This is exactly why we don't disclose what parts we used. It is the sum of the parts and the technique that created high performance audio.
Many well established companies don't go and publish what parts they use.
Does all the expensive ingredients put together make a good dish?
Software cost nothing except the bandwidth to distribute it, so base on your logic, we should not pay for software.
Our Class-D amp is PATENTED. How many high-end companies can claim that they do original R&D? Sure, we are not Bose or like any of the big companies with a ton of patents, but we still do our own R&D. Sure, digital circuit is cheap if you just count the parts cost.
Furthermore, is the sound quality simply the result of a particular chip or implementation? We used AKM, ESS, and a few other brands of DAC chip.
Take ESS for example, their engineer is surprised that we can make their chip sounded so good. We are working with another chip vendor to develop a customized DAC chip.
This is another reason that we don't disclose what we do.
We want to be freed of the burden of promoting a particular chip because the Nuforce brand is what the customers should be relying on.
Icon Mobile, uDAC-2, Icon, Icon HDP all are best in class products. So are our earphones. Same with our high-end products.
Search around the internet, you will find overwhelming positive customers feedback, good reviews and a few bad comments.
Bad reviews and comments are what make it real, for the fact that some people just don't like the product, or we failed them due to product quality issues that we didn't catch during production.
As a comparison with other products, iDo has the lowest margin for us. Not surprising if you survey the price of other high performance external DAC and headphone amp for Apple mobile devices. And consider all the features that we packed into this product.
Icon iDo is not for everyone. It is for:
Office workers:
There are many people who do desk work all day long, and they are not allow to use their work computer for personal stuff. iDo allows them to listen to their Apple mobile devices with very good quality headphones for hours without listening fatigue and much better enjoyment. Clearly, none of the people who posted here have heard iDo and not realizing how good iDo can sound. It is really good.
Musicians and iPad:
Many people are using iPad to make music for personal or professional use. iDo allows them to listen to the music in high quality audio. Even with a small power adapter, iDo is very portable.
Convenient (for high performance audio):
I like to listen to high quality music before going to bed, or when I am reading. It helps me to relax. Perhaps this is my own problem as people who are in pursue of quality, become too sensitive sound quality. Capacity for mobile devices will increase dramatically. And we are also convince that sooner or later, Apple will support 24bit/96khz file format.
The DAC in iDo can support 24/96kHz but since iTunes doesn't support it, we didn't explicitly publish this fact.
Benchmark has published an article that show you how to stream 24/96kHz from computer to iPad using iTunes home sharing feature.
Edited by jasonl - 9/11/11 at 2:55pm
). Sorry, we don't disclose what parts we use. You have to trust our reputation ;). There is always 100% money back guarantee if you don't like what you hear (hey, free shipping). 
