[dharmasteve]

So I've had the iFi hip-dac a while now and can speak a little of it. Charged it fully and left it switched off for two and a half days, when I returned to it and switched it on the charge light was still white, so the loss of charge was negligible. I left it on the next morning, without use, and by the evening the charge light was red, so make sure to turn it off when not using it or the battery will drain quickly. My usual source is the HiBy R5 4.4mm balanced. The iFi hip-dac is clearly an upgrade in sound over the R5, but the R5 is still one of the better DAPs and has very good MSEB equalisation. The Burr Brown sound is as I remember it from previous HiFi, very listenable and NOT bright, but full of clarity, mild warmth, and big musicality. When needed the bass boost is the most appropriate and functional I have heard. In use at home I use the blue cable as an extension to USB C cable to the phone as using the hip-dac can be clumsy, and tight in space. On my Android phones, a Samsung S9 plus and an LG V30 I use UAPP, but couldn't understand why I could not get Magenta MQA lighting up from Tidal or UAPP. Someone on this thread kindly pointed out there is a 'pay for' MQA add on in UAPP and after buying it, and setting everything to 'Bit Perfect', lo and behold.....MQA magenta light works and sounds great, but only through UAPP on my phones. Not sure if I will migrate from Amazon HD to Tidal MQA (for a reason). From my Windows 10 Laptop I get the Magenta MQA by only needing to install the iFi hip-dac PC driver. Amazon HD sounds great too from the hip-dac. Battery life using high gain 4.4mm is not great, but good enough for me not be bothered measuring it (I'll get round to it)......the sound is so good. I recommend this over any dongle as the sound is delicious. For the older amongst us who know the Burr Brown sound, the hip-dac will be just up your alley.

 

[iFi audio]

So I've had the iFi hip-dac a while now and can speak a little of it. Charged it fully and left it switched off for two and a half days, when I returned to it and switched it on the charge light was still white, so the loss of charge was negligible. I left it on the next morning, without use, and by the evening the charge light was red, so make sure to turn it off when not using it or the battery will drain quickly. My usual source is the HiBy R5 4.4mm balanced. The iFi hip-dac is clearly an upgrade in sound over the R5, but the R5 is still one of the better DAPs and has very good MSEB equalisation. The Burr Brown sound is as I remember it from previous HiFi, very listenable and NOT bright, but full of clarity, mild warmth, and big musicality. When needed the bass boost is the most appropriate and functional I have heard. In use at home I use the blue cable as an extension to USB C cable to the phone as using the hip-dac can be clumsy, and tight in space. On my Android phones, a Samsung S9 plus and an LG V30 I use UAPP, but couldn't understand why I could not get Magenta MQA lighting up from Tidal or UAPP. Someone on this thread kindly pointed out there is a 'pay for' MQA add on in UAPP and after buying it, and setting everything to 'Bit Perfect', lo and behold.....MQA magenta light works and sounds great, but only through UAPP on my phones. Not sure if I will migrate from Amazon HD to Tidal MQA (for a reason). From my Windows 10 Laptop I get the Magenta MQA by only needing to install the iFi hip-dac PC driver. Amazon HD sounds great too from the hip-dac. Battery life using high gain 4.4mm is not great, but good enough for me not be bothered measuring it (I'll get round to it)......the sound is so good. I recommend this over any dongle as the sound is delicious. For the older amongst us who know the Burr Brown sound, the hip-dac will be just up your alley.

Thanks a ton for your feedback, highly entertaining!

 

[minimalist82]

Hi guys,

Joining the party here, I have been loving the Hip Dac for a few weeks now. I'm a Zen Dac owner and it is great to have something with a similar sound for portable use.

I'm using mostly with my AKG N5005 and it sounds great. I was connecting to 4.4 balanced with an adapter, but I found it just a little too loud for the AKGs. I had the volume pot really low and was experiencing channel imbalance. I have now switched to a 3.5mm balanced adapter to take advantage of the S-Balanced circuitry of the Hipdac and this is much better. the volume pot is now well away from the area of channel imbalance.



I absolutely love the colour and look of the product, but I'm interested in finding a nice case to protect it. I've seen the Miter leather case and it looks great, but has anyone found any other options?

Cheers all.

 

[iFi audio]

Hi guys,

Joining the party here, I have been loving the Hip Dac for a few weeks now. I'm a Zen Dac owner and it is great to have something with a similar sound for portable use.

I'm using mostly with my AKG N5005 and it sounds great. I was connecting to 4.4 balanced with an adapter, but I found it just a little too loud for the AKGs. I had the volume pot really low and was experiencing channel imbalance. I have now switched to a 3.5mm balanced adapter to take advantage of the S-Balanced circuitry of the Hipdac and this is much better. the volume pot is now well away from the area of channel imbalance.

