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

[o.fz]

Hi Mario,

This is interesting. I've also noticed that the iPi is rather on the noisy side. At idle it produces a level of noise I never heard with my old CD player. So I also tried the HDPlex thing. It's less noisy, but it changes a lot the iPi's sound. As I bought it for its fantastic sound quality, I didn't kept the HDPlex for more than 2 or 3 hours in use and went back to the original power supply, that I definitively prefer.

If the noise is a problem for you, you may try a symmetric (XLR) connection with your preamp. It will be less noisy.

Having the HDPlex at hand, I made a curious experiment: I put it on my router and my NAS. The result has been incredible: I got a much quieter sound, with more air between the instruments and a better soundstage (a cliché, I know, I can't help, it was so). Clearly, their cheap power supplies produced a lot of noise, that was probably fed into the DAC through the Ethernet connection. So, the HDPlex stays here, for an unexpected use.

You may also like the Wireworld Platinium Ethernet cable,  which works very well with the iPi. Its rather pricey, but it has no rival among the other cables I tried.

Olivier

 

[AMR/iFi audio]

8 hours ago, Holzohr said:

The ifi ps for my Pro iDSD seems (not really it seems. it does) to cause a lot of EMI. I have already suspected this because I always could hear an unsteady noise out of my active speakers (with no music playback). Not from my listening place but when I am close to the speakers. I use the pre-amp feature of the Pro iDSD. At least I didn't have this kind of noise with my former DAC/pre-amps (Oppo HA-1, PS Audio DS DAC)

 

I have made two clips. Sorry for the quality.

 

EMI by ifi power supply

 

EMI by HDPLEX LPS 200 (19v output adjusted to 15v)

 

 

I wonder if my ifi power supply is faulty or if it is typical behaviour for this kind of ps. The HDPLEX does an amazing job btw.

 

Cheers

Mario

 

 

 

Can you please shoot us a message here: http://support.ifi-audio.com/

[o.fz]

11 minutes ago, AMR/iFi audio said:

 

Can you please shoot us a message here: http://support.ifi-audio.com/

 

Does it mean that the DAC shouldn't be noisy? Mine is, definitively.

[AMR/iFi audio]

6 minutes ago, o.fz said:

 

Does it mean that the DAC shouldn't be noisy? Mine is, definitively.

 

It shouldn't. That's why we advise to contact our support to investigate.

[pl1jns]

Mine is noisy too. If I turn the amp volume up with no music playing i get a lot of hash clicks and pops. This doesnt happen with a CD player connected. I have also tried it with a different power supply and it isnt that.

I already have a support ticket going had replies but no solution yet

[Holzohr]

11 hours ago, AMR/iFi audio said:

 

Can you please shoot us a message here: http://support.ifi-audio.com/

 

Yes, thanks. That I will do.

[Holzohr]

13 hours ago, o.fz said:

Hi Mario,

This is interesting. I've also noticed that the iPi is rather on the noisy side. At idle it produces a level of noise I never heard with my old CD player. So I also tried the HDPlex thing. It's less noisy, but it changes a lot the iPi's sound. As I bought it for its fantastic sound quality, I didn't kept the HDPlex for more than 2 or 3 hours in use and went back to the original power supply, that I definitively prefer.

If the noise is a problem for you, you may try a symmetric (XLR) connection with your preamp. It will be less noisy.

Having the HDPlex at hand, I made a curious experiment: I put it on my router and my NAS. The result has been incredible: I got a much quieter sound, with more air between the instruments and a better soundstage (a cliché, I know, I can't help, it was so). Clearly, their cheap power supplies produced a lot of noise, that was probably fed into the DAC through the Ethernet connection. So, the HDPlex stays here, for an unexpected use.

You may also like the Wireworld Platinium Ethernet cable,  which works very well with the iPi. Its rather pricey, but it has no rival among the other cables I tried.

Olivier

 

 

Hi Olivier,

thank you for the feedback. I have a symmetric connection between the Pro iDSD and my active speakers. The HDPLEX (the model from last year with absolutely no hum) ist still feeding the Pro iDSD at the moment but I will replace it again with the ifi ps later.
 

About the EMI from ifi's ps.. not sure if it has an influence on the DAC side but it definitively has an influence on the other side, in my case the Schuko-side. It gives EMI back to the other power outlets. Btw. that's in contrary to the switching ps that UptoneAudio delivers with the LPS-1.2. The UptoneAudio ps even seems to act like a EMI reducer in my system. Strange..

