[blance44]

I'm more so wondering about a standalone DAC to pair up with an iCan pro.

 

[Lord Raven]

It's going to be a 2000 dollar investment.

 

[EVOLVIST]

I'm more so wondering about a standalone DAC to pair up with an iCan pro.

The headphone implementation has very little to do with the price of the iDSD Pro. It makes the unit more flexible, but you're paying very little for that. You're paying for the R&D and the sound.

 

[dan.gheorghe]

Overdue, but here is my review of iCan Pro:
https://headmania.org/2016/09/27/ifi-pro-ican-headphone-amplifier-review/

 

[blance44]

The headphone implementation has very little to do with the price of the iDSD Pro. It makes the unit more flexible, but you're paying very little for that. You're paying for the R&D and the sound.

I understand that but in my experience, separate dacs and amps sound better than combo units. That's the only reason I would want it that way. I understand that for convenience sake, the idsd is perfect and I know it will sound fantastic. I just know it could sound even better as two separate units. Especially since iFi has developed the esl pro, it would be even better having a standalone dac from them in the pro line-up and in that particular case, more versatile. Not to mention that AMR/iFi make some of the best dacs in the world. Having an iFi pro line standalone dac would be icing on the cake.

 

[tunes]

Confused about which optical cable to buy for connecting the QP1R to my iFi micro ican SE amplifier. The QP1R has a 3.5 mm optical out and an adapter for toslink. So which is better coax or Toslink for this application and what is the best short cable to buy that won't kink and give the best SQ?

 

[technobear]

Confused about which optical cable to buy for connecting the QP1R to my iFi micro ican SE amplifier. The QP1R has a 3.5 mm optical out and an adapter for toslink. So which is better coax or Toslink for this application and what is the best short cable to buy that won't kink and give the best SQ?

The micro iCAN SE is a headphone amplifier. It is not a DAC. It has no digital input. You must use the line out if the QP1R has one.

 

[tesox]

Thank you very much for the review dan.gheorghe !
 
I've read many of your reviews and the "Black Dragon" review leads me to buy one and I love it (as a dac, HPA is average).
I own an ifi Pro iCan for a couple of weeks now and I can't tell enough how much I enjoy this amp.
 
What I don't like so much about your reviews (no offence!) is the glorification of the Master 9 bass reproduction.
If I read trough the reviews it always ends with the conclusion "The bass on Master 9 is faster, has more control, is deper  ...."
or something similar.
Sorry but I can't believe that so many high end flagship products are all not able to achieve an exellent bass performance
or go not as deep as the master 9, even if specs or measurements show a total flat frequency response down to a level
where it is the headphone that is not capable to reproduce this frequencies anymore.
 
For me the bass on the ifi Pro iCan is exellent, fast, deep and controlled and yes it is not impressive, it just sounds right!
Btw, I also disagree in terms of soundstage. It is only intimate if the songs is recorded that way.
It can be massive and extremely holographic.

 

[dan.gheorghe]

  Thank you very much for the review dan.gheorghe !
 
I've read many of your reviews and the "Black Dragon" review leads me to buy one and I love it (as a dac, HPA is average).
I own an ifi Pro iCan for a couple of weeks now and I can't tell enough how much I enjoy this amp.
 
What I don't like so much about your reviews (no offence!) is the glorification of the Master 9 bass reproduction.
If I read trough the reviews it always ends with the conclusion "The bass on Master 9 is faster, has more control, is deper  ...."
or something similar.
Sorry but I can't believe that so many high end flagship products are all not able to achieve an exellent bass performance
or go not as deep as the master 9, even if specs or measurements show a total flat frequency response down to a level
where it is the headphone that is not capable to reproduce this frequencies anymore.
 
For me the bass on the ifi Pro iCan is exellent, fast, deep and controlled and yes it is not impressive, it just sounds right!
Btw, I also disagree in terms of soundstage. It is only intimate if the songs is recorded that way.
It can be massive and extremely holographic.

Thank you tesox. 

I am not trying to glorify a product. I am just trying to make a comparison between 2 products and that is how I hear it. I just find the bass on M9 superior to the one from iFi and actually as you said to most of what I have heard on the market from the competition . That is my honest opinion. 
 
Regarding the soundstage, indeed it sounds very holographic, more so than Master 9 for example, but not as immersive.  
 
These being said, this is the first amplifier I've heard in a while that I would live happily with instead of Master 9. 

 

[iFi audio]

  Thank you tesox. 

I am not trying to glorify a product. I am just trying to make a comparison between 2 products and that is how I hear it. I just find the bass on M9 superior to the one from iFi and actually as you said to most of what I have heard on the market from the competition . That is my honest opinion. 
 
Regarding the soundstage, indeed it sounds very holographic, more so than Master 9 for example, but not as immersive.  
 
These being said, this is the first amplifier I've heard in a while that I would live happily with instead of Master 9. 

