iFi Pro iDSD — Where Do You Begin With a DAC Like This?

DAC / PREAMPLIFIER / HEADPHONE AMP · IFI AUDIO · REVIEW

This is not a dCS Puccini or a Devialet. But it costs almost six times less. So it isn’t a pretty DAC with masses of machined metal and surface detail — but it looks quite good, and it absolutely oozes technology. It is packed with buttons, knobs, sockets, and ports. Strongly recommended: take it out and study it carefully before plugging it in. When it’s on the rack, you won’t want to be hanging over it trying to read the fine print.

What’s Inside

Quad-stack of Bit-Perfect DSD and DXD DACs by Burr-Brown — the only quad-stack DAC on the market

XMOS XU216 X-Core 200 Series 16-core processor

Custom FPGA and DSP chip for digital filtering

PCM to 768kHz · DSD to DSD1024 · DXD and DXD2

Upsampling to DSD512 or DSD1024

Full MQA decoding

All signals reclocked via Global Master Timing® low-jitter femto-clock

Four clock sync modes: atomic, DARS, 10MHz, standalone

All-valve Class A section based on 2 × GE5670

Three output modes: Class A solid state · Class A valve (two options)

XLR balanced and RCA SE outputs

Output selector: HiFi Fixed, HiFi Variable, Pro Fixed, Pro Variable

Ethernet and WiFi for network streaming (Muzo app)

USB Type-A for flash drives and external hard drives

Micro SD card slot

AES/EBU · Coaxial SPDIF · BNC (SPDIF + AES3id) · TOSLINK

Headphone jacks: 6.35mm and 3.5mm · Balanced 2.5mm TRRS

The Sound

In solid state Class A mode: clean, detailed, controlled. In valve mode: the character changes dramatically — there is a warmth, a roundness to notes, a bloom in the midrange that solid state simply does not offer. Switching between the three output modes is genuinely useful, not a gimmick. The ability to go from analytical solid state to romantic valve without changing a single cable is extraordinary. This DAC comfortably sits with equipment costing three to four times its price.