šŸ”· iFi Hip-DAC

This is good news to me since my balanced cable should be coming in the next couple weeks. Looking forward to seeing how it improves the experience with my Elegia as well.

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nice! looking forward to how you find it in comparisonā€¦ such a great pairing these two areā€¦ canā€™t thank you enough for shedding light on it

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Finally got a chance to order one now that theyā€™re back in stock. Looking forward to use it with my M11 (and phone) so I can have a warmer sound signature with some of my brighter headphones and IEMs.

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It will be interesting to hear your thoughts when it arrives :+1:

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I just got my hipdac and when im using my fh7 with 4.4 balanced cable im having alot of hissing
for some reason, but when im using a 3.5mm cable i dont hear anything, is it the cable?

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Whats your source device and do you have the volume up all the way? Also dont use the power match on iems, can you hear hissing while music plays? Are you using the blue usb cable it came with when its hissing?

using oneplus 3, volume around 50% and both bass and gain are off, i cant really hear while the music is playing coz its not that audible while there is music but the weird thing is if i take the otg cable out (the black type c that came with it) i still hear the hissing i have no idea if its the connector or my 4.4mm cable

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Hmmm, So if you have nothing plugged in at all besides headphones it still hisses? Iā€™ve heard hissing on my iems sometimes and I wonder if the 4.4 just gives it too much juice? Try putting your phone to full volume. And try using the 3.5 too

3.5 is fine, altho when I use the 3.5mm and up the volume to max and use the boost there is a bit of a hissing, might just buy another 4.4 cable

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Well i never feel the need to have the volume on max for the hip dac. Make sure your phone is at max though.

Yeah I feel like with most headphones (and especially IEMs) if you run the Hip Dac at max volume you wonā€™t hear hissing for very long. Of course you wonā€™t hear anything else either because youā€™ll be deaf.

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I really enjoy the senergy of the SR325e with the Hip-Dac. It adds just enough warmth to even them out but still retains all the speed and dynamics that make the Grados so good.

I also like the way the Sundara sound with the Dac as well. As for IEMs the T2 and OH10 are my go to when using the Hip-Dac as both benefit from the warmth it adds. The Fiio FA7 is already very warm so I donā€™t think it pairs as well as the other 2.

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I agree. The Hip-Dac is a great solution if your headphones/IEMs are a touch too bright and/or need just a little warmth. The OH10 is a great pairing. Iā€™m also finding the Elegia is a good pairing. Plus that X-Bass can be be just plain fun at times.

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Can confirm the oh10 and elegia awesomeness with the hip dac. Also starfields and mangird teas. Super great amp/dac

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Oh, I love using the X-Bass with my Grado, it gives them the thump theyā€™re missing without warning up the mids to much. The only thing Iā€™ve used that I didnā€™t think worked well was the FA7 but all my headphones Iā€™ve tried sound really good. The SQ and build quality you get for $150 is quite something.

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Do we know if the USB audio driver from iFi is compatible with ARMX64 processor. I am not having joy connecting my surface pro X. The device is recognized and it gives me a ā€œreadyā€ message, but in windows 10 settings under audio device, it says driver unavailable. I have tried installing the driver, but continue to get error message that installation has failed. The iFi control panel shows up on the start menu, but it says no device connected. So I am thinking this is an ARMX64 compatibility issue. Any thoughts from any one?

Im planning on getting the starfileds, would it matter if i use balanced or not?

Balanced is almost always better on IEMs

thanks for the reply, might get some 2.5 to 4.4 converter

Just want to share my impression of the ifi hip dac.
Itā€™s very portable, shaped like a flask, nice design and the material feels premium.
About sound quality: For measure, I will compare this to the smsl sp200: the ifi hip dac has a warm coloration, soundstage is very lacking, the treble or detail isnā€™t as defined, low dynamics, resolution is worse. 150ā‚¬ is a fair price, just donā€™t have too high expectations. The most important part about the hip dac is, that you need to like the ā€œifi soundā€ - like I said earlier, it colors the sound. The bass boost is a little strong, I would like to have different levels of bass boost. The quality of the bass boost is like the resolution, kinda low. I tried this with my Focal Elegia and did not like it, because the Focal Elegia sounds a lot better on the smsl sp200. I like the ifi hip dac on the Tin T2 tho

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