[iFi audio]

Ifi ipower through usbridge and not directly which means the power supply is getting even cleaner.

On that note, I want to follow on previous conversations and in combination with my xDSD review to say that ione (and xDSD) clearly improves with good power supply and actually any hint of brightness is eliminated further. I am currently in trial period of the audirvana windows version and notice a difference from playing DSD upscaled tidal files through usbridge and audirvana upnp in comparison to laptop directly. The sound is better from Usbridge although the DSD upscaled is only 64 since my network cannot handle anymore. From surface book directly DSD is 256. Even when I was listening TV but using power from my laptop I discovered this brightness that I experienced with xDSD and ione in the old days .

I am a convert, power supply is very important and once again my little precious ione can play even better with upscaled DSD! More analogue sound!

I hope that not only I answered your question but also the spirit of your question...

I'ts good to know that you enjoy the product!

 

[rafaelo]

I'ts good to know that you enjoy the product!

ione the best ever. Getting better and better like good old red wine. Still can not find its limits....

Probably borned to play DSD well...

 

[cheungtsw]

The most beautiful DAC and the second most beautiful DAC....

How does sound quality compares?

 

[rafaelo]

How does sound quality compares?

More or less the same with one caveat. My ione is permanently hooked with Usbridge streamer powered with ipower supply which means it gets even cleaner power supply. If you compare this combination with xDSD alone i.e. powered internally by the battery then ione sounds better because of the power supply. You need to plug xDSD a good power supply to improve the sound further and remove any tiny hint of harshness that might exist in some combinations. When i plugged directly my laptop to ione they sounded very similar indeed. But I had xDSD only for a week I need more time for extensive testing for absolutely definite conclusions. But as a DAC I have the feeling under the same set up they are almost equivalent. One is the desktop version of the other which is a portable DAC/amp combo. So you can choose whatever from the two suits your needs best.

With a good power supply, in my case ifi audio ipower power supply, the sound is thicker, more lush and clean from any hint of brightness. Audirvana upsampled DSD makes the sound even smoother.

I am thinking I have done reviews to products that I used only for short time periods I am thinking maybe I should review ione at some point as well since I know it for so long and used it under numerous combinations.

 

[cheungtsw]

More or less the same with one caveat. My ione is permanently hooked with Usbridge streamer powered with ipower supply which means it gets even cleaner power supply. If you compare this combination with xDSD alone i.e. powered internally by the battery then ione sounds better because of the power supply. You need to plug xDSD a good power supply to improve the sound further and remove any tiny hint of harshness that might exist in some combinations. When i plugged directly my laptop to ione they sounded very similar indeed. But I had xDSD only for a week I need more time for extensive testing for absolutely definite conclusions. But as a DAC I have the feeling under the same set up they are almost equivalent. One is the desktop version of the other which is portable DAC/amp combo. So you can choose whatever from the two suits your needs best.

With a good power supply, in my case ifi audio ipower power supply, the sound is thicker, lush clean from any hint of brightness. Audirvana upsampled DSD makes the sound even smoother.

I am thinking I have done reviews to products that I used only for short time periods I am thinking maybe i should review ione at some point as well since i know it for so long.

I assume the sound signature is also very similar.

 

[rafaelo]

I assume the sound signature is also very similar.

Yes it is indeed. You can read more in my xDSD review about them. xDSD is more similar to ione than ifi nano black I think although all of them are very similar. But you need to compare them under the same circumstances.

 

[rafaelo]

I'ts good to know that you enjoy the product!

I have noticed that the Bluetooth adapter is always on no matter where the source switch is turned. For example, most of the times I have the spdif input selected but my devices can find and connect with the ione Bluetooth signal. This is not happening with xDSD (probably because of the smart system there).

But is it possible please with a firmware update to be able to turn on bluetooth when it selected only? I believe that is unessessary for the Bluetooth to be turned on when it is not selected as a source. Personally, I am annoyed when I see the signal that i do not use and when I used xDSD I was seeing 2 ifi audio signals and I was confused what to select.

More importantly, it may be also possible to pollute the audio quality (by a small amount admittedly) of the other 2 sources with the Bluetooth signal when bluetooth is not used but because the bt antenna internally is always working. Let's say similarly to what the WiFi antenna does in comparison to ethernet to network streamers.

So as an academic exercise (and not only) and if it is easy like changing an if else statement in the code it would be nice to add this functionality in future firmware versions . If not, it would be nice to have it in future generations of iOne.

 

[Sonic Defender]

...
More importantly, it may be also possible to pollute the audio quality (by a small amount admittedly) of the other 2 sources with the Bluetooth signal ....

Even if there is some "pollution" occurring (evidence for this concern comes from where?) do you think it is audible, I mean actually audible over the music? I agree with you if it can be corrected by iFi, if it is indeed always active, it should be, but I'm thinking more about longevity. That said, I would bet that even if there is some extra "wear and tear" from an always on circuit, the service life of the device would still be long enough that the device becomes redundant technically before that time anyway. Hopefully an iFi rep can offer their perspective on this, good that you raised it, never hurts to ask right?

 

[rafaelo]

Even if there is some "pollution" occurring (evidence for this concern comes from where?) do you think it is audible, I mean actually audible over the music? I agree with you if it can be corrected by iFi, if it is indeed always active, it should be, but I'm thinking more about longevity. That said, I would bet that even if there is some extra "wear and tear" from an always on circuit, the service life of the device would still be long enough that the device becomes redundant technically before that time anyway. Hopefully an iFi rep can offer their perspective on this, good that you raised it, never hurts to ask right?

