[paulgc]

The most reliable and the fastest way for us to help you with any tech related issues is via our STS platform, to be found here:

http://support.ifi-audio.com

Please feel free to go there, thanks!

Wow that was fast... impressive. Ticket created #xxxx56 is me.

 

[TimeSnow]

I just posted my review.

I like to post reviews that I'd like to read... which means very little mumbo jumbo.

I think this box is worth 5 stars, and that it consistently made every system I tried it on sound better in very specific and pleasing ways.

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/ifi-audio-nano-igalvanic3-0.23056/reviews

Hope someone finds that useful!

 

[thuanb]

I enjoy reading your review. Did you re-cable your 560s? I did mine with Moon Audio's Black Dragon and love it. Re: the iGalvanic, it mates so well with Micro iUSB 3.0. Too bad you didn't test them together. All in all, a good review.

 

[TimeSnow]

I enjoy reading your review. Did you re-cable your 560s? I did mine with Moon Audio's Black Dragon and love it. Re: the iGalvanic, it mates so well with Micro iUSB 3.0. Too bad you didn't test them together. All in all, a good review.

Thanks a lot!

My 560s are totally unique. The cups were completely replaced with wood!

And they include all the upgrades as a result... Plus.. The drivers are actually a bit further out from your ears... Which make them sound even more open.

Massive difference IMO to the stock ones.

 

[iFi audio]

Folks, not sure if you've seen it, but there's a nice Axpona impressions thread and we're in there too!

Please take a look here: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/axpona-2018-impressions.877121/#post-14175040

 

[Lappy27]

For user's that get the white noise bursts issue with their igalvanic like me, I just want to report that I get the Iso Regen lately in my set up and it worked perfectly in iso mode. The Iso Regen with Ultra Cap 1.2 gives IMO the same kind of performance level as the igalvanic 3.0 Micro iusb 3.0 combo. But adding the iusb 3.0 to the Uptone bundle push the performance even further. Really impressive.

 

[Chopin75]

Has anyone ever used an external battery pack like those for smart phone charging to supply the USB converters/isolators like iFi products (e.g. idefender) etc..? I read some people used for lower power DACs. I am thinking if one does not wish to invest a LPS for every single of these 3-5 V devices, the battery may be good solution ?
Currently I am powering my idefender using ipower as recommended but I am wondering if an external battery will work better or just as good?

I also wrote a brief review of the igalvanic package on computer audiophiles:

‘I tried the iFi gal & idefender + ipower

System:

Mac air With Audirvana - via USB --> Geek Pulse DAC ---> DACware Tori junior tube amp. (note I am not using headphone but speakers, Epos floor stander)

Out of box, no burn in - straight between Mac and DAC: sound is warmer, smoother and deeper/wider sound stage, more air to sound, darker background

Comparing between my Macbook plug to AC vs running on its battery :

with AC cord - more dynamic and harder sound, sounds a bit harsh, more digital

with battery only - softer and smoother, more analogue but less dynamic, quieter and a bit too gentle, not enough meat to the sound,

I am not really satisfied with either , one too hard and one too soft. When I play without the AC cord, the dynamic is much better if I don’t use the igalvanic, but the harshness is back. There is greater air and space without the igalvanic. With igalvanic while using battery on Mac, it feels like it is muting something, like having a tube gear that is coloring something but not really improving the sound much. If I put back the AC, it is much better but there is still some degree of harshness/hard feel. So I thought adding the igalvanic while running Mac on battery is not helping much.

Maybe it really needs a separate power source from ipower to run better.

before I do that, I stick the idefender in:

mac —> idefender -> igalvanic —> DAC

On battery only - sounds much more open and more air, more dynamic no harshness added

on AC cord - the dynamics improves a bit but hard sound is coming back a bit, though not as much as before, the warmth, improved sound stage is still there and perhaps one will feel reasonably good about this by now.

However I feel without needing AC still sound more organic/analogue but I want the punch of the AC power.

So comes the ipower!

Mac —> idefender fed by ipower —> Igalvanic —> DAC

Things are much better now.

with battery: the dynamics and punch all back, like when the AC cord is there but without the harshness/digital feel etc, bass is deep, organic feel all there...

with AC - not really giving much more dynamic or power but the sound stage actually is thinner, bass is not as good, more flat, less organic; so really no advantage of having AC cord. Clarity also not as good.

i am surprised that idefender helps a lot and that despite using separate ipower to boost the idefender thus isolating the source AC power, the lack of AC power makes the whole gear so much better, probably more obvious than before.

My setting is - down - RF soft ground-link

the default causes dropout and clicks - ? Clocking issue with DAC? i suppose my DAC or the MAC is doing some clocking that is causing this issue ? Is this down setting less than optimal ? Maybe the manufacturer can comment on this ?

 

[bflat]

...My setting is - down - RF soft ground-link

the default causes dropout and clicks - ? Clocking issue with DAC? i suppose my DAC or the MAC is doing some clocking that is causing this issue ? Is this down setting less than optimal ? Maybe the manufacturer can comment on this ?

Yes, center position of ground option is optimal and lowest noise floor. On a MAC or PC, it can be a rather frustrating experience to figure out. The symptoms of ground issue is easy to hear as you stated - drops and static sounding clicks. It can range from unlistenable to slight clicks every 10-20 sec. Here are some tips I've discovered:

1) In my PC, I have a fully earth grounded power supply. However, any time I disconnect the power cord from my PC (thankfully not very often) I have to go through an exact sequence of connecting PC USB to iGalvanic to SU-1 DDC in order to avoid grounding issues. After this sequence, I have to do a hard reset of my PC too.

