I've been pondering why this piece of equipment sounds so good and I want to identify what makes it 'better' than a simple mobile phone feeding an outboard DAC.
Let's presume we can stop the non-essential processes occurring in the phone. Let's also presume we are using Quboz and have downloaded a bunch of music that sits on the phone either in regular storage or on a large capacity SD card.
Since the phone is battery powered, we have eliminated the need for the massive power supply and regulators as in the Zenith. I suspect there are some regulators in the phone, but could be wrong.
To produce the stream of bits that pass out of the phone to the DAC, the processor has to be doing some work in both phone and Zenith. No doubt, there are other necessary processes running on both processors, but hopefully, they are minimized. Is one processor 'noisier' than the other? I don't know. Any ideas?
As an aside, I will probably try building one of these to power my DAC when my stuff finally arrives. It is a relatively simple addition to an LM317 that reduces the noise level.
https://www.diyaudio.com/forums/power-supplies/331491-noizator-magic-active-noise-canceller-retrofit-upgrade-317-based-reg.htmlray