Obviously is a minor issue but if nobody raises this never will be fixed. It may be intentional it may be a bug but this is the point of reporting "silly" things like this here and not even raising a ticket. This difference in BT behaviour was also firstly mentioned in my review of xDSD but I wanted to mention it here as well. I personally think that xDSD has different behaviour (the correct according to me) by accident maybe because of the new intelligent system of changing sources.

In any case, does not change my opinion a bit of ione which I consider to be the best bargain in audio I have encountered in my life so far. It may not influence the sound at all but I am thinking there is not reason at all bluetooth to be switched on all the time. There are anecdotal evidence that the WiFi signal deteriorates the sound quality in network streamers like pi but I am using WiFi with my Usbridge no matter what because my router is far away from the streamer and I cannot bother investing some additional money for ethernet connection adapters through the electricity plugs . So I do not consider the issue big at all, actually how much better ione can sound, already is sounding amazing but why not fixing it if it is easy to fix this? Is also a matter of convenience to me, why to have an active bluetooth signal in my house all the time if I do not use it at all.

And since actually, very selfishly indeed, I provide my personal tastes to ifi audio here I want also to say that I am still in a previous firmware version (non- mqa) because I like the indicator colours for incoming signal much better in the previous version. So maybe the mqa version is already fixed in the most current version and I do not even know it (???)

 

[ckhirnigs113]

@iFi audio, I’m looking to pick up an iOne now because I got a really good deal on an iCan SE. Before that I was trying to decide between the xDSD and Micro iDSD. Now I just need a DAC. I posed the following question over in the xDSD Tour thread, but I thought I’d post it here too since it also applies to the iOne.

I have a Bluetooth question in regard to the quality of AAC vs Aptx streaming from a phone to the xDSD (or iOne). Does transcoding take place regardless of the type of source file? As an example, if I stream an AAC file from Apple Music on my iPhone to the xDSD/iOne will it make transcoding unnecessary since AAC is supported? This is in contrast to streaming an mp3 from the same iPhone, which I assume would require the mp3 to be transcoded to AAC before playing on the xDSD/iOne.

It seems like there might be an advantage to streaming AAC files vs other file types if it does indeed avoid transcoding entirely (on iOS devices at least). I’m not sure if bitrate affects this theory. I know Apple Music streams at 256Kbps AAC which is the maximum bitrate for AAC over Bluetooth. If trying to stream a 320Kbps or 160Kbps AAC file will everything transcode to 256Kbps? Obviously the 320Kbps will need transcoding, but will files encoded at less than 256Kbps AAC be sent over intact without transcoding?

I'm not sure how Aptx works in regard to transcoding. To be fair though, I’m not at all sure how this works with AAC either!

 

[ckhirnigs113]

@iFi audio, One more hypothetical use for the iOne I’m wondering about. I plan to use the Bluetooth feature from time to time, but most of the time I’ll probably be using USB.

I want to know if it will be possible to connect the iOne directly to the iPhone using the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. This adapter has a USB port and lightning port. I’m wondering if I can plug the lighting port to the wall charger and the USB to the iOne. Will this power the iOne sufficiently? I’ve read that sometimes the iPhone gives an error message when trying to power USB devices, at least when using the earlier adapter that only converted the lighting port to USB but didn’t allow a charger to be connected simultaneously.

Anyone able to test this yet when using the iOne? I will have many times when I’m not near a computer but still want to use the higher quality USB connection instead of Bluetooth. This would probably be a dealbreaker for me if it’s not possible to hardwire the iOne directly to my iPhone. Fingers crossed!

 

[rafaelo]

@iFi audio, One more hypothetical use for the iOne I’m wondering about. I plan to use the Bluetooth feature from time to time, but most of the time I’ll probably be using USB.

I want to know if it will be possible to connect the iOne directly to the iPhone using the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter. This adapter has a USB port and lightning port. I’m wondering if I can plug the lighting port to the wall charger and the USB to the iOne. Will this power the iOne sufficiently? I’ve read that sometimes the iPhone gives an error message when trying to power USB devices, at least when using the earlier adapter that only converted the lighting port to USB but didn’t allow a charger to be connected simultaneously.

Anyone able to test this yet when using the iOne? I will have many times when I’m not near a computer but still want to use the higher quality USB connection instead of Bluetooth. This would probably be a dealbreaker for me if it’s not possible to hardwire the iOne directly to my iPhone. Fingers crossed!

I used the iPad air but with the small usb apple lighting adapter that does NOT accept power at the same time. I had mixed results. When the ipad was charged more than 30% approx it was working when it was less it was not working and I was getting this message you mention. Also keep in mind that I am using an old firmware version. I believe that with the big Apple adapter, (usb 3.0 something) that accepts power simultaneously from a wall adapter there should be no problem and it should be working fine like the old dragonflies.

 

[ckhirnigs113]

I used the iPad air but with the small usb apple lighting adapter that does accept power at the same time.

I think you meant to say “does not accept power at the same time”. I appreciate you sharing your experience. That is encouraging at least. Hopefully someone will chime in and verify it works with the new larger adapter that accepts power through the lightning port.

 

[rafaelo]

I think you meant to say “does not accept power at the same time”. I appreciate you sharing your experience. That is encouraging at least. Hopefully someone will chime in and verify it works with the new larger adapter that accepts power through the lightning port.

Yes you are correct I mean Not and more specifically the following one:

https://www.apple.com/uk/shop/product/MD821ZM/A/lightning-to-usb-camera-adapter?fnode=91

 

[iFi audio]

Our Pro iDSD review just landed at www.6moons.com and it's a good one!

http://6moons.com/audioreviews2/ifi/1.html

Enjoy!