iFi Micro iDSD BL Review and Measurements

Discussion in 'Headphone Amplifiers and Combo (DAC/Amp) Units' started by purr1n, Jan 20, 2020.

  1. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    As a unit is great, what it does it does right. As a whole it does a great job, has several options and as a DAC is good. The problem i see here is value and purpose, if you buy it new it makes it overpriced for a DAC-only unit and down right a bad buy. The reason i have it is because i need it for traveling/stays at my girls place and for this purpose it is much better than say, my old Mojo or the Carbon and still can come home and plug it in as a DAC with the feeling it does a capable job at it.

    I use it connected to my Sonett 2 (my plan is to save for a Bf2, or equivalent) and i was pleasantly surprised when i first tested it, as it's very engaging and fun to listen to. I don't use the pre-amp option because i don't think it does the musicality any favors, although i can see many (probably the majority) using it and turning on that extra, bloomy, bass or that fake soundstage (it can be fun in some musics but in general i prefer not having it). Yes it is limited in some technicalities but i think it does its job well.
     
  2. AllanMarcus

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    I got the loaner, and here are my impressions.
    1. Came to me with a dead battery. It took about 15 minutes of charge before it started to work, and then it would cut out occasionally. I let it charge for a few hours, and it's working well.
    2. When using the USB adapter needed to use a standard USB cable, it is not stable. If I move the DAC or touch the cable, it cuts out. If this were to be used as a desktop DAC with USB, you would probably want a USB type A to type A cable, which are not common, but easily available.
    3. I first started using it as a DAC and preamp with near field speakers. Seems to work well. The 3D holographic setting really changes the sound, but I didn't like it. The sound stage spread out quite a bit, but just sounded like echos and reverb. The bass boost was too much for me, but I have a sub for my near field speakers. When I turn the sub off, I didn't really hear much of the bass boost. I'm going to try it at work with the really shitty speakers they provide there.
    4. I then set up the black label loaner and my friend's micro (silver version) side by side. Each has a USB cable from my Mac, and Audio MIDI is set to output to both DACs. I use a headphone switch box I made in front of the DACs, so I can play music from my computer, and just switch the box to compare. As is usually the case with me, I could not hear any difference between the two units.
    5. I compared to my WHAMMY/Bifrost set up, and the WHAMMY sounded a bit more detailed, or the Micro sounded a little smoother. To me, this was a vague impression; it was ridiculously small difference, if there was one at all. I'm also using a "vivid" opamp in the WHAMMY, so that might explain it.
    6. The 3D holo setting for headphones seems to move the sound up a little, and centers it.
      1. There is clearly some crossfeed here, and some additional delays.
      2. I think it messes with the balance (to my hearing).
      3. It appears to boost some treble too.
      4. Like regular crossfeed, it might be useful for overly separated stereo recordings, but I prefer a more subtle crossfeed, like the various options on the RME ADI DAC.
      5. It also seems to boost his from recording from tape.
      6. almost no effect with some music and quite pronounced with other music. I imagine no one here would use it.
    7. x-bass. why!. Ug. Add loose bass?
      1. Not for me. My cans can do bass fine, but maybe with Grados or HD800 the x-bass might be useful.
      2. More (marketing) info here.
      3. Maybe if you are into shitty EDM (redundant?) ;-)
      4. At lower volumes, x-bass might be useful - remember "loudness" on old receivers?
    8. As a portable with my iPhone 8 Plus. I connected it using an Apple CCK.
      1. You have to have the iDSD powered on when you connect it, or the iPhone won't work with it.
      2. Normal power setting on the iFi, Senn HD 6xx, I can put the iDSD at max power. It's too loud for my taste, but doesn't hurt.
      3. Turbo power, more power than any human needs with the 6xx. Can cause serious hearing damage.
      4. Eco power mode is probably fine for most cans an situations.
      5. it works fine with an iPhone and CCK,. If that's your phone flavor and you want a portable set up, it works.
    9. It has IEMatch built in, but no 3.5mm output. I have no idea why you would use this with sensitive IEMs unless you could not plug them in directly to your source. The micro is too large to carry around, but on a flight or near a bed or on a desktop, it might be useful.
    10. Back to my Mac. I compared eco power mode vs normal. I level matched by ear, and listened. I could not tell a difference. I'm not sure if the amp uses the same power to produce the same volume (physics says it should, but it might be doing something I don't understand). You get more volume turn with eco mode, so it you don't need the volume, it's probably worth using it.
    I listened with a Utopia, a MrSpeaker Ether C 1.1, and an unmodified HD 6xx.

