If you’ve heard an iFi Zen stream, anything better under $1k?

zenstream definitely benefits from an lps (a true lps is better than ifi’s own filtered wall wart ’upgrade’ ps) - ideally fed at 12 v dc input

even better, additionally, is to feed the zs with a filtered ethernet signal via an etherregen or similar device

i have had a zen stream for a few months like... i use it only wired with ethernet, with add'l lps, and in roon endpoint mode

sonically i find it to be really excellent, i think due to the many levels of signal filtering and isolation built in (and the lps)

it is very close to the sonore optical rendu set up, which i think is among the very best setups for purity of signal and sound

that said, there have been reports of wifi issues with the zenstream, which i hope have now been addressed by running firmware updates since the introduction of the unit last fall

@soix

i have both here but have not had the time (nor motivation recently) to carefully set up a comparison... i was planning to a few months back but then started messing with roon and sonore opticalrendu and related power supplies

i did not feel it fair to compare the node 3 stock vs the zs with the nice lps i am using, as i don’t have a way to use a better ps to drive the node - as i said earlier the zs definitely sounds more relaxed more natural with a nice 12v lps driving it

will come back to this sometime in the next little while

my take, my understanding (second hand from reading/thinking, not from my own ears as i have never had a node w lps upgrade) is that the power supply mod addresses only one aspect of the node’s (necessary) cost engineering, which is the cheap and noisy internal smps

the node also has a fairly inexpensive analog driver stage, rudimentary digital noise management, timing clock and dac chip - these are not addressed by the polish lps mod

the zen stream is a different animal - there is no dac inside, it just streams, built for that express purpose, it has a better clock, better noise management in several aspects (ifi is expert at this, galvanic isolation, active noise cancellation and so on) ... i would think within its specified purpose the zen (also powered by a similar grade lps) should still handily outperform the node with lps as streamer