[Sebastien Chiu]

but man, can cause damage for battery or other components ? Like charge components, etc ?

No, as we have built Diablo's battery to not charge past 80%. This will increase the longevity of the battery.

The other components are fine and it's not something you need to worry about!

I got a Diablo from Amazon, and it was working ok for about a day but now the green light doesn't stay on and its unusable. I have it plugged via the USB cable direct to the mains plug. Have reheated cables, but when I switch it on the green light appears for a second or so then goes off and the unit is lifeless. Anything I can do? The small red light at the back of the unit is flashing.

/Update - I unplugged and replugged it all in again for the 6th time and now it appears to be staying on, for the time being at least.

The flashing red light indicates the battery has less than 10% charge left. Although you have it plugged in to the mains adapter it may be the case that the Diablo draws more power than the charger can feed it resulting in battery drain (esp. if using Turbo mode)?

If you experience the issue again it might be worth fully charging the Diablo whilst powered off and see if that helps. Takes approx. 6 hrs iirc.

Looks like folks here have you covered on what I was going to suggest @marcus2704 - keep us posted and let us know if you need anything else.

Hello
I am waiting for an used Diablo that will arrive in a few days, and I have a question :
I have a N6II with A02 module (dual AK4497ESQ with pure balanced line out).
What will give the best sound, connect with balanced line out and use Diablo only as amplifier, or connect with USB and use Diablo's Burr-Brown DAC ?

You are right !
So no question, I will connect by USB, and rather my phone...
Thank you for quick answer

Correct hope you enjoy it and look forward to your feedback once you get it!

 

[XP_98]

For those who prefer a slightly warmer sound, give fw 7.2b a try. I have upgraded back and forth most firmwares available for the diablo.

Upgrading from Idsd signature (xmos 208), to my ears:

Fw 7.3 (diablo) = fw 5.3 (signature)
Fw 7.2 (d)= fw7.3 (d) = fw 5.3 (s)
Fw 7.2c (d) = fw7.3c (d) = fw5.3c (s)
Fw 7.4 (d) = fw 7.4 (s)
Fw 7.2b (d)= fw 5.2 (s), which sounds most analogous for PCM and DSD including the use case of upsampling pcm to dsd (my own and subjective opinions).

It is interesting that fw7.2b of the signature can be used smoothly for the diablo.

For those who prefer gto/MQA/PS4/5 compatible features, this may not make sense though.

Hello
I'd like to test this one (7.2B) besides the 7.4 GTO, but it's not available for download anymore. Where can I find it ?

 

[XP_98]

Hello again
A question for experts :
I began to play with my new Diablo connected to an Android Phone.
I have a question : I use Neutron as player, and I find my LC2C headphones better with eq. Using the eq, I can also lower the volume with Neutron's "pre-amp" (already recommanded whith eq to prevent clipping) in order to have more "room" for the volume knob.
Am I losing something in sound quality when I lower the preamp to around -15 db ?

 

[c69k]

Hello again
A question for experts :
I began to play with my new Diablo connected to an Android Phone.
I have a question : I use Neutron as player, and I find my LC2C headphones better with eq. Using the eq, I can also lower the volume with Neutron's "pre-amp" (already recommanded whith eq to prevent clipping) in order to have more "room" for the volume knob.
Am I losing something in sound quality when I lower the preamp to around -15 db ?

Hi, I am not an expert, but I am at -30 "pre-amp" with 1 Watt Xduoo XD05 Bal (Neutron), and gain at "0" (all the way up). I then use only volume on Xduoo, as a pure basshead, I find the resulting sound as non-ear-pearcing. The only situation I would go higher with pre-amp would be too low volume even with HW Xduoo' gain turned on.

This might be a total departure from your question

 

[nhk2508]

Hello
I'd like to test this one (7.2B) besides the 7.4 GTO, but it's not available for download anymore. Where can I find it ?

Here you are:

CH23 said:
the mac thingie seems to be a mac os limitation, not the diablo, as the internet says the same thing about basically any and all software and hardware connected to macs.

As for the firmware: https://ifi-audio.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/iFi-7.2b-firmware-DSD512.zip
Basically all iFi devices use 1 of 2 different XMOS chips, meaning the firmware is build for either the XMOS xu216, or the xu208.

Where can I find a DSD512 testfile? I'm interested to see how my linux machine handles them.

The link still works.

Brgds
Kh

 

[nhk2508]

Hello again
A question for experts :
I began to play with my new Diablo connected to an Android Phone.
I have a question : I use Neutron as player, and I find my LC2C headphones better with eq. Using the eq, I can also lower the volume with Neutron's "pre-amp" (already recommanded whith eq to prevent clipping) in order to have more "room" for the volume knob.
Am I losing something in sound quality when I lower the preamp to around -15 db ?

People with mathematic supports say it does decrease music resolution if software volume is not set at 100%. I experimented this at -12dB and -24dB respectively (similar to iematch) and did not find much differences in sound quality (a bit softer music and darker background when iematch was engaged).

Anyway, you may try the output to dsd128 or dsd256. You'll find something special from Neutron (no truncation when converting from floating to integer bit that gives full resolution in audible frequency range).

