[iFi audio]

 

[iFi audio]

iFi audio – The 2018 Summary
It’s been quite the year…

Dear community,

2018 is coming to an end and we’ve decided to use this occasion to share with all of you good people a word or two. Many of our product ideas were developed from what you had to say, so we’re extremely grateful for your support. You’re the fuel to our fire, thank you!

The end of the year is also a good time to summarize what we were able to achieve in the last 12 months. Without further ado, here’s what we did:

Hardware

• March – xDSD



Before this product came to be, we knew that we had to develop something very different from what we’d done before. We thought about many things – toasters with built-in speakers, a wind-up DAC for use in the dessert…only kidding! We aimed for a portable device with wireless functionality as good as a wired connection, improved volume control and a new look. Suffice to say, we strongly believe that with xDSD we were able to deliver on all counts. The toaster has had to wait!

• May - Pro iDSD



The Pro iDSD is the most ambitious and complex product of ours to date. It started many years ago as a rather simple machine, but the more time passed, the more advanced it became. After years of suffering (and here we mean both ours AND yours, just take poor Curtis as an example), the Pro iDSD eventually came into being as a state-of-the-art desktop platform loaded with so many features that it's far easier to list things it doesn't do! Not only this, but the Pro iDSD also has A LOT in common with AMR's upcoming Diablo DAC. The former is actually a scaled down version of the latter and we're exceptionally proud of how it turned out.

• June - iFi OTG Cable



We released this item due to huge demand. It's reliable, affordable, looks sleek and there's no rocket science behind it. It does the job where it should. It's useful. Hey, if we're capable of delivering headphone amps and DACs, who said that we can't make a quality OTG cable? And nope, before anyone asks, we can’t make the equivalent Apple cable – if we could, we (and the rest of the world) surely would!!! Sadly, Apple don’t share the tech that we’d need to make one work. Would you, if you were Apple?

• June - DC iPurifier2



All our iPurifiers were developed to show that even a small and affordable item can really improve sound quality if backed by solid tech. The iPurifier2 is a step up over previous versions of this product, simply because our in-house developed circuitry got better over time. Practice makes perfect!

· July - iPurifier3.0



USB sorters have always been of utmost importance to us and the iPurifier3.0 shows our attitude towards these items. This product might look nothing like our nano or micro iUSB3.0 machines, but its roots are the very same. It was designed to audibly improve the USB interface and very positive feedback from you guys out there showed us that it does just that! Thank goodness!

• October – xCAN



Yet again X marked the spot in October! We really looked forward to releasing the xCAN. On the surface, it resembles our xDSD; they have similar set of features and they look very much alike, but the differences end there. Yes, each has finely implemented Bluetooth receiver, DAC and headphone amp in one neat enclosure BUT the xCAN is a portable and fully analogue amplifier above ALL else and its D/A conversion option is a cherry on top, whereas the xDSD - a DAC in the first place - is the exact opposite. Plus these two can work as a team and we have photographic evidence from you guys to prove it!

• November - Ear Plugs



This one you didn't expect, huh? Us neither. But then again, we like silence and it’s yet another way to give you guys a low noise floor! (Plus they can protect your ears from the squeaks of protest when your loved one finds out you’ve bought yet another piece of audio equipment!) We try to think of everything…

Software

• March - MQA firmware for all nano and micro products

This firmware was one of the most important things for us in 2018. We didn't want to include MQA functionality in just one or two products, we wanted to roll things out across all suitable iFi goods, even some discontinued models. Even though the 5.30 'Cookies & Cream' firmware has some limitations, this is the one to go after if you'd like to listen to MQA regardless of the iFi audio DAC you use.

• October - GTO filter firmware for all nano and micro products

The GTO filter was a tricky thing to develop, but in the end, it surely was worth the effort. To our ears it sounds amazing enough to surpass every other filter out there and we encourage everyone to give this one a try. Hey, it comes at nil cost, improves sound and if you don't like it, you can always use our previously released firmware. That's a win-win right there.

