My friend loaned me his unit to audition at home for a few days and I've been thoroughly impressed with it and just bought one for myself yesterday. This a very good value for money headphone amp when you look at its specs (Class A and 4 watts @ 16 ohm) versus its price. No complaints about its overall build quality except I found the headphone-out socket to be a bit loose after repeated use. I especially appreciated the 3 levels of Bass Boost and Virtual 3D features (I'm a basshead). The highest bass boost setting was very good for EDM/Pop/Rock music but may be a little overwhelming for more gentler types of music, but to its credit, it added body/weight to the low frequencies w/o introducing bloatedness/boominess into the mix. But I found the highest Virtual 3D feature did add a little more treble while expanding the soundstage. The slight boost in the high frequencies may not be welcomed especially if you have a headphone which has a bright signature, although you can switch this feature to the lower setting or off it altogether to negate this problem if you have a headphone which leans to the bright side.
This thing has no shortage of power, at its max +24dB setting you'll find you can't go beyond 9/10 o'clock for most recordings without hurting your eardrums! I would say it leans slightly to the warm side in its overall sound quality, but the Bass Boost really adds a lot of body and heft to the bass, making the overall sound quality very robust and hard-hitting, perfect for EDM/pop/rock and full orchestral classical music. The Bass Boost is truly chest-thumping at its max setting (similar to listening to a stereo setup with 2 subwoofers) while the Virtual 3D feature added width to the soundstage moderately (although also introducing added treble especially at the highest setting).
The only negative aspect of this amp is that it does not have a built-in battery, it would truly be the best overall headphone amp if it did as it would be excellent as both a desktop and portable amp (I don't understand why iFi did not put an internal battery in it since the similarly sized iDSD Micro - which is also Class A/4 watts and has even more features than the iCan SE, has an internal battery making it portable. It would be good if it has a Power on/off switch but I understand that most Class A components does not have one. Don't let its looks (compared to true full-sized desktop amps) fool you - this is one heavyweight champ of a headphone amp and truly great value for money for its top class performance at its price. Highly recommended (especially for bassheads!).
This thing has no shortage of power, at its max +24dB setting you'll find you can't go beyond 9/10 o'clock for most recordings without hurting your eardrums! I would say it leans slightly to the warm side in its overall sound quality, but the Bass Boost really adds a lot of body and heft to the bass, making the overall sound quality very robust and hard-hitting, perfect for EDM/pop/rock and full orchestral classical music. The Bass Boost is truly chest-thumping at its max setting (similar to listening to a stereo setup with 2 subwoofers) while the Virtual 3D feature added width to the soundstage moderately (although also introducing added treble especially at the highest setting).
The only negative aspect of this amp is that it does not have a built-in battery, it would truly be the best overall headphone amp if it did as it would be excellent as both a desktop and portable amp (I don't understand why iFi did not put an internal battery in it since the similarly sized iDSD Micro - which is also Class A/4 watts and has even more features than the iCan SE, has an internal battery making it portable. It would be good if it has a Power on/off switch but I understand that most Class A components does not have one. Don't let its looks (compared to true full-sized desktop amps) fool you - this is one heavyweight champ of a headphone amp and truly great value for money for its top class performance at its price. Highly recommended (especially for bassheads!).
