Ifi Neo iDSD

disclaimer:  I received the Neo as part of the review tour and have no financial interest in iFi or any of its distributors.   I spent two weeks with the Neo as my daily driver before sending it on to the next reviewer in line and received no compensation of any form for this review.   If you have an interest in the Neo or other iFi products, please see their website and follow them on facebook.

 

Packaging:

The Neo comes well packed with a slip-cover with a photo of the unit on front and specs and features on the reverse.  Removing the slip-cover reveals a familiar iFi logo in gloss on a matte background.  Inside the box the main unit rests on top of several small boxes containing the other parts and a foam surround protects it from shifting during transport.   the three small boxes beneath the main unit contain, the power supply, USB cable, bluetooth antenna, stand, and remote control.  Much has been made of the remote not shipping with a battery installed and I suspect this is due to the laws now surrounding transport of Lithium batteries.   Not a huge deal, just know you will need a coin cell battery before using the unit.  Most drug stores will carry them.    The stand is made of heavy aluminum and matches the unit well for those who wish to stand the unit vertically.     The USB cable provided is so short it requires an extension be used even to attach to a PC on the floor if the unit will be on the desk where controls are accessible.   I hate using extensions as it is one more place to introduce noise and unwanted problems, but in this case one either uses an extension or purchases a new cable as the one provided is nearly unusable.     Also the Bluetooth antenna looks really out of place as the rest of the unit is all brushed aluminum and well made, and it is white, plastic, and generally pretty cheap looking.  Even a little silver spray paint so it matched the color of the unit would help here.

 

Build:

The neo is a tidy little unit standing roughly nine (9) inches tall and an inch and a half  (1.5) wide.  Depth is roughly 6 inches making the overall unit quite compact and easy to tuck under a monitor or TV.    The exterior is all brushed aluminum with heavy face (roughly ½ inch thick) that contains the display and controls, followed by a standard stamped shell and a rear faceplate made of the same stamped aluminum with a thickness of roughly an eighth of an inch.  Four screws hold the rear face in place while the front is held on with a pair of screws on of which is hidden beneath the display cover.      The display itself is roughly an inch square (the usable portion) but the glass covers roughly double the actual display size on the front face and gives the unit a bit more symmetry than it would have otherwise.    The front face has the display, volume knob, selector button, power button, balanced 4.4mm port, and 6.3mm single ended port from top to bottom when standing.   The rear of the unit has at top, the Bluetooth antenna, power port,  USB, Optical, and Coax inputs, followed by a pair of XLR outputs which are split by the RCA outputs at the bottom of the unit.

 

Internals:

Removing the rear panel exposes the internals but one quickly learns that the volume knob and display screen are attached to the main board by ribbon cables near the front face and unless one has the fingers of ET, removing and replacing those connections is a daunting task and best left to the folks at iFi.  For the record, if the main board is slid about a half inch rearward, both the power and selector buttons fall out too and are a pain to re-seat so again best avoided.   For those reasons, the photos below are the iFi stock photos that have chip numbers intentionally blurred.

Interestingly some of the blurred chips are noted in the iFi press release while others are mentioned only by brand.  Inputs are a Qualcomm QCC5100 chip for bluetooth and a Xmos (216?) for USB.  I am guessing the new 216 XMOS chip as documentation suggests the XMOS is responsible for MQA decoding (None of the 17xx series Burr Brown chips have native MQA support).   My best guess on the Dac in use is the Ti / Burr Brown 1792 DSD but it could just as likely be a 1796 series chip. Both of these DACs are close cousins of the original 1704.     My guess on the DAC in use is based on format support DSD512 as well as the SNR and THD+N numbers provided.    Formats supported are up to 768k PCM, DSD512, and MQA if using the USB input.  Coax and Optical inputs are limited to 24/192 PCM only as best I was able to test, and Bluetooth is listed in the iFi paperwork as limited to 96kHz which is likely only LDAC and LHDC supported.

