iFi ZEN Stream

[Confused]

I still wonder if adding some DDC between the Zen and the Devialet can bring an improvement. On goldensound.audio you can find some jitter and noise measurements for the Zen and lots of DDC#s (Mutec, Audio GD, Singxer, ...). The measurents of the Zen look much better that the Mutec MC3+ USB while the Audio GD DI20 HE looks much better than the Zen. So I wonder if the Mutec is really an improvement over the Zen directly into the Devialet or if an Audio GD is a worthwhile improvement...

@confused: can you describe the difference between the Zen direct and with the Mutec ? I really wonder how a device with more jitter can be an improvement. Or maybe the measurements on this goldensound site are incorrect ? Or there is more than noise and jitter...

Note that for a while now I have only used my MC3+USB together with the Mutec REF10.

If we are talking about the standalone Mutec MC3+USB (similar to that tested by GoldenSound), I do not think it offers much of a sound quality difference with a Devialet Pro.

When I had my D800 Expert, I used a microRendu with the MC3+USB, and subjectively I found this offered an improvement over AIR. This situation changed when I upgraded to the 1000 Pro. With the Pro I found that the microRendu with the MC3+USB and AIR sounded pretty much the same. Maybe it was a fraction better with the MC3+USB, but there is very little in it.

I have never actually tried the Zen versus the Zen + "standalone" MC3+USB, in my case the MC3+USB is used together with the Mutec REF10.

Although based on things I have tried in the past, sound quality with the Mutec MC3+USB is very similar to that with Ethernet CI Board. The Zen Stream direct to the Devialet also sounds very similar to Ethernet to the CI board. So I suspect adding an MC3+USB in the chain with the Zen will not offer much. Indeed, if we go with the GoldenSound measurements, adding the Mutec in the chain might actually be very slightly detrimental to the Zen's performance.