The other button acts as an LED/hotspot switch that you need to press in order to find the Zen Stream through wifi. Of the two buttons on the Zen Stream, the only one that might be confusing is the one on the right-hand side, as the one on the left just acts as a power button. The front face of the Zen Stream only has a few buttons and LEDs to note. It’s a relatively simple machine and the build properly reflects that. Taking a glance at the Zen Stream you may be immediately confused as to how it even works, but the device itself is presented as clean, with not many buttons or connectors to overwhelm you. Stacking the Zen DAC V2 on top of the Zen Stream just seemed natural and worked the simplest. The structure here isn’t unlike any of iFi’s Zen models you see today. For this review, I hooked the Zen Stream up to the iFi Zen DAC V2 and tried a few different pairs of headphones with it. In practice, less of the original fidelity is compressed when making its way through your digital converter. To those who might not be familiar with the purpose of a dedicated streamer, it’s basically an alternative to Bluetooth, offering data transmission over wifi instead. We don’t get to try many streamers here on MajorHiFi, so getting to test out the Zen Stream is an exciting prospect.
COLOR ZEN REDDIT FULL
I’ve finally been able to get my hands on one and try it out for myself to give you my full impressions of it. In addition to their upgraded DAC/Amps and Bluetooth models, they’ve also released their very first streamer as part of their Zen line. Ifi has had quite the year, releasing new product after new product in various price points.