šŸ”· iFi Zen Dac/Amp v2

Equipment / Electronics / Gear / Accessories [Official] DACs
102

i like burr brown chips. they sound the most organic and natural. ess arent to bad either. ak chips to dry for my tastes.

103

Fair enough, but I still recommend you to search up ā€œGolden Sound MQAā€ on youtube

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104

I keep hearing about Burr Brown chips and how good they are. What current DAC uses the Burr Brown chip?

EDIT: Wait, am I seeing this correctly that the ifi ZEN DAC actually uses the Burr Brown chip set? I guess that would explain why they sound so good then! It looks like the Cambridge Audio DAC Magic line also uses the Burr Brown chip set. From what I understand those are pretty highly regarded as well. Interestingā€¦

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105

Correct, we do use burr brown quite often throughout all of our products :slight_smile:

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106

Burr Brown create a warm and fun sound and as Sebastien commented, all iFi products use them.

that said, when I started Googling terms and phrases to find what DAC use Burr Brown chips, I came up with very little in regard to headphone related tech. :frowning:

107

Not all, iFi Blue has ESS DAC

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108

there are not many in the budget range that use them. im not even sure if the chips are in production still. texas instruments bought them out in 2000 and from my understanding, pretty much immediately closed all their facilities. but ifi, for instance, sells a ton of them, so makes me think they are making them still somewhere.

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109

If I said, all - I should recorrect and say most. You should generally assume we use Burr Brown unless noted otherwise!

As @El_Nagual stated, the Zen Blue is an example where it uses ESS.

110

I wish Zen Blue was BB instead of ESS. Why ESS?

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111

I wondered that when I it was pointed out the Blue didnā€™t have a BB. curious thing and out of character for iFi.

112

Let me check on this - the Zen Blue was already out before my time at iFi.

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113

Hi everyone,

Just a quick heads-up if you were not aware, we have a LED calculator live now that you can always refer to if you have any questions on what a specific LED means for your product.

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114

Honestly, I only ever use the digital out of my Zen Blue, so Iā€™m not too stressed out about the D/A conversion. (Iā€™d probably even /prefer/ a smaller, cheaper device that was digital-only.) BTW, the xCAN also uses an ESS chip.

115

You need to make an EQ device with the Bass boost and 3D sound option from Zen Can.

116

yes, we demand answers! if what you provide is not satisfactory, we dump you in a pile of Schiit. :joy:

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117

:laughing:

10 characters!

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118

what to do about with distortion in v2
60% on volume and bass distortion

119

Can you go a little further into describing what you mean about distortion?

120

Hello,
If I connect the Ipad mini 4 to the Zen V2 signature as a player, what resolution will I end up with?
Tidal would then be the app on the Ipad mini 4.
And would prefer the fixed output and connect to the Little Dot 1+ via Rca.
I know i have to use the lightning to usb camara adapter of course.
Or would the android system be better as a feed?

Which probably makes the volume pot superfluous or do I have to turn it up as well?

I havenā€™t yet understood the point of putting one on, also because of the risk of clipping.
I think thatā€™s why some people think they perceive distortion.
Because the potentiometer was turned up too high.

Maybe a display would be helpful for the V3, or you can remove the potentiometer straight away.:see_no_evil:

121

Hey, I currently have a d50s thatā€™s currently failing (the stick is kinda smashed and I get frequent disconnects forcing me to power cycle to get audio back), would the zen be a good replacement for it?

I mainly use it currently to relay to my atom, like the amp in this would be a bonus (bonus points if it works for the nintendo switch, has anyone tried it?).