This is a review and detailed measurements of ifi nano iONE DAC. It is on kind loan from a member and it retails for USD $199 including Prime shipping from Amazon in US.
The unit is quite "cute" in a small and portable configuration (although somewhat chunky):
As you see from the front panel, beside the usual digital audio inputs of USB and S/PDIF coax, it also has a Bluetooth module/input. I will test that feature later. For now, my focus is on the DAC portion.
In addition to analog output, the iONE also outputs S/PDIF over the same digital input connector. It is a trademark of ifi to overload connectors this way, saving space but also creating confusion at times as to how to get the connector to act as one or the other function. As with Bluetooth, I did not test S/PDIF output for this review.
Let's get into measurements and see how she did.
Measurements
As usual, I start with my Dashboard view of a full amplitude ("0 dBFS") at 44.1 kHz:
We see a spray of harmonics in the FFT spectrum on the right. This indicates some kind of overload/clipping.
Reducing the digital signal level by 1 dB remedies that:
Distortion is substantially reduced, gaining us as much as 11 dB improvement in SINAD.
This is an issue given the "loudness wars" where music produces routinely push the signal level to 0 dBFS.
I changed the filter setting switch but it had no effect on this so likely it is an overload of the analog section.
Looking at the ifi specifications, it says that it produces 0.0015% distortion at full amplitude. I am getting something close to it with -1 dB, but clearly not at 0 dBFS.
I played with the level reduction and looks like -0.5 dBFS also resolves the issue although it doesn't change the distortion measurements much.
Using the more favorable -1 dBFS SINAD number, here is how it ranks among the recently reviewed DACs:
Dividing this table into four classes, the iONE falls into the third rank.
Running linearity test, we see a similar performance:
Error becomes large as we go below 16 bits of resolution (-96 dBFS).
Between these two measurements, I think we have a good picture of where this DAC lands so I didn't run more tests. If the owner wishes, I can add others.
Conclusions
As a pure desktop DAC, the ifi nano iONE does not have competitive performance. Much cheaper products like Topping D30 and Schiit Modi 3 have far better performance. They lack the Bluetooth functionality though so perhaps the target market is different.
Output clipping is also bothersome and given the frequency of music at full amplitude should not be there. ifi could have dialed the output a bit lower and still be compliant with 2 volt nominal output and not have this issue.
As it is, I can't recommend the iONE unless you need its unique combination of features or its looks.
-----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
The unit is quite "cute" in a small and portable configuration (although somewhat chunky):
As you see from the front panel, beside the usual digital audio inputs of USB and S/PDIF coax, it also has a Bluetooth module/input. I will test that feature later. For now, my focus is on the DAC portion.
In addition to analog output, the iONE also outputs S/PDIF over the same digital input connector. It is a trademark of ifi to overload connectors this way, saving space but also creating confusion at times as to how to get the connector to act as one or the other function. As with Bluetooth, I did not test S/PDIF output for this review.
Let's get into measurements and see how she did.
Measurements
As usual, I start with my Dashboard view of a full amplitude ("0 dBFS") at 44.1 kHz:
We see a spray of harmonics in the FFT spectrum on the right. This indicates some kind of overload/clipping.
Reducing the digital signal level by 1 dB remedies that:
Distortion is substantially reduced, gaining us as much as 11 dB improvement in SINAD.
This is an issue given the "loudness wars" where music produces routinely push the signal level to 0 dBFS.
I changed the filter setting switch but it had no effect on this so likely it is an overload of the analog section.
Looking at the ifi specifications, it says that it produces 0.0015% distortion at full amplitude. I am getting something close to it with -1 dB, but clearly not at 0 dBFS.
I played with the level reduction and looks like -0.5 dBFS also resolves the issue although it doesn't change the distortion measurements much.
Using the more favorable -1 dBFS SINAD number, here is how it ranks among the recently reviewed DACs:
Dividing this table into four classes, the iONE falls into the third rank.
Running linearity test, we see a similar performance:
Error becomes large as we go below 16 bits of resolution (-96 dBFS).
Between these two measurements, I think we have a good picture of where this DAC lands so I didn't run more tests. If the owner wishes, I can add others.
Conclusions
As a pure desktop DAC, the ifi nano iONE does not have competitive performance. Much cheaper products like Topping D30 and Schiit Modi 3 have far better performance. They lack the Bluetooth functionality though so perhaps the target market is different.
Output clipping is also bothersome and given the frequency of music at full amplitude should not be there. ifi could have dialed the output a bit lower and still be compliant with 2 volt nominal output and not have this issue.
As it is, I can't recommend the iONE unless you need its unique combination of features or its looks.
-----
If you like this review, please consider donating funds using Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/audiosciencereview), or upgrading your membership here though Paypal (https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...eview-and-measurements.2164/page-3#post-59054).
