[audiocraze]

Quick Question....what method (of the following) has the best SQ for listening to the iDSD or any DAC for that matter?

USB Input from PC
or
memory card and/or hard drive
or
network streaming)

I currently use USB input straight from my window 10 PC, but I've always wondered if the other methods are preferred. Can anyone link me to a current article that explains it? THANKS FOR YOUR WISDOM IN ADVANCE!!

I think it depends on the DAC. The idsd has a great usb input and according to darko’s Test also sound good with connected harddisk. A little off-topic, but my current take is: dig out your CD player, dust it off, and connect it to your headphone amp. Best sound I came back to after years of streaming-addiction and enjoyment-neglect. Thing is, you get lost in jumping from file to file and miss the notes. Who has listened to an album end to end recently?? I find that my 18 year old naim dac sounds so sweet that no dac I tested can reach it, neither chord Hugo nor idsd nor myteks. And that is not because they are inferior in their dac element. It’s the chain of Internet->PC->DAC that is weak. Once you have a roon nucleus plus and roon ready dac it may be a different story. But even that has the limitation of no-substance, inflationary, binary listening. Mindful listening longs for a medium that holds it together. Cassette, Vinyl, CD. Guys, time to get physical again

 

[1BADJAD]

I think it depends on the DAC. The idsd has a great usb input and according to darko’s Test also sound good with connected harddisk. A little off-topic, but my current take is: dig out your CD player, dust it off, and connect it to your headphone amp. Best sound I came back to after years of streaming-addiction and enjoyment-neglect. Thing is, you get lost in jumping from file to file and miss the notes. Who has listened to an album end to end recently?? I find that my 18 year old naim dac sounds so sweet that no dac I tested can reach it, neither chord Hugo nor idsd nor myteks. And that is not because they are inferior in their dac element. It’s the chain of Internet->PC->DAC that is weak. Once you have a roon nucleus plus and roon ready dac it may be a different story. But even that has the limitation of no-substance, inflationary, binary listening. Mindful listening longs for a medium that holds it together. Cassette, Vinyl, CD. Guys, time to get physical again

Uh oh Audiocraze...I don't even have a CD player to dust off anymore...DOH! I'm "old school", so I should know better.

 

[iFi audio]

Quick Question....what method (of the following) has the best SQ for listening to the iDSD or any DAC for that matter?

USB Input from PC
or
memory card and/or hard drive
or
network streaming)

I currently use USB input straight from my window 10 PC, but I've always wondered if the other methods are preferred. Can anyone link me to a current article that explains it? THANKS FOR YOUR WISDOM IN ADVANCE!!

It depends. It took us a lot of time and work to have all digital inputs possibly as good as they can be, but here your transport comes into play as well. The better it is, the better the result will be.

And since 2019 is here:

https://tidal.com/playlist/aee6099a-20ba-4560-9f40-d4b595ced8a6

 

[bluesaint]

so one would deduce streaming is the best based on your response? A constructive answer can help us determine if we should invest say in a optimal DLNA server setup if you said network streaming is best. But our determination and things we would invest in would change if you said USB (hdd/ssd/thumbdrive) input is best. Completely understand you don't want to favor one option over another for the sake of marketing/sales, but a directional feedback would be quite helpful.

It depends. It took us a lot of time and work to have all digital inputs possibly as good as they can be, but here your transport comes into play as well. The better it is, the better the result will be.

And since 2019 is here:

https://tidal.com/playlist/aee6099a-20ba-4560-9f40-d4b595ced8a6

 

[1BADJAD]

so one would deduce streaming is the best based on your response? A constructive answer can help us determine if we should invest say in a optimal DLNA server setup if you said network streaming is best. But our determination and things we would invest in would change if you said USB (hdd/ssd/thumbdrive) input is best. Completely understand you don't want to favor one option over another for the sake of marketing/sales, but a directional feedback would be quite helpful.

Haha...yep...I thought that answer was a little vague as well...thought it was just me. I wasn't expecting iFi to chime in though, so I appreciate it...only mildly though, because like I said...VAGUE! I wish there were more USB3.0 cables to choose from as well. Supra cables wouldn't make one for me, and I couldn't find any from Audioquest either. Seems like the only HQ cable out there that would work for me is the Mercury3.0, but it's too short for my needs...gotta have 5-6' for my setup. Ahem...I wouldn't need to worry about it though if iFi (by letting me cheat on my homework) would confirm if the SQ is better via a drive (thumb, hard, or SD card) than it is connecting a USB to the PC. Just my two cents.