 

About ethernet, I use wireless connection between router and the ifi Pro iDSD. Well, I still have a 12V ifi iPower that I could use for my router.

 

 

1 hour ago, pl1jns said:

Mine is noisy too. If I turn the amp volume up with no music playing i get a lot of hash clicks and pops. This doesnt happen with a CD player connected. I have also tried it with a different power supply and it isnt that.

I already have a support ticket going had replies but no solution yet

 

Thank you for the feedback, too! Yes, it must be the ifi power supply. The Pro iDSD accepts input voltage from DC 9V/6.7A to 18V/3.35A so I am thinking about a Keces P8 mono 9/12V 8A or dual 9/12V - 12/15V 4A. Though not really keen to spend € 699. 

[pl1jns]

My noise is definitely not the power supply as I tried a different one and the noise was still there. I wouldnt assume its the power supply unless you have checked it with another one

[Holzohr]

42 minutes ago, pl1jns said:

My noise is definitely not the power supply as I tried a different one and the noise was still there. I wouldnt assume its the power supply unless you have checked it with another one

 

Ah ok. Out of interest what different ps did you try with the Pro iDSD? In case the Pro iDSD itself produces the noise the HDPLEX atleast seems to block it from entering the surroundings in my case. But I have to agree with @o.fz feeding the Pro iDSD by the ifi power supply and the sound is more "crispy" and "opens up". I guess I have to order such a Keces P8.

 

I also played with the volume knob a bit, turning up and down (with no music). At first there was noise and some crackles(?) coming from the speakers but after some moves more this kind of sound vanished.

[pl1jns]

I used the "stock" power supply from the SOTM 200 . I only used it to test for noise and didnt listen to music. I do have the SOTM 500 power supply but cabling constrictions stop me from trying it with the iFi idsd pro.

There is a review which comments on using other power supplies with the iidsd pro

 

[Holzohr]

Thank you. I have read Rajiv's review. I fear I will never be owner of a PH power supply. 🙂

 

Another topic: thanks to the findings of DC from JPLAY forum it is possible with help of Phillipe's UPnP-bridge server (indeed a plugin for LMS) to stream from Roon via Squeezebox/UPnP to JPLAY Femto (USB). Either via kernel streaming, wasapi or asio.

 

The side effect of installing the UPnP server is it makes streaming possible from Roon to the ethernet input of the ifi Pro iDSD, too. It works like Sonore's UPnP-app but in this case you don't need a Rendu.

I am still new to Jplay. The asio driver from ifi comes with a control panel for latency and buffer settings. Setting the latency to minimal makes a DAC Link of 1000 Hz on the Jplay settings possible. That's what everyone want if I understood it right. The latency is on "safe" by default. A DAC Link of 700 Hz was the highest possible with latency on safe.

[o.fz]

10 hours ago, pl1jns said:

My noise is definitely not the power supply as I tried a different one and the noise was still there. I wouldnt assume its the power supply unless you have checked it with another one

 

You're right. When I tried the HDPlex, noise wasn't my first concern, so I can't swear it reduced the noise level. I mostly noticed that the sound changed, and that I preferred the supplied supply (sorry).

[pl1jns]

Ok, looks like we might have the same problem. I will PM you to let you know how my support ticket is dealt with. They initially suggested some firmware updates but that didn't work. Currently waiting for them to get back to me. 

[o.fz]

13 hours ago, pl1jns said:

Mine is noisy too. If I turn the amp volume up with no music playing i get a lot of hash clicks and pops. This doesnt happen with a CD player connected. I have also tried it with a different power supply and it isnt that.

I already have a support ticket going had replies but no solution yet

 

I've about the same experience: an audible hiss (mostly in the medium frequencies) and a cyclical 'cloc'. Kind of: cloc... cloc... cloc... I'll try to record it tomorrow,  if ever I can find back my Lavalier microphone...

That said, it's not audible when the music is playing. I only ear it when it should be silent.

I might contact the 'support' team, but my experience about it is rather disappointing: they create a ticket and nothing more happens, as far as I can tell.

I hope you'll be more successful.

[o.fz]

In a certain way, this streamer reminds me of the Fuji X100 camera. Picture-wise, it changed the expectations you would have about an aps-c camera: it dominated all the others, but the user experience was marred by lots of quirks and flaws that resulted of a premature release. Fuji released afterwards several firmwares that gradually improved the camera, while the (rare) hardware ergonomic flaws stayed, of course. Nonetheless, I still own and use that camera, 6 years after its release (an eternity in digital cameras terms).

