iFi Pro iDSD Reviews

@purr1n TBH I'm an iFi fan— though I can see why many might not agree with their sound they do some killer AIOs, and your impressions reinforce my desire to try and figure out how to get quality time with the Pro iDSD (can't remember if you've heard the Pro iCAN but I thought the Fostex and Klipsch kids were great out of the SE in Tube+, and there was more than enough juice for just about every headphone the store had on hand to play with).

 

Redacted second paragraph since I only realised after hitting send that you didn't specify it was a Siamese here. My bad, hah. Yeah, the new cat looks adorable, but if it's the youngest of the bunch there's a fair chance it might pull a Scar-Mufasa later on. Already feel bad for the older ones )

Transportable gear is underrated, the silver Micro iDSD has been a good companion for many years and it's still going strong (save for the Godforasken IEMatch switch— bad idea putting that on the bottom), though it's technically the ex-gf's now. Just happen to have it with me to keep as a reference when demoing stuff out of home, haha.

 

really interesting. Do you feel the pro dsd at the same level as Yggdrasil A2, Solaris, ect?

Could you compare rapidely the pro idsd vs Solaris, Yggdrasil A2,? something along the lines of this:
"

1. Convert-2: Vivid mode transients, wrap-around stage, simplified but pure pristine timbre, incredible life-like slam.
2. Solaris: Slightly tipped up tonally, incredibly deep expansive stage, relaxed and easygoing transients. Sweet highs, or on the wrong system, grating highs.
3. Source: Good tone and timbre but rolled at both extremes, good transients but also slightly dull and veiled, stage as flat as Kiera Knightely's chest.
4. Gungnir A2. Precise imaging and depth rendering, outstanding resolution. Tonal balance and transient attacks between Convert-2 and Solaris, but closer to Convert-2. Dense timbre a la old school R2R. Cold on the wrong system."

 

To be honest, we really like how tour members approached our Pro iDSD on this forum. It's not about what (we're not after praises) folks here write but how (we like common sense) and we regret nothing. That's why if there's a need for a tour loaner in the future, we'll gladly provide. Cool stuff!

 

Folks, we've just launched something very cool and very universal. All details are to be found at our official page. Not sure if we can post links to our own stuff, so please look in power section.

 

Is it the PowerStation?

Two questions I have about it:

1. Beyond the cool design and high quality copper, is it different from a power strip with an AC Purifier?

2. The price is not on the site?

 

Yup.

Surge spikes and EMI/RFI protection, active noise cancelling circuitry (PowerStation is ACTIVE, not passive), ground on demand if needed, groud and polarity detection. A lot for the money we'd say.

US$499 (ex tax) or €549/£499 (inc. VAT.)

 

Doesn't your own AC iPurifier also have active noise cancelling, ground and polarity detection for $99? I was referring to that on a normal surge protecting power strip versus the PowerStation. I'm guessing the PowerStation will of course be more effective being an all-integrated solution but just wanna make it clear why one would go for this instead of the more versatile AC iPurifier

 

Because AC iPurifier isn't a power strip. It's a matter of functionality above everything else. Plus, we could make a regular passive power strip, but since we have our own noise cancelling tech, it made much more sense to include it and make the product active with some useful extras.

Plus, if one already has AC iPurifier, it complements PowerStation nicely. The goal is to have different power supplies connected to PowerStation separated. And that's what a standalone AC iPurifier does.

 

iFi Pro iDSD loaner impression

Pros: great user experience in daling in, pleasing tone and timbre, organic sounding, expansive staging via dsd1024 conversion
Cons: too many settings feel confused (many mostly unused), price could be better, wrongly labeled output levels, plankton/slam to be desired more for this price level

Associated gears

• Gustard DAC-X26 + U16
• Schiit LOKI, SYS, Vidar
• Raal SR1a

For easier comparisons, pro idsd was sourced by U16 via SPDIF (U16 also feeding X26 via AES). Rca outputs of two dacs connected to SYS. Then SYS > LOKI > Vidar > SR1a.

First impression
When I first heard about this product, it was immediately ignored. Well, not having pre-experience with this company, I had fair rationales then. DSD is a word I want to avoid all the time. Back and front panels are pretty confusing. It’s a very expensive all-in-one.. Even now such things generally bias me in the negative direction. Anyway, later I heard good things about this product, and Cranesong Solaris could change my perception of 2-3k AIOs. Then I got curious about how pro idsd could stack against top dacs. And here I am.

It’s still hard to consider pro idsd beautiful or sleek. But I realized the design and interface were well thought. It’s kinda antithesis of Matrix X-Sabre Pro MQA -- cool and sleek design but f***ing UI/UX.