 

[iFi audio]

Haha...yep...I thought that answer was a little vague as well...thought it was just me. I wasn't expecting iFi to chime in though, so I appreciate it...only mildly though, because like I said...VAGUE! I wish there were more USB3.0 cables to choose from as well. Supra cables wouldn't make one for me, and I couldn't find any from Audioquest either. Seems like the only HQ cable out there that would work for me is the Mercury3.0, but it's too short for my needs...gotta have 5-6' for my setup. Ahem...I wouldn't need to worry about it though if iFi (by letting me cheat on my homework) would confirm if the SQ is better via a drive (thumb, hard, or SD card) than it is connecting a USB to the PC. Just my two cents.

The answer wasn't vague at all. It's important from where music goes to a DAC, signal quality delivered to Pro iDSD to work on varies from one transport to another. One can have a finely optimized PC audio machine and a mediocre streamer or the other way around. It all depends. We'd confuse people by saying that one digital input in Pro iDSD is better than the rest, this subject is far to broad to label one specific option as such. What we'll say yet again is that we strived to make all its digital inputs as good as we possibly could and we're particularly happy with how impervious to tweaks our USB turned out to be for example.

If this doesn't still answer the question which transport is best SQ wise, many people enjoy network component of Pro iDSD and naturally we got a lot of positive feedback about its RJ45, but we're far from saying it's the superior option each time. We think that it can be the best one, as good as everything else or the least optimal. Again, it all depends on a transport quality and Pro iDSD will work with what it'll receive.

so one would deduce streaming is the best based on your response? A constructive answer can help us determine if we should invest say in a optimal DLNA server setup if you said network streaming is best.

The constructive answer was given above. We didn't imply superiority of one specific option.

 

[Rob N]

Is anyone connecting the Pro IDSD and Pro iCan uding the 15v output, if so what cable are you using?

 

[1BADJAD]

Is anyone connecting the Pro IDSD and Pro iCan uding the 15v output, if so what cable are you using?

Do you mean the DC loop out? If so...iFi support sent a link with a 2.1mm x 5.5mm cable on Ebay, but it's coming from the UK. Here's another one I found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Enter...ale+2.1mm+x+5.5mm+plug+dc+power+adapter+cable

 

[Rob N]

Do you mean the DC loop out? If so...iFi support sent a link with a 2.1mm x 5.5mm cable on Ebay, but it's coming from the UK. Here's another one I found on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Valley-Enterprises®-2-1mm-5-5mm-Adapter/dp/B00DX72UXW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1546356466&sr=8-3&keywords=male+to+male+2.1mm+x+5.5mm+plug+dc+power+adapter+cable

Yes thanks that’s what I was after

 

[iFi audio]

Folks, MQA + Pro iDSD setup guide. It's actually valid for all MQA decoding DACs.

 

[iFi audio]

Also, we have just released a short but sweet guide about MQA via SPDIF on Pro iDSD in Tidal. Enjoy!

 

[Dan Lee]

Alright so I just got my ifi idsd pro and one of the main reasons I got it was because it would pair perfectly with my ican pro but also because I love the sound of MQA when partially unfolded and have wanted to hear it fully unfolded since I decided to get a new dac. I am also sure that somewhere in this 144 page thread may very well be my answer but I have looked everywhere I can think to look and have watched that video above like 10 times and no matter what I do I can not get the idsd to display MQA or its sampling rate when playing an MQA file on tidal via my computer. I have tried as many different settings as I can think no remaster with each of the filters, both dsd remasters with each of the filter options and just cant figure it out. Ive tried updating the driver and all say they are good and have made ifi the primary source for both computer and tidal and have mqa set as passthrough on tidal. Please someone enlighten me here. What am I missing and or doing wrong? Any help here is greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Dan Moser

 

[doggiehowser]

Raise a ticket with iFi

Ask for beta 2.0 firmware which enables MQA. It is not enabled in the official firmware.

 

[Dan Lee]

Thank you for the response. Thats what bluesaint said too. I opened a ticket yesterday or the day before and am just waiting to hear back from them. Other then that I am loving the ifi stack so far. So many damn options I havent played with nearly all the possible combos yet. I think this stack is quite good for my adhd mind haha.

 

[iFi audio]

Thank you for the response. Thats what bluesaint said too. I opened a ticket yesterday or the day before and am just waiting to hear back from them. Other then that I am loving the ifi stack so far. So many damn options I havent played with nearly all the possible combos yet. I think this stack is quite good for my adhd mind haha.

That's good to hear! And worry not, our staff will get back to you.