izo amp in the house

I auditioned izo headphone amp iHA1-v2 and its dedicated power supply iPSU-1 again at home.


iHA1-v2

Click small pictures to enlarge.


iPSU-1

One of the new specs for v2 is USB connection. I use USB connection mainly this time.
iHA1-v2 is a DAC/Amp combo and the internal DAC is based on PCM1796. The incoming USB signals are converted into S/PDIF at the USB receiver and after that it will send to the PCM1796. Hence the USB DAC feature has the same sound quality to the other optical or S/PDIF digital input.
iHA1-v2 employs two OPA627s as opamps and four 604s as buffers.


Package

The packaging of izo amps are neat and it is of high quality. Build quality is nice as well.

The overall sonic quality is very good. The sound is of natural and neutral, not exaggerated overall. The bass is not humped and the highs are not harsh. The developers might be thinking the mean is the best.
Instruments and vocals are well separated and articulated, I think the USB DAC works well.



iHA-1 stacked


wiring

iPSU-1 is connected to the iHA1-v2 with the blue interconnect cable which comes with the iPSU-1. iPSU-1 is stackable on/below to the iHA1-v2.
The dedicated power supply add some weight on to the sound and it becomes richer, especially in the lower registers. Not so drastic change but well worth.

It may not be wow-ed amp as the sound aimed to be natural and neutral. But to be natural or color-less is not bad for audio gears. It may depend on personal preference.
Anyway, iHA1-v2 is overall good sounding DAC/amp and it can not be bulky. Fairly compact on the desktop, could be a good companion of PCs.