The iFi NEO iDSD 2 is a DAC preamp and headphone amplifier and a revision to the original iDSD that we tested early last year. The original was an elegant embodiment of how iFi does business. It did awful lot, did the bulk of it very well and used some wholly distinctive engineering to achieve it. As we actually looked at the original, a fair bit of time into its life (it launched in 2020), it’s now been superseded by the logically named iDSD2.

The business of updating a DAC that already pretty much did everything you might reasonably expect a device to do is not entirely straightforward. Everything about the original iDSD is still wholly competitive at the tail end of 2023 so making a better one, especially when you don’t plan to put the price up is not that easy.

This is iFi Audio though; a company that makes a streamer with a wholly novel wired internet connection, an unreasonably good affordable phono stage, the most sophisticated ‘stick DAC’ I’ve ever tested and a host of other products that have functionality I had no idea I needed but rather enjoy when I have it. The iDSD2 leans into this philosophy with bells on. Is the result an unmissable sonic bargain though or simply a product that does a great many things? Do simpler rivals have an upper hand where it matters? We will need to find out.

The iDSD2 does not change the headline sample rates that the original DAC offered and that’s not really an issue. DACs have settled at 768kHz PCM and DSD512 for some years (obviously you can buy a few things that go higher if you really want to) because these figures far outstrip the overwhelming majority of available content. I honestly didn’t feel I would see the point where Apple and Amazon make a quantity of 192kHz content available for two pints a month so the ability to handle four times that bandwidth feels like adequate future proofing. You also get MQA support as well; potentially one of the last products to hit the market that will go to the effort of doing so.

The decoding hardware that handles this is closely related to the older model too. As a company, iFi prefers Texas Instruments over ESS or AKM and this is partnered with a potent 32 bit 16 core XMOS controller. The clocking arrangements, always fastidious, have been further improved for the new model. It’s then placed in a circuit that makes use of a medley of components that have been selected to boost the performance of the output stage. This output stage is available as single ended and balanced and unlike the Stream which has to shrink the balanced out down to a 4.4mm connection, the iDSD2 can make use of XLRs.

There are hardware changes though. The new DAC now runs on a 12V power supply (although interestingly, it states 9V on the back and will actually run on 9 to 15V) This is supplied via the company’s iPower2 PSU which is available for £69 on its own. This is a fairly bulky wall wart but it does look like a cut above most wall wart PSUs. The higher spec PSU from the Stream can also be used as can the 12V version of the Elite PSU that was tested with the original iDSD.

The reason for this beefier power supply is the headphone output. Somebody in iFi appears to live in the constant state of fear that one of their devices might encounter a headphone that causes one of their products something approaching difficulty. The redesigned stage in the iDSD2 is able to deliver more than 5,550mW into 32 ohms from its 4.4mm output which should be enough for pretty much any headphone that doesn’t physically require its own external exciter. Across every increment of balanced and unbalanced operation, the iDSD2 is volcanically powerful and should be more than up to the job of handling any headphone you can think of. Then because such horsepower makes using IEMs a chancy business, iFi has engineered a four stage gain setting; with normal, ‘turbo’ and ‘nitro’ being joined by a -12dB setting for IEMs.

The other significant change concerns the Bluetooth. The iDSD2 now supports aptX Lossless which is notionally capable of handling 16/44.1 without loss (although packing and unpacking takes place). This is a first and joins the complete list of other supported types that iFi Audio has made something of a calling card. Regrettably, Lossless is sufficiently new that I am not in possession of a device that can test it but it does auger well for the future.

The other tweak to the Bluetooth is also rather handy. The iDSD2 can also make use of BLE to run an app that iFi calls Nexis. This allows for you to adjust the various filters, gain settings and other tweakable content on the iDSD2 from your phone. This is a useful addition to the supplied remote control which, while nicer than the one supplied with the iDSD, is still a little small and fiddly. The app makes tinkering with the various extra features of the iDSD2 something you might actually want to do on a regular basis.

This being an iFi Audio product, there are extra features that feel a little on the niche side. The first is the addition of a 3.5mm analogue input to join the USB, coax and optical physical connections already on the device. I understand the reasoning for adding it (the iDSD2 can technically connect straight to a power amp or active speakers and still give the option to run a turntable) but I don’t know how many people will actually need it. The second is the presence of an external word clock input. This is unusual at the price and does offer (at least on paper) the scope to boost performance by using an external clock but, as iFi does not at the time of writing make such a thing, you’ll be most likely reduced to poring over pro audio sites for a likely candidate to work with the iDSD2. Given how much effort iFi has put into the internal clock, I suspect an HDMI ARC connection would see more use but it’s still an interesting feature.

