New iFi Zen DAC/amp for Tidal HiFi & Masters

@ChaChaRealSmooth @dncnexus that would be great!
I might need to correct myself on the "MQA filter is always on" point -- the page itself is quite ambiguous on whether it's on all the time or only when playing MQA (which I don't have access to, or care about, really).

I can confirm that after some A/B testing against my Fiio X5iii + Fiio A5, I can definitely hear what @ChaChaRealSmooth mentions as the "stage being moved upwards".

For now I think I'll hold off on further impressions while I recalibrate myself as I just swapped out the Magni 3 in my chain with a CTH.

 

@ChaChaRealSmooth @Kouon Just checked the firmware for this. It is on Version 5.30.

 

iFi Zen Dac Impressions

Big shout out to @ChaChaRealSmooth for letting be a part of this loaner program for this product.

Chain
iMac 5k -> iFi Zen Dac -> HD 6XX

I don't have much experience with all in ones (AIO) so I was doing this impressions coming from using my Asgard 3/Modius combo. I will disclose that I did not use this with MQA nor DSD, rather just Spotify with the highest quality. So my impressions could be far off depending on how different this unit sounds with those file formats. I decided to almost exclusively use this with my HD 6XX as I felt that this would be the most accurate headphone that I owned that would be used with this piece of equipment so I wanted to give an impression with the end user for this product in mind.

Build Quality
This was solidly built. You could tell that it was a budget product, mainly due to its 1/4 in input. There was a bit of wobble and the buttons were slightly mushy. The volume knob pretty nice and overall was something you would expect from this price range.

Power
I found this to be a bit weak in power. I had to go high gain and pump the HD 6XX to around 12:30/1:00 o'clock on the dial. This wasn't a huge deal but just know that this was noticeable. For more demanding cans this might be a problem, but for a lot of the headphone offerings in the price range that someone who would be buying this is at, it shouldn't be a real problem.

Bass
I found the bass to be pretty one note. It slammed but felt like I was missing some of the detail in the bass. I found the usage of the "TrueBass" to be a weak point. It felt like it muddied up the lower mids and sounded rather boomy. I preferred it turned off personally.

Midrange
The midrange was a bit lacking in emotional impact. I found vocals to sound a bit flat, with a squared off transients. Vocals seems to sit a bit further back in the mix, but just barely so.

Treble
Treble was a bit weird. It felt a bit bright and glaring at times. There was air in the treble region, but it seemed like it was a bit artificial. I didn't feel like it was naturally just there rather something that was superficially created. I did find the treble to be a bit grainy at times, but it wasn't that noticeable.

Soundstage
This is where the iFi Zen Dac really fell behind for me. The Zen Dac has an okay sized stage in terms of width. I felt like I was not far outside of my ears. Where soundstage really fell was in the depth. Everything felt like it was right in between my ears. There was no depth to the stage. With the Asgard 3 I felt that the sound was coming from alittle in front of my face, but this brings that sound and places it right inside of my dome.

Dynamics
The Zen Dac felt compressed in a way. The dynamics were lacking in the sense that I didn't feel like there was much macro nor micro dynamics. It was about what you would expect from an amp in this price range.

Imaging/Layering
Nothing really to note here. It did okay, not the greatest but not bad. I felt that it fell behind compared to the Modius in this regard.

Detail
This was pretty good with detail retrieval. It might be due to the elevated highs and slightly more air than the Asgard 3 but I did feel it did performed well in terms of detail retrieval.

Conclusion
Overall I found this to be a pretty solid offering for the price. For $130 you are getting a pretty solid DAC/Amp. While it was not as good as my Modius/Asgard 3 combo, it really is almost 1/4th of the price. I think anybody who is trying to get into this hobby and want a solid product for their headphones, this should be in the discussion with the other budget options recommended such as the Magni/Modi combo.

 

I'll also chime in, big thanks to @iFi audio for a few reasons, mostly for really nailing this product imo

As far as how I listened... I ran USB out of my Galaxy Tab S4 with USB Audio Player Pro Bit Perfect into Zen Dac. Zen Dac it self was powered via the iFi iPower 5V and I used the 4.4mm output. For music I went through the Chesky The Ultimate Demonstration Disc in 16/44.1 lossless. I also thumbed around Tidal for a spell to make sure the MQA function worked and it did.

Rebecca Pidgeon's Spanish Harlem & Taylor Livingston's Grandma's Hands were the tracks that I paid close attention to.

Bass & Lower Frequencies
6.5mm out was noticeably soft and excessively round in the lows, there's a meaty kinda thud present with each snap in Grandma's Hands a real "meat on the bones" kinda quick transient. With the 6.5mm output it was hard to discern the quick but impactful feeling of that SNAP... the snap it self simply had added body but no real impact.

4.4mm BAL brought it back, just the slightest but discernible tactile sensation. As if there was some one snapping there fingers a few feet from me.

With Spanish Harlem the 6.5mm out gave me a lot of the reverb in the double bass, but again I was missing some of that slight tactile string/fret action. The gentle but discernible tactile force behind the instrument, very much I felt the leading edge of each pluck was too soft. Switching into the 4.4mm BAL brought it back,

Vocals & Mid-Range
With vocals I will admit I sometimes enjoyed the softness of the 6.5mm out tho there was a noticeable lack of depth to the staging, and again the 4.4mm BAL brought it back. Just a slight but discernible sense of depth to the sound presented within the capture'd space.

The some what forward/shallow sound of the 6.5mm out did strip some of the real magic behind recordings that purposefully capture and utilize the room acoustics of the spaces there recorded in. Track #23 featuring the Westminster Choir performing Festival Te Deum is one such example.

The same can be said for the Presence Track, Ask me Now with McCoy Tyner & Joe Henderson, a lot of the faster tactile action that can be felt from the pressing of each of the valves is lost on the 6.5mm. But to my ears with the 4.4mm BAL that action's tactility becomes ever so slightly discernible.

Concluding Thoughts
Just overall I felt the 4.4mm BAL out was a stronger performance with deeper staging and better transient or micro detail resolve. 6.5mm was a bit too soft and kind flat, not consistently engaging for my tastes.

Regarding the Line outs I did find feeding into something like the JDS Labs Atom was an improvement over the native Zen Dac 6.5mm out. However aside from having more power, I did not feel the Atom eclipsed Zen DACs 4.4mm BAL output. An for my listening needs on 4.4mm BAL I did not go much past 1:00

While I will admit the Zen Dac 4.4mm isn't quite as detailed or resolving as even the Modius XLR into my Loxjie P20 XLR OUT [w/Upgraded Tubes GE 5670W, Upgraded iFi 12V PSU] it's not too far behind. Tho I do feel Zen DAC 4.4mm BAL out was a step above Modi 3 & Atom as well as a step above feeding Zen DAC single ended line out into the Topping L30.

However the price as tested for me was $130+$50[iPower 5V]+$50[4.4mmCable] so a total of $220. An without getting too deep into Cable Talk I did find that there are a variety of HD 600/650 4.4mm Pentaconn cables available for around $50, for my review I did use the ZMF Atmos C re-terminated to HD 600 with an OCC Copper 4pin XLR to 4.4mm.

Still for $230 with Tidal Master Support, SE and BAL Line outs and a rather attractive and tidy form factor I'd say it's an excellent combo unit that compared well again'st similarly priced stacks in my office.

I would be curious to see how it stacks up again'st something like Modi 3 Magni 3 as well as do some listening with the Balanced Line Out via a 4.4mm to dual 3pin XLR so hopefully I can re-visit exactly that in the future



Also @Kouon Zen Dac is not an AKM implimentation. It's a Texas Instruments Burr Brown so a think it's one of their PCM Series chips. No idea which tho, still I've come to really enjoy iFi implementation of the Burr Brown chips. However the Burr Browns can sound syrupy and sluggish in some implementations kinda like some AKM "Velvet" implementations

 

I'm aware of this fact. The AKM4490 DACs I were comparing the Zen to was my old Fulla 2 and my Fiio X5iii, and I've noticed a common iFi "house sound" (I auditioned a iDSD Micro BL back in the day) that I do enjoy. To be precise, iFi is using the DSD1793 from Texas Instruments as their DAC of choice across their lineup.

The pairing of my CTH and Zen DAC as DAC has been working so well and taking all my listening time... Honestly I don't even mind the fact that the DAC is relatively "polite" sounding, and the laid back midrange probably somewhat counters the upper-mid/lower-treble emphasis of the CTH.

I ended up buying a Hidizs 4.4mm to 2.5mm BAL converter though and tested it briefly with my HD6XX, but I wasn't particularly blown away or anything. It's decent enough but with how good the Magni 3(+) and Vali 2/CTH is, spending the extra amount for a dedicated amp still makes more sense. Kind of kills the AIO aspect of the Zen though.

The BAL output also turned out to be too noisy for my (dynamic driver!) MDR-EX800ST, with a gentle hiss audible in the background (even with music playing, on low gain). Unfortunately this is pretty much a deal-breaker IMO for people looking to pair the Zen with sensitive IEMs.

Edit: DSD1793, not 1794

 

Disclaimer: no clue how the internal amp sounds. I got this with the Zen Can, which is what I used as amp. I used RCA to connect this to the Zen Can. I haven't tried anything balanced with this yet.

@bixby recommended the iFi Zen to me some time ago. After disliking the Modi 3 for the Velvet stuff, and the Modi MM for being too colored, I decided to get this. Impressions so far aren't really the greatest. Kinda better than Modi 3, but not always.

The moment I started listening to it, this stood out (all compared to Modi3):

- No velvet sound overall. Good. Better slam, no added warmth, more of a raw sound.

- Bass is emphasized. When you listen to it, it gives the impression of being boosted. It's rather one note(ish), with not much definition. Pressing the "TrueBass" button, makes any headphone sound like a cheaper JVC or Sony UltraMega SuperBass unit. It's a bit too much. I did find it enjoyable though with the KOSS KSC75, because of how little bass they got.

- Mids seem to be recessed. On the Modi 3 they are more present.

- Highs have a hint of peakiness to them. Some digitus. It's not horrible, but this induces fatigue in my case pretty quickly. Where I can listen to the Modi3 for hours, here I will have to quit after an album and take a break.

- Soundstage of the Modi3 is wider. The iFi sounds more in your head. I have the feeling the iFi has better depth and positioning though, but I am not fully sure. Width definitely goes to Modi 3.

- Modi 3 is warm and more coherent in timbre. IFi is cold with emphasized bass and treble, as well as a recessed midrange. It's more of a V shaped sound.

- Modi 3 is more resolving. No questions about this. The iFi sounds rather empty in comparison. During busy music passages though, the iFi pulls ahead with better separation, whereas the Modi3 mushes everything together. I blame Velvet Sound for this. The speed of the iFi makes this a draw to me. Listen to anything busy, and you'll actually hear more detail in the music compared to the Modi3. Anything less busy and now the Modi3 wins again. This is a bit of a draw really.

Overall, this kinda has this coldish, yet bassy sound to it, with some sizzle in the treble. Add to this the better slam and the naughty TrueBass button, and it's really raw and agressive compared to the smooth Modi3.

I think, it's a bit of a pick your poisen kinda deal. I am not fully sure yet if I like this more than Modi3. I am basically trading Velvet Sound for peaky(ish) treble, when in reality, I dislike both.

Quick pic: http://imgur.com/a/3berXRS

 

Why not get a Pi2AES? Wtf is the point of this other than having an i in front of it and cool advertising?
Support @Michael Kelly

 

I thought it would be interesting to compare the Modi3 to the Zen dac, because in EU, the Zen Dac is the cheapest decent dac you can get. On Amazon it's always available and is 10-20€ cheaper Prime shipped next day. Some retailers sold it for 40€ cheaper than the Modi. Definitely very attractive.

The only other option is going Sabre with Topping (yeah, nope) or getting the FiiO K5 Pro. This last one might be interesting with its AK4493 chip. The FiiO amp as a standalone unit, isn't bad either.

I don't know, it's fine, but I would rather get a Modi3, which is just more refined and "Hi-Fi". The iFi is more of a consumer oriented product, but not bad at all. I think people who really hate Velvet Sound, would be better off with this. Those who prefer an easy listen, Modi3. Personally, I will return it and keep the Modi3.

The Zen Can though is another story. I vastly prefer it to the FiiO K5 (non pro, just the amp) I have, and also to the Magni3. It has depth to it :O. It actually will sometimes shoot things a bit in front of you. The Magni3 was a solid wall of sound and the FiiO K5 amp, a left/right thing (but wide and warm). This is pretty cool.

 

Thank you for the vote of confidence! I will say however, I am very carefully looking at the ZEN and trying to understand its benefits over PI2AES. It is especially relevant for our development of mercury and our desire to have a simpler solution for customers.

It appears at least from my point of view, that the ZEN is easier to use. It seems to have some technical Benefits, including lower power supply noise. And there is still some question as to if that also leads to higher signal quality.

 

One possible benefit is that iFi gear is notably easier to acquire in many parts of the world on account of their fairly aggressive distribution.

 

Zen is also more aesthetically pleasing.

 

The Mercury hasn’t come out yet. And I would take the look of the Pi2AES over the overly styled “zen” any day.

 

Yeah, the Zen looks sexy as all hell, a weird mix of 60s electronics and science fiction. I will admit though, that I discarded it at first because of these looks. I said to myself, meh, consumer oriented stuff and passed. Honestly, the iFi Zen Dac sounds pretty average consumer oriented too... Zen Can though is very good (in my very very very limited experience with amps). I think we mostly like more crude/studio looking gear.

 

I'm not a fan of the Zen design either but the Pi2AES acryllic case takes "function over form" approach a bit too far for my taste and personally I'd gladly purchase a nicer case for it.