I bought the Zen Air Can several months ago and it’s quite good. At least it gives you the opportunity to try different DACs. It’s certainly powerful with a warmish tone to it. Although it’s overkill for most planar IEMs, it can really give power-hungry ones the needed “push” to sound their best. They are great for my Letshouer S12 Pros and especially great for my recently-acquired KZ PR2 HBB’s, which are notoriously hard to drive.
I bought the VOLARE based solely upon your review. Loved it. My desktop setup is using a Sennheiser GSX 1000 as a dac going into a JDS Labs Atom (first revision) I've been toying with the idea of getting an amp with a balanced output and was wondering if you thought that giving this a shot might added more dimension or if I'd be good with where I'm at.
I can't honestly say without having every tried the GSX 1000 but what I can say is; balanced circuits *can* sound better, especially if more power is required but obviously Volare doesn't need any more power than you have already. The DAC and amp can make a difference but I think if you want an improvement over what you're using now, you'd likely need to spend more than $99.
I have the iFi audio Zen Dac and Zen CAN (the original, not Air version). I think that, given the excellent internal DAC of the MacBook Air M2 which is designed for its compatibility with high impedance professional headphones, I don't really need the Zen DAC anymore. But I want to continue to use the Zen CAN for volume amplification, occasional bass boost, etc. So my question is about connecting the Zen CAN to the MacBook. The 2 RCA cables on the back of the Zen CAN (right and left) plug into the RCA ports on the back of the Zen DAC. But since I won't have the Zen DAC anymore, I absolutely have to plug the RCA cables from the Zen CAN into my MacBook. To do this I have 2 possible choices: 1) connect the RCA cables from Zen CAN to the USB-C port of my MacBook (via RCA to USB-C adapter). 2) connect the RCA cables from the Zen CAN to the headphone jack 3.5 mm of the MacBook (again with a female RCA adapter to the MacBook headphone input). In other words, should the Zen CAN amp or any other amp model be plugged into the computer preferably into the computer's USB-C port or into the 3.5mm headphone jack of the computer? I mean for better sound quality transmission.
If you have the iFi Audio Zen DAC Air, you ALREADY have the ability to amplify the volume of your source a lot, so you don't need the Zen CAN. The only difference is that Zen CAN offers graduated volume increase choices, while with the Zen DAC's Power Match function you only have one choice: very amplified or not at all (on/off). The Zen DAC can work alone, while the Zen CAN needs to be connected to a DAC (on the Zen Dac or other DACs). The CAN's xBass button offers a more subtle, less radical bass increase than the Zen DAC. And it also offers xSpace which does not exist on the Zen Dac (for a more or less effective sound widening effect).
i have Zen Can and i love it especially paired with FiiO K5 Pro or Topping E30II but the Zen Dac v2 is complete crap all IFI dacs have very high noise floor so i don't like them at all
I bought the Zen Air Can several months ago and it’s quite good. At least it gives you the opportunity to try different DACs. It’s certainly powerful with a warmish tone to it. Although it’s overkill for most planar IEMs, it can really give power-hungry ones the needed “push” to sound their best. They are great for my Letshouer S12 Pros and especially great for my recently-acquired KZ PR2 HBB’s, which are notoriously hard to drive.
I bought the VOLARE based solely upon your review. Loved it. My desktop setup is using a Sennheiser GSX 1000 as a dac going into a JDS Labs Atom (first revision)
I've been toying with the idea of getting an amp with a balanced output and was wondering if you thought that giving this a shot might added more dimension or if I'd be good with where I'm at.
I can't honestly say without having every tried the GSX 1000 but what I can say is; balanced circuits *can* sound better, especially if more power is required but obviously Volare doesn't need any more power than you have already. The DAC and amp can make a difference but I think if you want an improvement over what you're using now, you'd likely need to spend more than $99.
I have the iFi audio Zen Dac and Zen CAN (the original, not Air version). I think that, given the excellent internal DAC of the MacBook Air M2 which is designed for its compatibility with high impedance professional headphones, I don't really need the Zen DAC anymore. But I want to continue to use the Zen CAN for volume amplification, occasional bass boost, etc.
So my question is about connecting the Zen CAN to the MacBook.
The 2 RCA cables on the back of the Zen CAN (right and left) plug into the RCA ports on the back of the Zen DAC. But since I won't have the Zen DAC anymore, I absolutely have to plug the RCA cables from the Zen CAN into my MacBook.
To do this I have 2 possible choices:
1) connect the RCA cables from Zen CAN to the USB-C port of my MacBook (via RCA to USB-C adapter).
2) connect the RCA cables from the Zen CAN to the headphone jack 3.5 mm of the MacBook (again with a female RCA adapter to the MacBook headphone input).
In other words, should the Zen CAN amp or any other amp model be plugged into the computer preferably into the computer's USB-C port or into the 3.5mm headphone jack of the computer? I mean for better sound quality transmission.
A 3.5mm to rca would be the best solution.
Have you tried the Burson Audio Playmate 2 or the JDS Labs Atom Amp 2 ?
If you have the iFi Audio Zen DAC Air, you ALREADY have the ability to amplify the volume of your source a lot, so you don't need the Zen CAN. The only difference is that Zen CAN offers graduated volume increase choices, while with the Zen DAC's Power Match function you only have one choice: very amplified or not at all (on/off). The Zen DAC can work alone, while the Zen CAN needs to be connected to a DAC (on the Zen Dac or other DACs). The CAN's xBass button offers a more subtle, less radical bass increase than the Zen DAC. And it also offers xSpace which does not exist on the Zen Dac (for a more or less effective sound widening effect).
much love from Indonesia ❤
if i already own a zen air dac, could i upgrade the sound quality by adding the zen air can? i use sennheiser hd560s headphones
The HD560s are already an efficient headphone. I doubt they would benefit from the additional power from the CAN.
@@PrimeAudioReviews so basically no upgrade in audio quality ?
Correct. You might consider moving up to the HD600/650 instead.
@@PrimeAudioReviews i heard that the hd600/650 sound different not better than the hd560s
Please excuse me if I missed in the review, but what dac amp chip does it use…cirrus logic or ess..?
This one is a headphones amplifier only so there is no DAC chip. It uses iFi OV2637 op-amps.
Just to be clear, this is both a dac and amp correct?
This is only a headphones amp.
@@PrimeAudioReviews and I got excited for a sec, a $99 dac amp from ifi with xbass AND xspace??
Maybe one day 😅
Well, you can get the iFi ZEN Air DAC. 😃 (without xSpace tho).
Ifi uno is a $79 dac/amp.
While I like that ifi designed something that wasn't just a box, it looks goofy when stacked with other Zen series products designed to go with it.
Yeah, it kinda does!
i have Zen Can and i love it especially paired with FiiO K5 Pro or Topping E30II but the Zen Dac v2 is complete crap all IFI dacs have very high noise floor so i don't like them at all
True, the Air DAC has some noise.
@@PrimeAudioReviewswow, that's unacceptable. I'm genuinely shocked.
Comment for da algorithm
Streak count: 359