    Verdict: Excellent portable amp/DAC. Lots of power, if you need it. Do you travel with Senn HD650 or other power hungry cans? Nice that it works so easily with an iPhone, but the need for a type A to type A cable for desktop is pretty clear to me.

    Is the black label worth the extra money? Not to me. I would bet no one could tell the difference in a blind test. I do like the way the black one looks; much better than the silver. My buddy that loaned me the silver version thinks the black version sounds a little, tiny, tiny bit better. He didn't have the switch set up that I have, and he using analog output from his computer, since we aren't allowed to connect personal equipment to our computers's data ports.
     
  3. Baten

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    PS about the lack of 3.5mm output, there should be a pretty good gold-plated 3.5mm to 6.3mm adapter with the iFi BL :)
     
  4. Walderstorn

    Walderstorn Friend

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    And it comes with a USB cable and i have no instability with the adapter. :)
     
  5. Yethal

    Yethal Facebook Friend

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    Try it in battery mode (turn the unit on before connecting usb). iDSD improves a lot when run off of a battery.
     
  6. Joshvar

    Joshvar Almost "Made"

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    I'm going to start with "In the context as an All-in-One unit" - I'm currently socially distancing it in the Loaner Program.

    Let's say you were wading into headphone crap, found objective reviews super appealing, and ended up getting a very well received but reasonably priced AIO unit. For the sake of argument (also my available equipment), let's call it a Topping DX3 Pro*. Even though your rational/analytical mind knows that it measures well - your lizard brain is left wondering (or wanting). What gives? What about one of these things that costs more, but is also really well received.

    Notable things you gain:
    • A lot of switches which have been discussed in other reviews
    • A built in battery (both for the unit *and* for charging other devices).
    • Analog input
    • Way more power

    Notable things you give up:
    • Some digital inputs - Bluetooth, optical, second coax
    • A display
    • Money, of course

    So - if you're unfamiliar, the Topping DX3 Pro is pretty OK straight from the headphone out. Clean power, reasonable resolution, decent staging, strong feature set, and IMO a really good form factor for desktop use.

    Running both units from my RPi Streamer (HifiBerry Digi Pro+/Volumio) into Focal Clears, here are my basic thoughts:

    • Treble is not as fatiguing (the "artificial sharpening turned off" thing going on)
    • Mids have a sweetness that amps I vibe with usually pull of
    • Bass has better extension and presence without being boosted (XBass off, even)
    • Staging is much deeper and a bit wider
    • Layering is much better (meaning: multiple instruments playing together are presented clearly enough to be differentiate, but blended enough to convey the coherence of harmony)
    • Analog volume control is much more fine-grained than the Digital on the DX3, which is great for dialing in between tracks.
    • I'm wanting to go louder on this out of enjoyment rather than need.
    • The overall character of the sound is very much in the realm of what I liked about my Cavalli Tube Hybrid/Soekris dac1321 setup, but with more resolution and better micro and macrodynamics.
    • There's just a general truth (trueness? truthiness?) to its sound. I've heard better at everything, but there aren't any voices or instruments that sound off or wrong. Piano, strings, and vocals in particular sound significantly more realistic than the DX3 (I'd say just plain great, even).

