[JKDJedi]

  When I first listened to my BL yesterday, I was immediately impressed with the bass boost. Now I think I am even more impressed with the 3D+ switch. I've never owned a piece of equipment with this type of switch on it, so I have no previous experience (unlike with bass boost switches). But I must say, I am quite impressed. It expands the sound stage in such a way that I feel like I'm in the middle of a friggin maelstrom of music - in a good way. It's like an "excitement" button. In some ways it reminds me of the first time I heard the HD800; the soundstage was impossibly large and engaging. However, whereas I feel like the soundstage on the HD800 can get almost too big sometimes, 3D+ rarely steps out of bounds. When I turn it on, the audiophile in me feels guilty, like I'm desecrating some of my favorite songs. But then I turn the switch off, and I realize how the 3D+ is still somehow respecting the original track while injecting it with some crazy energy. Really cool feature.

3d works well with my NarMoo B2M IEM.. 

 

[glassmonkey]

 
When I first listened to my BL yesterday, I was immediately impressed with the bass boost. Now I think I am even more impressed with the 3D+ switch. I've never owned a piece of equipment with this type of switch on it, so I have no previous experience (unlike with bass boost switches). But I must say, I am quite impressed. It expands the sound stage in such a way that I feel like I'm in the middle of a friggin maelstrom of music - in a good way. It's like an "excitement" button. In some ways it reminds me of the first time I heard the HD800; the soundstage was impossibly large and engaging. However, whereas I feel like the soundstage on the HD800 can get almost too big sometimes, 3D+ rarely steps out of bounds. When I turn it on, the audiophile in me feels guilty, like I'm desecrating some of my favorite songs. But then I turn the switch off, and I realize how the 3D+ is still somehow respecting the original track while injecting it with some crazy energy. Really cool feature.

3d works well with my NarMoo B2M IEM.. 

I found 3D to break the cymbals and hihats out of drumsets sometimes. I can see it working on some music types, but it didn't work well for me.

 

[Topspin70]

Previously when auditioning the silver iDSD I found 3D to add sibilance, but the BL which I now own has no such undesirable effect, which I'm very happy with. YMMV depending on the character of iem/cans of course.

 

[noobandroid]

I found 3D to break the cymbals and hihats out of drumsets sometimes. I can see it working on some music types, but it didn't work well for me.

for me it break the soundstage of my music, things seems getting split up a bit too far

 

[DangerToast]

For me, the 3D filter behaves very differently depending on the headphone. My two daily drivers are the HE-400S and the DT-770. Neither of these cans have massive soundstages, so the 3D switch doesn't seem to blow things out of proportion. My T90 has a slightly wider soundstage than either of those cans. While I still like the 3D switch with the T90, I can see how it might be a distraction for some. I will say that I do not think the 3D feature worsens sibilance, as the T90 is already a pretty sibilant headphone and any increase there would be unwelcome.

 

[Dobrescu George]

For me, the 3D filter behaves very differently depending on the headphone. My two daily drivers are the HE-400S and the DT-770. Neither of these cans have massive soundstages, so the 3D switch doesn't seem to blow things out of proportion. My T90 has a slightly wider soundstage than either of those cans. While I still like the 3D switch with the T90, I can see how it might be a distraction for some. I will say that I do not think the 3D feature worsens sibilance, as the T90 is already a pretty sibilant headphone and any increase there would be unwelcome.

 
In my experience, 3D is a God-sent feature for Meze 99 Classics, but with ie800 I prefer the effect disabled on most tracks. iDSD BL alone will make ie800 sound extremely open and dynamic, activating the 3D effect is cool, but with ie800 it works without. Now activating that X-Bass works well for me on both 99 Classics and ie800 

 
Give me da bass! 

 

[beowulf]

   
In my experience, 3D is a God-sent feature for Meze 99 Classics, but with ie800 I prefer the effect disabled on most tracks. iDSD BL alone will make ie800 sound extremely open and dynamic, activating the 3D effect is cool, but with ie800 it works without. Now activating that X-Bass works well for me on both 99 Classics and ie800 

 
Give me da bass! 

 
  Both XBass+ and 3D seem a lot more useful than I expected. I had initially dismissed 3D as a bit of a gimmick, but I've had some fun with it.
 
I do think that the headphones/IEMs matter, but so do the recordings. I use XBass with the Andromeda in some tracks/albums, but it makes them sound too woolly and fatiguing with others, same with 3D, sometimes it works terrible, other times it's quite nice to add a bit of sharpness and treble grain to the recordings (more even than air and separation).
 
Truly a nice-to-have. I think reviewers that dismiss these options probably didn't check them with enough albums. With recordings that are natively spacious and have a good bass punch, both features tend to degrade the experience.
 
The only "Always On" combo I've found so far is XBass+ on the HD800. It gets that clarity and space, with a bass that sounds better than the HD800 S vanilla.

