ZEN Stream

“The go-to streamer for the well-informed enthusiasts on a budget who want both the versatility and the last bit of transparency they can get for that price.”

“It’s simpler and better sounding, I can’t give it anything but a 5/5”

“As usual, a very well thought out product from iFi Audio and one that does what it sets out to do with excellent results.”

“You can connect this Streamer to the Zen Dac V2 and from there to your amp like I have and it sounds great!
I like it because you can complement it with the DAC that you prefer, for that reason it has no limit, you can boost it to where you want! It is 100% dedicated to sound quality!”

“Incredibly low jitter… Beating more expensive digital to digital converters… Performance for the money is excellent”

“The way in which the little box sees off even computers optimised for audio playback is nothing short of a revelation.”

A huge thank you to Andrew for his review of our ZEN Stream.

“If you would like to fall into the category of believing spending more is better than I have a bridge to sell you. There’s so much snake oil out there they would have you believe that their networks streamers you would have to spend 4K, nope! All this does is a transport it’s a Netwerk transport not DAC just high Quality wireless streaming!”

This product is exactly what I was looking for to upgrade the sound of my stereo. Coming from a Bluesound Node 2i, I wanted a streamer that sounds great, doesn’t waste money with a built-in DAC that I will bypass to my own external DAC, outputs to USB, and let’s me connect seamlessly to Tidal through Tidal’s application and Tidal Connect. Compared to the sound I was getting from my Bluesound Node 2i through its coaxial output, the Zen Stream is significantly improved: more detailed sound and the sound stage appears to be a bit deeper and more focused. I have heard that additional improvements can be had if you power the unit with an upgraded power supply, so that’s where I’m going next. All in all, a great product. You do need to update the software via the included ethernet cable first before connecting wirelessly to your home internet, but it’s really not that difficult. Some reviewers have made a big deal about the software, but these issues must have been resolved in the latest version because I’ve had no issues whatsoever. Works great!

I was using a laptop as a music source for my stereo, with JRiver Media Center as the controlling interface. The laptop started acting flaky after four years, so it was time to buy another one. Lo, and behold – I found a bunch of reviews about this streamer on internet audio sites, also reading about it on the ifi site before purchasing it on Amazon. It’s also priced cheaper than any of the prospective laptops that I was considering.

It arrived five days later, and was installed in minutes. The wifi antenna was attached, the ifi connected to the Exogal Comet dac via usb, and the ifi plugged into the Shenyata Hydra for power. That’s it – simple.

Ifi has a free control interface for phones, tablets, laptops, but the JRiver software on my control laptop had no problem finding and connecting with the ifi streamer over wifi. The sound is so good with zero dropouts that i’m not worrying about connecting with ethernet for now. The ifi is built specifically for music files versus a multipurpose laptop, outshining the laptop mainly in terms of clarity of instruments and voices.

I haven’t tried any of the streaming services, as I don’t have a subscription. JRiver has some services built into it’s interface that sound pretty good. I bought this as a solution to play my music from ssds, and it succeeds big time. My score: A-Plus, 10 out of 10, knocked out of the ballpark. I can’t imagine what those multi-thousand dollar player/streamers sound like if a consumer can get this much technology in a product at this price point. Well-done, ifi.

Replaced my Bluesound node with this because it streams usb out with mqa to my DAC. I feel the sound quality is better. Also it’s much better looking in my audio rack. Great choice if you already have a good DAC…

“I own and regularly use four Raspberry Pis that have been configured with different systems and optimized for music streaming. After using the iFi Zen Stream, I seriously doubt I will bother configuring another Raspberry Pi. The Zen Stream is far easier to set up, more user-friendly, and sonically indistinguishable. It is almost four times as expensive as a Pi, but for all but the savviest computer user, the Zen Stream may well be the most hassle-free, flexible, and high-quality music streamer currently available. “

“My daily streamer is an Auralic Altair G2, which is many times the cost of iFi’s ZEN Stream – but not many times as good. I found the Auralic sounded more subtly delineated, but the improvement in no way reflected the price difference, showing what fine value the iFi is. The Auralic’s sonic superiority was quite noticeable when I first switched between the two, but as is so often the case with hi-fi, this seemed to grow less significant once I’d listened for half an hour or so. To my ears, the ZEN Stream punches way above its weight.”

“Having spent more than a month streaming tunes from TIDAL, Qobuz, and Spotify, along with a vast sea of internet radio stations accessed through the browser interface, ZEN Stream passed every musical test with flying colors. Add solid support for playback from USB memory sticks and network servers, and iFi gives music fans lots of reliable and clean performance for the coin. Great gear – Recommended!”

“Once more, iFi engineers have produced a value added digital product that can play with gear much more expensive without embarrassing either.”

