[jexby]

   
Hi,
 
1. OVER.

 This is OTW #3.
We have an update next week. Clue here (if you dont like clues, please look away now).
 
 
2. More Manual than Adaptive....and that is announced a week or so after. Will work a treat. Clue: we developed this after the feedback over on the nano iCAN thread.
 

 
iFi geniuses,
 
 
when the micro iDSD amp details (OTW #3) are published, could you also included a few details regarding IEM use with the micro?
perhaps commenting if the micro iDSD would need/use the nano iDSD + IEM (recommended ?) solution of the IEMatch attenuators.
 
seems my UM3X and Heir Audio 4.AiS have different impedance and SPL/db.   which are (obviously) very different from driving HD600 or HE-400i.
 
thanks.

 

[mink70]

  thanks for the update...and for keeping DSD and PCM native without any conversion. there are people around these parts who SWEAR that converting PCM to DSD sounds better, that the DSD FORMAT itself "just sounds better." i think they're full of it, but who can argue with crazies? nice to know that iFi goes to great lengths to keep these formats as-is, without conversion to one or the other.

Then there are people around these parts who claim to know what things sound like without listening to them. That sounds pretty crazy to me. 

 

[KmanChu]

  thanks for the update...and for keeping DSD and PCM native without any conversion. there are people around these parts who SWEAR that converting PCM to DSD sounds better, that the DSD FORMAT itself "just sounds better." i think they're full of it, but who can argue with crazies? nice to know that iFi goes to great lengths to keep these formats as-is, without conversion to one or the other.

 
It is easier to make a very good DSD dac than it is a very good PCM dac. Even look at the ifi diagram above, it's a simpler signal path. With my own equipment I personally don't upsample to DSD although I have played with it. If there are two totally separate signal paths for DSD and for PCM then it shouldn't be hard to understand that perhaps one signal path (the simpler one) would be stronger than the other for any given piece of equipment. The cool thing about the conversion in software is that it gives you the flexibility to maximize your hardware's capability. The nano iDSD is a very capable but inexpensive dac, so it shouldn't be surprising if the DSD pathway might be stronger (I'm not saying it is, but just for the sake of argument.) 
 
Right now the average DSD download does sound better than the average PCM download. But there are very few DSD titles and they are only available from boutique labels which maximize sound quality or which were taken from SACDs which were also created with the idea of maximizing fidelity.

 

[iFi audio]

  thanks for the update...and for keeping DSD and PCM native without any conversion. there are people around these parts who SWEAR that converting PCM to DSD sounds better, that the DSD FORMAT itself "just sounds better." i think they're full of it, but who can argue with crazies? nice to know that iFi goes to great lengths to keep these formats as-is, without conversion to one or the other.

 
Hi,
 
Audio is subjective, not objective and we as manufacturers (along with customers) do sometimes lose sight of this. 
 
Our position is clear, we try to keep things as original as possible. The real world always imposes limits. e.g. the vagaries of recording quality leaves too much open to question. There is not such thing as "best" for all.
 
Like the filter switch, we let the customer decide whichever way.
 
Back to tea and scones...(no donuts today).

 

[iFi audio]

   
iFi geniuses,
 
 
when the micro iDSD amp details (OTW #3) are published, could you also included a few details regarding IEM use with the micro?
perhaps commenting if the micro iDSD would need/use the nano iDSD + IEM (recommended ?) solution of the IEMatch attenuators.
 
seems my UM3X and Heir Audio 4.AiS have different impedance and SPL/db.   which are (obviously) very different from driving HD600 or HE-400i.
 
thanks.

 
Yes, will do!

 

[iFi audio]

   
Right now the average DSD download does sound better than the average PCM download. But there are very few DSD titles and they are only available from boutique labels which maximize sound quality or which were taken from SACDs which were also created with the idea of maximizing fidelity.

 
So true and when Sony first decided to market SACD/DSD, they of course put a lot of effort in, being a business and all.
 
This is a bit of deja vu as Multibit chips also rec'd the same "performance" as the first criteria (read - costly to implement).
 
Only when CD overtook vinyl did chip manufacturers ease off and put "profit" as the first criteria.

