[shenanbay]

just posted my review. thanks for ifi for providing me with the unit on the tour

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/ifi-audio-nano-idsd-black-label.22770/reviews#review-19609

 

[Rick T.]

Hello,

I bought the Ifi Nano iDSD BL four days ago from my local dealer.. It sounds great, but with my iPhone 5S (IOS 11.2.1) which I use for portable playback, I get signal dropouts. Either from local files via Onkyo HF Player, or online streaming. The dropouts are Intermittent. So it is hard to pin down what’s wrong. My Apple CCK cable is over a year old but still works fine with my AQ Dragonfly Red on the same phone, without any dropouts.

FWIW, I haven’t had any problems with any dropuouts when using a Laptop via Jriver Media Center or streaming.

I could buy a new CCK cable, but I don’t think it’s the problem since I experience no dropouts from a Dragonfly Red.. Anyone here experiencing something similar? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dixter]

Hello,

I bought the Ifi Nano iDSD BL four days ago from my local dealer.. It sounds great, but with my iPhone 5S (IOS 11.2.1) which I use for portable playback, I get signal dropouts. Either from local files via Onkyo HF Player, or online streaming. The dropouts are Intermittent. So it is hard to pin down what’s wrong. My Apple CCK cable is over a year old but still works fine with my AQ Dragonfly Red on the same phone, without any dropouts.

FWIW, I haven’t had any problems with any dropuouts when using a Laptop via Jriver Media Center or streaming.

I could buy a new CCK cable, but I don’t think it’s the problem since I experience no dropouts from a Dragonfly Red.. Anyone here experiencing something similar? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dixter]

Wondering if it might be that you updated an older phone to ios 11.2.1.... Apple reported yesterday that the new software was affecting older iphones ....

 

[Rick T.]

Wondering if it might be that you updated an older phone to ios 11.2.1.... Apple reported yesterday that the new software was affecting older iphones ....

Hi,

Thanks.. Yeah, I was thinking about that too. I updated around a week ago. It didn’t affect the DF Red in terms of digital signal dropouts, but it may have affected other devices like the Nano iDSD BL.. Apple shouldn’t have provided an update for the 5S anymore. They should’ve stuck with IOS 10.3.3 with that phone. I doubt that they’ll provide a fix for it on a future update. Oh well...

BTW, I just tried a sibling’s iPhone 7 and an iPod Touch with the latest IOS. NO Problems with digital signal dopouts whatsoever.

 

[john57]

http://www.businessinsider.com/two-class-action-lawsuits-apple-iphone-throttling-2017-12

Actually playing back audio can be resource intensive for CPU due since the audio buffers has to be kept full otherwise dropouts can occur. Not a issue with files transfers since files transfer is interrupt driven but audio has to be realtime. There may be too many process running in the background. If the CPU can not handle multitasking well it will just slowdown the background process but can cause audio dropouts.

 

[nugget2013]

How does it compare to the oppo ha-2se?

 

[tim0chan]

How does it compare to the oppo ha-2se?

Imo it sounds better, more musical, more powerful but no bass boost

 

[reddington]

Odd request, but can anyone compare it to the likes of Mojo and the Mimby (Only DAC section).

 

[Dobrescu George]

Imo it sounds better, more musical, more powerful but no bass boost

I haven't had a chance to do a proper comparison yet, but I haven't noticed a difference in power, both seem pretty powerful. iDSD Nano BL sounds a bit more organic and musical to me as well though, HA2-SE is more vibrant and energetic to me, while iDSD Nano BL is more organic, if this makes enough sense.

Odd request, but can anyone compare it to the likes of Mojo and the Mimby (Only DAC section).

Ojn a short test, I felt a wider space with iDSD Nano BL. The soundstage seems both wider and deeper somehow, but I need more testing.

 

[vo_obgyn]

Odd request, but can anyone compare it to the likes of Mojo and the Mimby (Only DAC section).

With my cans - the Focal Elears and the Sennheiser HD 800 S - the Chord Mojo sounds better in all ways than the iFi Audio nano iDSD BL in my set up. The Sennheiser IE 800's and The JH Audio Roxanne's sound better with the Mojo too. I'll use the nano iDSD BL for portable use and for exercise.

 

[Triodemode]

I would expect the Mojo to sound better at three times the price of the iDSD nano BL. A more realistic comparison to the Mojo IMO is the iDSD micro BL.

 

[vo_obgyn]

I've searched but haven't found any comparisons of the iFi Audio nano iDSD BL to the similarly priced Audioquest DragonFly Red and Meridian Audio Explorer 2 units. Those would be good comparisons too. I have these units also and I think that they outperform each other in different areas. The soundstage and instrument separation of the iFI Audio nano iDSD BL outperforms these two units, for example. Overall, I'm still liking the Audioquest DragonFly Red the best in large part because of it's portability.

 

[aoitenshi6509]

Hi,

I just got a loan for this unit and while I'm searching the ifi website, I stumbled at their firmware for this unit.
the latest FW (firmware) is 5.3C R2 and ifi wrote on their website that the unit is now able to decode MQA-encoded songs (I use tidal hifi)

But when I have downloaded the firmwares, it seemed the size between 5.3C and 5.3C R2 are identical ..
Has anyone tried the latest firmware and is there any improvements?

Thanks you for the answer.

 

[vo_obgyn]

Hi,

I just got a loan for this unit and while I'm searching the ifi website, I stumbled at their firmware for this unit.
the latest FW (firmware) is 5.3C R2 and ifi wrote on their website that the unit is now able to decode MQA-encoded songs (I use tidal hifi)

But when I have downloaded the firmwares, it seemed the size between 5.3C and 5.3C R2 are identical ..
Has anyone tried the latest firmware and is there any improvements?

Thanks you for the answer.

I think that the main differences are the magenta MQA and white lights. I don't believe that there are sonic differences. "Minor optimisations" only. I updated to the newest firmware after unboxing the the unit.

5.3C RC2
(MQA Release Candidate 2) 27 Nov. 2017
Minor Optimisations. Similar to v5.3C but with:
• MQA compatibility with Magenta LED.
• With PCM, LED is white as it is Upsampled 8x (Minimum Phase and Minimum Ringing filters).

5.3C
(MQA Beta) 16 Nov. 2017
Minor Optimisations. Similar to v5.2 but with:
• MQA compatibility.
• Note: LEDs do not directly correspond to the Sampling rate but this is
purely cosmetic. TIDAL confirms MQA is playing.