• November - Beta MQA firmware for the Pro iDSD

Fully operational MQA on our Pro iDSD took us a fair bit longer than expected for a reason. (Poor Curtis was turning in his grave!). The amount of work needed in order to have this signal fully decoded was nothing short of staggering. Everything had to be coded from scratch. Both our team and MQA's engineers were involved in this project and we're ecstatic that we were able to finally have this functionality ready. Enjoy!



Additionally, one thing we’re very proud of is that we were able to push our head of sales out of the UK office for well-deserved holiday. Blindfolded, the man was in shock and had no idea where he was transported. Since no laptops or comms with his team were allowed, after the adventure he told us that withdrawal shivers kicked in hard. But once he got off the plane and acknowledged he was in Iceland… Long story’s short, after this trip he returned as a new man. Even though he’s a good lad, we didn’t miss him at all but shhh…

 

[iFi audio]

Folks, 2019's playlist of ours, enjoy:

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

 

[bluesaint]

@iFi audio i just got the iESL today.. I'm still waiting for my HFM Jade II Estat, but for now I want to connect my Planar HE1000 V2 to the XLR4 output, how should I go about this?
I have the full Pro stack of: iDSD Pro, iCan Pro and now iESL. What are the settings I should start with?

 

[iFi audio]

@iFi audio i just got the iESL today.. I'm still waiting for my HFM Jade II Estat, but for now I want to connect my Planar HE1000 V2 to the XLR4 output, how should I go about this?
I have the full Pro stack of: iDSD Pro, iCan Pro and now iESL. What are the settings I should start with?

Do you want to use 4-pin XLR on your iESL or Pro iCAN?

 

[bluesaint]

Do you want to use 4-pin XLR on your iESL or Pro iCAN?

i want to connect to the 4pin XLR out on the iESL to try it out.

 

[bluesaint]

Waiting to connect...

 

[iFi audio]

Waiting to connect...

From Pro iDSD you go to iCAN, then from iCAN you can go via HDMI to iESL, on which you set input to iCAN and you're good to go. Or you can use your iCAN's 4-pin XLR headphone out.

 

[bluesaint]

From Pro iDSD you go to iCAN, then from iCAN you can go via HDMI to iESL, on which you set input to iCAN and you're good to go. Or you can use your iCAN's 4-pin XLR headphone out.

so on the iESL bias, impedance etc. doesn't do anything in this use case if i plug to the iESL's XLR headphone out?

 

[iFi audio]

so on the iESL bias, impedance etc. doesn't do anything in this use case if i plug to the iESL's XLR headphone out?

These knobs and settings are there to fine tune electrostats and nothing else. If you run a signal from Pro iCAN to Pro iESL to feed regular non-electrostatic headphones, then iESL works as Pro iCAN's extension. You can of course try and see which device's 4-pin XLR headphone out works the best for you, though we'd use the one on your Pro iCAN to shorten the signal path.

 

[bluesaint]

These knobs and settings are there to fine tune electrostats and nothing else. If you run a signal from Pro iCAN to Pro iESL to feed regular non-electrostatic headphones, then iESL works as Pro iCAN's extension. You can of course try and see which device's 4-pin XLR headphone out works the best for you, though we'd use the one on your Pro iCAN to shorten the signal path.

That's actually interesting recommendation that you'd suggest out of iCan.. From your own website:

Good news for your flagship dynamic headphones.

The iESL has an ear-tingling transformer coupled-stage that is not found in other energisers. And its audio performance is unsurpassed. So each and every flagship dynamic headphone when used through the iESL enjoys a whole new level of smoothness and airiness.

 

[iFi audio]

That's actually interesting recommendation that you'd suggest out of iCan.. From your own website:

Good news for your flagship dynamic headphones.

The iESL has an ear-tingling transformer coupled-stage that is not found in other energisers. And its audio performance is unsurpassed. So each and every flagship dynamic headphone when used through the iESL enjoys a whole new level of smoothness and airiness.

