The ability to go to straight from iPhone to usb cable sounds amazing. I’d love to never use another Apple adapter again. It’s inconsistent playback and finick-y with my xDSD and the blue cable from ifi.
Love the red color!
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Yep! Fewer cables the better and it really is just plugged and play (outside of ex if you’re on android and have to get UAPP + MQA addon for exclusive mode)!
Hope you enjoy it if you decide to pick it up.
Does it support full mqa decode on an iPhone? Or will the iPhone do more of the process and bypass the Diablo? I know there’s no options for passhthrough mqa on iPhone app.
I just realized, does the Diablo not support analogue input? No way to use it as a pure amp?
Anyone have more reviews or impressions of this? I have a ZEN stack now and thanks to a bonus now am looking to upgrade. I’m looking at the Neo and Diablo since I enjoy iFi’s house sound, but am not sure which to choose between.
Haven’t seen many reviews out there for this outside of distributors.
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I have the Campfire Solaris and tried it with the Diablo yesterday. I found when you first turn it on, only sound on the left comes through the iem’s. As you slowly turn up the volume, the right side comes alive till the left and right even out. I tried the Solaris directly to the iphone with no issues between the left and right from no volume, slowing nothing through the volume.
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That’s “normal” (perhaps “common” or “typical” are better descriptors) low-level channel imbalance.
It’s an unfortunate reality with potentiometers, particularly small ones. It is more likely to be noticed in situations using very efficient transducers and more so if the amplifier involved has the potential for lots of power output.
The iFi Micro iDSD BL exhibited this on every unit I tried. Some were worse than others (due to normal variance between individual potentiometers). My personal unit exhibited it to the point it was clearly audible with the Fostex TR-X00 (a full-size headphone). Fortunately my listening level, combined with the gain settings, meant it was never a practical concern when actually listening to music.
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it’s just something that stood out but a comfortable level, you never notice, just takes a little to even out. The Solaris are so easy to power that at low gain, it’s too loud fast.
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Here is our statement regarding channel imbalance for those curious ~ Channel imbalance? | iFi audio
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I was looking on the website and it shows the following
“Form this the iDSD micro includes both power modes and iEMatch adjustments that make sure any headphone can be correctly matched for optimum volume control setting and sound quality.”
“Please see the manual for these settings, and set the iDSD micro so that normal listening levels are at the volume control around the 12 o’clock position. This ensures not just correct tracking, but also the lowest noise and best sound quality.”
When you look at the manual, it says turn volume clockwise to turn on and counter to turn off. Would like to see more information than that.
I’m guessing iEMatch is only done by the adapter?
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the best way for that DAC/AMP is to set the gain to low, set the iematch to the strongest… adjust the volume knob to the 12 o-clock position. adjust the iematch switch to see if you can get the volume you want, if not then move the gain switch to get the proper volume… if done correctly you should have a good volume range on the volume knob from the 10 o-clock to the 2 o-clock position… once you figure out what your different headphones/iems need its easy after that… its not an issue you just need to work through it…
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For someone who is new to iFi and clueless to what ieMatch is, first step is to really clarify what “ieMatch” is. The way it was explained in previous statement, it sounds like an option in the device (amp/dac) its self. I’m still not 100% but confident were talking about the extra adapter that is needed to get the ability to “set ieMatch”. Without this, your looking at the device and instructions (which says nothing about how to level sound and set ieMatch) clueless. Personally, I think there are whole lot of blanks that you have to fill in to make sense. It’s funny to me, the Diablo gives you so many adapters for so many options and solutions but yet it does not have the one adapter that personally, I think you really need. Why would anyone want a portable amp/dac? Mobility would be my thought. How many full headsets are mobile? It’s pretty limited from what I’ve seen. What’s the best option for mobility? IEM’s would be my thought. So, sum it up, diablo gives you every option but the one option I would think would be most important, that adapter to allow you adjust that volume. It’s a big deal to me, it’s not a cheap solution and now you need another 60 dollar adapter. Not that you need it with your IEM’s but using a balanced cable would take it another step up. On average, it seems like that’s a 350 dollar price tag (for a balance cable set for your IEM) and then your IEM. All of that starts to stack up more than a really nice option for what you could do at home. I’ve got the Arya at home, with Corpse Cables for balanced with Jotunheim 2 and Bifrost 2. All that mobile is about the same price as that at home stack. Comparing the two, home vs that mobile solution, the sound was really good and really close to that home solution. But when you look at your mobile solution on your desk when your working, wanting to listen to music, you look down and here you have the following: For me, I have the iphone, iphone to printer adapter (not included), usb extension (included in the diablo), to the diablo, to the 2.5 to 4.4mm adapter (not included) to the ieMatch 2.5 balanced adapter (not included) to the 2.5 mm balanced IEM cable (not included) to your IEM of choice. That’s a lot of cables and adapters for a mobile solution. This is the reason why I threw my hands up after learning all of this and just walking away from this option. Foam tips offer the best sound and it’s not comfortable to me. My beats3, which have for some reason always been comfortable to me, will have to be my not so good (not the best sound but it works) mobile solution but it will make me really come to respect and enjoy the Arya when I’m home. My two cents.
