iFiNano iDSD DAC/Headphone Amp

ifi nano nano iDSD for about $200For me this is the premium choice among ‘budget’ DACS (budget: $300 or less) as it provides a neutral response over all the frequencies, with greater ‘bloom’ or fullness of sound than the others I am familiar with, and good attacks, etc. I do wish it had a toslink/optical input. In its category, that’s the only limitation.I have two other DACs in this price range, and I have used all three of these extensively sourcing from Windows 7 and a Windows 8 computer. If you are new to this category of quality (given the price) DACs for headphone or as input to an amp to drive your speakers, I think you will be happy with any of these three--and there are alternatives that I have never heard.The Audioquest Dragon fly (about $160) is what started this genre of portable, affordable DACs. I have the original version, so strictly speaking my comments do not apply to the revised version. It is the most portable of the three, you just plug it straight into the computer usb, plug your headphones directly into it, and you are done. You use the computer to control volume. (You can also use that headphone output as input to an amp to drive your regular speakers.)The AudioEngine DAC 1 (I think it was $150) is a little bigger but more versatile. One uses a usb cable (supplied) from the computer to the DAC. Unique among these three, it also has an optical/toslink input for the digital signal. My ancient DVD has an optical output for the 0-1s, So I can plug the digital soundtrack into the DAC, send the video ouput to TV, thus watch the video and listen through headphones or speakers with quality sound.To my ears (as all the comments on sonics here) the sonics of the Dragonfly are good with the mids and highs, but a tad weak on the bass. The bass notes just are not as fully developed as they could be. (Remember, this is the original version, I have not heard the revised). The AudioEngine does a notably better job with the low notes, but less so with the high notes. The Audio Engine also has its own volume control, which is very nice. (You set the computer output to its max, and control volume with the DAC.) Believe me, this is a much nicer way to save your ears if you accidently have the volume too high. It’s just very handy.The ifi nano surpasses both in my experience, except that it lacks the toslink input--can’t use it to watch DVDs and get the great sound. If you are into opera or musicals, that’s a loss. And there is a little fuss on the front end: if you are using Windows, you have to go to the ifi website to download a driver. But it is worth the one-time trouble! (It is a very well done web site. They tell you what to do if the preferred version does not work--and it didn’t on one of my windows 7 computers. But you just download the prior version, and all is well.) For this slight inconvenience you get what is for me noticeably better sound across the full range: both the highs and lows are reproduced well, and they are more fully developed, there is more ‘bloom’ to the music.I use these DACs to drive some pretty good headphones (Sennheiser 600s, NAD Visa xx) and as input to power amp and speakers in a regular system. In my experience, using windows computers as a source, one would have to spend $600 or more to match the ifi nano.Caveat: I listen almost exclusively to classical music, wav/flac files, and I want a DAC that does not exaggerate any part of the frequency range--e.g. I don’t want ‘extra bass’.Hope it is helpful.

never worked.... would have worked well but there is something wrong with my unit

Directions were less than vague, couldn't find much support online, other than that, once I got it sorted, I'm actually more than satisfied. I'm an (almost) all analog (almost) all the time guy. Oftentimes when I build an amplifier or restore an old one, I'll do the testing in my shop with a laptop. I wanted better quality. It was fairly late last night when I finally got it working properly so I only tested the headphone amp, and I wasn't blown away. Today, however, I hooked it up to my bedroom system. So I've got the laptop into the DAC, into my The Fisher 400-cx, into a single ended KT-88 amp. I was really just hoping it would 'take the edge off' the digital sound. It did WAY more than that. I'm extremely pleased with the sound of this DAC. I got much more than I'd hoped for, and it was quite a bargain. Plus, it's portable, I can use it everywhere when I don't feel like flipping albums. Definitely recommend, and definitely would buy another if ever I need one.

Probably, the cheapest (no quality compromised!) access to hi-res DSD playback. Excellent feature set and sound quality for the money: full support of hi-res PCM and DSD, battery power, usb-to-spdif bridge functionality, all in one compact and neat package.A much better DAC than amp though. Headphone amp performance not very impressive.A few ergonomic quirks that I'd love to see improved:1) Selectable lower gain - as is, the unit is almost useless with low-impedance, highly sensitive iems, as the volume level reaches unsafe thresholds at the very beginning of the pot travel.2) I'd better see USB and RCA connectors on the same side of the case - makes it much more logical for desktop usage.3) Why have variable RCA outputs directly connected to HP socket? Make it fixed and separate, and don't mute RCA when HPs are plugged in.4) Don't make those RCA sockets so recessed!!! Ever tried to plug in good audiophile-grade interconnects???

