ifi xCAN headphone Amplifier

Some will remember, that while reviewing the Ifi xDSD I lamented the lack of an analog input so I could use the amp section with my Opus and A&K players without having to use the DAC in the xDSD.    Ifi did little to tip their hand at the time but when a few months later the xCAN arrived, I knew they had already designed and were in the process of building what I was hoping for. I have been waiting rather impatiently to try one so when Lawrence sent me an email asking if I was interested I very quickly replied.   I am going to break one of my own rules and give away the ending first. I got the xCAN as a loaner to review free of charge provided I took care of it and returned it to Lawrence when finished. Within 48 hours of taking it out of the box, I sent him an email saying send me the invoice you aren’t getting this one back.

It is all too easy to get jaded as a reviewer when you see so much good gear go across your desk that it becomes pretty run of the mill. You spend time finding faults with products that most would call well above average and quite frankly it takes a lot to really surprise or excite you after doing this for a bit. I’ve resorted to listening to a set of 1st generation Beats for a day to remind myself what I could be living with. I’ve even used the earphones that came with my phone for a day. (Neither one of those tricks work by the way. I just kept asking myself why I was doing it when I knew I had my good ones in my backpack just begging to get out.) Now put my earlier comment in that context. Within 48 hours of plugging in the Ifi xCAN, I was willing to pay the invoice for it no questions asked. I didn’t even ask what the cost was. (I had a rough idea on retail price but honestly hadn’t looked it up). This is a game changer and a product I am genuinely excited about.

Packaging:

The xCAN arrived in the typical slip cover style white box with all the details shown in full color as is typical of all Ifi packages I have received.   The box is large enough that one expects the xCAN to be a fairly large which is not the case at all.    Inside the box, the xCAN itself takes up about 1/8th of the overall space.   The xCan sits on the top layer (in protective film case) with the Ifi velvet bag underneath it.  Below it sits a box contains a smaller white box that hides the cables.  Cables in this case are the 2.5-2.5 balanced, a 3.5-3.5 Single Ended, and a USB C charging cable.   the card-style manual,  and the warranty card are hiding hiding underneath the egg-crate box that holds the amp itself.     The interconnects and the usb cable are all roughly 6 inches long which is a good intermediate length as the micro connectors (JDSLabs) are just barely long enough to fit when using the Opus #1S and it puts a lot of stress on the connection and would be miles too short when paired to the AK70.   The USB cable seems a bit short but USB-C cables are easy to come by and again most will likely already have one around the house.

Build:

The first thing one will notice is the pictures don’t do the xCAN justice in most cases as they are blown up enough that one expects the xCAN to be bigger.  In reality, the xCAN is roughly the same size as a pack of cigarettes or a deck of cards.   The case of the xCAN is shared with the xDSD although the feet have been updated.  The case is metal with a polished faceplate and shell in titanium grey.  The rear faceplate is a matte black plastic and is about 3 times the thickness of the front plate.  Ifi’s documentation says the plastic rear cap was to improve wireless performance and that it performs substantially better than the all metal cases tested.   This helps explain a choice that might at first seem an odd aesthetic to some.  The faceplates are held in place using two star-head screws mounted on the outer edges. The device has good heft for its small size and feels extremely solid with no wobble or play in any of the connectors. The metal surfaces are very prone to finger prints and smudges so if that bothers you, you might want to have the aluminum case coated in a matte finish.

In addition to those two major functions, the xCAN offers some ability to tune the signature to one’s liking.   I have been somewhat critical of the 3D+ and XBass functions in times past as I have seen them as gross adjustments that seldom match what is actually needed to really tweak a particular pairing.  This time I am going to change my tune a bit.    Xbass has previously been an on/off affair on the nano and xDSD.  With the xCAN, XBass gets a refresh.   Now you have the option of Bass, Presence, or Both being boosted when you use the XBass function and it also seems the function is more narrowly defined than on previous iterations as the bass boost for example did almost nothing to the signature above the 150Hz mark with the bulk of its impact at or below 80Hz.   The Presence region boost again centers around the mids (1-2kHz) and does little above or below it.  The graph below shows the BQEYZ BQ3 with Xbass set to off (BLUE), Bass (RED) and Presence (GREEN) for comparison sake.   This was created by running the Sound card output to the xcan – then to the earphone in the test rig so all samples passed through the xCAN without adjusting volume or making any other changes other than the position of the xBass switch.   While not a perfect way to measure, it gives a good basic idea of how narrowly defined these new xbass filters are.