 

[hemipowered007]

Ya the 3d and xbass are very headphone and song dependant. I turn them both on and off all the time, more so the 3d on acoustic guitar tracks. Anything with a lot of speed, ie metal/prog rock, I don't like either on. The bass boost is THE only boost I've ever heard that seemingly works very well without being boomy or crossing into the mids. I don't use it a whole lot because I generally don't listen to a lot of genres that it sounds "right" with a heavy bass. But it's extremely well implemented. The 3d, could use some work, but it's a cool feature none the less. If you don't like it, simply don't use it!

 

[unfunk]

I am sure this was already answered somewhere, but I can't find the search thread button on this new site.

Are headphone and RCA outputs always active? Or does RCA mute when headphones are plugged in?

Thanks.

 

[noobandroid]

@unfunk they do not mute, both will have audio

 

[Fatsosixsixsix]

Right when I become interested in the BL the website gets an upgrade and loses the search function...

Was looking to upgrade my IEM to CA Andromeda but a lot of reviews talk about the sensitivity of it, and given I was looking to run it off an android phone with a terrible DAC I was looking into buying an accompanying DAC/Amp. I've basically settled on the iDSD micro BL, but was wondering what people's experience with QA and customer support was? I've read some posts from one person who reported having repeated issues with each replacement he received, but based on a skim of this topic that seems to be an isolated issue

I could save a bit of money buying it abroad tax free as opposed to in the UK (and given the amount of money I'm spending at this point every little bit helps), but then the warranty is restricted to the country of purchase.

 

[Dobrescu George]

So more news on my iDSD BL Heaven Experience!

I have been plagued by an ear disease, something causing me pain and breaking my hearing for about three days. Seems it was caused by my trip to my hometown.

Anyways, I was getting back from and my ears were getting better, so I was sitting in the bus just looking outside. So I decide to try to watch some videos with Mi Max and iDSD BL + 99 Classics.

I started with this one song, a really complicated to do right song since it features a lot of complex guitars and such:

This song contains suicide and other NSFW themes. Proceed at your own risk!

[SPOILER/]



[/SPOILER]

At first, I couldn't believe how clean and well rendered the bass lines are and how natural and well textured the guitar tones are. The voices are sweet and although they're synthetic in the song, the BL + 99C combo makes them sound extremely enjoyable. The fact that I was able to enjoy it all this heaven of music from my smartphone and while on a bus trip means even so much more since it was already 5 days since I couldn't listen to music. Lovely experience. Since this song sounded so great, I decided to listen to one another while I'm on the road as there is not much to do in a bus.

The happiness one can get from using this kind of device is amazing especially the happiness one can get from hearing the music from this combo after having spent 5 days without music .

The rest of the trip was spent listening to music and after the trip ended, it was still music time. The one thing that truly amazes me every single time is the soundstage. I simply cannot get used to how large the soundstage is when iFi dries 99 Classics and I sometimes have to check whether the 3D button is engaged.

I actually liked listening to iFi iDSD BL so much that I started taking it outside.

This time, I couldn't use Mi Max because I don't have the right type of rubbers to stack them together, Mi Max being wider than iDSD BL. The solution was to strap FiiO X5ii to iDSD BL and carry them in the sidebag I usually carry X5ii in. This time X5ii acted as a DAC while iDSD acted as an amp. IT is possible to tell the differences, but the results are quite good. The depth the bass has with the combo, and the amount of energy and dynamism that the music gets is not easy to believe. What is harder to understand is why a 99 Classics get this crazy improvement since they're supposed to be easy to drive.

No matter what questions one might ask or what noisy thoughts one might have, the sound is the only thing that is possible to determine upon observation, and the sound is turning the 99 Classics + iDSD BL into something close to an end-game combo even for a pretty oblique and picky listener like me!

I congratulate both iFi and Meze teams for producing such great devices and for giving the listeners the possibility to experience all this fun!

 

[Dobrescu George]

Who else is enjoying iDSD BL outside? Taking a walk? Why not listen to a whole new level of symphonies and lovely music?

 

[betula]

Does anyone know why the BL is 30% more expensive in UK/EU than in the USA? As far as I know AMR/iFi is a British company, as well as Chord. The Mojo was originally £60 cheaper in the UK compared to USA price (now it is discounted in the USA) but the BL is £130 more expensive in the UK compared to USA price.
While now Mojo and the BL effectively cost the same in the USA, the difference is quite huge in the UK not helping sales against the Mojo. What is the reason for that? I am just curious.

 

[DangerToast]

I'm posting this here since I wasn't able to find any details about this anywhere online and figure others may be wondering the same. While the Black label works flawlessly with my desktop, laptop, and Android phone, I was not able to get it working with my PS4 pro via USB (probably due to the inability to download and install the drivers). However, using the toslink adaptor, I was able to get it working flawlessly with the ps4 pro via optical. And holy poo, it's awesome. Completely changes the gameplay experience. Tried it with the new Prey demo and it blew me away. It even made persona 5, which seems to have poorer than average audio in terms of compression, sound good.