Dual Applications - Main System and Portable ApplicationsI’ll be doing a review of the iDSD Black as DAC in my main 2 channel system. It is also a portable headphone amp but I don’t listen to music via my phone so I'll won't be reviewing the iDSD as a headphone amp or portable solution.
SystemServer - Windows 10 64bit Music Server
Software Player - JRiver and/or HQ Player
USB Power – iFi iUSB 3 and Regen Amber & Green
DAC - iFi iDSD Silver or Black
Preamp – Hot-rodded Hagerman Clarinet customized for octal tubes (6SN7 & 6BL7)
Amp - First Watt Burning Amp 3 (also hot-rodded with ridiculous parts quality)
Speakers - Serenity Acoustics Super 7s
Power Conditioners - BPT 2.5 and Felix/Bybee Bars
Room – Dedicated audio room in the garden level half-submerged basement
MusicAll hirez music – 24/48, 24/96, 24/88, 24/192, 24/352 as well as DSD64, DSD128, and DSD256 files. Rock, Classical, Jazz, Country, World Music, Soundtracks – you name it I probably have it. Well maybe not quite that bad, but it’s pretty ridiculous.
Upsampling & ConversionI discovered recently that HQ Player, which is new to me, can get you MUCH better sound quality than JRiver (my usual player) because it does a better job upsampling and converting PCM to DSD. I’ve got it set to convert all PCM files to DSD256 and it sounds freaking amazing. The iDSD benefits enormously from being fed a DSD signal that the dedicated server already converted.
USB ConditionersFirst a note about conditioners. I’ve listened to the iDSDs with and without all the conditioners in my system list. Here’s my opinion based on that listening.
“Should I use the iUSB 3, is it worth the $400?” Yes, yes it is.
“What about the iSilencer?” It’s good but only gets you about 70% of what the iUSB 3 does.
“What about all those Regen thingies, why do you have those?” I bought those before the iUSB 3 came out. The iUSB 3 is superior to the Regens. But one day I thought, what the hell, maybe I should daisy chain them and see what happens. What happened was even better sound. Should you go buy a bunch of Regens, too? I don’t know. Probably not. The iUSB 3 does all the heavy lifting. The Regens make very small additional improvements. I would not buy them if I didn’t already have them. But they were already on hand so why not? Hehe.
Setting Up the iFi iDSDLuckily I had the iFi Silver in my system for the past 2 years and I’ve been able to zero in on the best settings in my system. Here are my recs:
Output – Direct Mode. This bypasses the volume pot so you get a full signal at the RCA analog outputs. It also bypasses all the “Power Mode” and “IEMatch” settings.
Polarity – “+”
Filter – Bit-Perfect
Xbass – Off
3D – Off
This get you as close to
“Straight Pass Through” mode as possible. And it’s how the iDSD sounds best, IMO. These are also the best settings for the Black.
Sound Quality & ComparisonsOK, I’ve made you wait long enough. How does it sound? In a word – great! It improves on the iDSD Silver in almost every way. Let’s enumerate:
Bass – It’s not even a contest. The bass on the Silver was very good but the Black just crushes it. Better slam, attack, control, clarity, rhythm, delineation, everything is just better. When I got OB Servo Controlled subs as part of my Serenity Acoustic Super 7 speakers, that was the only other time I’ve heard an improvement in bass at this level with my system. Jackhammer bass. But with finesse.
Macro Dynamics – Slam? Yeah it’s also an order of magnitude better than the Silver. The transient attacks are just downright MEAN, haha. It’s like a high-performance car, it is just ‘itching’ to smack you around in an instant. Zero to 100 in .01 seconds.
Micro Dynamics – This is about even between the units. In other words, they are both amazing. The subtle little bits of intensity that comes through when real artists are playing are rendered exceptionally well. This is a super important area for me because so many times it isn’t reproduced properly and it’s a critical part of being able to distinguish a good musical performance from a great musical performance. Or a truly gifted musician from a merely good musician.
Tonality – The one area that the Silver clearly wins. Here the Silver is just magic. Tonal density, differentiating the wood body of an instrument against the rosiny strings, the bloom of real instruments in a real space, the ability to hear subtle differences in tonality between different instruments in a large orchestra. These are all things that the Silver excels.
On the other hand, the Black may not have the ‘center of the earth, tube-like tonality’ that the Silver does, but it does have its strengths too. It is light on its feet, effervescent and ebullient. It is absolutely crystal clear and as close to ‘not there’ as I’ve heard at anywhere near this price point.
Resolution – Black is clearly better (see what I did there? Haha). It’s like putting on a pair of new prescription glasses. Everything snaps in to focus. Or to be more specific it’s like going from HD video to 4K video. There’s just more information there. To me this is the most impressive aspect of the Black.
Soundstage & Imaging – Oh, here is where things get interesting. They are quite different in their presentations. The Silver, with its dense tonality and lower overall resolution has a relaxed and beautiful presentation of instruments that are located in a deep, deep black background. It’s almost like the music surges up from silence. I love it. On the other hand, the Black with its greater resolution and lighter tonality presents a lot more information – you hear EVERYTHING. Which results in a massive soundstage, huge depth, width and even height.
Final ThoughtsSo, is the Black an improvement over the Silver? Yes, decisively. Will I be buying the Black and using it in my system? No, no I won’t. Because for me the tonality is more important than every other single factor. That’s my preference, even if it is a preference for a more colored sound. Rose tinted glasses? Yep. I prefer all my music to be beautified. I’ve heard it mentioned that the iTube would give me the tonality I seek while keeping all the improvements the Black offers. Maybe I’ll give that a go in the future. For now, I’ve held on to this unit for far too long as it is (and enjoyed the heck out of it). Time to send it to the next person on the list.
