Review and Measurements of ifi nano iONE DAC

[amirm]

Jitter in picoseconds.

 

[RayDunzl]

Hmmm.

I can't understand what's being displayed.

Oh well...

 

[amirm]

It is the spectrum of deviation from the clock signal of the S/PDIF. That time domain variation is converted to spectrum using FFT. Let's say your clock moves left and right to the tune of a sine wave at 1 kHz. The above graph would then show a spike at 1 kHz. The amplitude of that sine wave is shown as picoseconds.

The above graphs show a lot more spikes because the variations are likely square waves and hence, have all the odd harmonics. And there are multiples of them.

 

[Blumlein 88]

But.....but.....but this device is MQA capable. How would they make it with terrible jitter. The temporal blur fixed by MQA could be all undone by all that jjjjjittttter.

Do you think maybe minding your digital Ps and Qs while forgetting crap like MQA might result in a better performing device and for less money? Not to mention ridiculous problems like MQA disabling SPDIF.

Heck, just buy the Topping I guess.

 

[cheungtsw]

But.....but.....but this device is MQA capable. How would they make it with terrible jitter. The temporal blur fixed by MQA could be all undone by all that jjjjjittttter.

Do you think maybe minding your digital Ps and Qs while forgetting crap like MQA might result in a better performing device and for less money? Not to mention ridiculous problems like MQA disabling SPDIF.

Heck, just buy the Topping I guess.

The MQA firmware disabled the usb -> spdif function.
This test is with the latest pre-MQA firmware.

 

[Veri]

I think you were using the 5.30 firmware because I see your photo has the green LED.
They have a newer 5.30C firmware which has a new filter & forced PCM oversampling and the LED is yellow no matter of your setting.

To recap:
5.20 - pre-MQA and supports spdif out
5.30 - 1st MQA firmware & removed spdif out support (think you are using this for the test)
5.30C - 2nd MQA firmware

• Adds Gibbs Transient Optimised Digital (GTO) Filter
  (This replaces the Minimum Phase Filter.)
• The MQA Renderer on all iFi DAC’s except Pro performs unfolding to 8x rates. When using the MQA filter engine with our GTO filter coefficients, all PCM audio is oversampled to 8x Rate. Thus the sample rate indication is always for 8X, whatever the specific unit has for 8x. GTO overrides ALL PCM filters. At this point we feel that the GTO Filter is superior to all previous filter choices, including non-oversampling/Bit Perfect PCM.
  However, firmware versions 5.30 and 5.2X remain available for those preferring the original behaviour and for future firmware releases we will retain the 5.X0 fork which keeps the original filters for the foreseeable future.

I'm also quite interested if this new firmware and oversampling does anything measurement-wise

 

[cheungtsw]

I'm also quite interested if this new firmware and oversampling does anything measurement-wise

The latest oversampling sounds un-natural to me so I am back down to v5.20. Fyi, I dont need MQA nor usb->spdif

 

[frogmeat69]

Wow, my poor little iOne is sure taking a beating here, lol. But am glad to know it is helping this site to inform others in their search and purchasing decisions down the road.

 

[cheungtsw]

Wow, my poor little iOne is sure taking a beating here, lol. But am glad to know it is helping this site to inform others in their search and purchasing decisions down the road.

I have the iOne for over a yr (still using it). It is not bad but I believe D50 is a better buy now.

 

[firedog]

My question: do any of these measurements cause audible results?
I bought one of these for its feature set more than anything else: bluetooth and USB to SPDIF conversion.

I have better more expensive DACs and it doesn't sound as good when directly compared.

But if I put it in ine and just listen to it on it's own, it sounds fine. I don't hear any obvious faults and I'm hearing quite a lot of the detail that I know is in familiar recordings. It certainly sounds better than a direct USB connection from a typical computer. I also have a Meridian Explorer2 that sells for a similar price and I like this one better (I have no idea how the measurements compare).

I think devices at this price level are bought mostly for the feature set and from factor. I don't think anyone is expecting something like this to sound like a significantly more expensive device that's intended to be the DA conversion heart of a serious audiophile system. As Amir hinted, I think the real selling points of this aren't "it's a DAC"; it's Bluetooth and for those that are interested, MQA.

 

[JaySlice]

I can't install USB drivers on my work computer, so if the Nano Ione USB input doesn't require drivers, I can then send digital signal through the Ione and to any dac of my choice, and thus eliminating the need for any dac of my choice to have a driver. Ultimately, my question is, does the Nano Ione require a driver?

 

[amirm]

It does not need a driver if you have Windows 10 Creators Edition and later.

 

[JaySlice]

Yippi! I discovered your site a bit ago and feel like I stumbled on a gold mine of info across a diverse number of components. Thanks

 

[LuckyLuke575]

Very disappointing to see such a bad performance by an ifi product. I had perceived their products as being top class. I suppose they excel at talking talking a good game and having a nice website, but $200 for this device can't be justified.

 

[Jimster480]

Very disappointing to see such a bad performance by an ifi product. I had perceived their products as being top class. I suppose they excel at talking talking a good game and having a nice website, but $200 for this device can't be justified.

It seems that most of the IFI devices have come out with similar results.