I also like the experience of selectable tube and solid output stages. Very straightforward. When tubes aren’t ready, solid state takes its role temporarily until tubes get warm. And once tubes aren’t used, they’re turned off. These processes done very seamlessly. Great plus in my book.

Sound
One thing I want to comment on is its output selector (on the back). Pro idsd can select two output levels between “HiFi” and “Pro” (along with the choice between fixed or variable). The manual claims that balanced out is around 4.6V (so, 2.3V unbalanced out) with HiFi mode and 11.2V (5.6V unbalanced out) with Pro mode. In the unit I evaluated, they were oppositely labeled. HiFi sounded way louder than Pro with others being equal, and HiFi was also louder than unbalanced outs of X26 (around 2.5V at FS).

Anyway, during my evaluation I used Pro Fixed, as it has pretty similar output level with my dac.

As reported by others, pro idsd has 3 output modes, 6 digital filters, and 3 remastering options (pcm unchanged, to dsd512, to dsd1024). After spending a couple of hours, it’s obvious that I like “tube+ output” over the other two outputs. It had more smoothness and richness.

I also immediately liked “dsd1024 conversion”, as it widens the stage substantially. It reminded me of Cranesong solaris, nearly that level but a little less natural to my ears. Later I found pcm (unchanged) mode had more intimacy and bold timbre. In the end, I spent half of my listening time in DSD1024 and another half in PCM. Preference between the two was highly mood and track dependent.

Regarding filters, I clearly prefer Bit-Perfect+ (BP+) and Transient Aligned (TA) over anything else. TA sounds more normal and right. By comparison, BP+ tend to exaggerate things, but mostly sound richer, lusher, and/or impactful. But occasionally it feels a little too oversimplified or blurred.

Dialing in with pro idsd was lots of fun. Now I can’t blame too many switches/knobs as I did before..

Pro idsd did most things very right -- or at least not very wrong. Bass is pretty solid, but tad lean. Transient is rather rounded but never slow or lame. Midrange is great. While there still is artificiality, it was done very tastefully. Many years ago, AGD M7 I auditioned had this kind of beautiful and organic midrange from the memory. But the difference seems that pro idsd achieves those good things without being too soft or dull. Top end is well extended although a little rolled to my ears sometimes. Overall, it sounds pretty different from modern DS sounds such as (good) akm and sabre implementations. I bet music-first folks would prefer pro idsd over most DS dacs (even if good implementations).

Compared to my reference X26 (ESS9038 pro dual based), I found pro idsd had competitive benefits on timbre, texture, and imaging. X26 also does stage and image pretty well, but rendered images barely have as much thickness and tactility as pro idsd. Both dacs have a sense of artificiality, but I’d say pro idsd has it in more pleasant and less evident ways than x26. On the contrary, x26 was better in background blackness, clarity, bass slam, and micro stuff (playing or singing technique, nuance, etc etc). I also prefer more edged and squared transient of x26.

I also briefly played with hp out. It’s better than fulla 2 (as an amp) but nowhere close to DSHA-3F in driving Verite. As an AIO, I don’t think pro idsd has the same level of magic that I recognized from Cranesong Solaris.

Conclusion
I know Analog-ish or Analog-like is kinda BS term. But those wording may point out some clear need of groups of people who desire a digital gear that sounds “not too digital”. DS dac generally can’t do it well without substantial compromises/sacrifices. Recent DS implementations (mostly via ESS9038 Pro or latest AKM chips) made a huge improvement, but still far from ideal. Pro idsd may be best understood in such context. It still has weaknesses and limitations. However, if you prioritize to recover an enjoyable illusion of dense bodies playing music in an authentic and believable way, Pro iDSD should be included in your short list.

I might push pro idsd stronger if it costs around 1.5k usd instead of 2.5k though…

 

Many thanks! If we could make it any more affordable, honestly we would.

 

Folks, MQA over network via Tidal on our Pro iDSD machine. Perhaps one or two of good people here will find it useful

 

Hi Guys,

Pro iDSD – Verite
Today we are talking about another great Swiss Army knife type piece of gear. The iFi Pro iDSD! The companies flagship DAC. As with pretty much all of iFi’s products, it tries to bring both value and great sound to the table, and I think they have managed to achieve one and a half of those goals.

iFi Audio is a British company that was founded in 2012. It is a subsidiary of AMR Audio, which has a long history of making stereo equipment. iFi has always struck me as a company that focuses more on headphone and personal audio, but that does seem to be changing lately, and they are branching out into other areas (see the iFi “Aurora” all in one for an example of this.) Their products are innovative, and seem to prioritise functionality as well as sonic performance.