Better news comes in the form of the cosmetic revisions. I still don’t feel that the NEO components are beautiful but the iDSD2 has some neat revisions over the older model. The Bluetooth antenna is now internal which makes the whole chassis look rather neater. The display, while still a little on the small size is full colour and easier to read than was the case on the original and the volume ramp is usefully swift and well judged too. While I still think it looks a little fussy, I can’t argue with the build quality and I also think the option of being able to stand the iFi vertically is a nice touch too.

The iFi has been connected to an IsoTek Evo3 Corvus mains block and mainly used connected to a Roon Nucleus over USB and via an Oppo Find X5 Pro via Bluetooth. It was tested over RCA into a Chord Electronics CPM2800MkII and a Musical Fidelity A1 and over XLR into a Cambridge Audio Edge A. Speakers used have been the Neat Petite Classic and Devore Fidelity O/Baby. Headphone testing has been via Focal Clear MG and Sennheiser IE600. Material used has been FLAC, AIFF, DSD, Qobuz, Tidal and Spotify.

HI-FI article

 96

Audio Formats – What Does What and What It All Means

by Ed Selley · Dec 29, 2018

There are more formats, codecs and buzzwords around audio than ever before – we try and hack through the mire to give you the basics.

I almost certainly don’t need to reiterate that there really wasn’t much sonically amiss with the original iDSD. It sets a seriously high bar for the new DAC to match and I don’t feel that it is too hard on the new model to say the differences over RCA in particular are not night and day. Of course, this means that the performance is still sparkling judged by any other metric. Tested with the Chord and DeVore Fidelity, the iFi is by far the most affordable component in the system but it never feels like the weak link. Alison Sudol’s lovely vocal turn in What I Wouldn’t Do is sweet and rich without sounding over emphasised or unnatural.

This balance is something I expanded on at length last time and it’s really become something of an iFi trademark. I do think the differences in the various silicone suppliers is overstated and that what you hear in the iDSD2 is more about the implementation and the components in the output stage but there is a combination of speed, punch and sweetness that can elicit unexpected results. That clipped and hacked Annie Lennox sample in Utah Saint’s What Can You Do For Me? sounds utterly wonderful, picked out against the peak nineties dance music underneath it which hits hard and fast. You might reasonably argue that Utah Saints does not constitute Hi-Fi… but I’d urge you to listen to it on this first.

Even in the absence of an aptX Lossless transmitter, it does feel that the Bluetooth is a step forward too. The company hasn’t made a bad sounding Bluetooth product in the time I’ve been testing them and this does nothing to change that. Stability has been absolute on test and this is mimicked by the BLE control app which meets the single most important criteria that this type of app can do and works reliably and consistently in a way that has had me largely ignore the remote. It means that functions like the adjustable filters, bass and soundstage enhancement and the gain settings actually see use because accessing them is not a pain.

In some ways I’m stalling here because, good though the iDSD2 is over the outputs on the back, it’s the ones at the front that really stand out. Put simply, the extra power makes a big difference and it means that the iDSD2 is better on its supplied PSU than the original was with the extra cost of the Elite PSU added. The boost to the performance of the Clear MG is very noticeable. The Focal is not a tough headphone to drive but the increase in current sees the bass extension from Orbital’s gloriously silly Doctor? really come alive. The impression you get is one of linear, unburstable power and shove and it’s tremendously compelling.

Then when you have the Sennheiser IE 600 connected which has no need of the same power, the IEM specific gain stage is utterly free of unwanted noise and allows for excellent fine adjustment of volume. Crucially, it still sounds like the iDSD2 does used in other modes. Emily Wolfe’s Can I Read Your Mind Lover? is still that utterly compelling combination of sweetness and punch that ensures that Wolfe sounds tangibly real while the gated drum behind her has a meaningful punch to it. Part of me feels that the low gain setting is a piece of technical brilliance that might not see as much use as the other modes because of how proficient other, less expensive, iFi devices are with IEMs but it’s hard to regard the iDSD2 as anything other than a formidable headphone amp that will demonstrate those qualities with pretty much any headphone or earphone you can think of.

iFi NEO iDSD 2 DAC Review