    My mental rating system is far more skewed toward value than anything else and altogether, this is a rare piece of gear which nears its asking price with the caveat of "as a whole." I think it falls down a bit in individual areas - it's not a $600 amp or $600 DAC, so if your primary use case is just one of those areas then you may be better served with a more focused unit. But I think it fills some (well, this has changed a bit these days...) roles really strongly:

    1. Work from home most of the time, but want a unit you can take to the office/on-site gigs/infrequent travel? I think this unit is good enough to not really warrant "needing" a better DAC or Amp.
    2. Post up at coffee shops for your work day from time to time? Just about perfect for that.
    3. Have a wide array of transducers to drive? Finicky IEMs up to less efficient full-sized cans? This has enough configuration options to suit a broad array of cases between the power, IEMatch, filters, and bass boost.
    4. Don't know what you really like yet? It feels a bit weird recommending a unit at this price to someone who is still exploring, but it really does so little wrong and has so many features that it can be a great tool for exactly that. It'll serve as a stable reference across different sources, amplifiers, transducers, and obviously try flipping the switches. It can easily be shifted into another role if you end up finding something you prefer over it, as well.
    It's really a hard unit to dislike - while it doesn't quite suit my current use cases, it would bean easy buy if I was scaling down in size or number of units.

    I'm going to try to do a "Fun Use Case" of the iFi iDSD Micro BL post as well and if time allows, I will try to get in some brief comparisons as a DAC vs the Bifrost 2 and/or Modi 3, as an amp amp vs the Cavalli Liquid Platinum and/or
    JDS Atom. I suspect I won't have much luck getting a reasonable grasp of USB vs Coax in my time with it (first take - I not been able to distinguish aside from source in the "battery powered" mode).

    * Those are not the reasons that I purchased it. I wanted something cheap that had remote volume control for a bedroom setup. For a sub-$200 unit that with a good feature set, has remote volume control, and pretty decent sound quality I can't really disagree with what's already been said - it's pretty good.
     
  7. ca_leo

    ca_leo New

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    I'm interested in reading your comparisons, especially vs the Bifrost 2!
     
  8. Joshvar

    Joshvar Almost "Made"

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    Apologies, I'm slow on getting back around to ye olde forum. This is the "As a DAC" review - I'm not good at this level of comparison (yet? ever? who knows?) - I've sampled gear with @famish99 and @ColtMrFire and seem to have a reasonable grasp on the basics - with a dash of finally knowing what I like. I perceived staging on speakers differently than @famish99, FWIW, and that probably has some orthogonal relationship to headphone perception.

    Source: Raspberry Pi (Volumio) with HifiBerry Digi+ Pro
    Headphones: Focal Clear

    Through a JDS Atom vs Bifrost 2:
    I don't have a multimeter that can measure the AC voltage low enough to ensure Absolute Objective Purity, so levels between the 2 may be slightly different to account for differences. Switching between inputs had an imperceptible difference (such that I had to turn one off to figure out which was which at the end). Bifrost 2 went further on the quiet end of the macrodynamic spectrum. On the iFi, staging seemed a bit deeper and made the decay of sounds a bit more prominent such as wood instrument resonance and room effects, which was probably responsible for the some of the differences I perceived. Most mid/upper range vocals (female and some male) are a bit more forward and vocal harmonies sounded more like "a harmony" on the iFi, where the Bifrost 2 sounded like "N different vocalists harmonizing." Is that an interpretation of microdynamics? Layering? I am not so sure my vocabulary is there yet. That Multibit (have we abandoned the Multicomboburrito moniker?) richness is a giveaway when I reach the end of my playlist - the iFi is not thin, but sounded slightly thinner in comparison.

    Through the JDS Atom vs Modi 3:
    This session wasn't as exhaustive. My notes were that there was a bit of microdetail improvement (I noticed it on hiss/pops/crackles initially, this was an obvious one), better dynamics overall, slightly less bite to brass, a better defined and slightly wider stage, and a tighter but similar quantity of bass. Minor differences through this setup, so I decided to focus on the amp I prefer.

