nice review man

2pac would love it

Great pictures, great review. Thanks!

Fantastic review and thanks for taking the time to do such a thorough write-up. I have the iUSBPower and I agree with your take: I believe I can hear a positive difference when using with my Dragonfly, but with my desktop setup, I can't tell if it's helping.

Is there anything you'r bad at?...Thank you.

great review.. at first i dismissed the iCan as being to expensive for what it offers.
But after reading that you compare it with the O2 ..and it has a bit of Bass boost for sum fun time..

you have put me in a difficult position again ;-(

my first high end headphones will be getting in soon (after waiting 7weeks).
And i was al set to get the FiiO E17. because of a good objective review i found on the FiiO E7.
Just google "objective review FiiO E7 USB DAC & Amp" and you will find the article i'm talking about..


i almost ordered the E12 but i read about the bad soundstage on headFi.
But now i'm in a bit on a fence !!

i do like that i can use spdif from my mac-mini and macbook without loosing a usb port on my macbook.. but that's not that important i guess ..

The price is a bit higher so i could use sum good advice..

The T5p is low impedance so would i have the same problem with the volume nob?

the idac+ican would cost me €550 $715.
the fiiO E17 would cost me €139 $180.

That means i have sum $$ left for a second nice pair of headphones..
Perhaps the ATH-M50 or a Sennheiser HD600…

Love to hear what you think?

Great write up and agreed here: your photos have taken a very good positive step up. They look great. Well done.

I'll second what Shigzeo said - nice pics, nice write-up.

@smpie
E17 is a good all-arounder, which is its great strength. But it is not going to be as good sounding as iDAC + iCAN for sure. You will also want to consider whether you'll need portability as well. If it is going to be desktop bounded, I think iFi is the better investment in the long run. If money is a concerned, a different route will be ODAC + iCAN. The sonic difference between iDAC and ODAC served on line-out should be fairly minimum, but the saving is obvious. I don't know enough about T5p to say whether the volume nob will be a issue or not. But with a 24bit DAC, you can afford to lower the digital volume on the PC and won't suffer any loss on resolution.

How does the iCAN compare to the JDSLabs C5?

Overall, iCAN is the better amp - more powerful, more transparent, better EQ.

Stellar writeup, ClieOS!

where in the boogers can I buy this thing? If someone posted a link for purchasing in the US that would be extremely helpful.
Nice review btw I am sold on it for sure. I wanted something to bring the dynamics out of the hd650 and a future purchase of the q701 and this sounds like the trick.

I bought my iUSBPower here: http://stereodesk.com/collections/amps-1?page=1

I clicked there and unfortunately it doesn't sell the ICan I already have two DACs I just need an amp

Look at the bottom of the page, click on the image of the iCan, which takes you to this link:
http://stereodesk.com/collections/amps-1/products/the-ican

http://www.essentialaudio.com/ifi.htm
oh okay thanks. I found another link as well.

As thorough and compatative review as i ever read. Well done ClieOS!

Good news: iCAN has been revised with selectable gain switch now, see the added section in the review to find out more.