[maricius]

Update. I retract my previous statement. With my new (well second-hand but well kept) Alpha Dog, Turbo with High Sensitivity has no distortion. Turbo with Ultra Sensitivity is like 40% distortion or something idk. I use either Normal with iEMatch turned off or Turbo at High Sensitivity for best sound quality. 

 

[technobear]

Well, I've just about had it. I reported earlier about some weird artifacts (clicking and popping noises). It went away for awhile but has now reappeared with a vengeance, in every mode, with every format except DSD, of which I have none.. Now it's accompanied by a dropout in preamplifier mode literally every minute (I timed it). It's the strangest thing. I've opened a ticket w/ ifi and I'll let you know. I'm pissed because I really like the sound and features of this thing when it's working properly. Now my Explorer and E07K sound better. 

Check the iFi driver setup dialog settings.

The 'USB Streaming Mode' should be 'Safe' or 'Extra Safe'.

I find an 'ASIO buffer Size' of 2048 samples is enough but you might need to increase it.

Most player software also has other buffer settings you can increase.

This sounds like a classic 'computer not keeping up' issue.

Edit: the iDSD must be 'on' and connected to get to this dialog it seems.

 

[kissmevn]

Just got the ifi micro idsd today. Out of the box, I hear a very big ss, good image, deep bass and sparkle high so It's good. But a small problem is the mid seems a little "distort" and "spikes" (not so smooth) on some tracks. Did anyone experience it like me?
An will it improve with burn in ?

 

[technobear]

Just got the ifi micro idsd today. Out of the box, I hear a very big ss, good image, deep bass and sparkle high so It's good. But a small problem is the mid seems a little "distort" and "spikes" (not so smooth) on some tracks. Did anyone experience it like me?
An will it improve with burn in ?

Yes and Yes.

It takes 200 hours.

Edit: the iDSD is not unusual in this regard. This applies to all modern microelectronics.

 

[maricius]

  Just got the ifi micro idsd today. Out of the box, I hear a very big ss, good image, deep bass and sparkle high so It's good. But a small problem is the mid seems a little "distort" and "spikes" (not so smooth) on some tracks. Did anyone experience it like me?
An will it improve with burn in ?

If you think it sounds good now… wooooooh… you're in for a treat once things settle down nicely.

 

[senorx12562]

Check the iFi driver setup dialog settings.

The 'USB Streaming Mode' should be 'Safe' or 'Extra Safe'.

I find an 'ASIO buffer Size' of 2048 samples is enough but you might need to increase it.

Most player software also has other buffer settings you can increase.

This sounds like a classic 'computer not keeping up' issue.

Edit: the iDSD must be 'on' and connected to get to this dialog it seems.

Thanks technobear.
 
This is the info I sent to ifi:
 
David,
 
Thank you for your prompt reply. I will answer your questions as best I can:
 
Sony Vaio laptopVPCF12AFM (

1. Intel® CoreTM i3-350M processor With a 3MB L3 cache and 2.26GHz processor speed.
2. 4GB DDR3 memory For multitasking power, expandable to 8GB.
3. Blu-ray Disc-enabled DVD±RW/CD-RW drive
4. 500GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
5. Stock
6. Playing through Music Bee and JRiver (I have both)
7. Using the blue usb cable that came with the unit
8. Sennheiser HD600-stock
9. Playing PCM (everything from 320 kbps MP3s to 24/96 and redbook FLAC files)
10. I don't have a usb OTG cable to try an android device, although playing the same files using my fiio x3 as transport> coaxial out> iDSD spdif in plays perfectly.
11. Device driver version: 2.20.0
12. Settings - usb streaming mode-minimum latency, ASIO buffer size 8192 samples. 
13. Firmware version: don't know where to find this, but tell me how if you still need it and I'll get it to you.
14. The clicking/popping noises are more prominent during quiet passages, but they are always present. The dropouts last .5-1 second, and happen exactly 1 minute apart 

 
Let me know what other info you might need. Thank you.
_____________________________________________
 
As you can see, technobear, my usb streaming mode and asio buffer size differ from your recomendations, but oddly, those settings have never been changed, and the device has worked perfectly most of the time. The noise has been intermittent, but the dropouts just started last night. I'm going to fool around with some settings, including technobear's suggestions and wait for a response from ifi. I'll update. Where do I find the driver setup dialog settings?
 
edit: I tried the suggested settings, no change.
 

