Thanks for the great review. I was impressed by this piece until the upper midrange bark and 6 db gain. Almost seems like the manufacturer is trying hard to "impress" listeners, much like TVs on display at one's local dealer that have the brightness and contrast set to max. Bummer. At $2,750, us poor folks expect better. Loving your Denon and KEFs.
You said that Tidals MQA is simply louder, this is not correct and shows some ignorance on your part, no disrespect intended. I suggest you go to Suzan Vega's Toms Diner on Tidal which is available as both MQA and CD quality. Play the beginning of both and simply up the volume of the CD track a few dB to balance the volume and you should hear how the MQA track opens up her voice very nicely compared to the CD track. I’ve made this comparison on a number of tracks from different albums and MQA definitely has this effect. I’ve also compared Tidal MQA to high res on Qobuz. Now whether someone likes it or not is up to them and their hearing. Some may prefer less detail so will choose the non MQA tracks, others may like the detail so will prefer the MQA tracks. Personally I can take it or leave it. MQA is nice on some albums, unnecessary on some albums, and slightly detrimental on some albums. Overall I would be very happy with the high res on Qobuz but they have no Qobuz Connect, their platform does not integrate well within BluOS, and their library is not complete enough for my needs. So I’m using Tidal for now. I simply disable MQA when I prefer it that way.
I tested many songs back to back using same DAC and MacBook Pro as music server with Audirvana and same set up streaming Tidal master monitoring with db metal says otherwise. I would never mentioned publicly without proper testing, thanks
@@Tharbamar MQA can be a touch louder, I’m not disputing that. I am simply saying that once adjusted for volume, even making the MQA track a touch lower volume, I can clearly hear a difference in the MQA track. I’m not sure how to correctly describe the difference but it’s basically a more openness in the voices, more dynamic range overall. This MQA difference benefits many albums but not all to my liking, especially less well recorded albums / older less well recorded albums, they sound better to my ears with less rather than more “resolution”. I’m tending now to a bit smoother sound so I can live without MQA.
Great review 👍 From the Design & OS i prefer my Mytek Brooklyn in that Price Range. The menu from Mytek looks for me better. When you have the chance, test out the Sotm SDP1000ex DAC
Tharbamar do you feel this is your most musical set up sound wise you have heard in your room so far? This Grace Mahya track through this setup on my JBL head phones sounds very very good.
Tharbamar, I was searching to find if you did review on the R700 and saw this review so I watch again. For this iFi, would you say the sound signature is more analytical, bright and less warmth? Also,,output is DSD and upsample DSD even when playing from MacBook Pro? Did you use anything in between such as software or?
@@Tharbamar so with Audirvana the DAC will show DSD? I’m using Pine Player and it shows PCM. Also tried Vox and VLC Player also shows PCM. When I use the iFi Gryphom portable DAC amp, it shows DXD.
What is this TBR-DS Custom speaker cables, may i ask? Currently breaking in your recommendations, belden 8402 rca and canare 4s11 speaker cables. Would love to tryout your next favourite. Subscribed!
From what I have reviewed? that would be Loxjie D50, If the price is no object Esoteric K-03X would be my favorite but I have not listened to newer models from Esoteric. Thanks
Your comment on MQA Aged nicely
How does it compare to the Loxjie D50?
great review!!! you covered all the features really well thx!
Compare please to Mytek Brooklyn Bridge!
Review Audio Mirror Tubadour 3SE dac if you can sir.Wonderful piece of art!
One of the bestsounding dac/preamp I have heard nice job thanks buddy 😆
Thanks for the great review. I was impressed by this piece until the upper midrange bark and 6 db gain. Almost seems like the manufacturer is trying hard to "impress" listeners, much like TVs on display at one's local dealer that have the brightness and contrast set to max. Bummer. At $2,750, us poor folks expect better.
Loving your Denon and KEFs.
First person I’ve heard complaining about an upper midrange “bark” and 6db gain. Do you have some type of measurements you can link to?
You said that Tidals MQA is simply louder, this is not correct and shows some ignorance on your part, no disrespect intended. I suggest you go to Suzan Vega's Toms Diner on Tidal which is available as both MQA and CD quality. Play the beginning of both and simply up the volume of the CD track a few dB to balance the volume and you should hear how the MQA track opens up her voice very nicely compared to the CD track. I’ve made this comparison on a number of tracks from different albums and MQA definitely has this effect. I’ve also compared Tidal MQA to high res on Qobuz.
