I might soon be moving back to an office, so am starting to think about how I can repurpose some kit.
I have an iFi ZEN DAC v2 for my home office, which I love. Before playing with more expensive (or any!) additional kit, I want to understand properly how things work.
So I'm hoping someone can help clarify some things, or point me to a useful video or two. And please, not interested in an "MQA is evil" discussion.
My primary listening is still vinyl. But we listen to digital throughout the house, a lot, and this is how:
Questions:
[list type=decimal]
[*]In this chain, my understanding is that the phone is acting as a streamer, transmits the stream via Airplay2 (max CD quality) and the Marantz is the DAC. Is this accurate?
[*]If I want to use the iFi ZEN DAC (only USB input), and I do NOT want to use my laptop with it every time, I will need a streamer, right?
[/list]
Let's just say, for sake of the question, that I get an iFi ZEN Stream, which outputs in USB, and supports both Tidal and Airplay2.
The only way I know to use it, is like this: iPhone >> Airplay2 >> ZEN Stream >> ZEN DAC
Questions:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Would that setup limit me to the max spec of Airplay, which is CD quality? So no MQA?
[*]And the phone is still acting as primary streamer, with the ZEN Stream only really being an Airplay receiver?
[*]Is there another way, where the ZEN Stream is used as an actual streamer, and the phone only acts as a controller?
[*]Does it make any difference, i.e. phone streaming vs. a purpose-built streamer?
[/list]
And an aside question - the Stream is 2x the price of the ZEN DAC, is it worth it, or worth looking at other options? The rest of the family can keep using Airplay2 with Apple Music, so for the purpose of a standalone DAC I don't need to cater for both, and don't want to spend tons of money. I will test the ZEN DAC (just with laptop) in my main setup anyway to see if it sounds significantly better than the Airplay receivers.
I have an iFi ZEN DAC v2 for my home office, which I love. Before playing with more expensive (or any!) additional kit, I want to understand properly how things work.
So I'm hoping someone can help clarify some things, or point me to a useful video or two. And please, not interested in an "MQA is evil" discussion.
My primary listening is still vinyl. But we listen to digital throughout the house, a lot, and this is how:
- I have Apple Music and Tidal subscriptions, and I use both. The rest of the family only use Apple Music
- For sound quality, I prefer Tidal. No home servers, no Roon - just the subcription.
- When anyone in the house listens to music in the house, it works like this:
iPhone (Tidal or Music app)>> AirPlay2 >> Marantz Receiver (e.g.) >> Speakers
Questions:
[list type=decimal]
[*]In this chain, my understanding is that the phone is acting as a streamer, transmits the stream via Airplay2 (max CD quality) and the Marantz is the DAC. Is this accurate?
[*]If I want to use the iFi ZEN DAC (only USB input), and I do NOT want to use my laptop with it every time, I will need a streamer, right?
[/list]
Let's just say, for sake of the question, that I get an iFi ZEN Stream, which outputs in USB, and supports both Tidal and Airplay2.
The only way I know to use it, is like this: iPhone >> Airplay2 >> ZEN Stream >> ZEN DAC
Questions:
[list type=decimal]
[*]Would that setup limit me to the max spec of Airplay, which is CD quality? So no MQA?
[*]And the phone is still acting as primary streamer, with the ZEN Stream only really being an Airplay receiver?
[*]Is there another way, where the ZEN Stream is used as an actual streamer, and the phone only acts as a controller?
[*]Does it make any difference, i.e. phone streaming vs. a purpose-built streamer?
[/list]
And an aside question - the Stream is 2x the price of the ZEN DAC, is it worth it, or worth looking at other options? The rest of the family can keep using Airplay2 with Apple Music, so for the purpose of a standalone DAC I don't need to cater for both, and don't want to spend tons of money. I will test the ZEN DAC (just with laptop) in my main setup anyway to see if it sounds significantly better than the Airplay receivers.
