[tiggers]

I am looking to get more into portable/desktop DAC/AMP setups now that I have stepped up and am enjoying my new 59X Sennheisers. I see that the TempoTec Sonata iDSD seems like a good buy for what it is (especially for the blackfriday price), but also spied the TempoTec Sonata iDSD Plus, for about twice the price, but wasn't able to find any reviews.

The regular TempoTec Sonata iDSD gets good reviews. But has anyone tried the TempoTec Sonata iDSD Plus? What are your impressions? I'm thinking the TempoTec Sonata iDSD (regular) is more than adequate for my portable/desktop needs, but willing to step up if the higher price warrants it.

 

[ZolaIII]

The TempoTec Sonata iDSD Plus is
a Hidizs HD1000 & their is plenty rewievs of it starting from hire.
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/hidizs-dh1000-sonata.22963/reviews
Both pack the same hardware (DAC & AMP) but Plus version pack's two DAC's & amp's & has 2.5 mm balanced line out along with 3.5 mm unbalanced one. While DAC is nothing to write back home anymore it's still good enough, on the other hand AMP is still a really good one when it comes to noise flor which makes it good choice for sensitive (efficient EMI's). The Sonata iDSD is good for up to 64 Ohm's while iDSD Plus should be good for up to 128 Ohm's over balanced output & advertised 80 Ohm's over unbalanced out (which depends if the second amp is employed it's true if not well then is just up to 64 Ohm's). SABRE9601 is rated at 75 mV @ 32 Ohm's but that also depends of current it's feed, it's safe to say it will deliver 50 mV which is universally the target hire & enough to adequately run any EMI's of this impedance. The DragonFly Red & Cobalt use the same amp. There ware production issue with Sonata iDSD Plus (first revision had an issue with condenser, second had with not properly soldered SA2000 FPGA) but those are safe to say ironed out. I am not aware if Sonata iDSD had any. I ordered myself a Sonata iDSD for singles day (11.11), same price as on the black Friday, still expecting its arrival. For the price (even regular one) their is nothing that even comes close to it, pair of good cable's cost almost that much. Then again it's important with what you want to pair it with. I will use it with mid sensitive Aurvanu Air (103 dB 32 Ohm's ) most of the time & I think it will be capable to decently enough push not so efficient Superlux Hd-668B (96 dB 64 Ohm's) but that's about how far it can go (hopefully). People use DAC's with SABRE9601 amp on really sensitive EMI's like Campfire Andromeda as it has SIND of 122 dB (Vendor reference) usually mentioned DragonFly's but Sonatas can only be better in that matter (even the iDSD has row of capacitors that also serve as self lo filter which isn't present on DragonFly's at all while iDSD Plus with it's balanced approach is enough to compensate to newer DAC on Cobalt also Sonata's use isolated battery power supply which is much better than direct USB power on DragonFly's).