    Through a Monoprice Cavalli Liquid Platinum with Siemens E88CC Tubes vs Bifrost 2:
    Same volume caveat, but matched via a Nobsound NS-05P by ear this time. All of the above differences are about the same magnitude - rather small. The "decay of sounds" being more prominent was present enough to make it more of an overall haziness rather than just an aspect of sound this time around. The incisive bite of high-pitched winds (piccolo/higher end of a clarinet) is a bit too present through the iFi, where that Multibit + filter combination seem to take just enough of the edge off without losing any of the perceptible information - you know it is loud and piercing, but it doesn't feel loud and piercing. In this combination, there's a slight dryness to the iFi (and I don't feel that the Bifrost 2 is particularly wet).

    Bottom line for me, the DAC itself doesn't really mess anything up which even today is very high praise. Performance is strong across the board. Tonality is reasonably comparable to the Bifrost 2, which is probably why I liked it as an all-in-one so much. It is precise, clean and dynamic and pretty comfortable (meaning: not fatiguing). Bifrost 2 does some things a bit better, but I found the minimal differences surprisingly small.
     
  9. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    For this mini-review/review/impressions/whatever I am going to discuss the iFI iDSD Black Label as an all-in-one device for music playback only. I did not use it as a digital source to another DAC.

    Headphones and IEM Used: JVC + Drop HA-FDX1, Senn HD600, Senn + Drop HD6XX, Campfire Audio Andromeada

    I am going to be honest, I never listed to anything iFi until I got this black stab of a device in my apartment. I was curious on this all-in-one device as a possible future setup I was thinking. But I’m going to be honest, the sound signature was just not for me on this…..

    For starters I love the feature set of the unit. From power control settings, to the iEMatch so you can change the output impedance for certain IEMs, it can pretty much run a lot of cans and IEMs. You even get Polarity and Digital Filter adjustments, but most of the time you aren’t going to switch them around too much. I don’t care about DSP stuff so I didn’t test 3D or the extra bass features.

    Lets get a few things out of the way, running this via battery will get you the best sound out of the unit. I feel when I’m running power from the laptop there is a minor digital hash in the highs that bothered me. What I did not like about changing the power source is how you must do it. As you already know, you have to first turn on the unit then plug in the USB cable in the back to make it fully run from the battery. I think a switch would be quite helpful here. Then again, this was a product I think from 2015-2016, and since then there been some changes that are becoming popular (cough, 4.4mm, more switch, etc.), so it would made sense that this was the common feature set from back in 2015-2016.

    Not too surprising, I’m not a fan of using the Andros with the iEMatch. You have to use it because it will get loud super quick if you don’t turn it on. When I use the iEMatch on my Andros I feel like the Andros has lost some of its ball. I think some of the dynamics are lost when using them. It just doesn’t sound the same when I’m hooking up the Andros directly to the THX AAA 789 amp. I know others aren’t the biggest fan of the IEMatch products or using the resistor adjustment for the output impenitence, I am one of them.

    The power settings are quite useful depending on your uses and if you travel a lot. Eco mode is the best mode for battery life, but everything sounds flat with no balls. I would only use it if you have to. Normal is great for me since it gives the sound more dynamics, but still have plenty of control on the volume knob. The High mode is for those cans who really need the drive. Too much for IEMS and at times my Senns on the gain. Normal is the perfect middle ground and I recommend using it.

    The sound….? Nothing sticks out like a sore thumb. Steely Dan – Aja sounds good to @yotacowboy recommendation, Thomas Dolby – Flat Earth also sounds great with all that detail. Honestly, nothing really is an issue. Yeah with a real desk amp and DAC combo it should surpass the iDSD BL in better sub-bass/bass texture, more involving mid-range, and great detail in treble. I also used it in the living room with only the laptop playing some DSD Dire Straits – First Album MOFI DSD, and it sounded good but not to the point that I think DSD is worth it.

