Nice, will be curious on what you think of it. Also mess around with the filters and tune settings, I personally like using NOS with tune 02, but slow roll off is also nice
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Looking forward to it!! I had to do some serious research to find a seller for the W2, and I managed to find some company called âmusicteckâ that has domestic shipping. Its on its way already and should show up next week. I alllllmost pulled the trigger on the iFi iDSD Signature, but the hissâŚ
What I dont really understand is how there are many reviews for the iFi products that generate hiss (everything below the Diablo) where those reviewers only make a minor issue about the hiss. Some of those reviews are 4 out of 5 stars, and the reviewer only mentions the hiss once. Are some people just comfortable with the hiss??
Musicteck is great, bought from them a few times
Some things may not be sensitive enough to make that hiss an issue, and itâs true that some donât really care all that much, depends on the person
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I tried to ignore the hiss and just roll with my hip-dac2, as the sound signature overall is really good! The bass boost is good and non-distorting, its portable and small, it uses no phone battery, etc. But once I heard that hiss, I couldnt un-hear it lol.
There is definitely a hiss to Ifi products and I can audibly hear it even with my planar IEMs. xCAN it wasnât really noticable but the gryphon it is definitely there. I tried the iematch and bam gone.
I thought I read somewhere that Ifi uses a class A like topology to their amplification and I have a theory that all the tech/topology in a small form at the price point they offer there is going to be some sort of noise that will come through. Thatâs just a theory though and Iâm not going to take gear apart till I need to just to find out lol.
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I was on the fence about that (iematch). I read the comments and heard what some people said, but one of the reviewers said âiematch reduced the hiss about 30%â and that just wasnt enough for me. Reviewers for the W2 claim âblack background - totally silentâ, and I will definitely give feedback on that claim when I get his. If the W2 has anything BUT dead silence where it should be dead silent, you shall hear about it. =P
Awesome, looking forward to your thoughts. The W2 looks really interesting and I could see a use case in the future for me but really enjoying the flexibility the gryphon affords me.
I donât use super sensitive IEMs so that maybe why iematch worked so well for me.
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My unbalanced DT1990s and my older Klipsch x10i earbuds transmit zero hiss or distortion of any kind when I use my hip-dac2. Total black background. The balanced out + my Dark Magician IEM transmit a surprising amount of hiss. Its shocking, really, how much hiss comes through on the bal. I would say, on a scale of 1 to 10, the hiss is a 3 or 4 at all times, and sometimes comes through the music itself.
The little x10i earbuds honestly sound better than they have ever sounded with the hip-dac2. They came alive in a way that my ddHifi tc44b could never achieve, and I actually successfully distorted them by using the âpower matchâ feature on these tiny little low impedance buds. Bassed them out and made them fart in my ears 
but I discovered their upper limits on power.
The DT1990s also sound very good on the hip-dac2 - surprisingly good for something so big, 250ohm - and all frequencies are crisp, tight, and wide with the bassX thing warming them up suitably. Had to turn the volume up to about 80% to get adequate vol, but it did the trick. I will miss my hip-dac2 for a few reasons, but I wont miss the hiss on the bal.
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