 

[Gkat]

all these technical data is very nice and really helps people, to see underneath the "surface" of the new micro idsd...
 
but...
 
can you please tell us in plain english,  how much better it will be from his little brother, nano, and the margin of it?....it "destroys" nano?....its a little better from the nano?..and in which field you believe are the major differences between the two? (in sonics-noise-amplification?...or elsewhere?)
 
we all know that in audio industry, after a certain point, in order our dac, amplifier, speaker, turntable, etc to "climb an extra level" in the pursue of "good sound", we must pay huuuuuge amounts of money...and that is a fact...I dont; say that the price you ask for the new dac is huge...I say it as a general comment
 
all I want to say is, that its very nice you give us all these information in order to understand the choises you made in the new micro and why...and as consumers we will carefully read them...but, at the end, in order to buy or not, we will put the new micro against some rivals...even rivals from the same company...
 
so, you are objective in the presentation of hardware and data...and we thank you for that...I want also, if possible, your objective opinion about micro superiority against nano...cause for me, its micro vs nano...maybe for others it isn;t
 
thank you...nice talking to you...probably I will be banned for this

 

 

[iFi audio]

  all these technical data is very nice and really helps people, to see underneath the "surface" of the new micro idsd...
 
but...
 
can you please tell us in plain english,  how much better it will be from his little brother, nano, and the margin of it?....it "destroys" nano?....its a little better from the nano?..and in which field you believe are the major differences between the two? (in sonics-noise-amplification?...or elsewhere?)
 
we all know that in audio industry, after a certain point, in order our dac, amplifier, speaker, turntable, etc to "climb an extra level" in the pursue of "good sound", we must pay huuuuuge amounts of money...and that is a fact...I dont; say that the price you ask for the new dac is huge...I say it as a general comment
 
all I want to say is, that its very nice you give us all these information in order to understand the choises you made in the new micro and why...and as consumers we will carefully read them...but, at the end, in order to buy or not, we will put the new micro against some rivals...even rivals from the same company...
 
so, you are objective in the presentation of hardware and data...and we thank you for that...I want also, if possible, your objective opinion about micro superiority against nano...cause for me, its micro vs nano...maybe for others it isn;t
 
thank you...nice talking to you...probably I will be banned for this

 

 
Hi,
 
We haven't banned anyone yet!
 
Seriously, this is not our style.
 
If you allow us a few more weeks, once ALL the full details/specs of micro iDSD are out, then we can put up a direct comparison of the nano and micro.
 
Starting this coming week, we will release some really natty features. Fingers crossed, these features wont be a case of damp squid.
 
Once the micro is out, then you can have a listen and make your own judgement.
 
Thanks.

 

[Gkat]

   
Hi,
 
We haven't banned anyone yet!
 
Seriously, this is not our style.
 
If you allow us a few more weeks, once ALL the full details/specs of micro iDSD are out, then we can put up a direct comparison of the nano and micro.
 
Starting this coming week, we will release some really natty features. Fingers crossed, these features wont be a case of damp squid.
 
Once the micro is out, then you can have a listen and make your own judgement.
 
Thanks.

thank you...
 
I am just kidding about ban...
 
we will wait...I think its worth it...

 

[john57]

Fingers crossed, these features wont be a case of damp squid.
 
That's a new quote of the day!!

 

[Thad-E-Ginathom]

I was the damp squid* on the thread, a few days back (and I didn't get banned ) (and I'm still reading the thread!)
 
 
 
 
 
*Really thought that was the right word for decades. I guess I wasn't the only one, although everyone though I was silly when they explained to me

 

[iFi audio]

  I was the damp squid* on the thread, a few days back (and I didn't get banned ) (and I'm still reading the thread!)
 
 
 
 
 
*Really thought that was the right word for decades. I guess I wasn't the only one, although everyone though I was silly when they explained to me

 
Hi,
We are all entitled to express an opinion. So absolutely no issue. 

 
We note you and and John57 pointed out the deliberate malapropism.
 
Thanks.

 

[Thad-E-Ginathom]

I love the damp-squid thing. Seriously, I did spend at least twenty years of my life saying that and wondering about all squids being damp.
 
I don't so much love the "high-definition" thing. it is a piece of marketing nonsense that is being used to sell us the same music over again, and, of course, a new generation of hardware to play it on.
 
This doesn't mean that I'm going to hold out for shellac, or vinyl. or cassette tape ...or 16/41 digital, because already 96-plus music is coming into my collection, because, simply, that is the way music is going to come in the future, and playing the music is the priority. The future for all of us, "believers" or not, will be DACs that play all the formats in which music comes, and that play them all as well as each other. ifi is bringing us good products at reasonable pricing, so... I remain interested
 

 

[Frihed89]

I don't see any NOS feature, correct?

 

[iFi audio]

  I don't see any NOS feature, correct?

Hi,
 
We published this recently:
 

Filters - PCM	Bit-Perfect Processing or Minimum Phase/Standard (digital filters, selectable)
- DSD	Extreme/Extended/Standard Range (analogue filters, selectable)
- DXD	Bit-Perfect Processing (fixed analogue filter)

 
Taken straight from the DP-777, "Bit-Perfect" is the same as Non-OverSampling you are referring to.
 
So yes, this is available with PCM and DXD. But not in DSD.
 
Thanks