iFi ZEN DAC 3

Verdict

There’s so much to like about the ZEN DAC 3 (even at this new, steeper price) that it’s hard to know where iFi will make meaningful improvements for the next version. Mind you, I thought that last time too…

Introduction

The original ZEN DAC was an impressive piece of kit. When iFi launched the v2, everyone agreed that it was a worthwhile improvement and, consequently, the best headphone amp/DAC around at anything like the money. But this is not a company to rest on its laurels – and so now the third generation of the ZEN DAC is here.

That it has big shoes to fill and tough acts to follow is pretty obvious. iFi, though, will be confident that the third time is even more of a charm than the first two…

Availability

The iFi ZEN DAC 3 is on sale, and it’s one of those rare products that doesn’t try to fleece customers in the southern hemisphere: in Australia it costs AU$229, in the United States it sells for $229 and in the United Kingdom it’s yours for £229.

No matter where you’re shopping, though, this is a fairly big price increase over the outgoing ZEN DAC v2.So while it’s far from the most expensive desktop headphone amp/DAC around, it’s still made something of a rod for its own back… 

Design

• Two-tone fascia treatment
• 35 x 158 x 115mm (HWD)
• Weighs 456g

At a glance, the ZEN DAC 3 looks pretty much identical to its ancestors. That moderately trapezoid chassis is made from a single piece of curved metal, and the fascia is recessed into it just a little. There’s a (relatively) large volume control in the centre of the fascia, and a confident iFi logo on the top of the device.

There are a few differences, though. The fascia is now divided into top and bottom sections by a strip of metal (the colour of which is Sunlit Bronze, apparently) that also encircles the physical controls and headphone sockets. Below the line the fascia is the same grey-ish/silver-ish colour as the main body of the ZEN DAC 3, while above it’s darker in colour and textured.

There’s a light around the volume dial that changes colour to reflect the size and type of digital audio file the iFi is dealing with. If the device is on your desktop and you’re looking down on it, the light is just about visible – if you’re looking directly at the front of the ZEN DAC 3, though, it disappears.

Obviously this is a mains-powered device, and as such is not portable – and anyway, at 456g and 35 x 158 x 115mm (HWD) it’s not very pocket-friendly. It doesn’t take up too much real estate on your desktop or kit-rack, though. 

Features

• PCM 32-bit/768kHz, DSD512, double-speed DXD and MQA decoding
• Balanced and unbalanced outputs
• Fixed and variable gain

A very welcome update to the ZEN DAC 3 over the model it replaces is the move to USB-C for mains power and data transfer. If you both power it up and feed it digital audio information this way, you keep your cable-count to a minimum – but there’s also a 5V mains socket, so if you have a mains adapter (or buy one from iFi) you can leave the USB-C to get on with data transfer and enjoy a cleaner, less compromised signal as a result.

The incoming digital information is processed by a 16-core XMOS microprocessor at the USB-C input stage before it’s passed to a nicely specified Burr Brown DAC chipset. It’s a four-channel device informally called True Native on the basis that it has separate pathways for PCM and DSD content, and each file type stays in its native form until it becomes analogue information. The iFi can handle double-speed DXD as well as DSD512 and 32-bit/768kHz content, and is a full MQA decoder too.

Once the D-to-A conversion has taken place, it can be exported in a variety of ways. Up front there are two headphone sockets – an unbalanced 6.3mm output and a balanced 4.4mm alternative. On the rear of the ZEN DAC 3 there’s a pair of stereo RCA outputs and another balanced 4.4mm output, with a fixed/variable gain control between them. Set the iFi to variable and it can be used as a preamplifier with volume control, while when set to fixed it functions as another line-level source. 

The emphasis of the analogue output can be altered via a couple of fascia controls. Power Match is an amp-stage processor that fundamentally acts as a gain control in case your headphones are particularly hard work, while XBass+ is designed to “enhance bass without compromising the clarity of the midrange” – which sounds very much like a euphemism for ‘a kick up the low frequencies’ to me. 

Sound Quality

• Robust, deft and convincing sound
• Dynamic and detailed in equal measure
• Analogue processing changes, rather than improves, sound quality

Before I get into the meat of it, it’s important to note that everything I’m about to say applies to those people who use at least half-decent headphones with their iFi ZEN DAC 3 and don’t expect it to work miracles on poverty-spec 320kbps MP3 files from Spotify or wherever.

Let’s assume you’re doing the right thing, then – I do most of the testing of the iFi using FiiO FT3 headphones and listening to 16-bit/44.1kHz content as a minimum from TIDAL and from network-attached storage via my laptop, and that’s what I’m calling ‘the right thing’. Used this way, the ZEN DAC 3 is capable of deeply satisfying results.

Its tonal balance, for instance, is very nicely judged. In absolute terms it’s on the fractionally warm side, but that merely helps it to sound quite luxurious – and there’s more than enough rigour on display where attack and decay is concerned, especially in the lower frequencies, to keep momentum levels high and allow rhythms proper expression.

The midrange is articulate and detailed, with plenty of pertinent observations about a vocalist’s attitude and technique available thanks to the nicely high detail levels. And at the top end, there’s brilliance that’s nicely balanced by a fair amount of substance – so treble sounds can crash when necessary but never get splashy or hard.

The entire frequency range is nicely unified, and even a fairly complex recording like Mogwai’s Come On Die Young as a 24-bit/96kHz FLAC file has a singularity to its presentation that is coherent and direct. It helps that the soundstage the ZEN DAC 3 generates is open and well-defined, with appropriate weighting given to the silences and appreciable distance between individual elements allowing them the breathing space to properly do their thing. But, and I can’t really overstate this, this organisation and openness is not at the expense of unity.

Or, at least, it’s not unless you deploy XSpace. It creates an even larger soundstage, but it’s at the expense of a little definition and positivity where positioning is concerned. Leave it alone, though, and the iFi is still a wide-open listen.

It’s dynamic, too, both where the ramping up of volumes and intensities so beloved of Mogwai are concerned and in terms of more minor (but no less important) variations in harmonic response. Investigate XBass+ and the increase in low-frequency presence can squash dynamic response just a little – but, again, if you leave these analogue processing options alone the iFi ZEN DAC 3 is capable of faithful, entertaining and quite insightful performance. It’s a good a headphone amp/DAC option as this money can currently buy.

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