Thanks for the review! It is refreshing and much appreciated to see quality affordable stuff in this hobby. The prices in the audiophile world can, sadly, get very high very quickly… A comparison with something like Schiit Fulla or even some dongle DACs would be interesting.
IFI has been doing great stuff 😱 I absolutely adore my IFI Go Blue..it’s phenomenally good in giving great music from Bluetooth..and very decent DAC when hardwired ( even with the Apple cable fuckery) Great review and thanks for the shorts also 👍
I’m using it as a Dac/Pre amp (I stream Qobuz and Tidal from Audirvana) and send the out to a Cavalli Monolith Liquid Spark. An amazing feature is that it will automatically detect when you connect to the hp jack and transfer the signal. To note: when used as a pre, neither the eq nor powermatch work.
Good morning! Great timing. I have a friend who uses the 58x with his computer headphone jack. This looks like a good possibility for that first step. PS thanks for the change of that background!
hi, thanks for your review. i can't connect the UNO to my iPhone. i am using the, lightening to USB-C cable, which came with my iPhone 14. it works super with my laptop though
This was a very well done, fair and informative review. Keep it up sir! Earned a subscribe on this one as I've seen other reviews as how small and cost effective this device appears I never got the information I really wanted about how it might power headphones I actually have. Mostly people just stating the specs. Thanks I can read. I know this will work for most my cans, but will lack on the low end on my hifimans, senns, beyers, Sounds like it would just be lacking and I know exactly what u mean as I have some higher end dongle dacs that sound good and power them, but the low end just isn't full like the rest of the range and can be straight ugly (distorted mess) on certain tracks, even with the high gain balance 4.4mm which i do love though. It's ike being so close but not quite. THe size of this thing is real interesting tho and made me think hey it still portable, but a bit bigger maybe it had just that tad bit more oomph. After research I think it has slightly less and your description really cleared it up. I also personally appreciate having a clean bass button sometimes as long as it is smoothly implemented as it adds that little extra something without completely changing the signature.
If both the headphones and line outs are hot all the time, could you drive an open-back headphone and a powered sub at the same time for some of that sweet sub-bass feels?
If you use it with your phone as a portable dac and put in your pocket would the moment and the friction of your pocket make the volume knob move on its own? Or is the volume knob solid enough that it won't move.
Seems like Windows 10 doesn't like this system. When going back and forth on media I get "Audio Renderer error please restart your computer" when switching from Tidal to RUclips.
Are you using the exclusive mode output of the Tidal app? If so, the Tidal app will take exclusive control of your audio device and mute everything else. That's one ergonomic downside of using a DAC with only USB input.
@@wavetheorysound Yes I am! Would you recommend getting the iFi ZEN DAC V2 instead for what I am trying to do ? I've heard good things about it just figured I'd go the cheaper way first 😂
@@beach4life537 I had this issue too. It's a pain to run exclusive mode and then try to quick switch to a different app with sound. There are 2.5 solutions: 1) don't use exclusive mode at all and live with the audio running through windows mixer. The other 1.5 solutions only matter if your pc has a spdif digital audio output. If not, it's moot. Does it?
@@beach4life537 that should work. The best solution I found was to (this is solution 2) get a dac that has both usb and spdif inputs AND (this is the important part) does NOT break its usb connection to the computer if you switch to spdif. This was difficult to find years ago, I think it's becoming more common. I think pretty much all the newer Schiit dacs with unison usb will do that. That way you can set your Tidal or preferred music app to output exclusive mode to the usb. Then, tell Windows to use the spdif output of the soundcard as the primary system sound device. You can quickly flip back and forth to exclusive music app and general system sound by cycling the DAC's input options. This will require a different amp than the Uno, though. Solution 2.5 is essentially the same, but instead of using 1 dac that can be switched you use 2 dacs and then switch between them using an amp that has multiple inputs or an outboard switch of some kind. This doesn't need to be a super expensive proposition. I think Schiit's entry level Modi dac will do the switching thing and last I knew Monolith's Liquid Spark amp was on sale for $80. Good luck.
Really great review, well presented and helped me to buy one of these for my pc to improve the sound quality to my pre sonus 4.5's.
Thanks for the review! It is refreshing and much appreciated to see quality affordable stuff in this hobby.
The prices in the audiophile world can, sadly, get very high very quickly…
A comparison with something like Schiit Fulla or even some dongle DACs would be interesting.