The pro line up is iFi’s flagship line, consisting of the Pro iCAN that we reviewed a few months ago, the iESL Electrostatic energizer, and the Pro iDSD. The Pro iDSD was the last in the lineup to hit the market, as iFi really did want

Pro iDSD – Verite

To do their best to get it “right” on the first go round. The Pro iDSD incorporates so many features, that it is actually hard to remember them all without looking at the companies specs page. The Pro iDSD is not *just* a DAC, but a capable all in one DAC/Headphone amp/Streaming solution. Similar to the Pro iCAN, it offers solid state, tube, and tube+ modes, as well as a fully balanced architecture. I was honestly worried that with all these features, the Pro iDSD may not have managed to sound great as well, but, for the most part, it absolutely does.
I will talk about what I feel the basic sonic signature of the Pro iDSD (used as a DAC) is, and then get into the variations on the sound, depending on which features you are using.

The Pro iDSD seems to slightly warm, and I really do mean slightly here. It isn’t dead neutral, and it certainly isn’t cold and clinical. However, with that being said, it isn’t as warm as some other solid state DACs I have heard, and certainly doesn’t venture into being mushy and gooey sounding, as some pieces of gear do. Dynamics, both macro and micro come across with convincing realism, and detail, both macro and micro was pretty darn good. Not the best I have heard, no, but far from the worst I have heard. I think the tiniest of micro detail may be better conveyed but other DACs, but the ones that I have heard that manage to do so are also quite a bit more expensive. I suppose it really depends on the features you prioritise, and what you are looking to get out of a DAC that matters when making your final choice.



For the first little while that I had the Pro iDSD, I experimented with the settings to figure out which I liked best. I ended up settling on using the bit perfect + filter, as well as the DSD1024 upsampling option. This seemed to bring a slightly better focus to the music, not making it sharp, but perhaps more incisive, with a tighter leading edge. Now, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t find the difference HUGE by toggling the DSD1024 upsampling on and off, but it did make a slight difference, so I went with it. Once I had decided on these settings, I left them alone for the most part. The Pro iDSD has SO many options to tweak, and play with, it can become overwhelming. I also think that if you are always changing all the settings, you might lose track of which change is coming from where, leaving you clueless as to what you really prefer.

So, with the settings decided on, I started listening to the solid state, tube, and tube + modes. These were quite similar to the tube settings on the Pro iCAN, which makes sense as it is exactly the same tube being used. Solid state mode actually ended up being my preferred mode for some music, mostly that which was fast paced and complicated in nature. Tube mode however, was probably my favourite mode out of the three. There isn’t a massive difference between the two, but tube mode seemed to have a bit better sound stage expansion in comparison to the solid state mode, at the expensive of the incisive leading edge of the notes with solid state mode. Tube + mode was curious, as I didn’t really notice it bringing anything positive to the sound signature over the regular tube mode, but it further reduced the incisiveness of the recording and also seemed to reduce the speed of the sound, albeit slightly.
Two settings that iFi didn’t include on the Pro iDSD are the “XBASS” and “3D Sound” features, that are present on the Pro iCAN. I reckon that they simply couldn’t find space and time to implement these features on and already feature laden device. Also, I suppose most people will at least consider using the Pro iDSD with the Pro iCAN, which does have the features, so there was no reason to include them twice.

The headphone amp section on the Pro iDSD is fairly competent, and can be used either in either unbalanced or balanced configurations. A recent post release update to the Pro iDSD has added the option of the 4.4mm Pentaconn connector as the balanced option, vs. The original 2.5mm jack. This is a welcome addition in my opinion, as it is a much more sturdy conductor, and will have a better lifespan. The Pro iDSD I had for review had the original 2.5mm balanced jack, and I have no cables with that termination, so I stuck to using the 1/4” TRS output. There are three gain options (0db, 9db, 18db) and up to 4w of output power (balanced) on the Pro iDSD. This means, for the most part, it will drive most headphones out there. Granted, for the HE6 and Susvara etc….you are going to get much better results with the Pro iCAN, but in a pinch, the Pro iDSD will work decently on its own. The headphone output struck me as remarkably similar to the Micro iDSD, albeit slightly more refined. However, there wasn’t much comparison when compared to the dedicated amplifier that the Pro iCAN is. Quite simply, if you have the means, or possess harder to drive headphone, I would highly recommend adding a dedicated headphone amp to use with the Pro iDSD. If, however, you are looking for an all in one solution, that will still do a competent job, you could do a lot worse than the Pro iDSD.

I did play around with streaming and the Pro iDSD, but I have to be perfectly honest and say that I didn’t venture too far with it. I don’t use streaming in my day to day listening to music, and wouldn’t like to speak about something I honestly don’t know much about. The small experiments I did end up doing went smoothly, and seemed to be consistent with my results from wired use. I reckon it is best for me to leave this option of use alone in this review, and allow those with more experience to speak to the streaming portion of the Pro iDSD in their reviews. I apologize for this lack on knowledge on my part.
Compared to some other DACs that I have had here, the Pro iDSD did fair quite well.

iFi Micro iDSD BL

The Pro iDSD brought a very similar tonal balance to the table, but did out resolve the iDSD BL quite handily. With that being said, I still think the iDSD BL offers a good value for what it does. The Pro iDSD also took the win on dynamic swings, and punch/impact.

