As for me, still in review phase. I will explain more later, but since I first was converted and "saw/heard" the light at my first ever high end audio store in 2006, (the system was an entry level SimAudio integrated solid state amp, entry level Sim CD player, and the glorious Von Schweikert VR-4 Jr speakers wired with Analysis Plus oval cables), I was DUMBFOUNDED how good reproduced audio could actually sound. I eventually saved the 4 grand to buy that pair of speakers, but chose to pair it with clearance deals on Conrad Johnson Separates.. MV60SE amp and PV15 pre. WOW. There is a certain nirvana like experience where you are no longer listening to sounds and notes and technical details. You find your mind transcended about all that and all that there is is the music, and what feels like a direct, telepathic like connection with it. Its difficult to explain, but you know it when you hear it. Its a difficult rabbit hole to track down, and at least at the time the price of admission was formidable.
6 years ago I thought I would maximize my $$$$ and go for the best headphone listening can offer. I think I may have felt that familiar old feeling of musical nirvana from back in 2006 a few times here and there. Certainly have heard some very impressive technical feats. But the biggest compliment I can give the iFi iDSD Pro, and this is before I have even started the review, i have found myself once again trancended in some nirvana like way where the equipment, the format, whatever is just out of the way and no longer a factor. I am caught in the exstacy that is the music, where I can listen for hours, with jaw dropped at the pure musical connection and communication that is coming through.
The iFi iDSD is making these moments many, many times over compared to any other DAC I have put in any headphone system I have configured since 2014.
Actually one might think an in depth review is no longer necessary after that statement. No, that not the case, but, it is the highest of compliment I can give a piece of gear.
I just WANT to listen to it. Over and over and over. 5 hour sessions feel like 5 minutes. Time suspends. Yeah, its almost metaphysical crap I am talking now but I am not ashamed or afraid of the ridicule to come from the "measurements over all else" oppressors. Probably going to get a few PM's that tell me I am 'full of $hit' and then they run. Yes, that happens believe it or not.
Thankfully now I am much more confident in both me ears and in what I know. Still very much a layman when it comes to the technology, but what I do know has comes from countless hours of research and lots and lots of questions answered by engineers from several top audio companies.
One thing I really can't figure out, though, is how the hell Stereophile has this as a class B component. Respectable, yes. But there is stuff on the class A and class A+ list that just do NOT deserve to be above the iFi. As good as some of these new Pro-ject ESS based DACs are and as good a value as they are, there is NO WAY they are an A+ component compared to this.
I have lost a lot of faith in the big boy magazines. (Sans Paul Miller's stuff. He seems to get it) More and more it is clear you just need to listen to what your ears say. Too bad the audition process these days denies that kind of potential buyer connection one had with the specialty brick and mortar stores where you could set back and experience yourself first, unbiased by some quirk in the notoriously difficult to configure Audio Precision stuff)
So to end this bit more than a 'teaser' review than planned, just remember ears over what your eyes read about someone else's measurement equipment.
