Best value streamer with no DAC

[Mr. BubbaHyde]

The Volumio-based O/S that's installed on the ZEN Stream can index files on a locally attached hard drive, respond to remote control requests (via a browser interface) and sort-of work like a mini-Roon. But, the experience is pretty terrible if you have more than a few hundred albums, and all of that extra processing can spoil sound quality. Same goes for using the ZEN Stream for Internet radio, indexing hundreds of stations. It just does not have the power to work well in that role.

The ZEN Stream works best when the only thing you ask of it is to copy audio from the network to a locally attached DAC. It should not be uncompressing FLAC or mp3 streams. It should not be doing DSP or volume leveling, and so on…if sound quality is a concern.

Thank you for your reply, and explanation! I will try to test that potion out tomorrow as well!

Do you think your opinion of that would change with a dedicated app that is supposed to be coming? (fingers crossed, lol) or have you already fleshed that out fully with your own gear?

Thanks again!!

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

Do you think your opinion of that would change with a dedicated app that is supposed to be coming? (fingers crossed, lol) or have you already fleshed that out fully with your own gear?

I'm not aware of any dedicated app. The beauty of products like the ZEN Stream is in their simplicity. Extremely lower power, low noise. All they (should) do is pass pre-processed audio data to a downstream DAC. If you ask them to do anything else, you're defeating the purpose of this distributed topology. Better stick with something like Aurender, Innous, AURALiC, etc. if you want an all-in-one solution AND quality results.

 

[Mr. BubbaHyde]

I'm not aware of any dedicated app. The beauty of products like the ZEN Stream is in their simplicity. Extremely lower power, low noise. All they (should) do is pass pre-processed audio data to a downstream DAC. If you ask them to do anything else, you're defeating the purpose of this distributed topology. Better stick with something like Aurender, Innous, AURALiC, etc. if you want an all-in-one solution AND quality results.

Gotcha! Thanks for the information and opinion! Appreciate it!

 

[dougi]

I'm not aware of any dedicated app. The beauty of products like the ZEN Stream is in their simplicity. Extremely lower power, low noise. All they (should) do is pass pre-processed audio data to a downstream DAC. If you ask them to do anything else, you're defeating the purpose of this distributed topology. Better stick with something like Aurender, Innous, AURALiC, etc. if you want an all-in-one solution AND quality results.

Oh well, my Zen Stream seems to have bricked itself after two days. I changed the buffering settings then did a software reboot. Nothing! Factory reset button doesn't seem to fix it. You can turn on with the power button but that is it. Lights on the ethernet port but you can't see it on the network. LEDs flash briefly when powering on but that is it. Warranty return looking most likely but i'll see how I go with iFi.

 

[Mr. BubbaHyde]

Oh well, my Zen Stream seems to have bricked itself after two days. I changed the buffering settings then did a software reboot. Nothing! Factory reset button doesn't seem to fix it. You can turn on with the power button but that is it. Lights on the ethernet port but you can't see it on the network. LEDs flash briefly when powering on but that is it. Warranty return looking most likely but i'll see how I go with iFi.

From another forum a member said he had to do a search of his network to find it under a different ip than it should have been, ifi.local didn't work either.
So you could put it in mode AIO and check your network ip's just to see. I personally have seen it completely boot up with only the little white power indicator on

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

Oh well, my Zen Stream seems to have bricked itself after two days. I changed the buffering settings then did a software reboot. Nothing! Factory reset button doesn't seem to fix it. You can turn on with the power button but that is it. Lights on the ethernet port but you can't see it on the network. LEDs flash briefly when powering on but that is it. Warranty return looking most likely but i'll see how I go with iFi.

Many of these have shipped with bad power supplies. That was the case for me, and I suspect the case for you. Definitely open a ticket with iFi to have them replace the power supply. If you have a 9 to 15 volt power supply available that can deliver up to one and a half amps, you may be able to test with that.

 

[dougi]

Many of these have shipped with bad power supplies. That was the case for me, and I suspect the case for you. Definitely open a ticket with iFi to have them replace the power supply. If you have a 9 to 15 volt power supply available that can deliver up to one and a half amps, you may be able to test with that.

I will try. Mine came with a 12v supply. I have a 9v from an itube I can use. Thankyou.

 

[dougi]

I will try. Mine came with a 12v supply. I have a 9v from an itube I can use. Thankyou.

The power supply seems fine (measures OK and try others with no luck). If I find out the cause of the issue eventually I will post a follow up.

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

The power supply seems fine (measures OK and try others with no luck). If I find out the cause of the issue eventually I will post a follow up.

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble. I upgraded to an iPower X 9V, 2.5A supply today. Power-up is easier (no need to hold the power button in), completely reliable (7+ hours of continuous play), and it sounds great. CPU temperature is warm but not excessively so.

- CPU temp : 56.8'C : 134.3'F

It does not feel particularly warm to the touch. Ambient temp is 75ºF.

 

[Deleted member 24508]

Just got my ZEN Stream in today and had some time to type up my impressions. Overall I'm delighted that I finally have a network audio transport that I can recommend to non-technical friends who want something that just works. While not perfect, it's pretty darned close and sounds great (if such things have a sound).

https://blog.dsnyder.ws-e.com/index.php/2021/07/08/zen-for-streaming/

Great to hear, just changed dac from iFi iDSD micro BL to Denifrips Aries II, night and day better, particularly

 

[MisterDee]

Quick question about the Zen Stream - If you are using it for Tidal Connect, will it output MQA fully unfolded via a digital out to a DAC?

