iFi Audio Zen Stream is a digital audio transport that integrates a wide and interesting range of features while being small in form and quite affordable at the same time. This audio streamer is a specialized device that works entirely in a digital domain and its role is to bridge the world of network audio streaming with a digital-to-analogue converter that has a USB or coaxial S/PDIF input. It is also made by the company that is no less interesting than the Zen Stream itself. iFi Audio dates back to 2012, however it actually has much more to do with the exotic and ambitious hi-end audio than you may think, since it was set-up as a subsidiary of Abbington Music Research.
The latter manufacturer should be at least familiar to well-heeled audio enthusiasts mostly by the virtue of its one-of-a-kind designs that can be seen as the ultimate hi-end contraptions. Take the famous AMR CD-77 for example, where AMR mated the cult-status digital-to-analogue conversion chip TDA1541 to a top-loading CD playback mechanism and tube output stages, just to mention a few. AMR DP-777 that followed some years later was even more interesting and peculiar, being somewhat one-of-a-kind device at the same time. Dubbed as a “D/A processor”, which is just another way of calling it a digital-to-analogue converter, this unit was unique in more ways you can probably imagine, sporting two separate conversion architectures. In simpler words, it meant that it had one DAC chipset with a multi-bit architecture dedicated for a RedBook (16/44.1) audio format and the other, delta-sigma for higher resolution (sampling rate and bit-depth) files. The other, almost uncanny, feature of the DP-777 was that it sported tubes not only in its output stage, but also in the S/PDIF input as well. In the latter case, the Russian 6H11P acted as amplifier working in the MHz range, which the company claimed to be the best solution for amplifying square-wave signals. Ask yourself this question: who actually uses tubes in the digital receiver section of a DAC, where they are actually working on the digital-domain side?
I revive this bit of history on purpose to show that the roots of iFi Audio are not only in a higher-end of the audio design spectrum, but the thing here is also that implementing unusual and at the same time interesting and clever design choices might actually be nothing new to company from Southport.
When we take a closer look at the current iFi Audio’s selection, another pattern will emerge and become quite obvious. This is one of those companies that have both wide and at the same time quite diversified line-up of products. The current range offers both more portable (and affordable) devices like USB dongles and bigger, yet still compact DAC/amps and some really serious stuff like Pro iDSD Signature or the new iCAN Phantom. The latter one, having ambitions to be an ultimate headphone amp is just another proof of the ability to integrate different functionalities that are hardly found together in one device being embedded deeply within the company’s DNA. Take the Phantom for as an example – go find another headphone amp that can power both dynamic (or planar, or AMT) and electrostatic (thus requiring a bias voltage from amplifier) headphones simultaneously, from the same device. I purposefully emphasized this iFi Audio ability to mix different yet sought-for functionalities in one device just because this is also a case in point with the Zen Stream.
What is also of importance here, is that this particular digital transport (or call it a digital audio streamer, if this suits you better) not only offers a Tidal/Spotify Connect or Roon ready functionalities. But on top of that it also has implemented DLNA (UPnP), AirPlay, Chromecast and – which puts it into a limelight here – NAA (Network Attached Audio) support. The latter one sets it apart from many others, even more expensive, digital transports and is targeted towards users of the Signalyst HQPlayer software. We will delve into all this a bit later, because now it should be noted that all this functionality, together with some clever technologies embedded into hardware come at a price of just 399 USD (or Euro or GBP).