Usually the printed circuit board has a name and a revision. What does yours say? I haven't opened my normal hip dac.I noticed there is not only a "hip-dac" and "hip-dac 2", but also a "hip-dac+" on the market. In the same blue housing as hip-dac1, and I was surprised that my own hip-dac is also a hip-dac+. I opened it and again a big surprise: It's the same board inside as in hip-dac2, same circuit, same chips (compared to the fotos of hip-dac2 you'll find on the internet). Does anyone know something about this? Did iFi just had a few blue housings left and fit them with the new board of hip-dac2?
Sounds defective or something? Ifi won't replace it?I bought an iFi Hi-Res Zen Bluetooth audio device last year, as the older Appleplay devices via the Airport Express had stopped working, being no longer compatible with the latest operating systems. I am not at all impressed. Needs to be switched on for at least 15 minutes before the horrendous distortion starts to calm down. It seems very easily overloaded, especially with speech. I think I am going to bin it and buy another Bluetooth audio device. This is so I can feed wireless/bluetooth from my M1 MacBook Air to the small audio system in my bedroom/study (Boothroyd Stuart Meridan 551 integrated amp to a pair of Infinity Kappa 200 speakers and a JBL 550 sub woofer). Any suggestions folks for a better Bluetooth audio receiver.
Wilson
It's a shame that it's hard to find Raspberry Pis for sensible money at the moment, or I'd recommend one, plus a Hi-Fi Berry DAC and basic case. Install Volumio and you have a streamer with DAC that will play from network storage or with AirPlay from your Mac. Much better than BlueTooth.iFi did not even reply to my complaint about the sound quality. I have bought an ex-demo Audioengine B1, in the hope that it is an improvement.
Wilson
It is a very large bedroom! The house was built in 1970-72 by the then chief architect of France as his own retirement house and has a very large open plan Salon (maximum dimensions 40 feet x 25 feet but irregularly shaped with curved walls) with a circular sunken centre lined with couch and facing a large horizontal window wood burner and as I said a very large master bedroom. The other two bedrooms are quite small. The house is built right on the edge of a 1000 foot high escarpment, so has wonderful views over the valley below from its 15 foot wide, floor to ceiling picture window. My kids describe it as being in early Stavro Blofeld style and have threatened to buy me a white fluffy cat to stroke.It's a shame that it's hard to find Raspberry Pis for sensible money at the moment, or I'd recommend one, plus a Hi-Fi Berry DAC and basic case. Install Volumio and you have a streamer with DAC that will play from network storage or with AirPlay from your Mac. Much better than BlueTooth.
A 551 in a small bedroom system? Overkill much? ;-)
does the redesigned OV op-amp in hip 2 measures better on Sinad vs the hip 1 that measured quite poorly at 70bd in this review ? the fact that you give SNR on the xdsd-gryphon official ifi product page but not on hip2 product page is not a good signWhen it comes to the hip-dac2 here is what we improved:
We upgraded crystal clock which contributes to purer, crisper sound. It eradicates jitter, using iFi’s GMT femto precision clocking system. This maintains the integrity of the digital signal until conversion to analogue and enhances sound quality.
Thanks to the XMOS 16 core tech, the hip-dac2 is now an MQA full Decoder rather than a Renderer only.
We have redesigned the custom iFi OV op-amp.
It is also dressed in a new vibrant Sunset Orange.