iFi iDSD Diablo 2: The World’s First Portable DAC/Headphone Amp With aptX Lossless Support

The iFi iDSD Diablo 2 is a groundbreaking transportable DAC/headphone amp that helps aptX Lossless expertise. Discover the superb options and superior audio high quality of this progressive machine.

The iDSD Diablo 2 is the most recent transportable DAC/headphone amp from iFi that’s designed to be a big improve over their authentic iDSD Diablo flagship product. It has been completely redesigned in and out, with technical advances throughout the board.

Most notably, it incorporates a new Bluetooth engine that helps apt-X Lossless, making it the primary DAC/Amp to assist the lossless (CD-quality) Bluetooth audio format. That’s an enormous deal, granted you might have a tool (smartphone, transmitter) that may ship out apt-X Lossless. There aren’t many for the time being, nonetheless.

The iDSD Diablo 2 is barely bigger than its predecessor, however it’s nonetheless transportable sufficient for use on the go. It has a brand new grooved design wearing a brand new shade of metallic crimson. The 22 grooves should not only for present; they support thermal dissipation and double as fixing rails for the removable “wings” that can be utilized to face the Diablo 2 up on a desk or desk.

The iDSD Diablo 2, like the unique, is designed to be a robust amp that may drive all method of headphones, from extremely delicate in-ear displays to current-hungry planar headphones. It’s additionally stated to supply wonderful sound high quality, with distinctive linearity and infinitesimally low ranges of noise and distortion.

Furthermore, the iDSD Diablo 2 incorporates a digital stage with a Burr-Brown DAC chip chosen for its natural-sounding ‘musicality’ and True Native structure. It makes use of two of those chips in a customized ‘interleaved’ configuration to allow 4 pairs of differential alerts, leading to a decrease noise ground, improved channel separation, and enhanced potential to resolve superb musical element and micro-dynamics.

This DAC/headphone amp boasts a USB DAC enter that helps PCM as much as 768 kHz 32-bit and DSD as much as 22.5792 MHz (DSD512). This high-res DAC, that includes Burr-Brown DAC chips, ensures that PCM and DSD information take separate pathways, sustaining their native kind as much as analog conversion. Additionally, the amplifier is praised for its seamless assist of MQA information, offering full decoding and upsampling of MQA information as much as 384kHz.

The amp stage is claimed to ship prodigious energy with propulsive power and interesting dynamics with a outstanding potential to resolve superb texture and element. With an output energy of 5,180mW/12.9V into 32 ohms and 611mW/19.2V into 600 ohms by its 4.4mm balanced output, it claims extra energy than every other transportable DAC/headphone amp.

The machine options three achieve settings, together with Normal, Turbo, and Nitro, in addition to an IEMatch attenuation mode for super-sensitive IEMs. Additionally, the quantity is managed by a high-quality analog potentiometer for sonic transparency.

The iDSD Diablo 2 can also be geared up with a high-capacity 4800mAh lithium-ion battery, which allows highly effective amplification and prolonged runtime. Additionally, it may be used whereas related to the mains utilizing the iPower 2, an AC/DC adapter that includes an lively noise cancellation circuit for steady and clear DC present, thus enhancing the machine’s sonic efficiency.

Additionally, the Diablo 2 helps xMEMS, which is a brand new solid-state micro-speaker expertise that’s supposed to rework the headphone and in-ear monitor market. This tech leverages micro-electromechanical programs (MEMS) manufacturing processes, integrating semiconductor expertise with transferring components, leading to a silicon diaphragm mixed with a piezoelectric layer to create tiny audio system with good part and transient response.

These audio system are supposed to supply superior high-frequency constancy in comparison with typical moving-coil drivers, making them a game-changer within the business. The xMEMS micro-speakers are voltage-driven, requiring specialised amplifiers to optimize their efficiency, such because the limited-edition model of the iDSD Diablo known as the Diablo-X, launched by iFi earlier this 12 months, and now the Diablo 2.

As acknowledged earlier, this DAC/Amp options aptX Lossless, the primary ‘lossless’ Bluetooth audio format, able to streaming CD-quality audio ‘losslessly’ at 16-bit/44.1kHz. It achieves bitrates of as much as 1.2Mbps, greater than twice the utmost bitrate of aptX Adaptive and aptX HD, and roughly 20% larger than LDAC’s most determine.

This expertise goals to bridge the hole between CD-quality audio and compressed Bluetooth audio, preserving the unique knowledge whereas making use of a type of compression.

The iFi iDSD Diablo 2 is the primary transportable DAC to assist aptX Lossless and Bluetooth model 5.4, providing the best wi-fi vary, stability, velocity, and low latency. It can retailer as much as eight paired Bluetooth supply gadgets, permitting for seamless switching between them.

As far as connections go, it incorporates a 3.5mm S/PDIF enter that accepts each coaxial and optical connections, alongside a separate USB-C port for mains energy/charging. The machine additionally has a typical 6.3mm single-ended headphone socket, a 4.4mm output for headphones providing a balanced connection, and a second 4.4mm socket on the again that can be utilized as a fixed-level line output.

The iDSD Diablo 2 comes with a beneficiant equipment pack, together with numerous digital audio cables, adapters, and a premium-quality journey case, making it a premium transportable package deal. It is now obtainable from chosen retailers at an MSRP of $1,299.