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By picking a good combination of IEM and source, you can avoid most of the above.
I require a great user experience (UX). The best one so far has been Dunu Zen to Fiio BTR5. If I want I can wire it. But mostly, bluetooth on it is great. Ultra portable and leaves the iPhone and Apple watch in complete control. It does take two cables to wire (CCK + any cable with the right connectors)
I am now experimenting with daps. The first one was a UX dud for me (iBasso dx160). I purchased a Bluetooth music controller so I can leave any android dap in my pocket and use the controller for skip/volume. No iematch should be necessary and I can still stream from my phone directly if I want.
My use case is 95% mobile. So solving this was important to me. I am still not sure a dap will work, I will find out soon. But separating everything from my phone is helpful as I rely on it for work constantly.
Bonus, these daps can easily drive a celestee or other regularish headphone later. So the stack doesn’t need to change for that.
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The above was my two cents in regards to the iFi Audio Diablo after owning it for a couple days, diving off the deep end. It’s just not for me but that’s me. I think it’s a little over complicated but yet still a great solution for the right person (as I’ve heard that said many times). Off topic and I don’t want to drag this thread in the wrong direction but an easy, simple, affordable solution would probably be Dunu Zen or S6 to a Dragonfly (I’ve had the chance to try a Dragonfly but have yet to try any of the Dunu’s and will wash my hands of IEM’s for now). I personally don’t want to jump down the DAP rabbit hole.
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Yeah, I had the signature for a few weeks. It just wasn’t convenient. But it was the only portable thing I found that could drive the over ears I was using at the time. Ultimately I gave up for the same reasons.
I went to IEMs because of the mobility and washed my hands of over ears. It’s actually why I was reconsidering the signature. But the dap rabbit hole seems more convenient if I can find solutions to certain problems (like pocket space).
If the diablo came out a month or two earlier, I may never have discovered IEMs as a real solution. Kind of thankful it didn’t. I likely would have stayed with over ears if the diablo drove an he6se well enough.
I am still curious if it can push the he6se.
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I have a sneaky suspicion it would have no issues running those if they’re similar to the Arya in regards to what pushes them. I never tried as I’d really would have like to try the balanced out from the diablo, which would have been another adapter as I used 4 pin xlr, then I’d have to go to 4.4mm balanced adapter, again, my favorite, another adapter. I had a 3.5mm cable here but just never tried it, should have just to see how it compared to my Schiit stack (Bifrost/Jotunheim). (thinking about that comparison, it would have been balanced Schiit to SE on the Diablo, not so fair)
@Roikyou , you mentioned an adapter for the iPhone. Have you tried using a regular lightning cable without an adapter? That was suggested in a few earlier posts but I was waiting for someone to confirm it worked.
I was also confused about whether the ieMatch is built in or is a separate adapter.
Agree that iPhone to Diablo (one cable) to iems (one cable) would be ideal for mobile. Luckily I already have a 4.4mm headphone cable so no need for adapters there.
The iphone printer adpater directly to the diable does connect but it’s so short, that your piggy backing your phone to the adapter, it’s clunky is one way to describe it. Should have taken a picture. The usb extension lets you pic up your phone and control your music selection but your volume of course is still controlled by the diablo as of course it’s analog and better.
The IEM does work directly connect to the iphone, in this case the Solaris but you could really tell the IEM did not perform it’s best without additional power.
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In the Diablo’s case, IEMatch is separate!
As I previously said earlier, it’s amazing all the adapters included but to me, the one critical adapter and critical function for IEM’s is separate. Just my opinion.
That would be an amazing function if it was built into the Diablo and one less adapter, one less mess.
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