iFi's Pro iDSD (official) - NEW Firmware - MQA and more.

[anroj]

On ‎4‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 1:38 PM, austinpop said:

 

The days when rubidium clocks were considered the optimal for audio are long gone. Hopefully your engineers know this, and will tell you that rubidium (and cesium) clocks, while having outstanding long-term (resistance to drift) stability characteristics, do not have particularly good short-term stability (jitter or phase noise), which is the key to digital audio. This is reflected in the published phase noise characteristics. If you look at the published phase noise specs of the Perf 10 you referenced above, it is:

Phase noise (SSB)

<-130 dBc/Hz (10 Hz) <-140 dBc/Hz (100 Hz) <-150 dBc/Hz (1 kHz) <-155 dBc/Hz (10 kHz)

 

In contrast, the published phase noise of an OCXO-based  Mutec Ref 10 is:

Phase noise	dBc/Hz
1 Hz:	≤ -116
10 Hz:	≤ -145
100 Hz:	≤ -160
1000 Hz:	≤ -166
Noise floor:	≤ -170

 

I think the numbers speak for themselves. 

 

 

That is great news. Since I own an aforementioned Ref 10, it sounds like the low phase noise will benefit both audio and system clocks in the Pro iDSD. This makes me want to audition it. When are you releasing it again?!

 

 

75 ohm is a standard choice, so that makes sense.

 

[anroj]

On ‎4‎/‎26‎/‎2018 at 1:38 PM, austinpop said:

That is great news. Since I own an aforementioned Ref 10, it sounds like the low phase noise will benefit both audio and system clocks in the Pro iDSD. This makes me want to audition it. When are you releasing it again?!

Pardon my ignorance but I am going to purchase the iDSD Pro and was wondering about 10MHz clocks. Can I connect the Ref 10 directly into the iDSD Pro without needing something like the Mutec MC-3+ USB?

[anroj]

10 hours ago, austinpop said:

 

 

That is my understanding.

Thank you. That definitely helps.

[anroj]

Hi all, I am considering the Pro iDSD as a replacement for my Micro iDSD and have concerns about having to reformat my HDD to FAT32 to be able to use it with the Pro. I have contacted Ifi but have not gotten a response yet. Can anyone confirm that that is indeed true. The thought of having to reformat my HDD and re-ripping and re-downloading 6TB worth of music is not appealing.

[anroj]

7 minutes ago, o.fz said:

 

You may want to read my (too) long post above yours:

 

 

Thanks, o.fz. I got a response from iFi that was very vague: 

Hi James,

Thanks for your email - We've created a ticket for you.

The iDSD Pro needs to have FAT32 to be formatted, NTFS may not be supported.

There may be scope for the future but I can't confirm at this time.

Hope this helps.

I am interested in the Pro iDSD because it combines a DAC, preamp, and streamer in one component. I think I will wait until iFi has figured out how to move beyond FAT32 support before I reconsider the Pro iDSD.