With the unit sitting right under the spare TV connected to Denafrips Pontus II DAC, Burson Soloist 3x doubling as headphone amp and pre-amp for my Harmon Kardon HK-870 power unit with XLR headphones driven off the speaker taps. (Yes, to ensure that there was NO question that I was getting the most out of the He6se v2, I A/B'd the Burson 8wpc EXCELLENT headphone amp's Balanced XLR-out against the HK with a speaker tap to XLR adapter cable, and the HK clearly won for dynamics and soundstage, volume-matched with a BAFX3370 decibel meter.)

Those pitiful things!) Setup: iFi Power Station-iFi Zen Stream-Denafrips Pontus II-Burson Soloist 3x-Harmon Kardon HK-870-HiFiMan He6se v2 - Running off HK-870's 100w per channel speaker taps. (Obviously, I'm a 'Headphone guy' & NOT serious about speakers. None of the amps 'liked' or 'hated' the Zen Stream.) To ensure that I wasn't penalizing the Zen Stream for sonic differences/preferences, I tried it with a good selection of amps. I am not a ROON user, so sorry, I couldn't get myself comfortable enough to try and comment on that functionality. I also tested against Local Network audio files stored on my PCs and NAS (Network Attached Storage) drives to see differences (if any) in performance. You can read specs anywhere, so for the sake of brevity, and since this is coming out much later than anticipated, I will stick to how my experience went and how the Zen Stream fit into my stable of audio devices.įor this review, I used the Zen Stream PRIMARILY from Tidal & Amazon MusicHD. I had to wait for new headphones & amp to arrive, then break-in, and get to where I felt I had a decent baseline again to resume evaluating performance. This review is MUCH later than I had anticipated because I realized that my then-current audio setup wasn't resolving enough to fairly comment on the capabilities of the Zen Stream.

I have used the iFi Zen Stream, (Going forward I will refer to it simply as ' Zen Stream') extensively over the past 4 months, and I have clocked a lot of hours with the streamer. Please consider and respect this - especially if my impressions do not match your own. This is my purely subjective review – based on my gear, my ears, and my experience. Many thanks to Lawrance over at iFi - who has been patient and supportive of getting me info and started with product the past few years.

Jriver review