 

[technobear]

[*][COLOR=333333]Settings - usb streaming mode-minimum latency, ASIO buffer size 8192 samples. [/COLOR]

This is your problem. Try a more relaxed USB Streaming Mode. I suggest 'Safe'.

 

[JootecFromMars]

This is your problem. Try a more relaxed USB Streaming Mode. I suggest 'Safe'.

Agree. I have the same issues with anything other than Safe and Extra Safe on my old Core 2 Duo based laptop. Safe was the default on mine so it looks like the setting has been changed.

Also note that the USB port you use may also be shared with something else on your laptop... Keyboard, trackpad, other USB port etc....

Edit: The latest USB driver is 2.23 I believe.

 

[technobear]

I just wanted to add a...

!! WOW !!



The iDSD and iCAN are really doing the business tonight on parts of my music collection I haven't visited for a while. I don't remember these tracks ever sounding this good before.

Thank you iFi Audio

 

[senorx12562]

This is your problem. Try a more relaxed USB Streaming Mode. I suggest 'Safe'.

Agree. I have the same issues with anything other than Safe and Extra Safe on my old Core 2 Duo based laptop. Safe was the default on mine so it looks like the setting has been changed.

Also note that the USB port you use may also be shared with something else on your laptop... Keyboard, trackpad, other USB port etc....

Edit: The latest USB driver is 2.23 I believe.

Tried both safe and extra safe, no change. And as I said, the device worked perfectly numerous times, and those settings have never been changed. That being the case, it would kind of defy logic if the settings that have never been changed are causing an intermittent fault (s). I will have to look into the latest driver though.

 

[technobear]

Hmmm. Puzzling. You are using a couple of heavyweight player applications there. You could try foobar2000. It uses far fewer resources.

Are there any buffers in JRiver or Music Bee that you could try increasing.

'Safe' has always been the default mode for the iFi driver as far as I'm aware unless iFi have changed it recently. I experimented with other modes and had problems with clicks so returned to 'Safe' on my low power laptop (Acer Aspire V11) and 'Reliable' on my Core i5 desktop.

 

[senorx12562]

I love music and am continuing to learn more about computer audio, here as well as other sites, but I am by no means an expert. I had foobar 2000 previously, and didn't find it very user-friendly. I like to tinker a little, but not unsuccessfully, and I found foobar to definitely not be plug and play Whereas both Music Bee and JRiver are just that, especially JRiver. Ironically I have a second PC with an i7 processor, 8gb of RAM. That one runs Music Bee only (I'm still demoing JRiver) and it does the same thing. I'll report back when I hear from ifi. Btw, so far I'm pretty impressed with their customer support. Makes me hope even more that they can help me, especially in light of how absolutely fantastic the sound and feature set is.

 

[technobear]

Could you try another USB cable with the adaptor, just to eliminate the blue cable. A poorly made cable can also cause these symptoms.

 

[BillsonChang007]

I set mine at Extra Safe and 8192 sample. No issue at all.

The 2.23 driver on some system, may not work such as my Window 7 32-bit but it works with my Windows 8.1 64-bit. In case the 2.23 driver install fail, use the 2.20 instead. It is just below the 2.23 download link on iFi Download

 

[diamondears]

I just wanted to add a...

!! WOW !!



The iDSD and iCAN are really doing the business tonight on parts of my music collection I haven't visited for a while. I don't remember these tracks ever sounding this good before.

Thank you iFi Audio

There's an improvement with the iCAN vs using the micro iDSD's amp section?