“…And the sound…omg, just amazing, never thought streamed audio could sound this good, better than all the other streamers I have tried. I’m streaming over Tidal btw, I can hear a big difference between Master and HiFi. Gotta be on Master. Anyhow, it’s the first streamer i can just leave it on all day long, without getting tired of it.”

“At the end of the day I have a HiFi system that I never dreamed I’d have. Although price does not necessarily equal quality in anything, especially HiFi I have close to 20 grand invested in my system. When it came time to buy a streamer, I had saved it for last and was low on available funds, then I found the Ifi. Yes it’s $500 but that $500 was put into making it tye ABSOLUTEKY best sounding streamer possible. The Bluesound for $500 streams, is a Dac and Preamp. That’s a lot of things to get done on a 500$ budget and in side by side comparison it’s evident the Ifi sounds far superior. Unless you are going to spend upwards of 4 or 5 grand you can do no better for streaming.”

Thanks to the guys at Audio Excellence. The fun starts at around 10 mins in.

“Just has more of everything, way more detail…better sorted out, soundstage is bigger…”

“I’m sitting there, and I’m getting the shivers.”   “I would compare it to something that is 2 to 3 times the price.”

“iFi – better”

“Airplay works beautifully.”  “Simple, straightforward device to use…. in terms of quality it’s absolutely excellent”

I have used this as a Roon endpoint and NAA with HQplayer. Both were easy to setup. There were some tricky steps with Roon. It has an odd way of seeing devices. For this selection it identified my dac with the clue alsa vs asio or wasapi using USB direct to dac. . Haven’t tried any other options. Happy camper.

This is a high quality Volumeo based music streaming device. If you don’t want to constantly tweaking with a raspberry pi but want a quality streamer this is it! If your a Tidal user connect is built in. If your an Apple user Airplay2 is built in and lossless access is yours. Do your homework understand the device and how it will work with your system and you won’t be disappointed.

External DACs have been around for several decades. In the hi-fi context, they were initially a popular way to improve the sound of a CD player with digital output or to separate sensitive analog circuits from the mechanical vibrations and stepper motors in a CD transport. Fast forward a decade or two, and CD transports begin to give way to computer audio and streaming. In 2021, external DACs are still central to hi-fi, but we want them tethered to our home networks instead. While a few external DACs have Ethernet inputs, most do not. Enter the ZEN Stream from iFi Audio.

Essentially, the ZEN Stream network-enables any DAC with a USB or COAX S/PDIF input. It supports several popular audio streaming protocols, including Roon R.A.A.T., Signalyst HQPlayer NAA, DLNA, Spotify and TIDAL Connect, and AirPlay. Of these, I tested Roon and TIDAL; however, Roon is my primary use case. I’ve used many Roon endpoints over the years, including all sorts of Raspberry Pi builds, the Sonore microRendu, SOtM sMS200, and Allo USBridge Signature Player. The ZEN Stream sounds better than all of these, and in most cases, the difference is not small.

How is using a streamer different from connecting my DAC to a laptop or desktop PC? While you can undoubtedly get decent sound out of a modern DAC using a general-purpose computer as a transport, computers are not audio components. They have CPUs, GPUs, and other components that generate RFI, EMI, and all sorts of other noise that spills into a directly connected DAC. Well-designed DACs clean much of this up, but some of this noise can still make it to the delicate analog components in the DAC, spoiling the sound.

I read accounts all of the time from folks who say that their 10+ year-old CD or SACD player still sounds better than streaming. I then discover that they are feeding their external DAC with a USB connection from a laptop computer. Of course, the dedicated audio component will sound better! Ditch the laptop and use a proper network audio transport, like the ZEN Stream. You’re then looking at a different level of performance that will not only match but exceed the performance of that old CD player. The ZEN Stream is an audio component with loads of technology that reduces software jitter and noise, sending the most precise possible signal to the downstream DAC.

While you could buy a DAC with network functionality built-in, separating network functionality from your DAC makes sense. Network protocols and features change frequently and need updates, but if you have a great DAC, you can enjoy it for years without changing anything.

To get the best results from the ZEN Stream, you need to have a couple of other things in your environment. Besides a home network and DAC with USB or S/PDIF input, you’re going to need a music server. While not inexpensive at ~$10/month, I had the best experience and results by far with Roon Server. The ZEN Stream has a switch on the back that allows selection among several dedicated modes, including one for Roon. When in Roon mode, other processes are shut down to further reduce noise and improve performance.

The ZEN Stream is all about network streaming (wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi). It does not support Bluetooth. If you want that, look at the ZEN Blue instead. But, if you’re looking for the best sounding Roon endpoint solution, the ZEN Stream, combined with a good DAC, gets my highest recommendation.

Great little streaming product, especially for Roon users
I have it plugged into my ZEN DAC
It will be perfect once they have it updated for Chromecasting