2) For iDefender, I am using that for my MacBook Pro and Hugo 2. Using iDefender on the input side of iGalvanic does nothing. When I place iDefender on the output side of iGalvanic, it resolves the ground issues and I can use center ground switch. I also have a linear power supply with earth ground going to the iDefender. If I remove power from iDefender, I still get a very infrequent amount of clicks noise.

For your particular setup it looks like you only tried iDefender on the input side so try the output side of iGalvanic and see if that works. However, I'm not sure if iPower has earth ground or not.

Edit - in all instances I am using USB3.0 from my PC/Mac to iGalvanic with a USB 3.0 B cable. The 3.0 B plug has an extra ground pin so maybe helps with ground issues.

 

[Chopin75]

Yes, center position of ground option is optimal and lowest noise floor. On a MAC or PC, it can be a rather frustrating experience to figure out. The symptoms of ground issue is easy to hear as you stated - drops and static sounding clicks. It can range from unlistenable to slight clicks every 10-20 sec. Here are some tips I've discovered:

1) In my PC, I have a fully earth grounded power supply. However, any time I disconnect the power cord from my PC (thankfully not very often) I have to go through an exact sequence of connecting PC USB to iGalvanic to SU-1 DDC in order to avoid grounding issues. After this sequence, I have to do a hard reset of my PC too.

2) For iDefender, I am using that for my MacBook Pro and Hugo 2. Using iDefender on the input side of iGalvanic does nothing. When I place iDefender on the output side of iGalvanic, it resolves the ground issues and I can use center ground switch. I also have a linear power supply with earth ground going to the iDefender. If I remove power from iDefender, I still get a very infrequent amount of clicks noise.

For your particular setup it looks like you only tried iDefender on the input side so try the output side of iGalvanic and see if that works. However, I'm not sure if iPower has earth ground or not.

Edit - in all instances I am using USB3.0 from my PC/Mac to iGalvanic with a USB 3.0 B cable. The 3.0 B plug has an extra ground pin so maybe helps with ground issues.

Hey thanks for the tips. For some reason, after changing to a new DAC I can now use the complete isolation (pin neutral), which perhaps is giving better sound but since I also have changed the DAC it is hard to tell. Maybe the DAC is having better ground with direct AC input. The previous DAC uses LPS so not sure if that affects the ground. I seem to have no issue with either running my Macbook on or off DC plug. I listen without DC power, purely via battery. Now I have not tried on another DAC that uses DC power only. I will see if that also works fine later. The isilencer just arrived! So I am going to add that into the chain to see it would help. I suppose if issues come up again will try placing defender at the output side.

 

[iFi audio]

Folks, our new site's up and running! Hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as we do!

https://ifi-audio.com

 

[Chopin75]

I placed the isilencer at the output of igalvanic, does give additional benefit of opening up the sound wider. When using stock DC power the sound is not as harsh or hard, while running on battery alone there may be more power/dynamics though I have not sat down and listen carefully. Rough quick test seems to show the isilencer works better after iGalvanic:

MacBook —> idefender + ipower —> igalvanic —-> isilencer —-> DAC

Initially there was a scary moment when I placed isilencer at the Macbook outlet and there was no sound though music was playing. The isilencer has silenced my DAC! I needed to reboot my DAC again to get sound out. Not sure what happened. Maybe I took out the USB cable and reinserting it back to computer while connecting to the DAC is not good idea. I now switch the DAC so that the USB output is not active before unplugging and plugging the USB cable and now this does not seem to happen again though this morning DAC again was silenced with the isilencer attached when I tried to play music so I needed to reboot the DAC again.

 

[iFi audio]

Folks, awesome news!

EISA (the European Sound and Imaging Association) has awarded the xDSD as the Best Portable DAC/Headphone Amplifier for 2018-2019.

The official release is to be found here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ifi-audio-xdsd-the-official-thread.873787/page-56#post-14422901

HAPPY!

 

[Arniesb]

Hello IFi audio i bought recently Ifi nano usb 3.0 and im very happy with it. im eyeing Igalvanic isolation now, but i see it do everything that nano usb does, but also provide Galvanic Isolation.
Does nano will add anything to sound in comparison to Igalvanic alone? i buy Igalvanic regardless for Christamas, but i want to know if both is better than just Igalvanic?
i also dont see nano usb 3 on your site? Is it discontinued now? Thank you.

 

[bflat]

Hello IFi audio i bought recently Ifi nano usb 3.0 and im very happy with it. im eyeing Igalvanic isolation now, but i see it do everything that nano usb does, but also provide Galvanic Isolation.
Does nano will add anything to sound in comparison to Igalvanic alone? i buy Igalvanic regardless for Christamas, but i want to know if both is better than just Igalvanic?
i also dont see nano usb 3 on your site? Is it discontinued now? Thank you.

You only need iGalvanic. While the iUSB does lower signal noise from USB source, iGalvanic completely eliminates it. Both will reclock USB input. You can also compare the USB power noise output. iGalvanic is .5uV which is the same as iUSB Nano. If you want lower, you have to go with iUSB Micro which is .1uV.

There is one scenario where you could use both - if you have a very long distance from source to DAC then you could use both in a chain with each link being 3M or less.

 

[Arniesb]

Thank you kind sir. I can only buy Igalvanic for christams so i wont return nano. When i get Igalvanic If i dont see difference i just store nano in safe place.
if one ever broke i can use other. There is no going back to pc ports.