[qsk78]

That is tested two ways with the same result, seems the Gryphon 4.4 setting is the same as high on the seperate 4.4mm IEMatch and the ultra setting is presumably 12db higher attenuation.

Thank you. Good to know!

 

[Thorsten Loesch]

However, take care that there is a difference between the input and output impedances between the various IE-MATCH models and change the attenuation between the HIGH and ULTRA settings:

	IEMATCH+	IEMATCH 2.5	IEMATCH 4.4
Male connector	3.5mm S-Balanced (*)	2.5mm TRRS balanced	4.4mm pentaconn balanced
Female connector	3.5mm S-Balanced (*)	2.5mm TRRS balanced	4.4mm pentaconn balanced
High:
Input impedance	16 ohm	16 ohm	40 ohm
Output impedance	2.5 ohm	2.5 ohm	8.4 ohm
Attenuation	12 dB	12 dB	12 dB
Ultra:
Input impedance	16 ohm	16 ohm	50 ohm
Output impedance	1 ohm	1 ohm	3.6 ohm
Attenuation	24 dB	24 dB	24 dB

https://www.audioreviews.org/ifi-iematch-must-have/

Woah, whoever designed the 4.4mm version (not me, I did the first two and the iEMatch Lite [aka "ear buddy"]) did not really understand the design and aims. That's a lot of added output impedance that makes the 4.4mm iEMatch fairly unusable with many IEM's, as the tonality will change a lot. Why ON EARTH would they do something like that?

The output impedance should have been ~ 3 Ohm for "High" and ~ 1 Ohm for "Ultra" with correct design.

Thor

 

[Ferdinando1968]

Woah, whoever designed the 4.4mm version (not me, I did the first two and the iEMatch Lite [aka "ear buddy"]) did not really understand the design and aims. That's a lot of added output impedance that makes the 4.4mm iEMatch fairly unusable with many IEM's, as the tonality will change a lot. Why ON EARTH would they do something like that?

The output impedance should have been ~ 3 Ohm for "High" and ~ 1 Ohm for "Ultra" with correct design.

Thor

In the article I linked it is written:

IEMatch 4.4 is intended to be used it with high(er) powered balanced-ended AMPs.
The much higher (up to 50 ohm vs 16 ohm) impedance it presents to the source will force the AMP to work at a higher “volume” level, thus at a higher voltage.

On the flip side IEMatch 4.4 offers a minimum output impedance of 3.6 ohm (significantly higher then its siblings' 1 ohm)

Could this be the explanation?

 

[Thorsten Loesch]

In the article I linked it is written:

IEMatch 4.4 is intended to be used it with high(er) powered balanced-ended AMPs.
The much higher (up to 50 ohm vs 16 ohm) impedance it presents to the source will force the AMP to work at a higher “volume” level, thus at a higher voltage.

On the flip side IEMatch 4.4 offers a minimum output impedance of 3.6 ohm (significantly higher then its siblings' 1 ohm)

Could this be the explanation?

Based on "What I would have done, if I had designed the balanced 4.4mm iEMatch, to the same design targets I used when I designed the others" - No.

And the design targets I used for the original iEMatch have been proven in practice for many years.

Of course, iFi is free to design whatever they want, with whatever design targets they like, it's just an "IEM Matcher" (the meaning of iEMatch) with nearly 10 Ohm output impedance will not work well with most IEM's, making the product name a bit of an oxymoron.

Thor

 

[rlw6534]

Based on "What I would have done, if I had designed the balanced 4.4mm iEMatch, to the same design targets I used when I designed the others" - No.

And the design targets I used for the original iEMatch have been proven in practice for many years.

Of course, iFi is free to design whatever they want, with whatever design targets they like, it's just an "IEM Matcher" (the meaning of iEMatch) with nearly 10 Ohm output impedance will not work well with most IEM's, making the product name a bit of an oxymoron.

Thor

If someone really needs IEMatch for a balanced connection, they should probably rethink why they are using balanced in the first place... as opposed to single-ended...

 

[Thorsten Loesch]

If someone really needs IEMatch for a balanced connection, they should probably rethink why they are using balanced in the first place... as opposed to single-ended...

Good point. Balanced outputs are inherently more noisy than SE.

However with low impedance IEM's the contact and cable resistance for "GND" becomes material and can cause excessive crosstalk.

Ideally there would be a way to use a single ended amplifier but balanced wiring and connectors.

It is trivial to make a portable amplifier than can produce 10V RMS into high impedance headphones and can offer -120dBV noise at low gain settings.

This can cover 130dB/1V IEM's giving with 10dB absolute noise levels and to drive AKG K1000 to 107dB peak SPL (2dB louder than THX maximum SPL), so nothing else should be needed to cover this.

Thor

 

[iMemphis]

Over 200 pages.. Has anyone paired the iFi xDSD Gryphon with the 64 audio U12T? Was looking to pick up both as a pair and wanted to see what others experiences were with it.

 

[jjazzy]

Over 200 pages.. Has anyone paired the iFi xDSD Gryphon with the 64 audio U12T? Was looking to pick up both as a pair and wanted to see what others experiences were with it.

They are both nice devices but listening will tell

 

[petyasb]

I use a phone Huawei P30 Pro EMUI 11. ifi Gryphon I connect with HWA codec - Dolby Atmos automatically turns on on the phone, I have to turn it off manually - what causes it to turn on? How to avoid this?
I have had many Bluetooth receivers, including ifi Go Blu - Dolby Atmos did not turn on by itself when device gets connected.

ifi support wrote:

It won't be the Gryphon that's turning on Dolby Atmos unfortunately it's your phone. We have had similar issues with the Xiaomi Mi 12 Pro however the phone corrected itself and stopped turning on automatically once we turned it off once manually. I am unsure what settings your phone may need to change to get this stop.

Anybody have any ideas how to solve the issue?

 

[gikigill]

Over 200 pages.. Has anyone paired the iFi xDSD Gryphon with the 64 audio U12T? Was looking to pick up both as a pair and wanted to see what others experiences were with it.

Not u12t but with the u18t, Z1R and Lola it's brilliant.

 

[iMemphis]

Not u12t but with the u18t, Z1R and Lola it's brilliant.

Any specific reason why not the u12t?

 

[gikigill]

Any specific reason why not the u12t?

Like the u18t better.

 

[MickBenjamins]

Ahh, so this is where the Gryphon thread is! I tried searching for 'gryphon' in the portable headphone amp section, and was confused why there was no dedicated topic for it

 

[povidlo]

just wanted to comment that iematch works well with easy-to-drive headphones too, not just with iems! had a sesh with ie900 with gryphon in amp mode, everything . next up, th900 sounded off. the only change i made was turning off 4.4 iematch. back on and everything sounds groovy again!

 

[Mr BubbaHyde]

just wanted to comment that iematch works well with easy-to-drive headphones too, not just with iems! had a sesh with ie900 with gryphon in amp mode, everything . next up, th900 sounded off. the only change i made was turning off 4.4 iematch. back on and everything sounds groovy again!

Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts!

Much appreciated!

Cheers!!