Hi @soix, have you put thought into how you’re going to get Qobuz to the iFi Zen Stream?
I was/am a Qobuz user who upgraded to the iFi streamer. One of the major issues for me was the iFi doesn’t natively support Qobuz, Qobuz doesn’t have a Qobuz Connect yet, and the iFi still doesn’t support Chromecast. Casting is my go-to method for video streaming and was for audio streaming. iFi does support Airplay though, which you will likely use with your iPad initially. If I remember correctly, Airplay is limited to 24/48, however. Unless you’re willing to cap Qobuz at CD quality, you won’t be able to make use of some high res content on Qobuz without introducing something extra like Roon or BubbleUPNP.
My solution was to get a Roon server going on an old computer, which I have running in the guest bedroom. Once I had Roon up, I also subscribed to Tidal, which complements Qobuz’s catalogue. With Roon running both Qobuz and Tidal, I feel I finally have a catalogue that rivals Spotify/Apple Music. I much prefer Roon’s interface over that of Qobuz or Tidal, but I would honestly be happy with Spotify only if they had launched a CD tier.
You say:
I’ve got a couple situations where going hardwired won’t be possible and will be forced to use WiFi.
Like others have suggested here, you could use a Wifi extender, then run ethernet from the extender to the streamer. Rather than use extenders, I would recommend that you transition your home network to a mesh wifi system. The consumer-grade mesh systems include TP-Link Deco line, Google/Nest Wifi, Amazon’s eero, and Netgear’s Orbi line. They should all outperform extenders. If you’d like to take your home networking even further, look at the enterprise-grade gear by TP-Link and Ubiquity. I currently use the Nest router has the hub router with a Google Wifi 3-pack as the mesh access points. And I have hardwired the Nest router to the access points.
I transitioned from streaming via PC, to a Chromecast Audio (a lateral move from PC), to upgrading the Chromecast (power cable w/ethernet adapter, iFi power supply, and iFi SPDIF Reclocker), and now I use the iFi Zen Stream. I have a review on this forum about the sound quality differences between the upgraded Chromecast and the Zen Stream. When I reviewed them, I used wifi connections for both.
I believe that starting with Wifi is fine. For me, a hardwired connection opened up the possibility of converting ethernet to fiber (and back to ethernet) immediately before connecting to the Zen Stream. And I believe that introducing the fiber line lowered the noise floor further. In an email with iFi, their rep told me they are investigating incorporating fiber in future products.