Hugo TT 2

The Chord Hugo TT2 is quite a bit more expensive than the Pro iDSD. Using them both as purely a DAC, the TT2 is brighter, and perhaps more fatiguing. It does one up the Pro iDSD on raw detail, but I think that the tonal balance of the Pro iDSD may be more pleasing to a wider audience. The TT2 also out does the Pro iCAN in terms of being the better all in one unit, but as mentioned before, there is a significant price difference.
There are some concerns I have about the Pro iDSD. It may not be the best value proposition if you aren’t going to be using it as an all in one solution. The extra features add to the cost, and if you aren’t going to be using them, it makes little sense to purchase the Pro iDSD, given the other options that are out there on the market nowadays. The Pro iDSD is a good DAC, there is no doubt about it, but at times I felt as though it could have been better. Perhaps if iFi released a cheaper “Pro iDAC” in the future, that might be the better buy, if you aren’t going to use the headphone amp and streaming features.



All in all, I’d recommend checking out the Pro iDSD if you are looking for an all in one unit, but if you are looking for a pure DAC, you might be better served by a different, more cost effective option. With that being said, there is nothing wrong sonically with the Pro iDSD, and it does perform well as a standalone DAC. I think it has a pleasing tonal balance and does all the technical stuff pretty darn well. Maybe this is a case of “try before you buy” if at all possible. I think iFi may not have hit this one out of the park like they did with the Pro iCAN, but it certainly has landed pretty close to the back fence. Well done iFi!

 

nice write up @ufospls2

I had a write up on the ifi iDSD pro, but it got lost as I was editing on the site.

I feel the iDSD pro is a good solid dac/all in one, but as you said before, it tries to be too much of a swiss army knife and appease to too many different people.

Its has a multitude of features, it allows users to tweak the sound to their liking. However, no matter how much I tweaked all the settings I came to the conclusion that the iDSD pro was pretty polite/boring.

Its because it does nothing wrong, but nothing exceptional, making it a safe sound, but not unique in anyway.

Timbre wise its better than most DS dac, but doesn't have the fluidity of an R2R dac.
Resolution is good, but not stellar.
Dynamics are good, but not stellar.
Staging is good, but not stellar.
Sound is neither thick or airy...

Compared to the Yggdrasil, it lost out a lot on microdynamics, macrodynamics, layering, fluidity, staging,resolution. It doesn't even take a complex track to illustrate it. If you just turn on Adele's All I ask, and listen to the first simple piano accompaniment, it isn't as well layered, and each key press is more monotonic and flat sounding, making it sound thinner, wider, but more airy.

Any track I would be bored within 30 seconds....because it sounded too polite. It was packed back up the second day of dac testing after i gave it multiple listens to confirm my findings.

Whether you like NOS, the explosive dynamics of the Convert 2, Sound stage of the Solaris....even if there are aspects that are not perfect, depending on preference, I can see people enjoying those polarizing dacs more than hearing a safe sound.

As an AIO, I prefer the Soekris 1541 by a long shot, as timbre is spot on, there is a fluidity to the sound, cleaner blackground, sounds less congealed and clear. It also happens to be cheaper.

I would hope that instead of offering so many options that were taken from so much user feedback, they come up with a single house sound that was unique.

But then again, if you want a safe option and don't want to take a risk on an expensive dac you might not like.....the iDSD pro is a good choice. There are lots of worse choices that can't even sound decent.

 

@ufospls2 and @Cellist88 thanks a lot for your input guys!

Pro iDSD's sound was designed to be at the opposite end of sterille, clinical, thin, grainy or artificial and, from what I can tell, both of you did a spot on in noticing that so thanks!

As for functionality, Pro iDSD is packed with features because we could implement them easily given hardware inside it. Multiple filters were possible due to capable FPGA unit, whereas line stage turned out powerful enough to easily handle most headphones. That's why Pro iDSD doesn't have a separate headphone amp circuit. It doesn't need one.

What I'm saying here is that, yes, we could make a very purist DAC product with no extras and I know that many enthusiasts like such items a lot. But this approach would render Pro iDSD's internal potential as partially wasted, which as a manufacturer we wanted to avoid.

Of course several headphone outs, multiple filters, adjustable analog stage and internal network component turn Pro iDSD into a versatile AIO type of a product, but it's a DAC in the first place.

Again, thanks for these reviews!