Now whether someone likes it or not is up to them and their hearing. Some may prefer less detail so will choose the non MQA tracks, others may like the detail so will prefer the MQA tracks. Personally I can take it or leave it. MQA is nice on some albums, unnecessary on some albums, and slightly detrimental on some albums.
Overall I would be very happy with the high res on Qobuz but they have no Qobuz Connect, their platform does not integrate well within BluOS, and their library is not complete enough for my needs. So I’m using Tidal for now. I simply disable MQA when I prefer it that way.
I tested many songs back to back using same DAC and MacBook Pro as music server with Audirvana and same set up streaming Tidal master monitoring with db metal says otherwise. I would never mentioned publicly without proper testing, thanks
@@Tharbamar MQA can be a touch louder, I’m not disputing that. I am simply saying that once adjusted for volume, even making the MQA track a touch lower volume, I can clearly hear a difference in the MQA track. I’m not sure how to correctly describe the difference but it’s basically a more openness in the voices, more dynamic range overall. This MQA difference benefits many albums but not all to my liking, especially less well recorded albums / older less well recorded albums, they sound better to my ears with less rather than more “resolution”. I’m tending now to a bit smoother sound so I can live without MQA.
Good review. Can you pls play "bie mir bist du schon' from the same album next time. Thx.
Is this the next step up from Gustard r26/a26?
Great review 👍 From the Design & OS i prefer my Mytek Brooklyn in that Price Range. The menu from Mytek looks for me better. When you have the chance, test out the Sotm SDP1000ex DAC
Will do thanks for suggesting.
Perhaps he will follow the test Gustard A22?
Can you review the gustard x26 Pro?
Tharbamar do you feel this is your most musical set up sound wise you have heard in your room so far? This Grace Mahya track through this setup on my JBL head phones sounds very very good.
Tharbamar, I was searching to find if you did review on the R700 and saw this review so I watch again. For this iFi, would you say the sound signature is more analytical, bright and less warmth? Also,,output is DSD and upsample DSD even when playing from MacBook Pro? Did you use anything in between such as software or?
Oh I was using Audirvana but not native DSD always DOP with Macs. Thanks
@@Tharbamar I see, thanks again. Appreciate your reply. Saw your iDSD showed,DXD and DSD at 4:18 and 5:0
Yes Audirvana will make you see it but actually it’s all DOP.
@@Tharbamar I see, thank you
@@Tharbamar so with Audirvana the DAC will show DSD? I’m using Pine Player and it shows PCM. Also tried Vox and VLC Player also shows PCM. When I use the iFi Gryphom portable DAC amp, it shows DXD.
Yes tidal is just higher gain and boosted eq
Nope.
Denon pma2000RE+ tannoy xt6 bookshelf + ifi zen blueတွဲထားတာ bass က အားသိပ်မရဘူးဖြစ်နေတာ subwoofer တွဲသင့်သလားဗျ
ဈေးသင့်တာထဲက Monitor mrw-10 ကိုတစ်ချက်စဥ်းစားနေတာ သုံးသင့်မသုံးသင့်လေး ဆရာ တစ်ချက်လောက် ဖြေပေးပါလားဗျ
Sgd1, can you please compare
Hi @
Tharbamar , you say its louder than your cd player but the unit is at +9dB setting, try 0dB to the left.
That’s only applied to headphone amp, I use it in HiFi fixed mode.
@@Tharbamar Have you tried it?
Yes, that’s headphone gain selection only.
@@Tharbamar Thanks for clearing that up.
Thanks for that. How do you find the knobs? Some people say they are wobbly
What is this TBR-DS Custom speaker cables, may i ask? Currently breaking in your recommendations, belden 8402 rca and canare 4s11 speaker cables. Would love to tryout your next favourite. Subscribed!
It just my custom design cables, I will share it in future, thanks
Which is your favorite DAC, all time
From what I have reviewed? that would be Loxjie D50, If the price is no object Esoteric K-03X would be my favorite but I have not listened to newer models from Esoteric. Thanks
Greetings, how long have the IFI unit been running since the unboxing? Also the speakers.
Almost two months, speakers have more than 500 hours on then.
Good morning
Morning
I see. :) Musician Pegasus
I started breaking them in today.
The multi-bit and tubes them self could be sold for $4900 (in a bigger case ))). A really interesting price for such device.
This should be 1.5k max
Doesn't play Tidal gaplessly so no thanks.