    So here’s my biggest issue of the iDSD BL for me. The sound signature doesn’t hold my attention at all. I think it is nothing but a wall of music that does sound good, but doesn’t keep me interested for long. It is a mostly neutral sounding all-in-one that does the job but fail to be something more. You can use the RCA outputs and feed it to a good SS or Tube amp, but at that point invest in a real desk DAC/Amp. So while the feature set is rich, the sound signature is just not for me. This doesn’t mean the iDSD BL sucks, because it really doesn’t suck. It is just if I have to pick something else I would because this sound isn’t what I am looking for on a day-to-day basis.. If I was doing a portable setup, Sony DAPs gets my jizz/money in a heartbeat (@brencho eat your heart out).

    If I want to improve on the iDSD BL for iFi, I would do this:
    • Add 4.4mm input, and make it balance if you want.
    • Power Switch for battery power or USB power.
    • Other interesting filters to change the sound signature.
    • Maybe a power button that doesn’t rely on the volume knob.
    Still a good product for those who like a more neutral sound signature in an all-in-one. Sorry that I wasn’t able to test everything out (Digital Output is one), I was focusing on this once again as an all-in-one device for audio playback.

    Thanks @iFi audio for the demo!
     
  10. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    For something more, there’s MasterCard, and human companionship. I’d take this over a zx300. But not if I had Andromedas. Then again, I don’t.
     
  11. YMO

    YMO Chief Fun Officer

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    One day I'm going to test your ears on treble abuse.
     
  12. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    One day I’m going to test you on abuse
     
  13. iFi audio

    iFi audio MOT iFi Audio

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    Sure thing, thanks for giving the BL a go and telling us how it went!
     
  14. Bettik

    Bettik New

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    BitPerfect stands actually for no (digital) filtering at all. You're getting DA conversion in native sample rate with no noise attenuation above 22.5kHz and what you are seeing is ghost frequencies.
     
  15. rhythmdevils

    rhythmdevils MOT: rhythmdevils audio

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    @iFi audio Any whispers about an update to this unit on the horizon? With USB C (2 of them one for input and one for charging) or if not a switch for battery vs usb power (those are my biggest complaints from reading this and my experience with the Nano.
     
  16. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Bitperfect means many things to many people, but the most common definition that I have heard I can quote from JRiver:
    "Bit-perfect is a phrase commonly used in the audio world. When used to describe a media player, it means the player can output an exact copy of a file without making any changes."
    So if a computer or media player outputs bitperfect, none of the bits are changed from the file to the DAC (which is why most people are so skeptical of audio player applications on computers that claim to sound better, or with highly priced USB cables- or worse, highly priced ethernet cables). RME even provides a set of files you can play in your audio player, and if the files arrive exactly intact, the RME DAC will recognize that, and display a passing test result. Once the DAC has the file and how that DAC converts the audio file to analog is the secret sauce of the DAC and has nothing to do with bitperfect. It doesn't matter if the DAC manipulates the file in the digital and/or analog realm, if the source passed the file to the DAC intact (no bits changed), that's bitperfect.
     
  17. AllanMarcus

    AllanMarcus Friend

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    Any thoughts on the new signature version?
     
  18. Baten

    Baten Friend

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    It looks great I'm just wondering if it's truly balanced or if it's only iFi's "s-balanced". It does not seem clear to me going only by the specs.
     
  19. Yethal

    Yethal Facebook Friend

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    It's s-balanced. iFi mentions it in the headfi thread.
     
  20. perogie

    perogie Facebook Friend

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    Looks like the IFI "s balanced" only. If it was truly balanced I think that would be a prominent part of the listed feature set.

    Mostly seems like a a few housekeeping tweaks/upgrades - moving switches, adding 4.4 and such. Internal specs dont look drastically different enough from what I remember the BL being or likely not audible to most. First thought is that this is a bit of a side grade over the BL if you need pentacon. Having said that I would be curious to read about it if there is a head to head between them. I think they tweak the XBass and 3D toggles between amp/DAC models so that might be the only potential noticeable audible difference.

    I would have liked to see an option for an adapter to charge and play at the same time.

    I wont be selling my BL for this but if it gave out at some point I wouldnt have a problem replacing it with the signature version. Havent seen a price on it yet, imagine same as BL.
     

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