2016年に購入し、使い方が悪かったためかもしれない初期不具合にも製品交換で対応していただくとともに、UBUNTU STUDIO　Audious、Windows Footbar、frieveaudio、Jplayなどのソフトウェアで利用してきました。その間ファームウェアのアップデートの２回ほど行いましたが安定して動作してくれました。本品よりも安価なDACも購入しましたが本品は現在まで残っていました。音の評価の基準機的な使い方をしてきたことになります。でも、最近の電子部品の進歩は速く、それを使用した中華製品の音質の方が気に入ったことと携帯性は必要ないので手放すことにしました。携帯性を優先する使い方なら価値があり手放さないことになったでしょう。DACとしてはハードウェアー的にも音も標準的で良くできた製品のため一度は購入しても、立ち位置確認するために損はしない製品である。

Absolutely satisfied. This was exactly what I was looking for and my audio-sound reseller told me that the kind of function I was looking for didn't exist yet... Well surprise! I found it.I needed RCA Analog outputs to connect to either my Audio Sound system or my new Bravo Audio Ocean Class A Tube Headphone amplifier.I needed the possibility to grab it with me at work.I needed a USB input for the computer.I needed to be able to connect my Nexus 5 via OTG cable.And for the most, I needed to be able to decode ALL audio format and sample rate.I got them all with this iFi iDSD Nano, Bravo iFi!

Amplificador parea auriculares plateado, bueno si, pero muchos mas que eso !El mio esta conectado entre mi PC y mi amplificador Cambridge, para leer todos tipo de formato convertidos en analogico,incluido el DSD en nativo.Me permito de poner este vinculo en español que hace una buena analisis del producto .(...)Preciso que viene con dos cables uno RCA macho/macho y un otro del PC al aparato.Sin duda el mejor aparato mundial en terminos de precio/calidad/conversion de formatos.Altamente recomendable.Compro tambien en Amazon este cable para conectar el DAC al amplificador.https://www.amazon.es/gp/product/B00S4JYEB0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1Muy satisfecho del conjunto.

Ho atteso qualche tempo dall'acquisto per scriverne la recensione, per dargli il tempo di un giusto rodaggio ed un ascolto attento. Volevo sostituire nel mio secondo impianto il V Dac prima serie, con un dac di nuova generazione che leggesse anche via usb i formati con risoluzione maggiore e da poter utilizzare anche come ampli cuffie, dopo lunga ricerca, ho optato per l'IFI Nano.Il DAC è eccellente, acquistato a 236 € , ha a mio avviso un rapporto qualità prezzo senza rivali.Poco più grande di un pacchetto di sigarette, nella sua confezione sono compresi una cavetto Usb ed una coppia di cavetti RCA, sembrano entrambi di buona fattura anche se un po corti, ma giusti per l'utilizzo principale che è pensato probabilmente per soluzioni desktop o portatili, avendo di meglio in casa, l'ho collegato direttamente con un Audioquest Forest (USB) e una coppia di Qed (RCA).Il DAC è dotato di un ingresso USB e un ingresso SPDF, uscite RCA e minijack cuffie ed un potenziometro, da tenere al massimo quando viene utilizzato solo come DAC o da regolare quando si effettua l'ascolto in cuffia, all'inserimento del minijack, viene automaticamente esclusa l'uscita RCA; vengono letti praticamente tutti i formati, fino al 32/384 e DSD nativi.Già dal primo ascolto, con pochissimo rodaggio, le capacità del "Nano" emergono tutte, capace di grandissima analiticità, tira fuori ogni più piccolo dettaglio sonoro (ho scoperto in molte registrazioni particolari mai ascoltati prima), ma non diventa mai radiografante, ottima la scansione dei piani sonori ed eccellente la ricostruzione della scena; dopo una cinquantina di ore di rodaggio tutti i parametri sembrano migliorare, raggiungendo una perfetto equilibrio.Privo di qualsiasi eufonicità ed estremamente trasparente è però dotato di grande musicalità, si potrebbe quasi definire analogico, nella migliore accezione del termine.Molto buona anche la sezione ampli cuffie, a patto di non pretendere di pilotarci cuffie da 300 ohm, per le quali servono amplificatori ben più potenti, con le mie AKG K142 HD, va benissimo e non si sente la necessità di maggiore potenza.Che dire, a questo prezzo, per chi conosce il mondo dell'HiFi, fino a qualche tempo fa si potevano acquistare solo sorgenti mediocri, l'IFI Nano trasforma qualsiasi PC o dispositivo Android, in una sorgente di eccezionale livello.Consigliatissimo!!!

Habe den ifi Nano erst einige Tage und betreibe ihn derzeit mit Asus Notebook Win10 und mit Kopfhörer.Verarbeitung und Anfassqualität absolut top.Klangeigenschaften:Mit Spotify free gut(dafür ist er wohl nicht gebaut).Win.Media Player und Amazon Music etwa besser durchaus schon hörbar.Nach den super Service von HIFIMEDIA!!!! hat mich telefonisch beraten JRiver Media Player heruntergeladen(umgeht die interne Wandlung) 30 Tage kostenlos.Klang mit geripptenCDs und Hires Dateien absolut Superb.Kann es nicht erwarten ihn in die Heimanlage zu integrieren.Fazit: für dieses kleine Kästchen und diesen Preis absolut EINZIGARTIG !