Output options are plentiful as well with both fixed and volume controlled pre-amp outs in addition to single-ended and balanced headphone outputs.   Fixed level pre-amp outs are 2.2Vrms for the RCA and 4.4Vrms for the XLR connections as we’d expect.  Volume controlled pre-amp outputs offer up to 3.2Vrms for the RCA outputs and 6.3Vrms for the XLRs offering plenty of potency to run most powered monitors directly from the outputs.   Headphone outputs offer similar output power with the single-ended offering up to 3.2V/17.6mW with a 600Ω load and 295mW with a 32Ω load.   The 4.4mm balanced output gives 6.4V/68mW into a 600Ω load and 5.7V/1040mW with a 32Ω load.     I had no trouble powering heavy planars like the He6 in balanced mode while high impedance models like the AKG and Beyer 600Ω models lacked a bit of headroom using the single ended output and were best reserved for use with the balanced output.   Conversely, the single-ended output was a times a bit hiss inducing with highly sensitive in ears and the loss of iematch here is noteworthy.

Controls:

The Neo is a very simple unit with only two buttons and the multi-function knob on the face.    The button closest to the headphone jacks is the power button and mode selector.   To choose whether fixed output or variable output is used, start with the unit off and push in the knob and hold it in while starting the unit.    The unit does have mode memory so once set, it will stay in that mode until reset via the same procedure.

That second button (closest to knob) is the input selector and cycling through the options displays a coax icon, optical icon, USB icon (which unfortunately looks more than a little like the optical-see below), and Bluetooth symbol on the display screen to show the input source.

The knob also functions as a mute button if tapped quickly and as a brightness setting for the display if the knob is pushed and held in for 3-4 seconds.  Much like the modes, screen brightness is remembered until reset.

In the photos below, you can see the display at rest showing the file type in use and volume.  The only time an input type is displayed is during selection unless Bluetooth is in use and then an icon is shown on the display as seen in the 2nd picture.

A simple remote is also provided that offers volume change, mute, input select, and brightness control when the unit is not within arms reach.

 

Bluetooth:

Once Bluetooth mode is selected it automatically goes into pairing mode (first time) or attempting to find the last paired device (subsequent times).   To force the unit into pairing mode, press and hold the Bluetooth button for 3-4 seconds.  This will be needed when changing from one paired device to another.   Once paired, the Neo can store up to 8 paired devices and will reconnect to the most recently used device by default.

I found the connectivity to work well and LDAC and LHDC connections were both made by default on my devices that have those protocols enabled.   AAC connections to Apple devices worked as expected, and the fallback to AptX HD when I turned off LDAC on my phone worked without any fuss as well.

I was able to roam roughly 20-25 feet from the Neo before signal started dropping out and it would sometimes be defeated by a single interior wall as well so line of sight needs to be maintained.

 

Sound:

This is always tough as most dac/amps today are fairly clean and nearly transparent so sorting out differences can be tough.  I started out with an interesting swap.  I put the Neo in my 2 channel system in place of the Bel Canto DAC.  With both using Burr Brown chips, I expected them to be similar.  Not so much.  The Bel Canto is more analytical and a bit more detailed while the Neo has a small push in the upper mids that makes the presence region stand out and is a bit more lyrical and slightly less detailed comparatively.    Obviously the two are not in the same price class but with both using 17xx chips it was an interesting exercise.   I then paired the Neo DAC with the Drop THX 789 since the 789 is about as linear as it gets and observed that same small bump previously mentioned so I do think it is inherent to the Neo’s tuning.

When using the Neo as a stand alone unit, I tested using some of my murderers row of hard to drive cans and quickly found that while they worked, they worked much better using the balanced output as they ran out of headroom on the single ended input quickly.     When more reasonable impedance and sensitivity headphones were used the Neo did good work. It drove the Beyer 1990 well along with the HD650 and even the HD800 did reasonably well (although better balanced).

Overall, the Neo falls into the middle ground as fairly well detailed but sacrificing a little detail for musicality and smoothing and mostly linear with a small rise for vocals.

 

Comparisons:

The obvious comparisons here are to the Zen Stack as the little brother to the Neo, and to the direct price competitors like the Schiit Lyr (Multibit),  and Yulong Aquila II.

vs Zen Stack DAC/CAN  

The obvious thing is the Zen stack even assuming we buy an upgraded power supply is roughly ½ the cost of the Neo, so what does double your money get you?

Well for starters,  The Neo has Bluetooth input which the Zen Stack doesn’t unless you add a 3rd component the Zen Blue which then brings the price tag dangerously close to the Neo.   The Zen fires back with having gain settings that allow it to be used with high sensitivity in-ears without an added iematch needed by the Neo.    The Zen also offers 3D, and Xbass that were omitted on the Neo so offers a bit more tuning options as the Neo is a take it or leave it proposition with no tuning choices to make.

