ifi Zen Dac v1 or v2?
I was just thinking about getting the V2 and saw elsewhere that noise floor shouldnât be an issue⌠If itâs the V2 that you have, howâs the noise floor when you plug the Teas into it?
Neither, ifi go blu from this thread. Zen is Dunu Zen and Zen Pro IEM when used on the ifi go blu.
Never heard the ifi zen stack.
Oh heck completely different gear, totally misunderstood that sorry 
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Hey, @Dynamic thanks for introducing me to the Gryphon. I am
about it, itâs got everything I need and looks like a great portable device. I was getting tired of lugging my iDSD Sig everywhere.
Now to decide if I should get it immediately or wait for Mojo 2 reviewsâŚ
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The signature was a no go because of lack of Bluetooth for me. Best sounding source I have experienced though. I bought the go blu to try and get some of that magic. Didnât really work. 
The gryphon though. So excited! Iematch almost certainly solves dunu zen issues if they exist at all (which it may not!)
To be honest, I use the entire zen stack (Stream, DAC, Can), with one of the most sensitive in-ears on the market, the Andromeda, and I didnât hear the slightest hiss.
With the Go-Blue, the set volume of the player is taken over 1 to 1, which means that if you have turned your phone, iPad, PC ⌠full to the max, the Go-Blue will play it back in exactly the same way. With the Go-Blue you can adjust the volume on both devices synchronously at any time, unlike on the BTR-5 or ES100, for example.
I am waiting for it too!
Itâs already listed on Amazon, I guess we can order it from tomorrow (hopefully).
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Dunu Zen and Zen Pro IEMs. Hiss is loud on the go blu and makes music like piano guys unlistenable to me.
I have never heard the ifi Zen Stack. Micro signature on the other hand is fantastic.
By the way, compared to my mobile mini DAC amps, the sound of the Go-Blue is outstanding for me.
Anyone who has problems with in-ears or headphones that they perceive to be too âaggressiveâ in the heights can have a whole new experience with the Go-Blue.
Interestingly, it causes headphones that sound a bit âdullâ to be exactly the opposite.
Magic, technical sophistication, lucky hits, whatever, he sounds really grown up and deeply relaxed on most headphones.
In the order from left to right, I prefer my mini DACâs in terms of sound.
In my entire âmobile portfolioâ, the iDSD Signature is of course the number 1, followed by the xCan and the Go-Blue.
Just like the Signature, the Gryphon has an iEM match switch, so with all the in-ears there is actually dead silence in the background 
ââââ
Oh yes, a bulls-eye in terms of color and sound:
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The Qudelix 5k still beats the btr5 and go blu handily for me. The dragonfly wasnât worth talking about. And the half dozen others I tried just lacked the authority found on the units with more power.
And the Qudelix independent volume handling may be the reason it beats the blu for me. You have so much more control and it seems to adapt to the source in some way. Not sure what magic it is doing here. And it is one of the few with noise free BT implementation with the dunu zen. (Donât talk to me about the q5s-tc bluetooth. Terrible)
And the go blu is still doing something insane with volume when switching devices with no changes being done on the source devices. (iPhone over BT and macbook wired in this case). I ripped the Zen out of my ears so I didnât experience hearing damage. I am afraid to do anything with them at this point. This has now happened three times. I now take the iems out, make changes to switch source or iems and put them back in when everything is playing correctly.
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Unfortunately, I donât have dunu earphones, so I donât have a comparison.
In my humble experience, a very high percentage of you can assume that general evaluations of only one component of a hi-fi chain will be very, very difficult to accept.
The Kombo Campfire Audio earphones and some ifi audio devices sound very, very good.
Or take a Grado RS2e, for example,
which is a red rag for the vast majority of reviewers.
With a topping DAC / amp combination, for example, I would totally agree, while a combination of Loxjie D50 and SingxerSA-1 produces a completely different sound, and a very positive one.
The Sennheiser HD 600 on my Zen combo sounds so outstanding that even a ⏠4000 tube / amp combo doesnât sound any better, while the HD800s takes me into another world at this price.
Everything is probably a question of synergies and personal taste. 
