[harry501501]

Zen DAC, have the stack.

Funny you say that, I nearly bought v1 thinking the price had come down or it was on sale on Amazon... then saw the v2 lol

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

I have to say that I'm starting to appreciate the XBass and 3D features when used at lower to moderate volume levels. At higher volumes they can be a bit much, but at moderate to lower volumes they seem to work really well.

Thanks!

Funny you say that, I nearly bought v1 thinking the price had come down or it was on sale on Amazon... then saw the v2 lol

Hope you enjoy it

 

[ufospls2]

Sorry if I have missed it in this thread. The iFi website doesn't list the power rating into 16ohms from the balanced input. Does anyone know what is is?

 

[someyoungguy]

Just picked up a Zen Can. What a great affordable little amp. Even straight out of the box it's sounding pretty nice, and I guess it will only get better. The version I got came with a generic-looking wall wart so I've ordered an iPowerX. Not sure if the extra expense is worth it or not (it's about 75% the price of the Zen Can itself), but figure I'll be keeping it for some time and might as well try and milk all the performance I can from it.

I've previously had the rHead, which was nice but the overall tonality/speed wasn't quite my cup of tea. I also (briefly) had a Fidelice headphone amp, although returned it due to high-pitched ringing which seemed to be a power filtering issue. Not sure how that issue would affect the sound signature but it seemed pretty harsh and a little too punchy to be honest.

I've got a 4.4mm to 4.4mm cable on the way; interested to use the Zen Can with a Plenue L (as the balanced out has quite a different signature), then I can run my single-ended wired B&W P7s in combo with the PL/Can combo.

 

[jlemaster1957]

Just picked up a Zen Can. What a great affordable little amp. Even straight out of the box it's sounding pretty nice, and I guess it will only get better. The version I got came with a generic-looking wall wart so I've ordered an iPowerX. Not sure if the extra expense is worth it or not (it's about 75% the price of the Zen Can itself), but figure I'll be keeping it for some time and might as well try and milk all the performance I can from it.

I've previously had the rHead, which was nice but the overall tonality/speed wasn't quite my cup of tea. I also (briefly) had a Fidelice headphone amp, although returned it due to high-pitched ringing which seemed to be a power filtering issue. Not sure how that issue would affect the sound signature but it seemed pretty harsh and a little too punchy to be honest.

I've got a 4.4mm to 4.4mm cable on the way; interested to use the Zen Can with a Plenue L (as the balanced out has quite a different signature), then I can run my single-ended wired B&W P7s in combo with the PL/Can combo.

Enjoy- I have had this for about 4 months and it’s a winner- it’s main attraction to me connectivity-wise is that it has 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm INPUTS, which is unique (as far as I am aware) in this price segment. Most amps with balanced inputs use XLR. The Cayin C9 also has these same inputs (for about 10x the price). BTW - it may be worth checking out the review for that elsewhere on this forum, especially that by @twister6, which can also be found at https://twister6.com/2021/02/26/cayin-c9/. About half way thru he does some comparisons of 4.4 mm inter-connects that is worth reading (especially if you believe that cables can affect SQ).

 

[tamleo]

My zen dac signature started having noise 4 months since I bought it. The noise sounds like the popping noise on old vinyl or scratched CD. I tried the dac on both my laptop and my PC and the noise was still there (though it was smaller on my PC). My dongle and Schiit dac work flawlessly so I don’t think the USB ports on my laptop and my PC are broken. What should I do? I found IFI has been selling some noise-cancellation products such as Idefender, Isilencer..but I don’t know if they works on my case. Anyone here has that noise problem with Zen dac sig? Thanks

 

[jlemaster1957]

My zen dac signature started having noise 4 months since I bought it. The noise sounds like the popping noise on old vinyl or scratched CD. I tried the dac on both my laptop and my PC and the noise was still there (though it was smaller on my PC). My dongle and Schiit dac work flawlessly so I don’t think the USB ports on my laptop and my PC are broken. What should I do? I found IFI has been selling some noise-cancellation products such as Idefender, Isilencer..but I don’t know if they works on my case. Anyone here has that noise problem with Zen dac sig?

This sounds like a product defect, suggest to open a trouble ticket with IFI

 

[tamleo]

This sounds like a product defect, suggest to open a trouble ticket with IFI

Tks for your rep. After many hours trying many change (cable, software settings..) I found out a solution for the problem. That is lowering the latency's value on Buffer setting tab in Ifi HD usb control app to "standard" or lesser value ( I had set it to minimum latency so that the popping noise occurred

 

[yeboyi]

Is it ok to plug in 2 headphones at the same time ? One is 250 ohm(SE) and the other one is 25 ohm(bal).

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Is it ok to plug in 2 headphones at the same time ? One is 250 ohm(SE) and the other one is 25 ohm(bal).

Yes, you should be able to run both - keep it mind it may get warm, but that's standard when driving at this additional capacity!

 

[Blurry]

I’m currently looking to upgrade my setup for my Hd600. im using a 4.4mm balanced dongle out from my laptop. What Would be more beneficial? Getting the ifi zen can to use with the 4.4 dongle or get the ifi zen dac first then pickup the CAN later on? I can only get either one at the moment

 

[Lalerfy]

I’m currently looking to upgrade my setup for my Hd600. im using a 4.4mm balanced dongle out from my laptop. What Would be more beneficial? Getting the ifi zen can to use with the 4.4 dongle or get the ifi zen dac first then pickup the CAN later on? I can only get either one at the moment

I would get the Zen-Can as you already have a good Dac that you can connect to the Zen-Can amp with a Balanced interconnect.
The HD600 sounds excellent on the Zen-Can as it's a slightly warmer Class-A amp, and especially with the very subtle X-Bass boost which is just perfect for the hd600.
►www.Amazon.de/Delock4.4mmBalanced

 

[Ichos]

I’m currently looking to upgrade my setup for my Hd600. im using a 4.4mm balanced dongle out from my laptop. What Would be more beneficial? Getting the ifi zen can to use with the 4.4 dongle or get the ifi zen dac first then pickup the CAN later on? I can only get either one at the moment

What is the dongle?
The ZEN DAC I doubt if it is more powerful than the dongle.
So get the ZEN CAN and then the DAC.

 

[GlenAppleton]

I’m currently looking to upgrade my setup for my Hd600. im using a 4.4mm balanced dongle out from my laptop. What Would be more beneficial? Getting the ifi zen can to use with the 4.4 dongle or get the ifi zen dac first then pickup the CAN later on? I can only get either one at the moment

I would have to agree with the recommend to get the CAN first, and the DAC v2 later (if you want a different DAC). I see that the HD600s are rated at 300 ohms, so the amplifier section of the Zen DAC v2 might not drive them to full potential, but there are other factors other than impedance when it comes to efficiency. My first setup was the Zen DAC v2 with the Beyer DT-770 Pro (250 ohms), and those weren't what I would consider "easy to drive" headphones, and it was mostly adequate, but adding the CAN to the setup really opened them up.

 

[Blurry]

It’s an ess es9280c pro chip usb dac dongle. It’s just a dongle I purchased off taobao as something before I upgraded