IFI has been doing great stuff 😱
I absolutely adore my IFI Go Blue..it’s phenomenally good in giving great music from Bluetooth..and very decent DAC when hardwired ( even with the Apple cable fuckery)
Great review and thanks for the shorts also 👍
I’m using it as a Dac/Pre amp (I stream Qobuz and Tidal from Audirvana) and send the out to a Cavalli Monolith Liquid Spark. An amazing feature is that it will automatically detect when you connect to the hp jack and transfer the signal. To note: when used as a pre, neither the eq nor powermatch work.
Can you control the volume of the line out?
Thank you I'll go for topping dx1
Good morning! Great timing. I have a friend who uses the 58x with his computer headphone jack. This looks like a good possibility for that first step. PS thanks for the change of that background!
It is a cute little thing.
hi,
thanks for your review.
i can't connect the UNO to my iPhone. i am using the, lightening to USB-C cable, which came with my iPhone 14.
it works super with my laptop though
This was a very well done, fair and informative review. Keep it up sir! Earned a subscribe on this one as I've seen other reviews as how small and cost effective this device appears I never got the information I really wanted about how it might power headphones I actually have. Mostly people just stating the specs. Thanks I can read. I know this will work for most my cans, but will lack on the low end on my hifimans, senns, beyers, Sounds like it would just be lacking and I know exactly what u mean as I have some higher end dongle dacs that sound good and power them, but the low end just isn't full like the rest of the range and can be straight ugly (distorted mess) on certain tracks, even with the high gain balance 4.4mm which i do love though. It's ike being so close but not quite. THe size of this thing is real interesting tho and made me think hey it still portable, but a bit bigger maybe it had just that tad bit more oomph. After research I think it has slightly less and your description really cleared it up. I also personally appreciate having a clean bass button sometimes as long as it is smoothly implemented as it adds that little extra something without completely changing the signature.
Good reviev, nicely done!
I have a Sennheiser 560s, I play mostly games and watch videos with some music. Between the ifi uno and the topping dx1 what would you suggest?
If both the headphones and line outs are hot all the time, could you drive an open-back headphone and a powered sub at the same time for some of that sweet sub-bass feels?
Can''t believe you didn't test HE1000se, Utopia, and Susvara or feed the V281 and the Cayin tube amp with it. What kind of scientist are you?!? 🤣
He is a mad scientist 👨🔬
If you use it with your phone as a portable dac and put in your pocket would the moment and the friction of your pocket make the volume knob move on its own? Or is the volume knob solid enough that it won't move.
Which one do you recommend ifi uno or K3 ESS ?
Can you play flac files through it?
How does it sound on the drop X4? I'm sure it has a better headphone cable than the 400se.
I've not heard the X4 so cannot say.
Seems like Windows 10 doesn't like this system. When going back and forth on media I get "Audio Renderer error please restart your computer" when switching from Tidal to RUclips.
Are you using the exclusive mode output of the Tidal app? If so, the Tidal app will take exclusive control of your audio device and mute everything else. That's one ergonomic downside of using a DAC with only USB input.
@@wavetheorysound Yes I am! Would you recommend getting the iFi ZEN DAC V2 instead for what I am trying to do ? I've heard good things about it just figured I'd go the cheaper way first 😂
@@beach4life537 I had this issue too. It's a pain to run exclusive mode and then try to quick switch to a different app with sound. There are 2.5 solutions: 1) don't use exclusive mode at all and live with the audio running through windows mixer. The other 1.5 solutions only matter if your pc has a spdif digital audio output. If not, it's moot. Does it?
@@wavetheorysound I technically do, I have a Sound Blaster Z card on my older backup PC I can install.
@@beach4life537 that should work. The best solution I found was to (this is solution 2) get a dac that has both usb and spdif inputs AND (this is the important part) does NOT break its usb connection to the computer if you switch to spdif. This was difficult to find years ago, I think it's becoming more common. I think pretty much all the newer Schiit dacs with unison usb will do that. That way you can set your Tidal or preferred music app to output exclusive mode to the usb. Then, tell Windows to use the spdif output of the soundcard as the primary system sound device. You can quickly flip back and forth to exclusive music app and general system sound by cycling the DAC's input options. This will require a different amp than the Uno, though. Solution 2.5 is essentially the same, but instead of using 1 dac that can be switched you use 2 dacs and then switch between them using an amp that has multiple inputs or an outboard switch of some kind. This doesn't need to be a super expensive proposition. I think Schiit's entry level Modi dac will do the switching thing and last I knew Monolith's Liquid Spark amp was on sale for $80. Good luck.
this or a Fiio E10?
WIll this even Work?