The Neo is definitely more linear than the Zen DAC when used as a stand alone dac which is points in the Neo’s favor in my estimation but some may prefer the warmer slightly thicker presentation of the Zen.   The remote favors the Neo for use a pre-amp as well.  While the Zen can be used as a pre-amp the lack of a remote becomes an issue when using the device as a pre-amp for me.

The amp section in the Neo is more closely related to the output power of the Zen DAC than the Zen Can with the Can being able to out muscle the Neo with just about anything thrown at it and certainly for the big planars and high impedance dynamics the CAN has an edge in overall performance.

For me the Neo is a better DAC and pre-amp, but as a headphone amp the Zen Stack wins out.

 

vs Schiit Lyr3 (Multibit)

Now we have a fight where size is not so much an issue as both units are close in size although the tube in the Lyr will prevent stacking unless it is the top device.    But in order to get that size, the Lyr 3 omits all balanced inputs and outputs and offers only USB input.    This gives the Neo points on flexibility for sure.  Some might argue that the modules for Lyr balance this but the fact that the USB has to be deleted to add a phono-preamp makes it an either/or function and still not as flexible.

As a pure dac, the Neo is a bit cleaner in my 2 channel setup and better complements the other components while the Lyr3 and its RCA outputs limits me to using a different input into my 2 channel gear and may be part of the reason the dac didn’t seem to perform quite as well.  Again the Neo is a bit more musical and the Schiit a bit more analytical, but also a bit rough edged.

Pre-amp wise, its an after thought on the Lyr3 and doesn’t compete with the Neo with its remote and better port options.

Power wise, the Lyr3 is first and foremost a headphone amp and it outclasses the Neo easily.  Even lacking balanced output, the Lyr3 offers up 6 Watts of output power into a 32Ω Load and still has nearly 500mW when using a 600Ω Load.

Again,   Neo wins for DAC/ Preamp while the Lyr3 is a more potent headphone amp.

 

vs Yulong Aquila II

Both are all in one units with similar feature sets (excepting Bluetooth) but the Aquila would make 4 of the Neo in size.   Not that the Aquila is huge, but comparatively the Neo is tiny.   I also wasn’t crazy about the rhomboid shape of the Aq2 as it might make for stacking problems while the Neo’s size means things are not likely to be stacked on it so it might be more convenient.    Both offer all the same input options with the exception of Bluetooth – points for the Neo, but the Aq2 exposes all of the 9038pro filters and also offers async mode which allows coax and optical to handle sources above the 24/192 limit of the Neo.

DAC performance of both is similar with good clean sound and a lack of coloration but the Aq2 is a bit more detailed while the Neo is a bit more musical and smooth.   Power wise the Aq2 wins easily with 1 Watt of output power in single ended and up to 4 Watts in balanced vs the Neo’s somewhat anemic output section’s 295mW and 1W respectively.

Controls are less fiddly on the Neo and again the remote wins points when used as a pre-amp.    Beginning to see a pattern here?    Neo = DAC/preamp ,   Aquila 2  = Better headphone Amp.

 

Conclusions:

I have mixed emotions for sure on this one.  A few weeks back I called a $99 Xduoo amp “A pre-amp that happens to have a headphone output” and I find myself in that same position here.  The Neo offers a ton of input options,  very good DAC performance with MQA support and format support up to 32/768 and DSD512, but its output section fails it.   I find myself asking is it worth the asking price when considered as a DAC/Pre-amp rather than an all-in-one unit.   I think the answer is yes, as a small pre-amp with a very good DAC, there is a space in the market for Neo at the asking price.   There is a lot of demand for a small footprint pre-amp with a good remote in both the Audio market and in the computer gaming market so I can see the Neo winning fans there.   If used with headphones like the Grado SR-60,  Meze 99 Classics, and other low impedance/ high sensitivity models, it will likely serve admirably for many as a headphone amp.  But for those looking for an amp to power their big planars and high impedance Beyer and AKG, wait for the matching Amp to come out (not sure one is planned) as the Neo simply doesn’t have the muscle to really make them come to life without adding an external amp.