Oh, I agree. But at this moment, the go blu does almost nothing better than the Qudelix on my primary headphones. The timeless is the best match so far in that itâs not worse on the blu. But itâs not better either.
I will say xspace and xbass work well and is much easier to push a button than use the Qudelix parametric EQ or crossfeed functions. But the Qudelix has parametric EQ and slider based user controlled crossfeed⌠with the entire auto eq library.
Anyway, Qudelix is still reigning champion for me.
I havenât tried my lsa hp-2 ultra yet. Maybe those will change the story.
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Iâm curious to know where the Hip-DAC ranks for you if xCAN is the second best. I had and sold the xCAN two years ago, because I felt itâs DAC was holding it back (compared to Mojo or Zen DAC). I donât own the Hip-DAC but would think it should sound better than the xCAN.
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Good to know
I have been pondering a Qudelix and was curious to hear some additional takes on the Blu vs Qudelix ⌠I own the BTR5 and like it for work, but have been thinking about something else for my personal gear. Either q5k or a ZenDac, but I will get more use out of the wireless.
Maybe a bit unfair, but Iâve tried both with the Focal Clear, and the 3D + - xBassII solution is so perfect that spatial hearing and the fine resolution of the stage is significantly higher in this combination than with the Hip-Dac.
With the xCan, the highs on my Gradoâs are not very aggressive and the 3-dimensional display is more spacious than on the Hip-Dac.
My KXXSâes sound very spacious in this combo.
In addition, I personally think that the xBass in the Hip-Dac is generally a bit âmore coarselyâ defined than in the rest of the ifi audio portfolio.
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Got it. When I had the xCAN, I was fairly new to the hobby and lacked good IEMâs & Headphones which probably resulted in my poor opinion of the xCANâs performance.
The fingerprint magnet finish did not help itâs case either.
anybody that owns the go blu getting regular or recurring connection issues with bt ? e.g. put phone in 1 pocket and the gb in another and it loses connection?
Yep. Started happening once I went mobile with them. I am not used to thinking about it. The Qudelix works a floor away across the house when I leave the phone in the office.
My BTR5 is fine unless I get the indoor part of the HVAC between it and the wifi access point. All wifi dies there, as does my cell reception, so I am not too critical of that unit.
Yeah, my btr5 (original, not new)is ok. Basically what I expected. Qudelix just keeps exceeding expectations.
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Having had the go blu for over a month now im still very happy with it.
Its not perfect though, my former portable BTR5 had a more stable bluetooth connection, go blu randomly skips occasionally, not a deal breaker for me and mostly happens when its in my hand, far away or in movement.
Also the clip on capability of the BTR5 made it feel more portable and useful as a microphone you could hang to your shirt. I will tape a clip to my go blu so this will be better lol.
The SE out sounds a little lackluster compared to the BAL out, so im not really convinced in that S-bal tech of this product but also havent done a really extensive comparison so put an extra grain of salt to this statement.
Now the good part (still comparing to BTR5)
Overall more resolving, with better presentation, more colorful hence more engaging.
Handles picky and hard to drive cans incredibly well for its specs and cost, like the clears or the beyer T1.2 for example, I couldnt believe how well some of these matchups work but they do.
(On some headphones the BTR5 had better synergy for my taste though, but on the majority of my cans the go blu wins, sometimes by a lot)
The way the volume synchronices with the connected device is an amazing feature, the volume wheel is not only good, it can adjust the volume perfectly to where I want it either with the wheel or from my phone. Also 0 accidental volume changes while in pocket.
I really like how subtle the xbass and 3d implementation is, they slightly change the timbre so it can fix some mixes and make some synergies even better.
End of my small review/comparison
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Theres a lot of praise for the qudelix 5k and some new competition like the UP5, btr5 2021 and others soon to be released (maybe a new qudelix?), I may get a q5k just to see if it lives up to the hype lol⌠Though I dont really expect to like it more as I really like the ifi house sound-
And I would also like to try other portable solutions like dongles or bigger boys like the gryphon (having bulk in my pockets annoys so not very likely), so ill see how the go blu stacks up in the not so distant future.
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