 
Hi all. Our senior guys know Dan and he is a great guy/reviewer. At the end of the day, audio is subjective and so we are absolutely over the moon with Dan's review. All good here! 

 

[tesox]

Hi all. Our senior guys know Dan and he is a great guy/reviewer. At the end of the day, audio is subjective and so we are absolutely over the moon with Dan's review. All good here! 

Like I said..... no offense!
What a great reviewer and great guy dan is (and I really think he is) was never part of anything I said,
but some constructive criticism should be allowed.

I just took party for "your" product, wich I think is outstanding and I have a little experience on my own.
The term "bass ... didn't find it impressive" is nothing I would be happy with from your perspective.
Do you agree that the Pro iCan's bass is not impressive?
Are there any flaws in the design wich could cause an unimpressive bass performance or lacking deep bass response?
I didn't think so.
Maybe it is an subpar input/output impedance matching with the dac ...

The thing is, if this review had been out before I decided to buy the Pro iCan I possibly had
rethought my decission because "bass is not impressive" is a killer judgement for me.

@dan.gheorghe
I understand your point but I think you write your reviews not just for yourself
but also to give other people an impression of a product.
In this regard it is not helpful to compare everything against a super exotic boutique amplifier.
I bet if I had asked every single visitor of the CanJam (germany) last weekend if
they ever listened to an audio gd master 9 there had been only two answers:

What is audio gd? or just No.

To give a more helpful comparison:
The bass is more impressive than on Auralic MK II. It is faster, more controlled and cleaner but also a hint more full bodied (solid state mode).

And again: No offense!!!

 

[iFi audio]

I just took party for "your" product, wich I think is outstanding and I have a little experience on my own.
The term "bass ... didn't find it impressive" is nothing I would be happy with from your perspective.
Do you agree that the Pro iCan's bass is not impressive?
Are there any flaws in the design wich could cause an unimpressive bass performance or lacking deep bass response?
I didn't think so.
Maybe it is an subpar input/output impedance matching with the dac ...

 
All good. Personally, we prefer clean, tight deep bass and that's what we have implemented. Plus, the X-Bass is pretty trick anyway.
 
Things depend on the headphone too but ultimately we prefer to let people listen and come to their own conclusions.

 

[dan.gheorghe]

Like I said..... no offense!
What a great reviewer and great guy dan is (and I really think he is) was never part of anything I said,
but some constructive criticism should be allowed.

I just took party for "your" product, wich I think is outstanding and I have a little experience on my own.
The term "bass ... didn't find it impressive" is nothing I would be happy with from your perspective.
Do you agree that the Pro iCan's bass is not impressive?
Are there any flaws in the design wich could cause an unimpressive bass performance or lacking deep bass response?
I didn't think so.
Maybe it is an subpar input/output impedance matching with the dac ...

The thing is, if this review had been out before I decided to buy the Pro iCan I possibly had
rethought my decission because "bass is not impressive" is a killer judgement for me.

@dan.gheorghe
I understand your point but I think you write your reviews not just for yourself
but also to give other people an impression of a product.
In this regard it is not helpful to compare everything against a super exotic boutique amplifier.
I bet if I had asked every single visitor of the CanJam (germany) last weekend if
they ever listened to an audio gd master 9 there had been only two answers:

What is audio gd? or just No.

To give a more helpful comparison:
The bass is more impressive than on Auralic MK II. It is faster, more controlled and cleaner but also a hint more full bodied (solid state mode).

And again: No offense!!!

 
I have mentioned in the PRO section that the bass itself is good. In my opinion it's just not as impressive as on Master 9. It's just a term of comparison. And I think that the midrange/natural voicing/transparency are the reasons that make this amplifier quite special.
 
 I find it useful when I read comparison details between 2 or more products in reviews. No I don't write the reviews just for myself I don't find Master 9 to be a boutique amplifier. 
 
Master 9 has been here on headfi for a while now and some comparisons were done here before, even between the famous GSX MK2 and M9. 
 
 
Until iFi ICan Pro I couldn't recommend any other amplifier at a similar price except Master  9 ( I found it quite better than the moon 430 for example which is more than twice the price) .
 
 
Quote:

   
Hi all. Our senior guys know Dan and he is a great guy/reviewer. At the end of the day, audio is subjective and so we are absolutely over the moon with Dan's review. All good here! 

Thank you for the kind words. Congrats for releasing an awesome product!
 
Btw, any plans to release a speaker amplifier with specs like that?

 

[iFi audio]

As many of you have already seen, we have some VERY exciting products in the works for our Pro line.
 
But we have more to be excited about for RMAF 2016! 
 

 

[bluesaint]

  As many of you have already seen, we have some VERY exciting products in the works for our Pro line.
 
But we have more to be excited about for RMAF 2016! 
 

So still no iDSD Pro?  Can you guys shed any light on iDSD Pro?