iFi Pro iDSD Desktop DAC

(I have owned several iFi products over the last 5 years and dedicated to write this review after buying this and spending last 10 day using almost every feature of it. I hope it helps some of you). Ifi has always been a company that’s known to serve the audio world with great value. Their early products such as the Micro iDSD received high escalates in the audio community for their excellent sound but offered at a significant lower cost compared to competitors. In the past few years, iFi began to push the high-end audio market. Many consider the Pro iCan one of the best, non-exotic amplifiers on the market. For $1500, it can drive the high-demanding Abyss AB-1266 and Hifiman Susvara with ease. You shouldn’t be surprised because high-end has been in iFi’s blood. Many may not be aware iFi is actually a subsidiary of Abbingdon Music Research (AMR) who produces high-end consumer audio products. AMR’s flagship DAC DP-777 DAC was a $5000 DAC at release. When the Pro iDSD was announced, it was met with a lot of excitement, given the spectacular specification and myriad of features, but similarly many wondered if iFi is able to deliver the sound and performance at the now crowded $2000-$3000 market. The In & Outs: The iDSD is made of an aluminum chassis. There are fenestrations on the top and each sides of the unit to give you a glimpse of the internals. The top panel also houses a small, round viewing window which lights up in a Chordesque fashion when you are using the tubes. Speaking of tubes, the iDSD can operate in all-solid-state mode, an all-valve Class A section based on 2x GE5670 tubes, or a Tube+ mode which “reduces available negative feedback to a minimum. Other goodies under the hood include a quad stack of Bit-Perfect DSD and DXD DACs by Burr-Brown. Based on speculation, the actual Burr-Brown chip used is the PCM1793. All signals to the DACs are re-clocked with the low-jitter Global Master Timing® derived master clock from the AMR DP-777 DAC. The quad DAC chips together with the new XMOS XU216 X-Core 200 Series 16 Core processor allow PCM decoding up to 768 kHz as well as DSD upsampling to DSD1024. Pro iDSD also uses a custom FPGA and DSP chip to carry out its digital filter duties. Moving to the front panel you will see the power button, input selector (press to adjust OLED brightness and hold to adjust polarity), filter selector, output mode (solid state, tube or tube+), a 3.5 mm SE headphone jack, 6.3mm headphone jack, and balanced 2.5mm TRRS headphone jack, headphone gain selection (0dB/9dB/18dB), and volume control. You can control the unit with the included remote. The remote only controls volume, but it can control both Pro iCan and Pro iDSD. If you are not impressed with its internals, the Pro iDSD also offers a plethora of inputs and outputs. On the back panel from left to right you have the following: 1. XLR Balanced Out 2. RCA SE Out 3. Output selector (Hifi Fixed, HiFi Variable, Pro Fixed, and Pro Variable): The recommended setting is the Hifi Fixed as a pure dac or HiFi Variable if you want to use the iDSD as a DAC/Preamp. The HiFi Fixed mode puts out 4.6V vs 11.2V of the Pro Fixed mode. 4. Ethernet to use iDSD as a network streamer. 5. USB Type A Host: You can play USB drive, external HDD directly from it. Make sure you format your media as FAT32. You can only access the USB drive via the MUZO app (more in the network streamer section). 6. USB 3.0 Type B to connect to PC or laptop USB port. It’s important to know that the Pro iDSD is galvanic isolated but has the technology behind the Micro iUSB3.0. Theoretically you should be getting a very clean USB signal. 7. Digital Coaxial SPDIF 8. Micro SD card slot 9. AES/EBU digital input 10. Wifi antenna: The easiest way to connect the Pro iDSD to the network is through an ethernet cable. Then you can find the ip address on the Muzo app. You type the ip address in the browser in your browser to setup wifi. Otherwise, you can hold the WPS button (filter button) to link with your wifi router. 11. BNC digital input which acts both as SPDIF and AES3id to be used with high-end CD transport. 12. Clock sync mode: I have not played with external clocks to make any meaningful comment about this. 13. BNC Sync out 14. DC Loop-out: This allows the iDSD to be used with Pro iCan amp. 15. 