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

Quick question about the Zen Stream - If you are using it for Tidal Connect, will it output MQA fully unfolded via a digital out to a DAC?

I've not tested with TIDAL Connect, but I can confidently say, "no", the ZEN Stream does no processing of MQA. At best, the TIDAL app may be able to perform MQA Core decoding (first unfold). If so, the ZEN Stream will faithfully send the 24-bit, 88.2/96 kHz signal to the downstream DAC. If the DAC is an MQA Renderer, it will complete subsequent unfolds internally.

In summary, the ZEN Stream has no idea if the content passing through it is MQA encoded or not.

 

[MisterDee]

I've not tested with TIDAL Connect, but I can confidently say, "no", the ZEN Stream does no processing of MQA. At best, the TIDAL app may be able to perform MQA Core decoding (first unfold). If so, the ZEN Stream will faithfully send the 24-bit, 88.2/96 kHz signal to the downstream DAC. If the DAC is an MQA Renderer, it will complete subsequent unfolds internally.

In summary, the ZEN Stream has no idea if the content passing through it is MQA encoded or not.

Ah, I see! Thanks for the info.

I'm currently have a PC running Volumio which I use to get tidal connect over to my non-MQA DAC (Denafrips Ares 2). As far as I can tell, I'm probably maxing out at 24bit/48Khz with streams from Tidal to the DAC.

I was going to buy a iFi Zen DAC as it's an MQA renderer but read that Volumio doesn't do the 'first unfold' of MQA which the iFi DAC needs to complete the unfold so I put the brakes on ordering one.

So it looks like if I had the iFi Zen Stream as you have, I could then buy and hook up the Zen DAC which would give me the full unfold for the 'full' MQA experience. I might consider this as an option although both units would cost £528 in the UK so will need to have a think.

Quite complicated this MQA stuff isn't it?

Tidal Connect is such a good feature, I use it all the time now. If Qobuz had a similar 'connect' function as Tidal I could probably keep using the Volumio/DAC set up I currently have and get non-MQA hi-res output this way - but alas, it doesn't exist!

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

I was going to buy a iFi Zen DAC as it's an MQA renderer but read that Volumio doesn't do the 'first unfold' of MQA which the iFi DAC needs to complete the unfold so I put the brakes on ordering one.

So it looks like if I had the iFi Zen Stream as you have, I could then buy and hook up the Zen DAC which would give me the full unfold for the 'full' MQA experience. I might consider this as an option although both units would cost £528 in the UK so will need to have a think.

Quite complicated this MQA stuff isn't it?

The iFi ZEN Stream is just running a modified version of Volumio, so it's no more able to give you the full unfold than what you are using today.

I've never used TIDAL Connect, however, when I've used the TIDAL desktop app with USB-connected iFi DACs, the TIDAL app could be configured to complete the first unfold. I'm assuming the same is possible with TIDAL Connect. If so, streaming from a computer running TIDAL Connect to the ZEN Stream may get you what you want. If I can figure out how to test, I'll share the results.

 

[trondav]

Rasperry Pi4 with Volumio. 15 min to setup. Excellent solution.

 

[dougi]

Sorry to hear that you're having trouble. I upgraded to an iPower X 9V, 2.5A supply today. Power-up is easier (no need to hold the power button in), completely reliable (7+ hours of continuous play), and it sounds great. CPU temperature is warm but not excessively so.

- CPU temp : 56.8'C : 134.3'F

It does not feel particularly warm to the touch. Ambient temp is 75ºF.

The retailer sent me another Zen Stream. I guess they'll be sending the bricked one back to iFi. However, I see that a new firmware (V2.28) is available but the unit refuses to finish downloading it. Have you tried to update yours? It gets to 60% then the UI resets itself. I wish iFi would release the manual (local) update method.

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

The retailer sent me another Zen Stream. I guess they'll be sending the bricked one back to iFi. However, I see that a new firmware (V2.28) is available but the unit refuses to finish downloading it. Have you tried to update yours? It gets to 60% then the UI resets itself. I wish iFi would release the manual (local) update method.

I did not have any problems updating to v2.28. Are you on Wi-Fi or using a wired Ethernet connection? My connection was wired at the time, with Wi-Fi disabled.

 

[amper42]

Rasperry Pi4 with Moode - https://moodeaudio.org
I use RPi4 with Moode to wirelessly feed the RME ADI-2 DAC FS via UPnP. Works like a charm. No need to park my MacBook Pro running Audirvana on the USB port of the RME DAC.

 

[dougi]

I did not have any problems updating to v2.28. Are you on Wi-Fi or using a wired Ethernet connection? My connection was wired at the time, with Wi-Fi disabled.

Yeah all wired with WiFi disabled. Strange. I'll try and do a full factory reset (with fingers crossed) and try again.

 

[dsnyder0cnn]

Yeah all wired with WiFi disabled. Strange. I'll try and do a full factory reset (with fingers crossed) and try again.

Hmmm, perhaps try powering it down (from the http://ifi.local/ web interface). Remove power from the device for ten seconds, then re-connect power and switch back on with the power button. May work better after a fresh reboot.