Rudy Did it come back for you?
I see there is an update that is supposed to fix the issue with Tidal not releasing the audio output, and other Streaming protocols.
A decent review here from Currawong who references this and upgraded power and lpsu as well.
no, i am going to borrow a Node 2i this afternoon and see how well it works in my environment. could be the server here in the hotel which i have no control over? but whats puzzling is that i can connect to Roon on my computer here and enjoy it on my headphones with no problems?
Rudy is Roon running on the same device?
That means no rebroadcasting which cuts the traffic down dramatically.
I have now got a PowerNode and itâs an excellent little RR device. I was very concerned about all the network issues I had read about in the past, but it seems at least for me it has been near perfect so far.
just got back with the node 2i i borrowed. started up just fine. playing thru my dac, streaming Tidal. found the 2i in the Roon app. now streaming Tidal from Roon. this thing is so ezpz. to set up. pretty good sound as well. lets see how stable it is? why does Tidal sound better through Roon? maybe some bad sprits here in the network at the hotel the Zen Stream does not like. i think the Zen may be a little more transparent as a streamer? the 2i was just plug and play no configuration required. so far so good. maybe i can get a better power cord for the 2i? LAN input isolation thing?
Interesting that there are many who think Tidal sounds worse through Roon, but volume levelling and DSP have an impact. I thought on the Zen they both sounded the same, but clearly no A/B switching there in my testing. I have everything besides Roon, NAA & Tidal switched off on my Zen now.
Were you running Zen over WiFi, as Currawong points to some WiFi settings that are known to cause issues, but if you are in a hotel you wonât have access to those.
I know many donât think the DAC in the Bluesound devices are their weakest part, but in my playing with the Amp it sounds great. Playing to it from the Matrix Audio over phono leads sounds slightly better with DSD upscaling, but it is marginal and can also be put down to other things.
The thing with the Zen is that the output sounds really good, at least to my ears, so sorting out the reliability of the underlying software for others should be their main priority. I would happily make it the streamer that feeds my next big amp purchase to something like a Hegel or higher end Rotel amp.
i think the Zen Stream could be a hair more transparent as a streamer compared to the 2i? a little cleaner if you will. so something here at the cat hotel was tripping it up. and yes i have been running the Zen wired for a month or more, but still had all the issues with it as posted. i hope someone someday can fix it. still trying to find a IT guy who could come out who also knows a little bit about audio streaming. will try the ifi facebook group over here if i can someone who can speak English. i will keep the Zen Stream in the hopes that i can resurrect it some day. but for now i need music
I thought you said you were, but I saw your comment the other day about hotel and that made me question that. Well hopefully you enjoy the Node 2i and it continues to work
Hello, all. Has anyone here tried the Silent Angel Munich M1T streamer? Itâs about 2x the cost of zen streamerâŚbut Iâm curious how it compares.
Hi all,
I am new to ZS and having problem to get dsd 256 from Roon/HQ player.
My devices are MacBook Pro, ZS and Rme Adi-2 dac fs.
I am able to get DSD 256 from MacBook Pro (Roon/HQ player) â USB â ADI-2 but Not if using MacBook Pro (Roon/HQ player) â wifi â ZS-> USB â ADI-2.
If I choose DSD 256 using ZS, it just keeps skipping song without playing, but it is fine if choosing DSD 128.
Please advice if there is any setting mistake. Thank you.
Have you compared it using a wired connection. Upsampling to DSD 256 takes considerable network bandwidth and Wifi simply doesnât work well with it. That has been my experience at least. My system is pretty solid until I try to push higher DSD rates.
um⌠I need to find a lan connection for my MacBook. Will try it again when my nuc come next week
Hi Chun I am listening to DSD256 at the moment on my headphones.
Try taking it off USB and put it on Ethernet as something in the back of my mind tells me there is an issue there.
Also go into the devices settings and make sure that it is not topped out at DSD128.
Saying that your Signal path looks wrong. This is how mint looks from 24/44 to DSD128
will definitely try ethernet to connect my MacBook Pro to ZS. thanks
With the ZEN Stream, DSD128 is the max when using DoP. Sadly, the ZEN Stream does not support native DSD for all USB DACs. It may be due to the ancient Linux kernel that iFi have decided to use. Itâs over three years old, so many newer USB DACs are not supported.
I did some research and I found your explanation fit my case. Do you think using window may solve the problem if running with Asio?
I am a bit sad that I just bought a NUC for rock and wanted to use it with ZS for DSD 256âŚ
Using a Raspberry Pi 4 running RoPieee or VitOS (with wired Ethernet) will likely get you Native DSD support. These work for me up to DSD512 for many of my USB DACs.
meaning I should give up ZS? 
Or just enjoy what it does and how it sounds within its limitations. Most music is still only 16-bits, 44.1 kHz.
why the hell did ifi build a new streamer in 2021 with a ancient kernel that makes no sense,in the new firmware they also removed mqa decoding when using tidal connect and over dnla which to me is a massive issue,there now refusing to pay for the mqa licence,it still works fine with roon as roon can do the mqa decoding but I can see me returning mine for a refund if they donât pay for the mqa licence
I can hear a class action law suit coming about this,people are â â â â â â ,ive emailed ifi asking them to confirm whatâs happening and to change there website as it clearly not 100% mqa compatible like they claim,ive really lost trust with this company first was the ipower fiasco,every body who bought the zen stream were under the impression that a ipower psu was included but ifi silently withdrew the ipower and shipped a cheap generic psu instead,when I asked why they said the ipower was only for the first 1000 customers,that wouldnât have a been a problem if they had stated this anywhere but they didnt,and now they remove one of most important features that people bought it for tidal connect mqa decoding has been removed in latest firmware,up until recently the zen stream worked the same way as my node 2,coax or optic to ex dac would receive 24/96 but now with decoding removed I only get 24/48 because they donât and wonât pay for a mqa licence Iâve lost total faith in this company and I actually feel like Iâve been ripped off