15V/4A DC power Please note all inputs other than USB are currently limited to maximum sample rates of 192kHz PCM and DSD(64) via DoP. Sound: My setup: Alienware R7 with Paul Pang Audio V2 USB PCie card -> Pangea solid silver USB cable -> Pro iDSD -> McIntosh MHA100 -> Hifiman Susvara I purposely mentioned the dedicated USB PCie card because it took me a long time to understand how PC and USB noise can degrade audio quality. The few things I did to clean up the USB signal improved SQ dramatically in all my gears. Now back to the Pro iDSD. The Pro iDSD sounds so good that I think just breaking down its SQ based on highs, lows, vocals doesn’t do it justice. Music is emotional, and how the Pro iDSD evokes your emotions is difficult to convey with words. Right off the gate without any burn-in, the Pro iDSD sounds very dynamic while maintaining excellent detail. Every track sounds more punchy with excellent layering. The most popular DACs have something special about them, and if you have to name one special trait about the iDSD is that it is one of the most dynamic sounding DACs on the market. Moreover, the Pro iDSD is still able to maintain a natural and analogue portrayal of music. It really pushes the Susvara to its full potentials in terms of speed and detail. Every track you own will sound better, but you quickly notice poorly recorded tracks vs well recorded ones. The Pro iDSD’s sound signature is neutral, it doesn’t color the recording. Sound stage in terms of width and depth is one of the best I have heard. In well recorded jazz tracks, the instruments really pops with the Pro iDSD. It feels like the sound is coming out of the Susvara and filling all around my head space. One disappointment at the writing of this review is lack of MQA function for Tidal streaming which was promised by iFi. The current speculation is the MQA update will come with a September firmware update. Solid state mode: This is my favorite mode for pairing with MHA100 and Susvara. The is the best sound and most refined mode. My sound impressions above is based mostly on solid state mode. Tube mode: This is my least favorite mode. I feel I lost detail and everything sounded too warm. There is also significant loss of transparency in the treble region. Tube + mode: Probably a balance between solid state and tube mode. I keep going back between the Tube+ mode and solid state mode. There is something very analogue and laidback about the Tube+ mode. You don’t lose too much treble. I think most owners will find them flipping back and forth between the solid state and Tube+ mode. Again, the SQ of different modes may vary based on your amp and headpones/speakers, so YMMV. Compared to other DACs: Chord Qutest: I really like my Qutest. The Qutest has a very detailed and natural presentation. The sound stage is excellent. However, the Qutest doesn’t come close to the iDSD in terms of the surreal dynamics. The iDSD hits so hard and in your face, you get a more visceral feeling with music particularly with live recordings. Schiit Gungnir Multibit with Gen 5 USB: The Gumby sounds very natural and analogue with a very holographic rendering of music. That kind of sound signature can be very addicting. When you move to the Qutest or the iDSD, you don’t lose out on any of the analogue qualities of the Gumby but gain significant detail and dynamics. From my research, The Yggy Analogue 2 may be a good competitor for the iDSD, but I have never heard of it. One thing that really bothered me with the Schiit Multibit DACs is the constant clicks with bitrate change. This is the primary reason I sold my Gumby. McIntosh MHA100: For a long time, I just used the MHA100 as an one box solution. There is something to be said about having single device that can perform both the DAC/Amp function. You don’t have to play around with interconnects, etc. Usually combo units are optimized by the manufacturer. Many feel that the DAC section of the MHA100 is its weakest link. I actually enjoy it very much for a long time. With both Gumby and Qutest, I notice an upgrade, but I never felt the upgrade was so substantial that I got a different emotional experience listening to music. This is where the iDSD really separates itself of the pack. Because the iDSD delivers layering and dynamics like no other. iFi Micro iDSD Black Label: The Black Label is an excellent DAC/AMP for its size. However, it really isn’t a fair comparison to the Pro. The Pro is a different beast all together. The Pro wins in every category you can think off. Most noticeably is that when operating as an external DAC feeding MHA100, the Black Label has the smallest soundstage of all the DACs I have owned recently. It sounded digital and