdif connection of the IFi. I tried with two usb audioquest cables and the behavior at least with this internal Denon PMA2500NE dac is present from time to time over usb.
I will connect my SMS200 ultra to the Denon tomorow and let it work for a few days and see if this also happens, if not could be something in the IFi software that does not recognize the dac after coming out stand-by as expected and this for sure could be corrected by a software upgrade.
Ricardo good luck with this testing.
I would not expect a firmware update to fix a DAC issue, but it is possible.
There are enough complaints about DAC incompatibilities on the forums for it to be an issue.
has anyone tried the newer iPower 2 with the Zen Stream?
Glad to hear that the Elite is working for you, but what’s wrong Roon? In my experience, that’s the best way to use the ZEN Stream. DLNA is sub-optimal because the endpoint is left to handle decompressing FLAC and the ZEN Stream has rather limited CPU resources. That, and this is, ostensibly, a Roon forum. Your post is a bit head-scratching to me, but no harm if you’re having fun.
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I have, with three separate voltages. Personally I wasn’t impressed, all them sounded like they lacked dynamics and were too laidback for me. For some reason I kept feeling the need to turn the volume up which didn’t make sense given that this wasn’t an analogue out.
Some of the different voltages sounded different than others but overall to me the general sound was flat, smoothness over dynamics. I actually found the original supplied 15v to be better, but it had a slight edge that could get fatiguing.
what did you settle on?
It would be a much simpler world if that were the case, but if you believe you’re getting the best out of your unit with the included psu then power to you pun intended. Great for the wallet too. That said, in my experience different voltages with the same psu did not make too much of a difference, it came down to the different psus.
Rudy - I found a decent deal on a 15v sbooster, a dealer gave me a trial period and I couldn’t return it after having after a couple of days with it.
What do people think is the best voltage to run the Ifi Stream on %? Higher or lower ?
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I’m not an electronics engineer, but I’m 99% certain that the ZEN Stream has internal voltage regulators and DC to DC converters that enable it to adapt to the supported 9V to 15V supply range. The result of all of this is that the board-level components see the same voltage, regardless of the input voltage (within the specified 9-15V range).
Lower input voltage will drive the regulators with higher current levels which may cause the unit to run a bit warmer (higher I^2R losses in the windings). This makes the case for 15V over 9V, but I’ve been using 9V (from an iPower X), and I’m perfectly pleased with the sound and performance. I would not expect sound or performance to change with a 15V supply due to the aforementioned regulation.
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Michael, I used the P50 with no problem whatsoever, this was going from the 15v port, so I am not sure why anyone is saying it’s no good.
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I personally found 12v to be ideal, but others feel 15v
I felt staying in the middle was safer, so therefore I probably heard that…lol
Louis I always thought the P50 always looked quite neat, especially as part of Topping stack, and the fact that it can run two devices added additional usefulness to it.
Glad that works well for you.
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Same here, zen stream bricked, don’t find the firmware on their website and product is not for sale.
maybe too much trouble …
if you have the firmware link I’ll be very interested , before I return this product.
thank you.
Eric