There is obviously much more complexity to it but that is basically what it does.įor those who use Roon, the Zen Stream serves as a Roon endpoint. This then allows you to control music playback (from anyone of many sources) while the Zen Stream actually does the work of taking the stream and sending it to the DAC. The Zen Stream sits connected to your network and your DAC and basically, in simple terms, serves to connect your DAC to your network. That covers all of the connections, which are quite a few, so I will touch briefly on what this unit is aimed to do. Power Connection - For connection of the external power supply. Reset Button - In case of the need to reset the unit to factory settings. RJ45 Connector - To connect to the network via cable. USB C port - This is reserved for Firmware updates SPDIF / Coaxial output - Allowing a DAC to be connected via Coax instead of USBĢx USB 3.0 ports - One can be used to connect a DAC while the other can be used to connect local storage, such as an external hard drive. The idea behind using an exclusive mode is to close down unused programs reducing “software jitter”. This basically means that the unit will automatically adjust itself to each person's use case by setting it to the specific task or, if you have multiple uses for the device (as is my case) then it can be set to “All in one”. Moving to the back of the unit, from left to right, we have:Įxclusive Modes switch - This allows the choice of setting the unit to do a specific task, giving the choice of: The two large lights are to show the network status (LED on the left) and the frequency LED (on the right), which basically gives visual feedback on the format of the music being reproduced. The button on the right being used to enable the hotspot function, with another small LED at the side of the button to again show status. The button on the left is for powering on or off the unit, with the small LED at the side of the button showing the status. I will explain more as I go on.īefore I jump into my personal use case, I wanted to briefly go over what the Zen Stream actually does as a unit, some of which is not actually relevant to me personally.Īs far as the actual layout of the hardware, on the front of the unit we have two buttons and four lights (two small and two large). Everyone's use for this device is going to differ from the next person, as each person has specific roles that they would like the device to cover, so I can only really look at this from my own personal use case perspective. This review is going to be a little different from the usual reviews as the Zen Stream is a product that is aimed at providing all the necessary streaming and playback options in one device. However, it is always good to consider that it hasn’t cost me anything to try out the iFi Audio Zen Stream.įor further details on the Zen Stream, you can check out the iFi Audio page here:
They have not requested anything specific, not even a link, due to the fact that they are distributors and do not sell to the public, therefore, as always, this review will be as sincere and as unbiased as possible. The iFi Zen Stream has been kindly loaned to me for this review by DeCine, the official distributors of iFi Audio in Spain.
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