iFi AUDIO Nano iDSD Black Label Portable USB DAC & Headphone Amplifier

So, what's new with the nano iDSD Black Label

Power your headphones. Big style.
With maximum output power (32R) around 10 times that of iPhone 6 (285mW vs. 27mW), the nano iDSD Black Label can drive most headphones on the market.

From In-Ear-Monitors to mid-size headphones, the nano iDSD BL is able to drive them with ease. Below is more background information on the S-Balanced circuit and iEMatch/Normal outputs. iFi just doesn't do standard. Take your headphones to the max.

Uber convenient
It's small, lightweight and battery powered. You can take the nano iDSD Black Label everywhere you go and it won't drain your phone's battery. Just switch on the BL first and then plug in your device. The Lithium Polymer battery gives the nano iDSD Black Label up to 10 hours of non-stop musical enjoyment. It also has a special USB male 'A' connector for a direct connection. Use a USB-to-Lightning (Apple) or OTG connector (Android). Or if at home, just use the enclosed USB3.0 cable to connect to a PC. Stream Apple Music/Google Play/Spotify/Tidal/Youtube content from your phone to a whole other level of quality. Add sound to your gaming by connecting your console or computer.

Master Quality Authenticated
iFi always strives to bring you choice. We've added yet another file format to our portfolio in the form of MQA in the new BL. Take TIDAL or your MQA file to a whole new level. MQA is an audio technology developed by Bob Stuart. This technology makes hi-res audio streaming a reality and delivers studio master quality audio to your headphones.

For mobile DACs with both portability and power considerations, MQA Rendering is the ideal solution as the workload is shared between the host (computer) and the client (DAC). In this case, for a DAC such as the nano iDSD BL, less CPU processing and lower electrical power are needed. This approach for the iFi portable range remains a full end-to-end MQA solution and the listener still enjoys the full benefits of MQA without compromise.

High-Res Audio Certified
The nano iDSD Black Label is one of the best native highest-resolution DACs you can find, supporting PCM up to 32/384 kHz and DSD up to 256 times the sample rate of a CD, even on Mac OSX and mobile phones. It is also certified 'High-Res Audio' according to the stringent criteria set down by JEITA and JAS (Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association and Japan Audio Society). Don't accept low-resolution music!(firmware upgrade needs to be applied to enable DSD256 on all devices)

Perfect your listening pleasure
The nano iDSD Black Label lets you choose between the 'Listen' (Minimum Phase Bezier Filter) and 'Measure' (Linear Phase Transient Aligned Filter) options. It's the only portable DAC to give you so much control.

Compatible. Like no other.
The new headphone amplifier delivers more than double the power of the original nano iDSD into 16 Ohm and over four times the power into high-impedance headphones. Meanwhile, the built-in IEMatch circuit ensures that even extremely sensitive headphones and IEMs are 'hiss free' throughout the volume range.The nano iDSD Black Label also includes the S-Balanced wiring system for the headphone outputs, giving the full benefit of balanced outputs when used with headphones and IEMs (fitted with balanced wiring) with low-noise and lower distortion. Even single-ended headphones benefit, as S-Balanced cuts crosstalk in half (without the need to re-wire headphones to benefit).

And as always, we use the ultimate components
As is the AMR/iFi DNA, iFi love to audition and vet new parts as they come onto the market and where possible, use the ultimate components. Whereas some shun internals pictures, iFi always strive to show 'what's under the hood' as customers like to make informed purchasing decisions based upon sonics and outright 'sound for the pound'. The nano iDSD Black Label, while very affordable, is packed to the rafters with boutique components. Here are just a few:

1. Thin Film Resistors for audio section lower noise & distortion than standard metal film or carbon film types.
2. Tantalum Polymer Capacitors for Power Supplies.
3. TDK C0G capacitors for the analogue filter.
4. Panasonic ECPU Film Capacitor for critical DAC reference voltage.
5. Analogue volume control potentiometer for best sound quality.
6. Dual-Mono Headphone amplifier with 3.5mm TRRS balanced wiring all the way to the amplifier, despite the amplifier being single-ended this delivers all the benefits of balanced wiring.
7. Built-in iEMatch using MELF resistors for transparent matching of very sensitive headphones and/or IEMs.

The parts, the circuitry, the implementation is something else and makes the nano iDSD Black Label a worthy successor to the original nano iDSD. It just goes up against the best out there and kicks butt.

The nano iDSD one of the few portable, truly audiophile DACamps out there and the fact that it is priced appealing to the real-world means many are going to enjoy their music a whole lot more without being excluded by the price.

So, get your toes a tapping to the file format of your choice and get jammin with the new BL.

• Max out Balanced headphones (and Single-Ended too)
• Even more format choice! MQA authenticated
• Hi-Res streaming like never before
• Listen better. Listen longer. Up to 10-hour battery life