In case you want a balanced ZEN DAC+CAN stack but not to spend 90 USD for the interconnect, you find cheap (and available) alternatives from DELOCK on amazon DE and UK (10EUR/19GBP):
and
I have the 0.5m and 2m ones and a 2m extension and all 5 poles are connected in all of them (i.e. the ground/shield is linked as well) and they work with the original ZenDAC and the ZenCAN.
Of course, they are just cheap cables and nothing fancy but they work as they are supposed to.
EDIT: the UK one is out of stock already⌠but they are available on ebay as wellâŚ
I donât know if it was mentioned already, but the 4.4mm balanced OUTPUT on the back of the ZenCAN is not a line-out but a pre-out with all gain and EQ settings effective on it. I.e. if you really wanted to you could add a balanced EQ or 3D effect for your 6xx or whatever headphone you have by including this amp in your (balanced) signal chain to another amp. Of course I do not recommend it since this would have all the disadvantages of double-amping, noise, distortion, saturated signals, etc. ⌠but some might want to play around with it this way.
The pre-out is also not muted when a headphone is plugged in the ZenCAN - hence it is a bit of limited use for active speakers in my opinion.
I appreciate what youâre saying here, @theFritz, I just want to clean up one linguistic thing so we donât confuse people:
Using the pre-out is not double-amping. âDouble-ampingâ refers to connecting the output stage of an amplifier to the input stage of a second amplifier. This way of connecting can be very dangerous for both amplifiers. If you connect the Zen CAN to a second amplifier by using the Zenâs pre-out, you are not doing this, and itâs perfectly safe. However, your points about potentially adding extra noise, distortions, etc. still stand because the signal chain has been complicated. I hope iFi has a ZenCAN dac on the way that adds their bass boost and 3D feature on just a DAC so you donât have to route signal through their amplifier if you want to try out those features on an external amp you already have.
You are perfectly right; It is not really double-amping and you will not blow up your amp(s) that way but it is still not the best idea to do it this way if you are looking for âimprovedâ sound quality.
the 4.4 balanced connector on the Zen CAN is not outputâŚitâs balanced input for the Zen DAC or Signature DAC, whoâs 4.4mm connector is actually balanced out.
Zen CAN also has RCA input for pairing with a non-balanced DAC.
Zen DAC / Signature DAC has RCA output as well, which can be used as a pre-out or to a single ended amp.
mmmâŚI just realized why the Signature CAN and DAC are so expensive. I knew they came with a power supply, which is an add on for the original Zen DACâŚbut itâs not just the iPower they included with them, itâs the iPower X, which is twice the price of the non-X iPower.
so with the added cost of premium components and the iPower XâŚexplains the cost differential.
alas, even though the price is now justified based on a cost equationâŚthe performance difference between the Drop Signature and IFi non-Signature versions isnât enough to give the Signature versions an edge to warranty real consideration.
I used the capital letters for 4.4mm âOUTPUTâ on purpose ⌠as already clarified; the Zen CAN has 3 inputs and 1 balanced pre-out (also in 4.4mm format).
Now you are confusing me a bit with the âheadphone connectorâ. The use of the 4.4mm Pentacon is a bit exotic however⌠Probably I try to summarize it a bit more systematically:
ZenCAN Inputs (all on the back):
1 = RCA (cinch) Single Ended
2 = 3.5mm Single Ended Aux
3 = 4.4mm Pentacon Balanced (uses all 5 rings - incl. the Sleve for ground)
Input is selectable by a switch on front
ZenCAN Outputs:
Front:
6.3mm Single Ended amped headphone out
4.4mm Pentacon Balanced amped headphone out (typically only the 4 TRRR rings of the 5 TRRRS are used for headphone cables)
Back:
4.4mm Pentacon Balanced Pre-Out (i.e. variable output); uses all 5 rings - incl. the Sleve for ground
Headphone outputs and the pre-out are simultaneously active.
The balanced pre-out puts out also the filtered and volume-controlled signals of the single ended inputs .
Hope that helpsâŚ
The 4.4mm for Line-In/Pre-Out is an odd choice indeed but it has the potential to completely replace the bulky 2-times-3pol-XLR connectors (m and f) for all balanced connections between active components since the ground connection is also provided (TRRRS = L+/L-/R+/R-/GND).
I guess that is a typo on the Drop page (or the âSignatureâ CAN is worse than the normal one - which is unlikely). According to the technical specs in
from the ifi web site, the crosstalk in the ifi ZEN CAN is -90 dB
Which seems to be correct.
Just tried it on my Zen CAN. Yes it the XBass and 3D does pass out of the CAN out. Its extremely subtle, bass is more noticeable than the 3D. Iâd say those features are more useful with headphones connected directly to the CAN than using the out.
Oh yes! I received mine from DROP here in Germany on November 13th (took two weeks for transit and customs) and it replaced my ânormalâ Zen CAN (non-signature/6xx version). I was however the first or second one to order one on Drop when they were announced.
The Zen CAN Signature 6xx came with the ifi iPowerX 5v (about 100 EUR/USD when bought separately) while the normal Zen CAN came with the iPower 5v (no âXâ = 50 EUR/USD).
I am not running it with the ZenDAC (although I have an 4.4mm-balanced-interconnect) but prefer it with the SONCOZ LA-QXD1 as DAC using a DIY 4.4mm-to-2x3polXLR cable.
I have no need for the XSpace function but I actually like the âHD6xxâ button a lot with my 6xx and 660s headphones. Much better than the bass boost on my normal ZenCAN or ZenDAC. Everything else in sound and function is identical to the normal ZenCAN.
