[audiocraze]

Whathifi review is out.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/ifi-idsd-pro

“good rather than great”. According to whathifi Hugo 2 sounds better and costs £700 less.

That’s a crashing although 4 star review. I’m a little disappointed by the review as it seems whathifi’s chord love affair is so obvious. But then again, this is a passion and not science. I must say I do love my ifi Pro iDSD in the current setup with mcintosh amp and lcd4. But I also agree that leaving out the head amp , improving stiffness of switches and reducing wobbly ness of dials , reducing the price to Hugo 2 or below levels would help the Pro iDSD compete.

Nuff’ Moaning! Time to enjoy music!

 

[youurayy]

Whathifi review is out.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/ifi-idsd-pro

“good rather than great”. According to whathifi Hugo 2 sounds better and costs £700 less.

That’s a crashing although 4 star review. I’m a little diappointed by the review as it seems the chord love affair is so obvious. But then again, this is a passion and not science. I must say I do love my ifi Pro iDSD in the current setup with mcintosh amp and lcd4. But I also agree that leaving out the head amp , improving stiffness of switches and reducing wobbly ness of dials , reducing the price to Hugo 2 or below levels would help the Pro iDSD compete.

Nuff’ Moaning! Time to enjoy music!

Don't know man, my Hugo 2 is collecting dust. Aside of constant overheating issues, the sound is just too artificially plastic, and also somewhat lifeless. Something like the refresh rate enhancers the modern TVs have - this interpolation makes the movie smooth, but also imprecise/weird (e.g. the lip movement is weird when people speak, because the edge keyframes are interpolated wrongly - no way to be guessed correctly).

Also (in my experience - and I own 2 units*) iDSD's switches aren't stiff, and the software is without issues. (Apart from that MQA false advertising lol, but that's supposedly coming.)

*1x idsd pro + Audio Zenith PMx2 on a silver cable, 1x idsd + ican pro + Utopia, all xlr, silver balanced. The PMx2 setup is so good that the Utopia setup isn't actually better, but different.

 

[gordec]

Whathifi has always shown clear bias toward Chord. I had Qutest for a few months, and the Pro iDSD walks all over the Qutest. Not sure what they are hearing but maybe their ears are tuned for Chord.

 

[tonyo442]

[QUOTE = "gordec, post: 14549933, member: 42085"] Whathifi a toujours montré un parti pris évident pour Chord. J'ai eu Qutest pendant quelques mois et le Pro iDSD parcourt le Qutest. Pas sûr de ce qu'ils entendent mais peut-être que leurs oreilles sont à l'écoute pour Chord. [/ QUOTE]
la publicité est formidable, ........ beaucoup achètent par le biais de la publicité, et non de la musique, ........ plus pour faire fonctionner les modèles les plus courants, il est nécessaire que les adaptateurs, et tous ces adaptateurs perdent de la micro information, ..

 

[iFi audio]

(Apart from that MQA false advertising lol, but that's supposedly coming.)

You just wait...

Whathifi review is out.

https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/ifi-idsd-pro

“good rather than great”. According to whathifi Hugo 2 sounds better and costs £700 less.

Nuff’ Moaning! Time to enjoy music!

We take all critic and comparisons on the chin. All good!

Besides:

 

[audiocraze]

“You just wait... “

@iFi audio this being a public space where fans of your products are discussing their experience, would it not be more respectful to respond to the statement of “false advertisement” with a more serious tone? It’s not a funny one when your fans are hinting that they feel mislead.

What’s the MQA story? Why the wrong description in the iDSD Pro documentation: “The Pro iDSD is a flagship, hence it has MQA decoding on-board for the maximum quality of playback, be it on MQA music files or streaming.”

You need to take this sentiment more seriously guys. It’s not a joke topic. Trust is all any good company can ever get from their customers.

 

[audiocraze]

Innerfidelity loves the iDSD Pro: “At $2,500 USD the Pro iDSD is not cheap, but driving the Mr. Speakers Ether 2 was one of my show listening highlights.”

Read more at https://www.innerfidelity.com/conte...-both-ends-price-spectrum#zEf4FjOrG40VYocD.99

Take that whathifi! Seems like ifi is more loved in the US than at home in the UK

 

[Currawong]

Since I have both here, I reckon both can sound great. I found that the best results for me were had using the iUSB 3.0 direct to the Hugo 2, or via a Singxer F1 to the coax input of the Pro iDSD.

 

[audiocraze]

Since I have both here, I reckon both can sound great. I found that the best results for me were had using the iUSB 3.0 direct to the Hugo 2, or via a Singxer F1 to the coax input of the Pro iDSD.

Thank you! Which settings do you prefer? I know you liked the GTO filter. What do you think about DSD upsampling and tube / tube+ modes? I think it depends on headphones used, with utopia one will prefer other settings then with for example LCD4. Would be good to get your views.

 

[XSAMURAI]

edited...

 

[iFi audio]

@iFi audio this being a public space where fans of your products are discussing their experience, would it not be more respectful to respond to the statement of “false advertisement” with a more serious tone?

We honestly feel that a joke once in a while is not bad at all. Also the 'false advertisement' bit is not factually correct as we stated very early on that MQA on our Pro iDSD will arrive as a free FW upgrade. Hardware to fully handle this functionality is already there. Nothing's changed.

It’s not a funny one when your fans are hinting that they feel mislead.

And we feel their pain, but we work on this very hard to deliver as soon as we can, just as we've said we would.

What’s the MQA story? Why the wrong description in the iDSD Pro documentation: “The Pro iDSD is a flagship, hence it has MQA decoding on-board for the maximum quality of playback, be it on MQA music files or streaming.”

This description is correct as hardware wise Pro iDSD is capable to fully decode it. But as above, we've said that MQA will happen a bit later on as a free FW upgrade. We've been very open about this matter since day one.

You need to take this sentiment more seriously guys. It’s not a joke topic. Trust is all any good company can ever get from their customers.

Constantly working on MQA we feel that we take this matter as seriously as possible. We promised to have this functionality ready and we'll deliver as soon as we can. But a joke here or there honestly doesn't hurt.

 

[iFi audio]

Also folks, let us point your attention towards this xCAN space...

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ifi-audio-xcan-the-official-thread.891479/#post-14553964

 

[youurayy]

Also folks, let us point your attention towards this xCAN space...

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/ifi-audio-xcan-the-official-thread.891479/#post-14553964

first thing that came to my mind was: "iFi, you should really get into the headphone business now."
and then I was like, wait...

 

[Currawong]

Thank you! Which settings do you prefer? I know you liked the GTO filter. What do you think about DSD upsampling and tube / tube+ modes? I think it depends on headphones used, with utopia one will prefer other settings then with for example LCD4. Would be good to get your views.

If you're referring to my video, I had the filters confused. It's interesting trying the different filters. For example, I understand now why many people feel apodising filters sound good as the one in the Pro iDSD makes vocals and instruments sound more like what we imagine them to be. However, playing the 96k Decca recording of Julia Fischer - Sarasate in Bit Perfect mode also sounds quite natural. GTO sounds a bit flatter in presentation and the Transient Aligned filter is super-precise and seems to extract the most detail (by the slimmest of margins). Switching to DSD up-sampling, I get more of a sense of space as the notes from the violin seem to echo slightly, but I'm not sure if this is real (ie: background detail) or artificial. It's enjoyable to listen to though.

 

[Rob N]

The What Hi-Fi criticism of the controls and the crash was IMO fairly minor, most of these mags have their favoured brands