iFi-Audio iDAC - My impressions

[Thad E Ginathom]

Now if the feature exists, why not market it?

Because the whole thing is a nonsense, a complete madness. "High[er]" Resolution is a marketing-man's myth, not a real fact of digital music: the label belongs to graphics. It just takes a bit of reading to find this out, but it has to be from those who are not marketing either music or equipment (Mr Lavry is an exception).

No point in repeating myself: I wrote at length about this.

Now, here's the positive bit. I read all through that silly-hype marketing-game thread on head-fi, and I followed all the details, and quite apart from the ultra-high-numbers crap, there are lots and lots of good features in this tiny box. Very good features. And, if you buy one, I'll be very interested to read your reaction.

The whole point of all this is listening to music. It would not have made any sense to refuse to buy 33.3rpm records as shellac, at 78rpm, sailed into the past. Equally, I must now take music in whatever format the market offers it (not that I buy much any longer) and it will be necessary to have the equipment to play it.

At least this thing is just about "future-proof," even if future does, in this context, equal madness. Yes, ifi have lost a lot of my respect, but, as I wrote on another thread a few days ago, I still suspect them of making good products.

I'm about to order a micro idsd.

Good .

Are you buying in India? What price?

 

[gobble]

My point was that iFi may not have gone into product design with a "let's outdo everybody with a super resolution DAC". BB may have supplied them with a chip design that can also do the impractically high resolution with minimal upgrade required in internal layout and design with respect to engineering costs. So iFi is listing the capabilities of the dac chip they contracted and procured from BB to perform at its peak within the same femto second jitter parameters as for the more realistic bitrates rather than create hype and anticipation around a new audio recording format and bitrate. We all know how the jitter tolerances become more tight as the bitrates increase - What they are effectively claiming is that the DAC is not only so well engineered as to perform within the parameters set for available bitrates , but even exceeding that by a huge margin at the peak advertised rates.

Edit: I don't know the inr price. The dealer has not responded to my query.

 

[reignofchaos]

Having spoken quite a bit with Thorsten Loesch and Vincent Luke of AMR/iFi during the purchase of my AMR dac, I can say with certainty that these guys will not put buzzwords before pure sound quality. Buzzword compliance would probably take a backseat when it matters. Thorsten doesn't shy away from putting out a product that measures not so well but sounds good. So I'm certain that the dac will sound good for the price.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

So I'm certain that the dac will sound good for the price.

Actually, I am certain it will too! I don't rule out buying it one day!

My point was that iFi may not have gone into product design with a "let's outdo everybody with a super resolution DAC

You could be right, but look at how they are selling it with the octa adopter line. It's hardly a just-happens-to-do-this-too approach.

 

[gobble]

You could be right, but look at how they are selling it with the octa adopter line. It's hardly a just-happens-to-do-this-too approach.

Yeah that's quirky. But that may just be the "Star Trek" advertising campaign. Positioning a product or idea in consumer minds works better with fantasy claims.

G0bble

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

The whole of that thread just embarrassed me*. Now then, children, guess what we're going to tell you next week...

Yuck. I suppose it's my English nature. But hey, it's an English company! In a way, that just makes it worse!




*But I still read it!

 

[gobble]

Can you please PM email, phone contact details cause I am interested in the IFI iphono.

Can you PM me too. He doest respond to emails it looks like.

 

[reignofchaos]

the email id is sales 'at' ifi-audio.in.

I communicated with someone on that mail address while purchasing the Gemini USB cable.

 

[gobble]

the email id is sales 'at' ifi-audio.in.

I communicated with someone on that mail address while purchasing the Gemini USB cable.

It looks like he has shut shop. No response to repeat emails.
Guess I'll buy it online in USD and ship.

Edit: somehow their response came in but was only seen in sent mails folder in g00gle. I see it now. Yea!

G0bble

 

[AVM]

Hi, Sid from Soundbydesign also deals with the Ifi merchandise.
Probably you could reach out to him.

Regards,

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

Edit: somehow their response came in but was only seen in sent mails folder in g00gle. I see it now. Yea!

Tell! Tell! hyeah:

 

[dheerajin]

It looks like he has shut shop. No response to repeat emails.
Guess I'll buy it online in USD and ship.

Edit: somehow their response came in but was only seen in sent mails folder in g00gle. I see it now. Yea!

G0bble

I got my IFI-ITUBE from sound by design (sid trehan) in record time. Contact him
-9599821821

 

[gobble]

Tell! Tell! hyeah:

They quoted for the idac instead of idsd. Wait... [emoji56] (running thin)...

I got my IFI-ITUBE from sound by design (sid trehan) in record time. Contact him
-9599821821

OK great will call him in a few mins.
Edit: why is Sid not listed as an authorized dealer in the IFi website?

G0bble

 

[hydra]

The iFi Nano iDSD seems to have won the EISA Award in the "Hifi Accessory" category.

EUROPEAN HI-FI ACCESSORY 2014-2015 - iFi nano iDSD | EISA - The European Imaging and Sound Association

Beautiful sounds can certainly come from very small packages, as iFis nano iDSD serves to demonstrate. This USB DAC is powered via an internal Lithium battery thats charged via the connected USB hub on a PC or Mac, offering up to 10 hours of playing time with most headphones or via the RCA line outputs. The single USB input confers compatibility with the highest resolution music files including 32-bit/384kHz DXD and quad-speed DSD256 and will even play DSD files directly from a mobile phone (iOS/Android) or iPad using a third-party App. The specification includes precision, temperature-compensated clocks and a bespoke headphone amp rated at 80mW but its the impressively sweet and insightful sound that is the nano iDSDs most memorable feature. This has to be the hi-fi bargain of the year!

The Micro iDSD doesn't seem to be in stock yet. I'll try and get my hands on one, to listen to in my setup, when it arrives.

 

[gobble]

The iFi Nano iDSD seems to have won the EISA Award in the "Hifi Accessory" category.

EUROPEAN HI-FI ACCESSORY 2014-2015 - iFi nano iDSD | EISA - The European Imaging and Sound Association



The Micro iDSD doesn't seem to be in stock yet. I'll try and get my hands on one, to listen to in my setup, when it arrives.

Let me know your feedback as I am planning to buy it when it comes.

 

[Thad E Ginathom]

And I'm still watching.

I'm a little suspicious of the flavour-of-the-month hype train on headfi (as if you didn't know that already ) but hey, fanboys are not always wrong! :lol: