I frequently ended my videos by stating that current developments in digital audio are
rapid. Let me now start with this statement at the beginning of this video. For the subject
of this review - the iFi Nano iDSD Black Label - does not only have a long name and an attractive
price.
It's remarkable that portable DAC's seem to lead the developments and that is why I
review them. I do not have sufficient expertise on headphone and in-ear listening and thus
will not judge the portable use but restrict myself to domestic use. Though I will mention
the features that are uniquely for portable and headphone use.
The Nano Black - as I will call the Nano iDSD Black Label in this review - has the extruded
aluminium housing we know from other iFi products. It's very sturdy, this time it's black
and the bottom lists all the features. It's designed to be combined with your smartphone
using the two firm wide rubber bands that come with the unit. That is why the top is
somewhat rounded. It measures 64 by 96 by 25.5 millimetres and weighs only 139 grams.
OK time to look a bit more up close. On the front we see a 3.5 millimetre jack to connect
the headphone to. A second jack is optimised for the higher sensitivity of in-ears. iFi
uses TRRS jacks which is great if you own balanced headphones. The LED further to the
right indicates the power status, the battery status, the sample frequency and MQA all through
colours. This really is becoming a trend and for someone like me that have a low color
sensitivity it's not really convenient. But it's cheap and takes little space. On
the right the volume knob that doubles as a power switch in the counter clockwise position.
Let look at the other end. On the left the fixed level line output. In the middle a switch
that offers two filter settings, one minimum phase Bezier filter that is optimised for
listening and a linear phase Transient Aligned Filter for measurement. Apparently there are
people that think that less than half a dB roll of at 20 kHz is important or at least
more important than a a better transient respons. Just use the listen position and forget the
other one. On the right the most ingenious solution for portable use to date, the OTG
A-type USB input. Normally a type B input is used on DAC's but the solution here solves
the problem with iPhones for the Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adaptor can be plugged directly
into the Nano Black. Also supplied are a USB 3 cable of around one metre length for connecting
it to a USB2 or USB3 port on the computer or streamer, an adaptor plug to USB B and
an 18 cm adaptor cable to USB B, both to use with a standard USB A to B cable.
When opened the first you see is the battery that I folded away here. It is attached to
the print using a connector and thus can easily be replaced. Then the line output on 3.5 mm
jack, the USB Type A input mounted on a semi detached PCB. Here the in-ear and headphone
jacks. The four contacts for balanced operation are clearly visible. Then the dust proof potentiometer,
which always makes sense, but even more so in portable devices. When we flip over the
PCB we see the XMOS USB interface chip, a small STC MUC micro processor, two clock crystals,
one each for 44.1 and 48 kHz based sampling frequencies and the Burr Brown DAC chip. This
chip is able to do PCM up to 192 kHz according to Texas Instruments, the current owner of
Burr Brown. But the Nano Black does play my PCM 352.8 and DSD256 files effortless. Perhaps
that these are downsampled in the Nano Black, I can't say. Not that it really matters,
the amount of music available at those high sampling frequencies is extremely limited.
All that tech is nice, but how does it sound? Well here is the real surprise for it's
different in character than the Pro-Ject ProBox S2 Digital I reviewed a few weeks ago but
not less. The iFi doesn't have the touch of harshness in the highs the Pro-Ject has
but is slightly less open in the mid range while the lows go impressively deep with excellent
tonality for its class. It is, of course, a completely different beast. Where the Pro-Ject
is designed for stationary use, can be used as digital pre-amp and does full MQA decoding
and rendering, the iFi only has one input and no volume control on the line out while
it needs a program on the computer or smartphone to do the decoding of MQA. On the other hand,
the iFi consumes little power and thus can be fed from the internal battery and works
with smartphones while the Pro-Ject depends on a separate power supply. When the Nano
Black is compared to for instance the Meridian Explorer 2, it wins sound wise, does a wider
range of sampling frequencies, including DSD but only does MQA rendering and not decoding.
It does perform great in my setup 3 and in my setup 2, ranking next to the Pro-Ject.
I don't think too many people will care for MQA for mobile use. They still argument
whether 256 or 320 kilobit per second MP3 is good enough and that all has to do with
storage. People rather take 250 than 150 albums with them and find the quality of MP3 fine
for mobile use. Otherwise they would have gone to AAC already since that offers more
quality than MP3 at the same bitrate. But if you want a DAC that you can use for both
portable use and domestic use, it's nice to have MQA rendering. The build quality is
very high, the 'On the go' USB A solution is brilliant and will be appreciated by iPhone
owners. Battery life allegedly is 10 hours and the battery is user replaceable, provided
you have a torq screwdriver. At less than 250 quit it really is a steal. I am constantly
looking for interesting equipment to review - doing series of me-too products is extremely
boring - and again I managed to find one in the iFi Nano iDSD Black Label. If you want
more, come back next Friday and subscribe to this channel or follow me on Twitter, Facebook
or Google+. If you liked this video, please consider supporting the channel through Patreon
or Paypal. Any financial support is much appreciated. The links are in the comments, just as the
link to a description of my three setups. Help me to help even more people enjoy music
at home by telling your friends on the web about this channel. I am Hans Beekhuyzen,
thank you for watching and see you in the next show or on theHBproject.com.
And whatever you do, enjoy the music.
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