(Portable Hifi With Style) ifi Hip Dac 3 - Amp Analysis

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The ifi Hip Dac 3 is a small form factor portable headphone amp dac dripping with style and hiding plenty of power under the hood. The Hip Dac 3 an improvement over the Hip Dac 2, but what exactly has changed?

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Chapters
0:00 Introduction
1:50 Build and Design
3:10 What's the Same?
5:50 What's New?
9:54 An Issue
12:00 Sound Performance (Hip Dac 2 Comparison)

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I have the mk1, it has plenty power and I find the xbass very useful especially with open headphones like grado . And yes, it has some randomly issues that you have described with tidal.

mimimmo

Thanks a lot for this! Following up on your recommendation from the Drop HD6XX video. My overall thought as a music lover in general, and a producer is I wish manufacturers would concentrate on DAC and AMP quality while delivering as much transparency as possible and not screw with stereo imaging (sounded to me like that's what it is from your description). It's the universal go-to cheat when wanting to create more "clarity" and instrument separation, but it's the wrong kind. Stereo imaging is very important to leave alone because it is one of the tools over which producers mule endlessly. These days, many times stereo is being used as one of the defining dynamics in a song for example, when going from a verse and bridge - to the chorus. The stereo image widens, becomes lush, opens up the vocals and other instruments etc. When tampered with, it will either kill that dynamic by overriding it with a constant "over wide" imaging, or will completely ruin the track.
Second deterrent may be the frequency control, with the roll-off you mentioned. Not that I long for 6-10k frequency boost or even anything in that range that comes out flat, but as a principle, I don't like it when manufacturers meddle with sound even when they roll it off for you. With that being said, I ordered this thing of course, as A. I believe you, and B. The tradeoffs can be dealt with, and overall from what you describe, it's still a good value for money.
The way to deal with tradeoffs: EQ - typically manufacturers use a static setting of an X amount of reduction in db. All you need to do is pre-compensate with exactly the same amount. If they do it dynamically - you're screwed. The same cannot be said though about stereo imaging unless you write a program which would keep up with dynamics of the track automatically while adhering to your settings. It's just not worth the effort. I hope these two are not as influencing as I fear.

adisolar

Agree .. make my DT 880 600 ohms sound great with hi gain and bass engaged .. as they are a bit bass light. The volume control is so pleasant to use .. big plus.

seabud

Great review. I'm with you on the color options. They don't have to be flashy, but something a little more stylish than tan would be nice.

crazyredwood

My hip dac-3 went from intermittently not working in Tidal to never working after playing a MQA audio track. I have to power off/on or un-plug/plug and it works again. Found they have a FW to disable MQA and after that everything works great other than not using the native MQA decode on the DAC.

Williams

There seems to be disagreement about how well the HD3 will drive different kinds of headphones. You mentioned the HD600s. Can you give some other examples? For example: Arya Stealth or Organic, Audeze LCDs, etc.

EleaticStranger

For the 600’s, did they sound so good single ended as well? Or only balanced?

khalbrando

I have the Ifi iCan Signature and it made the rest of my amps obsolete. It can basically switch into all the other types of Amps and it gives so many sound choices that I rarely ever even turn on my Wooaudio Wa-22 anymore.

Mosamania

I am also curious if it can drive arya stealth

AliceJondal

hey man. whats the music in your intros? trying to find it ...

jeffalv

I always dig your review! Thanks for making them! From a fellow designer (UX design) I have to agree that the design of it is very attractive and the UX pretty good as well! Would pay more to have color options!

Here’s my question, I have an HD6XX that I’ve been driving with a BTR15 (single ended) and with my M2 Mac. I’m trying to understand how this Dac/Amp will change the sound of my Sennys? I know that HD6XX don’t have the widest soundstage, but will it really improve compared to my 125$ BTR15? In order words is it worth it?

AndyRSV

Hi sir and anyone else who can help, yes I'm old, can or is there a way to connect to my iPod classic.?

johnadair

Still recommend it? Any other alternatives now? Have you used topping NX7 amp?

Crashboomwallop

The problem you mention is because Tidal Android app has broken bit perfect functionality. If you use version 2.93 or Uapp, things work perfectly. It's a brilliant piece of kit for the money. Drives my Ananda with more authority than Btr7 and close to the zen can.

RazvanMGH