To precise, the iFi person who writes to you now is a subjective thus biased human being and having said this, he likes his planars directly from Pro iCAN's headphone out

Nonetheless you collected quite the stack so to investigate on your own what suits you the most sounds like a plan. You have options!

 

[kid vic]

That's actually interesting recommendation that you'd suggest out of iCan.. From your own website:

Good news for your flagship dynamic headphones.

The iESL has an ear-tingling transformer coupled-stage that is not found in other energisers. And its audio performance is unsurpassed. So each and every flagship dynamic headphone when used through the iESL enjoys a whole new level of smoothness and airiness.

No offense to you or iFi but it seems redundant to have both the iESL and the iCAN if your main use is going to be electrostatics and planars out of the 4-pin. I hate to say it but copywriters write these blurbs to sell things, if you go by the advertisements you'll spend a lot of money getting precisely the same house sound. I'm not saying that iFi doesn't make good products, I think they excel at exactly what they are designed for, however, it seems like you are using two products to do the exact same thing that are too closely related. I don't think the iCAN and the iESL were designed to compete with each other, more so to be (individually) the end all be all for someones amping needs. Still I'll be curious to see if you find the two sonically different comparing the balanced outs.

 

[bluesaint]

No offense to you or iFi but it seems redundant to have both the iESL and the iCAN if your main use is going to be electrostatics and planars out of the 4-pin. I hate to say it but copywriters write these blurbs to sell things, if you go by the advertisements you'll spend a lot of money getting precisely the same house sound. I'm not saying that iFi doesn't make good products, I think they excel at exactly what they are designed for, however, it seems like you are using two products to do the exact same thing that are too closely related. I don't think the iCAN and the iESL were designed to compete with each other, more so to be (individually) the end all be all for someones amping needs. Still I'll be curious to see if you find the two sonically different comparing the balanced outs.

huh? I'm only testing out the xlr 4 pin while waiting for my Electrostat cans to come in which at that point it won't be using the 4pin, but the PRO custom eStat output.

 

[iFi audio]

No offense to you or iFi but it seems redundant to have both the iESL and the iCAN if your main use is going to be electrostatics and planars out of the 4-pin.

These two are very different in how they work and with what products. iESL is an energizer and very good at that, thus can drive electrostatic headphones, whereas Pro iCAN is a more regular (though still unusual!) headphone amplifier. iESL can drive these as well and we provided it with 4-pin XLR out for regular headphones because we could include this extra feature, but again... it's an energizer. Plus, you can't drive e-stats out of iESL's 4-pin XLR.

I hate to say it but copywriters write these blurbs to sell things, if you go by the advertisements you'll spend a lot of money getting precisely the same house sound.

The so-called house sound is irrelevant here, on the contrary to functionality. iESL was designed to do things ouside of Pro iDSD's reach and these two aren't really comparable. Yes, they both are capable of driving regular headphones but in case of the iESL it's a side activity. E-stats are its main focus. Therefore for regular cans Pro iCAN is the way to go, but e-stats are iESL's turf.

I'm not saying that iFi doesn't make good products, I think they excel at exactly what they are designed for,

Thanks, we won't disagree

however, it seems like you are using two products to do the exact same thing that are too closely related.

Nope. As we've explained above, the two Pro range products differ in their main purpose, headphones they were meant to work with in the first place. But iESL able to drive headphones the Pro iCAN can happened just because we could iunclude this option in the former. It's an option one can investigate into if one wishes to.

I don't think the iCAN and the iESL were designed to compete with each other,

They don't, their main functionality is different.

more so to be (individually) the end all be all for someones amping needs. Still I'll be curious to see if you find the two sonically different comparing the balanced outs.

iESL has its own needs. It has to be biased either via a regular power amp, Pro iCAN or other amplifier with XLR outs juicy enough to provide 10V into 64 ohms.

-----------------------

One thing in one of our previous posts we got wrong, though. iESL is not just an extender for Pro iCAN. It allows one to fine tune regular headphones as well through impedance control which is active for them too. And the signal to 4-pin XLR passes through the transformer with either 1:1 or 2:1 stepdown, which impacts the sound.