Thanks and I'm happy to read that you managed to go beyond early channel imbalance, good stuff

Miter

That's the one I wanted to suggest, looks very cool!

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Hi guys,

Joining the party here, I have been loving the Hip Dac for a few weeks now. I'm a Zen Dac owner and it is great to have something with a similar sound for portable use.

I'm using mostly with my AKG N5005 and it sounds great. I was connecting to 4.4 balanced with an adapter, but I found it just a little too loud for the AKGs. I had the volume pot really low and was experiencing channel imbalance. I have now switched to a 3.5mm balanced adapter to take advantage of the S-Balanced circuitry of the Hipdac and this is much better. the volume pot is now well away from the area of channel imbalance.



I absolutely love the colour and look of the product, but I'm interested in finding a nice case to protect it. I've seen the Miter leather case and it looks great, but has anyone found any other options?

Cheers all.

If you're cool with waiting, keep an eye out from us sometime in March! We may have something coming out around then that may answer your questions

Glad you're loving the hip-dac so far and thanks for posting up!

 

[Edyeded86]

In order to get full MQA playback on cell phones, you need to buy the paid version of UAPP as well as the paid MQA add-on. I don't have a hip-dac (yet), but this is what I had to do to get the proper magenta light to illuminate on my Hilidac Audirect Atom Pro when playing Tidal Masters tracks.

Does this mean that music played through Tidal (that isn't turning magenta) is coming through as MQA, unless the UAPP is used?

 

[jkwanness]

Does this mean that music played through Tidal (that isn't turning magenta) is coming through as MQA, unless the UAPP is used?

yup.. you need to buy uapp for pure MQA to hipdac

 

[Taz777]

On the MQA thing, it's a bit hit and miss when it comes to Android phones with the iFi hip dac - depending on the version of the TIDAL app and whether or not your phone has native MQA decoding (e.g. some of the LG phones with quad-DAC). In most cases you'll need UAPP with MQA add-on (the latter if you don't have an MQA-enabled phone). When it comes to iPhones, I get MQA from my iPhone to iFi Hip Dac using just the TIDAL app and a CCK cable for most Masters tracks, but not all.

 

[Edyeded86]

Makes sense!

I also have the earman sparrow and it would never turn magenta!!

I bought the UAPP and MQA extension, and lo and behold - magenta works now.

The UAPP interface sucks b@l!s though!! There's no easy way to add to exisitng tidal playlists...

 

[dharmasteve]

Makes sense!

I also have the earman sparrow and it would never turn magenta!!

I bought the UAPP and MQA extension, and lo and behold - magenta works now.

The UAPP interface sucks b@l!s though!! There's no easy way to add to exisitng tidal playlists...

I played my existing playlists through UAPP interface Tidal. Tidal though on UAPP was too clunky for me on Android..... so I binned it. Magenta MQA did sound better than Amazon, but I find the Amazon app much easier to use so reverted back to Amazon.

 

[Edyeded86]

Guys,

Needs some help please.

So I've got magenta working on my hip dac (just received) by playing through UAPP, but for some reason, when I plug into my laptop (XPS 13 - Windows 10 Pro), I'm not getting magenta..only green?

I've checked on my Tidal app and it is set to Master? Anyone know what I need to do here?

 

[jkwanness]

Guys,

Needs some help please.

So I've got magenta working on my hip dac (just received) by playing through UAPP, but for some reason, when I plug into my laptop (XPS 13 - Windows 10 Pro), I'm not getting magenta..only green?

I've checked on my Tidal app and it is set to Master? Anyone know what I need to do here?

Go to ifi's website.. theres some extra software/drivers you need to install to get mqa with windows..

 

[Edyeded86]

Thanks!

I'm now having another issue..

Suddenly, the hip dac is not recognised on my laptop!!! it was working earlier?

Still woks on my phone though??!!??

Saw something online that said i should use a 2.0 port? but I only have 3.0 on my laptop?

HELP!!

 

[Sebastien Chiu]

Thanks!

I'm now having another issue..

Suddenly, the hip dac is not recognised on my laptop!!! it was working earlier?

Still woks on my phone though??!!??

Saw something online that said i should use a 2.0 port? but I only have 3.0 on my laptop?

HELP!!

Can you describe your issue a little further? Any error messages? It might be something a PC related if your phone is still working.

USB 2.0 or 3.0 should not matter.

 

[Edyeded86]

Can you describe your issue a little further? Any error messages? It might be something a PC related if your phone is still working.

USB 2.0 or 3.0 should not matter.

Thanks Sebastian. I messed around with it for a while, and it seems to be workifn again.

On a side note, bad anyone noticed a difference between the 3.5 and 4.4 inputs?