Help choosing a portable ifi? xcan vs xdsd vs idsd

I currently have the ifi hip dac. I enjoy its warmer sound, and the xbass is fantastic on my 990 editions (600ohm). The only problem is they arent powerful enough to drive it.

I was hoping to see if anyone had tried the xcan, xdsd, or micro idsd.

From what I can gather the xcan does NOT have a DAC, so would need the xdsd to function.

The xcan though has XBass II, which allows you to affect bass, presence, or both. This seems strange to me as every other model, including the brand new and significantly more expensive idsd signature, only have the basic xbass.

Can anyone comment on how xbass II compares to the xbass + on the idsd and xdsd?

Also has anyone run their beyer 600ohm cans on the xdsd? It only seems marginally more powerful then the hip dac, but who knows.

perhaps you want to try the balanced mod on the headphones and get the extra boost of power from the balanced output?

So as someone with zero soldering experience, how high is the potential that I massively f*** up my headphones?

there are a bazillion YouTube guides out there…and I think there is even a guide on this forum that’s reversible.

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Generally with the 600 ohm beyers and if you are a fan of the signature, the best logical step is the micro idsd imo. The xdsd and xcan really don’t have that much more drive imo and while it still is the ifi house sound, it’s the most dialed back and neutral sound of the ifi products. The micro bl is also the most technically proficient of the bunch

Regarding the xbass II, I don’t really think it’s that much of an improvement over the normal xbass

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Mon, exactly what I was looking for thank you. Especially that xbass II to xbass comaprison.

So we have the micro bl which i can grab used for 450, and the micro signature which just released. Besides a 100mw difference I cant see much else. Think its worth getting the 650 dollar signature, or I wont notice a difference with the bl?

Thanks marzipan, looking for it now

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I haven’t tried it so I really can’t say, that being said you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the balanced port unless you mod the 880, so the regular micro bl seems like a better value

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