congested compared to the all of the above mentioned DACs. I actually preferred the integrated DAC of the MHA100 compared to the microiDSD. I’m mainly mentioning the Micro iDSD because it’s iFi’s previous flagship DAC. Filters: By pressing the filter knob, you go from non-DSD remastering to DSD512 remastering to DSD1024 remastering. If you play a nonDSD file in the nonDSD remastering mode, the following applies: 1. Bitperfect: this is the same and non-oversampling mode. 2. Bitperfect+: This applies an analogue filter and corrects SINC or very high frequency roll-off which happens in the Bitperfect mode. 3. Gibbs Transient Optimised: This is a digital filter with pre-ringing, minimum post ringing, 32 taps of correction. It minimizes the Gibbs phenomenon causing time-domain distortion. 4. Apodising: no pre-ringing, modest post ringing, 128 taps of correction. 5. Transient Aligned: It has the largest tap count at 16,384 taps If you upsample a nonDSD file to DSD512/1024, iDSD first oversamples to 705.4/768kHz. None of the filters mentioned above applies in those 2 modes. You can turn the knob, and may appears that you are switching digital filters, but they are not doing anything. If you play a native DSD file, iDSD will only play it in bitperfect mode only. If you upsamples a native DSD file to DSD512/1024, there is no bitperfect mode because a digital filter has to be applied. To be honest, I had to do a lot of research to figure this out. I reassure you that the difference between the different filters is small. If I tell you I hear a significant difference, I’ll be lying to you. The most noticeable difference with the filters I hear is that when you upsamples to DSD512/DSD1024, you lose a little dynamics but add a little sound stage and clarity. None of the filters is going to make or break the iDSD as a DAC. Perhaps, more sensitive ears can pick up greater differences. All the above mentioned digital processing options apply to all sources, including the network audio bridge and AES/EBU & S/PDIF inputs. Pro iDSD as a DAC/Amp Combo: The Pro iDSD is outfitted with 3.5 mm single-ended, 6.3 mm and 2.5 mm TRRS balanced output. The output power is clearly weaker compared to Pro iCan. I need to put the gain at the highest level and turn the volume to 12 o'clock to achieve the same listening level with Susvara with the 6.3 mm plug. The vocals sounded good, but everything else sounded restrained. The soundstage shrunk considerably when compared to when driven from the MHA100. Most who buy Pro iDSD will likely be using it as DAC only, but I can see it as a good single box option for those who own more efficient headphones like HD800/HD800s or Utopia. I also tested the 2.5 mm output with Westone ES60 at the lower gain level. Now with the IEMs, the Pro iDSD sounds better than the AK380. I was amazed that the desktop DAC/Amp has a cleaner background compared to a dedicated endgame portable DAP. The sound stage is also excellent but not as grand as the AK380. Network Streamer: I tested iDSD’s network capabilities through the Muzo Android app. It utilizes Linkplay and has built-in Spotify and Tidal. For Tidal, it will only play back at 16/44. I was able to stream hi-res files on my phone to iDSD and get native resolution playback up to 32bit/192kHz. It sounds good but not as good as playing Tidal through USB. Next I set up DNLA server on Jriver Media Center 23. On the Muzo app, you can find the Jriver DNLA server as source. This allows you play all the way up to 32/192. When I tried to play DSD files, the app just froze. It may be due to the large file size. The audio quality was very good, but a tad worse than USB out. One factor to consider is that I was streaming through an ethernet cable. The ethernet was ran through a powerline passthrough. There is likely a lot of noise. I’m doing nothing to clean the noise out of the network signal. So the sound quality could be even better. In the future, I would like to iFi either develop their own streaming app or support more 3rd party apps. Conclusion: The Pro iDSD is, utmost, an impressive DAC. Even at its current price, the iDSD is completely justified as a DAC alone without all the bells and whistles. It is much more than just a DAC and could be much more if iFi develops a better application to control the network streamer aspect of the iDSD. Then the iDSD will position itself at a different echelon. However, to my ears, Pro iDSD’s ultimate trump card is its dynamics. Nothing I have heard rival that of the Pro iDSD.