[corgifall]

Thanks for the impressions @corgifall

Did you feel that the NEO by itself compared well to the SH-9 in terms of driving your headphones well with a good degree of authority....given the fact that the SH-9 is a considerably more powerful amp?

There is a lot more power on tap with the SH-9. When using the NEO, for power hungry headphones I definitely recommend running balanced. I was at -22 volume wise with my lcd-2c single ended which was fine but it sounded a hair more punchy balanced. DC aeon closed was at like -16 single ended. Something to keep in mind. Much like the SH-8, the NEO doesn’t have a gain setting so you can’t squeeze anymore power out of that 1 watt of power. For iems and most headphones it does perfectly fine.

The SH-9 on the other hand powers the aeons really well at a volume of 55-60 out of 99 via low gain. High gain adds 10db but I haven’t had a need for it. I also don’t own any super crazy hard to drive headphones anymore. The ZMF classics were super hard to drive but someone stole those while I was out of the office during the first COVID lockdown.

 

[corgifall]

I've chancelt my order on the NEO because i was a bit afraid of the noise problem out there and ordered the Topping DX7 Pro instead. I don't know if this was a good idea or not

Hard to say at the moment. Though I’m confident that this will be fixed fairly quickly.

 

[ballard3]

How on earth can the remote control be opened ? The instructions are not clear

 

[Reyess]

Hard to say at the moment. Though I’m confident that this will be fixed fairly quickly.

@domiji
The DX7 Pro is a great device with one 'flaw' - high output impedance. If you are using low impedance headphones AND your headphones' impedance curve is not flat, you could see some some affect to your frequency response. (for better or worse)

If it didnt have this trait, it'd likely be the go-to all in one unit.

What cans are you using?

 

[Sunstealer]

I've ordered my NEO today and i am really excited and hope that my Campfire Audio Solaris are not too sensitive for a good listening experience. Does anyone may have some expierence with this combo?

I've chancelt my order on the NEO because i was a bit afraid of the noise problem out there and ordered the Topping DX7 Pro instead. I don't know if this was a good idea or not

I have the OG Solaris and am on the NEO Tour so will let you know.....

 

[iFi audio]

I have the OG Solaris and am on the NEO Tour so will let you know.....

I look forward to your impressions!

Shortly we'll also have a small announcement re issues mentioned in this thread.

 

[iFi audio]

Folks, a small update regarding the NEO iDSD. Highly likely it is its interaction with the end software somewhere that is causing excessive noise. Our tech team are now well aware of your feedback and are working 24/7 on a software/firmware update to handle this situation. Stay tuned please, this shouldn't take long and apologies for the inconvenience

 

[Reyess]

Folks, a small update regarding the NEO iDSD. Highly likely it is its interaction with the end software somewhere that is causing excessive noise. Our tech team are now well aware of your feedback and are working 24/7 on a software/firmware update to handle this situation. Stay tuned please, this shouldn't take long and apologies for the inconvenience

Thank you for the update - you rock!

 

[Ichos]

Good to hear that.

 

[Paperinoil]

@iFi audio , you guys rock! That’s great news!

 

[iFi audio]

Thanks all, we can only try

 

[iFi audio]

Light up your audio with iFi this Christmas

Throughout December, we’ll be spreading some Christmas cheer by hosting weekly giveaways to get you all in the festive mood!

For details please go HERE

 

[kmmbd]

So I received the iFi Neo iDSD yesterday, but couldn't get around to listening to them until today. The setup was a breeze really. I didn't even plug in the power supply (as it apparently runs just fine on USB 5V). I used a powered USB hub and that worked pretty well for the most part. The overall usability is at a high level, as the volume/select wheel is lot more accessible than using the tiny buttons above the headphone outs. A bit of a peeve about the buttons: they are rattly and doesn't offer the best feedback. If I could change one thing about the Neo iDSD - these buttons would be the only thing. On another note, I love that it comes with the stand by default. Saves a lot of space really and looks very sleek on the desk.

Two things I noticed already: the line-out is always active alongside the headphone out in variable line-out mode, which is nice. Another thing is that the 4.4mm balanced out is quite noisy with IEMs (I used Dunu Studio SA6 which has a pretty high impedance of 50ohms, though the sensitivity is rather high as well). Other than these... no more qualms or complaints.

Regarding the sound, I did find the built-in headphone out pretty nice with high-impedance cans (Sennheiser HD650 in this case) but I preferred the Neo iDSD + Zen Can combo more. The Neo iDSD output is quite good, but the Zen Can has a lot more headroom and I'm a sucker for that bass-boost button (really solves the bass issue of the HD650 and similar open-backs with sub-bass roll-off). Also, the Zen Can was absolutely silent with the 4.4mm out (I'm using iPower X btw with the Zen Can) and even with sensitive multi-BA IEMs connected at +9dB gain (just to check hiss) things were mostly silent up until 1 o'clock position (after which faint hiss set in). I never even need +9dB gain on these IEMs so in practical usage: it's hiss free.

Other niceties: the OLED display re-orients itself via the built-in accelerometer which is a nice touch. It also looks rather fancy in the dark. MQA set up was a breeze on the desktop Tidal app (just make sure the volume knob on amp side isn't too high up as software volume control is disabled). As a DAC, the Neo iDSD is indeed feature packed. I am not too convinced with the amp section though, but I will wait until iFi releases the firmware patch and then report back with comparisons against Questyle CMA-400i and the Topping D50s.

 

[wantan]

t I preferred the Neo iDSD + Zen Can combo more.

Thanks for the nice review! Dir you connect these via rca or balanced? I'm curious because I think balanced would need a XLR to 4,4mm cable I think?

 

[Ichos]

May I ask?

Reading the specs about the Burr-Brown dac chip it is advertised as multibit.

Is this a true multibit design like let's say the Schiit dacs?
Or to ask differently is this Burr-Brown dac a delta sigma design or something else?