Now that I’ve had the Neo for a few weeks I’ve had time to really put it to the test with my other dacs and it came out on top, easily.
Paired with the new Topping A50s headphones like my Arya sound great and the Z1R sounds better than ever. One might think that using warm headphones with a piece of equipment that use Burr Brown dacs might sound to warm but the Neo while being on the warmer side has really good detail and clarity so even warm headphones sound really nice with it.
With easy to drive headphones you can use the Neo’s amp and it sounds pretty much the same as when using the A50s with it, but with ones like the Arya you want that extra power for better headroom because the soundstage is a bit larger overall.
I’m very impressed with the Neo and I feel like it’s a great option for anyone looking for a dac/amp combo or just a good dac. Compared to all the others that use either AKM or ESS dac the Neo is a breath of fresh air with is warm and musical Burr Brown chip set.
The Neo is better sounding than the Zen DAC as it should be. More transparent with better dynamics and the fact you can use a balanced amp with it is a plus as well. While my A50s doesn’t have balanced connections it still sounds great with the Neo but the amp in the Neo is very good and is plenty for most headphones with over 1 watt at 32ohm.
Just received one from IFI for testing and review. I’m still working through some of the Geshelli products, then it’s next in line. Initial thoughts after just picking up the box and looking at it, its a tank and looks clean. I’m looking forward to seeing where it stands vs some of the separate setups in terms of sounds. This thing is packed with features, it could easily be a one-stop-shop if it sounds as good as it looks.
This is actually one of the best-looking devices I’ve seen from them, with the exception of the Nano iDSD and Signature series. Everything else looks like they actually intended every single one of them to look like ass (just not the same ass every time, they’ve been reasonably creative with the ass types they based them on ).
Sorry for the late reply. The Ifi Neo DSD sounds as good as the Erish but it lacks just a little bit in the bass area. Like if I rated the bass of the Erish as a 10 the Bass output on the Neo DSD is maybe a 6.5-7 out of 10.
Sound quality wise I think it would be hard to tell which is which in a blind test. ( If you balanced the bass)
I actually need to complete the review on the ifi, as an all in one its fantastic. The price is probably fair as I’m using the Geshelli Jnog with the Erish and the ifi is all in 1 and has bluetooth, USB, and optical.
I mainly use the Neo as a Dac only and I feel like it’s worth it just for that because of how clean it sounds but when using the balanced amp section many of my less power hungry headphones sound as good or better than when using some of my stand alone amps. I know it only has a little over 1 watt balanced but that’s plenty for the vast majority of headphones and it’s a very clean sounding amp and paired with the wonderful Dac section the Neo is a great combo setup for efficient headphones.
The neo would be a bit warmer sounding than the element 2. In my opinion to upgrade from the element you would have to throw down some serious cash. Both the dac and amp are pretty darn good for single ended and really only need to upgrade if you are looking for more features/power I’d estimate you’d need to put $700 towards a dac upgrade and then$500 to $1000 for an amp upgrade to really out class the element.
Get all the benefits of that sweet iFi Burr Brown sound, one of, if not the best knob ever to control volume, a gain (or second gain switch depending on your amp), AND bass boost, get a Zen DAC, balance it out to a G111 which can pretty much power everything, and call it a day for $700
).
(COUGH Bifrost COUGH)