iFi nano iDSD - first impressions

[Leisure_Lizard]

After a few days with this little device, I'm impressed by how capable it is and think that it's great value for money.
It works as a USB DAC (asynchronous) and headphone amplifier. When connected to and used with (say) a PC or Mac (in USB-powered mode, it will even run my Sennheiser HD600 'phones), it will use the host's power and recharge its internal battery (or a standalone charger can be used). You can then also connect it to a portable device (smartphone, tablet) with a suitable audio player application and it will use its own battery power to run.
My setup gives me bargain-basement portable hi-fi. It consists of an Android phone (£108), 64GB microSD card to store music files (£15), a suitable player app (£5.80) and a 'USB OTG' adaptor lead (£6). The nano was £165, and I use second-hand Sennheiser IE80 earbuds (£80).
This allows me to play virtually any audio format, with the signal re-clocked and decoded natively (i.e. without conversion to another format) in the nano itself. From my perspective, I'm now hearing the best 'portable sound' that I ever have. Vocal lines are easier to understand and instruments (more than ever) each take on their own distinct, individual character. I could go on, but will just say that I now _believe_ that I can hear the benefit of high-resolution files over 'CD-quality'.
Limitations? Well, this isn't a set-up you'd want to take jogging, for sure; it's just too unwieldy with all the cables and such. It's definitely for sitting down and relaxing with! I have issues with the app, which I haven't named because I'm waiting for the vendors to reply to my questions. It does indeed play all the formats I've thrown at it (including FLAC at 96/24 and 192/24, DSD (SACD encoding), but the interface is a little clunky and it doesn't add .dff (DSD files) to the library view; so far, I've had to navigate to the folder they're in (they then play flawlessly).
If you're interested, have a look at the description from IFi at http://ifi-audio.com/portfolio-view/nano-idsd/. Note that I didn't buy this until after I'd read dozens of impressions / reviews from people (there are some negative comments out there as well) and listened to it twice on iFi's stand at different HiFi shows.
I'd be interested to hear of anybody's experience with other, similar devices. Also, now that the 'high-resolution' issue is getting more interesting, what are your thoughts? It seems that the benefits may not be in the reproduction of higher frequencies per se (I know that my battered old ears can't hear any pure tones over 14KHz), but rather of how our extremely sensitive perception of timing needs the impulse response and temporal distinction between discrete 'events', that is possible at higher sampling rates. How high? And will Meridian's new MQA encoding format mean that we get these benefits with smaller file sizes?

[UPDATE] Since installing the paid-for version of the Android app, connection with the DAC is intermittently lost. Some work to do here, I fear. Maybe another player? At the moment I'm happily listening to 96 and 192/24 FLAC from "J.River media center" on my PC, through the nano - and can see that the latest JRiver version supports DSD playback as well. Another trial download coming up...

 

[Leisure_Lizard]

P.S. Did the posting work this time?

 

[neil fd2]

I have to agree this is very impressive for the money. It replaced a dac at over 3 times the price & is far superior. I built a vortexbox using an old compact pc & the latest vortexbox software. This is dsd compatible so I don't need a laptop. The nano just connects to the vortexbox & my marantz pm11s3 amp & it's all controlled from the ipeng app on an iPad. Much easier for me than messing about with laptops. The sound quality from some of the dsd samples is stunning, so fluid & natural. Dsd may be of limited use at the moment but I've no complaints about the sound quality of any of my flac files. There's obviously better dacs out there although I think you'd have to spend substantially more to significantly better this little gem.

 

[Leisure_Lizard]

Thanks for the reply. This response is a bit tardy but I'm just surfacing from (over!)work. To update, I'm now using the Onkyo Android app on my 'phone and that's very reliable. It also picks up all file types for the playlist and plays back without glitches - although I have to put the 'phone in 'Aeroplane mode'. Using it at work I pick up occasional dial-out interference from other 'phones, but that must be through the nano itself; bit of a shame. At home I'm now using the latest JRiver Media Center software, which is great - out into USB, the ifi, then my HD600s. Marvellous sound. My nine-year old PC can't quite handle this, however and there are stutters if I try to do too much else at the same time... The large box of bits on the floor should soon be a new PC, however.

I'm interested in putting together a media PC, but that will have to be a general-purpose device streaming files from our NAS, playing TV and radio, and so on, into our AV system. No room for a dedicated hi-fi in our house, and to be quite honest I no longer see the point; why have more than one main system? I think the hi-fi world is in for a BIG shakeup when cheap electronics meet high-definition files (video as well as audio only) meet new materials and manufacturing techniques. Now that network bandwidth and storage no longer limit audio file sizes, and Meridian are in any case shaking up high-resolution audio with a realistic approach to capturing detail (MQA), I can see a time coming where proper hi-fi sound is available for reasonable cost. I will take great pleasure in seeing snake-oil merchants like the "high-end" interconnect manufacturers go bust.

I'm still puzzled as to why ifi aren't given more attention by What Hi-Fi. I thought I'd try to enter the PMC speakers competition with a review of the nano IDSD, but there are no ifi products listed even to post a first review.