Similarly, the iDSD's sound is undreamt of, for a streamer in that category, but it has several irritating shortcomings. The lack of gapless playback isn't the less annoying flaw, as far as I'm concerned.

I only hope that Ifi will follow Fuji's example and fix all the firmware issues in a near future.

[RichB]

36 minutes ago, o.fz said:

 

I've about the same experience: an audible hiss (mostly in the medium frequencies) and a cyclical 'cloc'. Kind of: cloc... cloc... cloc... I'll try to record it tomorrow,  if ever I can find back my Lavalier microphone...

That said, it's not audible when the music is playing. I only ear it when it should be silent.

I might contact the 'support' team, but my experience about it is rather disappointing: they create a ticket and nothing more happens, as far as I can tell.

I hope you'll be more successful.

 

Given I am a dealer and have a variety of gear connected/playing in my listening room at any one time, I have noticed with some gear the iDSD Pro is generating RFI that is being picked up by some (not all) gear. The most noticeable occurrence was with a Joule-Electra preamp which is about 20 years old.... the all tube phono stage in it (sitting about 3 feet away horizontally from the iDSD pro) in MC gain mode was clearly picking up interference which was rather audible from the speakers... less so in MM mode, but still there. Turning off the iDSD Pro made the interference  (like that mentioned above by OFZ) made it go away... (I will point out that there are 2 Mac Mini’s and a Roon Nucleus running in the room which cause. No such interference issues)

 

My guess is that it is not the power supply, but the unit itself - the WiFi signal it is broadcasting. Maybe there is some way to turn off its WiFi capabilities?

[Holzohr]

51 minutes ago, RichB said:

The most noticeable occurrence was with a Joule-Electra preamp which is about 20 years old.... the all tube phono stage in it (sitting about 3 feet away horizontally from the iDSD pro) in MC gain mode was clearly picking up interference which was rather audible from the speakers... less so in MM mode, but still there. Turning off the iDSD Pro made the interference  (like that mentioned above by OFZ) made it go away... 

 

Interesting. I have the same issue with a Schiit Mani when I use my MC high output system. Less with my MM system. I have to turn off the ifi Pro iDSD especially when I want to use the MC system.

 

Well, it seems I have found a solution for now. Using a Keces BP-60 and a PS Audio Dectet in chain the ifi power supply is connected to one of the unfiltered outlets of the Dectet now and I get steady EMI below 40 mV. Before I had connected the DAC to a filtered outlet all the time. (I got the Keces for a couple of days.)

 

I will give the MC high output system another try on weekend. Maybe the "semi-open" case of the ifi Pro is not that ideal?

[o.fz]

Here is a recording of the strange noise from outer space. I used a cheap Lavalier microphone, connected to my phone. It's placed close (about 5 cm) to the bass speaker.

One can ear alternatively the base noise of the system, with mute or another input chosen from the preamp, and the specific noise of the iDSD. The level difference shows that the noise is audible, but is not a huge problem, imho.

It's mostly puzzling because my former source, a YBA CD player, was completely silent.

20190221_085801.wav

[o.fz]

(I added the description of my system, in my profile, but I don't see it under my posts. Should I do something to make it public?)

[Holzohr]

1 minute ago, o.fz said:

(I added the description of my system, in my profile, but I don't see it under my posts. Should I do something to make it public?)

 

To make it visible under the posts you must fill the signature under " account settings".

[o.fz]

Thank you. I hope my audio system is now clear enough, although it makes my signature rather bulky. May I ask you how you got your elegant little font?

[Holzohr]

Pls have a look where you have filled the signature. There you can chose the font size.

[o.fz]

44 minutes ago, Holzohr said:

Pls have a look where you have filled the signature. There you can chose the font size.

Nope. It might be browser-dependant. Lets forget about it.

 

Did someone listened to sound file I posted? Do you get the same (kind of) noise in your system?

[Holzohr]

I will be at home tomorrow afternoon then I will have a listen and besides I will try my Schiit Mani with the MC system. 

[AMR/iFi audio]

On 2/20/2019 at 10:55 PM, RichB said:

My guess is that it is not the power supply, but the unit itself - the WiFi signal it is broadcasting. Maybe there is some way to turn off its WiFi capabilities?

 

Nope as far as we know, but we'll ask our R&D team.