Member Reviews: iFi iCAN headphone amplifier

When you listen from the loudspeakers, your right ear not only hears the sound from the right loudspeaker, it hears the sound from your left loudspeaker too and the same for left. When using headphones, you right ear ONLY hears the sound from the right headphone, nothing from the left headphone and the same reverse.  That’s why the music is always inside your head when listening through headphones.  But with loudspeakers, you hear sound coming from the front and around you just like inside a concert hall. To me this is a major problems with headphones and makes me listen to them as little as possible, until recently. At the recent National Audio Show in September I came...

This review was pasted from my blog: http://noblehifi.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/ifi-ican-review.html     Disclaimer: A big thank you to Ifi for loaning me the iCan for this review! Before I talk a little bit about the iCan, let me first address the company behind it. iFi-audio have a small, yet intriguing line of stylish electronics, aimed at computer audio and using technology licensed from Abbingdon Music Research. They make a point of environmentally friendly materials and packaging (which is always nice). Their tag line: "Small in size, big on performance" seems pretty spot on, boasting "Class A analogue circuitry, no DSP...

Brief Summary: To get right to the point, the iCAN amp by iFi is a great performing small desktop amp with amazing features at its price point of $249. Anyone who wants more bass or more soundstage, space and detail from their headphones might find this affordable amp to be the answer to their prayers. The included "X-Bass" and "3D" features of this amp offer an effective bass boost and soundstage/detail enhancement that literally take the sound to a whole new dimension, while the overall sound of the amp itself is detailed, powerful and smooth.   Read the entire review here:...