iFi Audio presents iDSD Valkyrie

[Assationater]

Comparing the opening of expensive watch boxes to the opening of a DAC at the beginning is just ridiculous.
Haha funny

Blud looks like has a gold toilet im ngl haha

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Posting this for clarity on RMS

Cheers!!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Posting in an effort to get the whole world's thoughts.... very long!

Thanks to 耳機狂人MakCato for this video...



Cheers!!

 

[Death_Block]

Comparing the opening of expensive watch boxes to the opening of a DAC at the beginning is just ridiculous.
Haha funny

It’s a slippery slope..

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

Blud looks like has a gold toilet im ngl haha

If he does it would be very sanitary...

Cheers!!

 

[Assationater]

Posting in an effort to get the whole world's thoughts.... very long!

Thanks to 耳機狂人MakCato for this video...



Cheers!!

oh man i can just barely understand the dialect. This is gonna be an interesting watch

 

[KaiFi]

I do hope someday they release a new version of the Gryphon. It's nice to have an option at that price tier.

 

[Assationater]

I do hope someday they release a new version of the Gryphon. It's nice to have an option at that price tier.

Do you need the bluetooth?

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

I do hope someday they release a new version of the Gryphon. It's nice to have an option at that price tier.

I can agree with that! Still one of my favorites!

Cheers!!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

A write-up on Valkyrie from the fine folks at Audio 46...

https://audio46.com/blogs/headphones/ifi-idsd-valkyrie-flagship-dac-amp-review

Cheers!!

 

[BS5711]

Internals courtesy of the FCC:

https://device.report/m/ec9261b161477d5e2f96c1ab99d3f5ac2b2acd01f25ffc00ae5627ade67acf29.pdf

Nothing new really.

OPA1679 & TPA6120 Headphone Amp as in the iDSD Red Label (later released as Diablo). Double number of Capacitors on the supply rails compared to Red Label.

OPA1679/NJW1159 Preamp as found in "Gryphon" and likely mostly copied from the xCAN.

4 X DAC (DSD1793 I presume) and FPGA Processing as in the iDSD Pro, but with Op-Amp analog stage using OPA1679 like iDSD Red Label.

Other than doubling up on DAC's and bigger batteries it is closer to a iDSD Micro (Black Label or Diablo) than something like the iDSD Pro.

Thor

The specs and features certainly make it seem like a mash up of the Diablo, Gryphon and Go Bar Kensei.

At least it does indeed have simple battery replacement with the 21700s in a basic pop in/out holders.

If changing them is there any need for battery matching or anything of that nature or do you just buy four new ones and pop them in ?

 

[XTF1]

If changing them is there any need for battery matching or anything of that nature or do you just buy four new ones and pop them in ?

In my experience with 18650 & 21700 batteries, if you buy them together from a reputable source, they are very well matched: same voltage +/-10mV. A simple voltmeter measurement will tell you the story.
Speculating from the picture, it looks like a 2S2P arrangement. The ones in parallel (2P) will equalize... immediately! Worse case, if one battery is fully charged and the other one is empty, it's going to be hot (!!!) and you may damage the batteries and the PCB (too high current). If the 2 banks are in series (2S), there is probably a BMS circuit "balancing" them (most likely through passive resistors). There is less risk here, but if the banks charge levels are widely different, it's going to take a long time (multiple charge/discharge cycles) to balance. And in the mean time, you would get a very poor "perceived" battery capacity that is slowly improving as you cycle them.

 

[Assationater]

there is probably a BMS circuit "balancing" them (most likely through passive resistors).

theres a row of like 5 soc looking things labeled 'battery protection' on the pcb, so prob?

 

[XTF1]

theres a row of like 5 soc looking things labeled 'battery protection' on the pcb, so prob?

Battery protection SoC are not only common, but a must for Li-ion batteries which would be very unsafe otherwise. They'll isolate each cell battery if the voltage is too low, too high, or the current is too high.

 

[OhmsClaw]

Hoping @GoldenSound gets a unit in to give it some actual measurements as unfortunately iFi have a non so great reputation for exaggerating numbers. I still love my Gryphon and Valkyrie's price point is ludacris for a transportable device so this product is a hard no for me. For its size it seems like more of an all in one desktop unit and I'd rather buy other options.

Definitely interested in the DSD conversion measurements and this A2HD thing adds artificial ultrasonic noise thats supposed to be filtered beyond nyquist? Lol what? Why?

@BS5711 gonna need some audiophile grade batteries to hotrod