Brgds
Kh

 

[CH23]

Hello again
A question for experts :
I began to play with my new Diablo connected to an Android Phone.
I have a question : I use Neutron as player, and I find my LC2C headphones better with eq. Using the eq, I can also lower the volume with Neutron's "pre-amp" (already recommanded whith eq to prevent clipping) in order to have more "room" for the volume knob.
Am I losing something in sound quality when I lower the preamp to around -15 db ?

since this is a software equaliser, you want the highest setting in it (as an example, you increase 250Hz to +12dB) to be at 0dB, no higher.

What this means is that, in the example above, you want the pre-amp set to -12dB, as then the signal will never be digitally amplified.

Of course any processing you do to the signal will have impact on the sound quality. If you want to EQ it, then there's really no other option, and I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[XP_98]

I think my question was not clear enough...What I meant :
* To compensate eq for LCD2C and prevent clipping, I have to set preamp in Neutron to - for instance - minus 9 dB.
* What if I lower more to give more "playroom" to volume knob, for instance minus 15 dB, will I loose something in sound quality ?

 

[CH23]

I think my question was not clear enough...What I meant :
* To compensate eq for LCD2C and prevent clipping, I have to set preamp in Neutron to - for instance - minus 9 dB.
* What if I lower more to give more "playroom" to volume knob, for instance minus 15 dB, will I loose something in sound quality ?

yes you are losing some sound quality, since you are digitally processing the signal to be quieter. but it is unlikely to be noticeable

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

I think my question was not clear enough...What I meant :
* To compensate eq for LCD2C and prevent clipping, I have to set preamp in Neutron to - for instance - minus 9 dB.
* What if I lower more to give more "playroom" to volume knob, for instance minus 15 dB, will I loose something in sound quality ?

yes you are losing some sound quality, since you are digitally processing the signal to be quieter. but it is unlikely to be noticeable

@CH23 is correct here

 

[BryceS]

Hello
I'd like to test this one (7.2B) besides the 7.4 GTO, but it's not available for download anymore. Where can I find it

Hello
I'd like to test this one (7.2B) besides the 7.4 GTO, but it's not available for download anymore. Where can I find it ?

There is a link posted above to 7.2B and it is actually still on the ifi downloads under Zen Dac V2 I believe it was. I tried 7.2B against the 7.4 GTO option and I couldn’t hear any difference. Logically ifi GTO is GTO regardless of the specific firmware it is part of.

 

[iFi audio]

Logically ifi GTO is GTO regardless of the specific firmware it is part of.

That's true, our GTO is the same filter on all our DACs and regardless of a firmware version.

 

[Ficcion2]

I spent most of the day listening to the Diablo with my Diana Phi in turbo mode today and notice it sounds incrementally fuller as in the low mids and bass are more palpable. Ive been avoiding using turbo since most of my headphones in theory get loud enough with normal and they do. Im not trying to blow out of my ears but switching back to normal mode doesn't have the same body even though they can reach the same dB SPL.

The Diana Phi sound excellent out of this little device that has held its own with all my cans for the past 1.5 years. I mostly use it just with the blue cable included with the iFi OTG.
Once in a while Ill plug in the iPurifier and my iFi Mercury USB.

I received my DD hiFi lightning OTG but it doesn't work with my Diablo.... damn. I thought its MFi plus ergonomically and aesthetically its such an upgrade to the CCK.
I also got pentaconn to 6.3 and XLR adapters from DD and they're super nice quality. I can finally pick up any amp and use my cables for anything now so that's nice at least but I was most looking forward to the upgraded CCK cable. I hope Apple starts implementing USB C to their phones instead though.

NVM You have to insert the connector on the DAC side after connecting to the iPhone while its on. Strange but thankfully its working!

 

[BryceS]

I spent most of the day listening to the Diablo with my Diana Phi in turbo mode today and notice it sounds incrementally fuller as in the low mids and bass are more palpable. Ive been avoiding using turbo since most of my headphones in theory get loud enough with normal and they do. Im not trying to blow out of my ears but switching back to normal mode doesn't have the same body even though they can reach the same dB SPL.

The Diana Phi sound excellent out of this little device ………..

I have noticed that when running my Diablo with a charger plugged in using my DCA Aeon Noire it will glitch momentarily on bass heavy sections of music where the charger output can’t provide the current output needed and it switches back to battery power.

I don’t mind that since I listen on battery only anyway, this was on a few occasions when the Diablo was nearly flat at the end of a day.

Anyway …. when using Eco mode it won’t glitch at all even full volume despite that is louder than comfortable listening. On Normal it will glitch at a lower volume than full volume on Eco and on Turbo mode it will glitch on a lower volume still.

It seems quite apparent that the Diablo is outputting more current on Normal than Eco and more on Turbo than Normal at the same or even lower listening levels. Logically that will result in better bass performance on the higher gain settings despite that the volume is no different.

I have also observed a sense of better dynamics on higher gain and generally run my Diablo on Normal at about 12 o’clock rather than Eco at say 2 o’clock.

Long story short ….. I agree.

 

[801evan]

These 'glitch' issue is partially the Diablo seemingly running out of juice driving the headphones. The source of the issue may be the quality of the digital chain where there is a weak noise floor and an interference level that creates enough transients for the Diablo to run out of juice, when it shouldn't.

Case in point, a TT2 owner said his tt2 doesn't have enough juice to drive the Susvara coz it was clipping on his tracks. I asked for the tracks, and played it on my Hugo 2 and I didn't have any clipping/distorting issues with the Susvara being driven beyond my listening levels on the Hugo 2 because I have a good chain. And the Hugo 2 has an amplifier stage way weaker than the TT2.