Headphones

Power Play

While iFi Audio's refinement of the NEO iDSD 2's DAC stage realises subtle measurable improvements the model's latest headphone amplifier, by contrast, smashes the original NEO iDSD into the weeds... With Normal (0dB), Turbo (+8dB) and Nitro (+16dB) gain modes amounting to -0.5dB, +8.1dB and +17dB, respectively, the NEO iDSD 2 can muster a full 9.8V output from its unbalanced 6.35mm socket, amounting to 160mW/600ohm with distortion falling to a very low 0.0003%/1kHz over the first 10mW of its range [blue trace, inset Graph]. In Turbo mode it will raise 800mW/32ohm but this increases to 2570mW (2.5W)/32ohm in Nitro mode [black trace], only slightly lower than the '2832mW/32ohm' suggested by iFi Audio. Either way, this is 10x higher than achieved by the original NEO iDSD! And into very low 8ohm loads? Here the NEO iDSD 2 has sufficient current to support a full 1675mW (1.68W) [red trace]. Importantly, the low 300mohm (0.3ohm) source impedance is retained, minimising signal loss and rendering its 20Hz-100kHz (±0.2dB) response largely immune to the variations in headphone load. Hum and noise is very low, too, at -97.6dBV (13.2µV) and the A-wtd S/N is a wide 100dB (re. 0dBV output). PM